Well it's taken a while, but my Dean Goods project is finally completed. I'm lucky enough to have access to micro-abraisive blasting equipment, so before painting could commence the model was subjected to air abraision. Fifty micron Aluminum Oxide particles were used at 3 bar pressure to clean the surface of the brass. This process ensured that the paint would have a clean matt surface to adhere onto. I like to use an acid etch primer on brass kits, but don't like the idea of spraying an etchant through my air brush for obvious reasons! With this in mind I used can of aerosol acid etch primer from Clostermann coatings http://www.clostermanncoatings.co.uk/products/aerosols.html I usually use grey for priming my models, but at the time only had a can of black to hand, so this was used as a first coat of paint.

The black paint made it quite hard to see any surface imperfections, so once it had thoroughly dried I sprayed a quick coat of grey primer on top of the black.

Once the primer had dried any imperfections were filled using Milliput putty, which was sanded using extra fine wet and dry paper to give a smooth surface. Once happy with the primed surface, It was finally time to start applying the top coats using my airbrush. The surfaces of the loco that would eventually be green, were masked out and then Indian Red was applied to the remaining areas. I used a 50/50 mix of Precision Paints and Railmatch paints versions of Indian Red, to get a colour that I find convincing. The masking was then carefully removed and the Indian Red was allowed to dry for a couple of days.

Once the areas that had been sprayed Indian Red had dried, they were masked out and the loco was then sprayed in Precision Paints pre 1906 GWR green.

The green paint was once again allowed to harden for a couple of days, before the footplate, smokebox, chimmney etc were brush painted black. China red was applied to the loco front and tender rear buffer beams. The edges of the frames and valances were also picked out in black using a fine tip brush, befor lining out in chrome orange. The loco was lined using a combination of fox transfers and my Bob Moore lining pen. I find I can get a pretty reasonable result with the pen, as long as i've got an edge on the model to hold the pen against. However for things like boiler bands and cabsides I chicken out and use the Fox transfers! The tender monogramme was from the HMRS sheet. Once the lining was completed, the loco and tender were sprayed using my airbrush with a 50/50 satin finish polyurethane varnish / white spirit mix.

Once everything had dried for a couple of days, final assembly could begin. The dome and safety valve cover were were attached to the loco with 5 minute epoxy resin, having previously been polished and then varnished using Humbrol gloss to prevent any oxidization. The boiler handrails were slid through the handrail knobs and held in position with a drop of cynoacrylate glue. The cab windows were glazed and couplings were added using components from CPL products. The buffer heads were fitted into the buffer housings, lamps were put in position on the socket lamp irons and a loco crew was glued onto the footplate. The tender was given a load of coal, a water bucket and some fire irons. Once the Number/Builders/Tenderplates arrived, they were attached to the loco once again using 5 minute epoxy resin.

So it's taken a while, but number 2467 is finally finished, I hope you like her as much as I do!

Best wishes

Dave