I’ve not been here for a few weeks, but I have been getting some time in the workshop. Mainly this has been taken in adding detailing to the J10. Lamp brackets, fixing the sand pipes, organising the springing for buffers, vacuum pipes, washout plugs and inspection holes’ riveted frame extensions below smokebox, and very last has been the whistle. I would rather not have a model with the whistle perched up on the cab roof, it’s such a vulnerable position for such a small fiddly part that takes ages to turn in the lathe. However it would appear that through out their life, J10s had whistles sticking up from the roof; so that’s where mine is. I bet it gets knocked off and lost!”!!!

On Friday I started the painting process and took pics as I progressed:

Both tender and loco have had a good scrubbing with toothbrush (an old one!) and cream cleaner, followed by warm water rinse and air-dry in warm oven. The whistle and rivets below smoke box are recent additions and the next process will be a light coat of cellulose thinners and covered-air-dry, prior to a light coat of two part etching primer. I’ve used this type of primer for a few years now and it seems to give better results than other primers I’ve used. This is the last time the brass and nickel-silver will be seen!

These two pics show both loco and tender on ‘painting handles’. The tender handle is a bit of ¼” steel rod with a 10BA threaded rod in one end that screws into the 10BA hole for one of the chassis screws while I utilised a finger vice to hold the loco body. The primer shows where some filler work is required and that was the next job.

This one was taken after filling and the second fine coat of primer. It shows me that I still need some internal filling between the tender running plate and the sides. Damn!

After that, I move to a gloss black coat that totally horrifies me; but the gloss paint certainly makes the fixing of decals much easier. Incidentally are ‘Methfix’ called decals?

Perhaps “transfers” would be a better word to use??

Here they are in all there shiny glory, just out of the oven. The camara also hates the gloss finish, particularly with artificial light, so apologies for the ropey pictures!

A matt varnish will tone down that horrible shine but I’ve not yet decided whether the J10 will be in LNER’s post-war livery of ‘muckandrust’ or almost ex-works, unlined black. But it won't be shiny!!