GWR Toplight Carriages and Saddle Tank (close up pics)
Entry posted by Will J
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Evening all.. last time on the blog, devondynosaur118 asked:
'Where did your toplights come from?' for the rake of GWR carriages on my Victoria Bridge diorama. I took the chance to get some close up shots posed on Wyre Forest MRC's Kinlet Town layout, also appearing in cruel close up, is the painted '813'...
Which is printed in Shapeways Frosted Ultra Detail, though the sharpness of the print has been slightly compromised by my painting! I suspect there will be another print before I am totally happy with the results, one more evolution...
(strange really, a year or two ago I'd have been amazed at the idea of printing a one off own design N gauge saddle tank, now it becomes normal, you start to apply the critical eye you might cast over a conventional RTR model... so there are always improvements to be made)
For 'Mark III' I will thin down the handrails by at least half.. maybe hiding pilot holes alongside the printed handrail knobs, so if the finer rails fail to print, they can be relplaced with conventional wire/brass.
One thing, I can't praise enough the modelmaster GWR decal sheet, though a sheet more tailored to smaller engines would I suppose be handy, quality wise, quite brilliant!
The train:
Ingredients, shortened Dapol Collet carriage, shortened Ultima 70' toplight windows, brass door handles and some educated three dimensional guesswork!
Ingredients, similar! The carriage destination boards are simply printed versions of photos of the real thing, on the modern day SVR. A good vantage point is the cafe balcony in Highley's Engine House.
Bog standard Farish buffet, ready for some subtle weathering.
Again, pretty much Dapol 'out of the box'.. however, I was wondering why they looked quite unlike the examples on the Severn Valley. The answer was subtle, but it makes a huge 'graphic' difference to the proportions of the side. The Dapol carriages have a brown stripe between the top of the windows and the roof.. the preserved examples local to me dont. A simple modification, the models suddenly look just the part. I am pleased with what looks like genuine subtlety and realism breaking out in my weathering...
After years of trying (and usually ruining...) to get the right effect, I seem to have mastered the streaky slightly weatherbeaten, 'lived in' look, rather than previous attempts which looked more like something out of 'Raise the Titanic'... I'm getting a handle on 'less is more'!!
Again, a cruel enlargement, but a bit of thin grey paint around the cut out destination board really helps it blend in with the model, and look less 'cut and paste'.
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I'm off to sunny/rainy (delete later in the week as applicable) Cornwall tomorrow. No doubt I will return next week full of all manner of layout ideas.. and pasties!
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