Last week work issued the guidance to work from home if possible, so my dining room has now been converted into an office and I no longer have the hour commute each morning.  However given that for the time being at least my wife’s office is still open (and the children are still leaving for school at 7) I am still getting up at the usual time.  The upside being that it gives me an hours modelling time before work!

 So today I have got on with finishing off a model that I started work on at the Swindon exhibition on Saturday, weathering 37521.   First of all I should point out there are 3 errors on this model (that I am aware of), the buffer beam detail is missing, the cab vent is in the wrong place and it has incorrect nose grills on one end, in addition while not an error per say = it also still has a Bachmann roof grill.

The nose grills are a problem on two of my EWS 37s, however the replacement (correct) brass parts are all a bit rubbish in comparison to the mouldings on the model.  To the point that I think it looks better with an error (the dividing bar on the grill) than the replacements.  Should Brian Hanson or someone of similar ability produce an etch to the same standard as the roof grill I will be buying one at a shot and performing an update.  The cab roof vent was a silly mistake, starting weathering without fixing it even more so, the problem is that from experience with 37057 and 37607 (which have both had the vent corrected) a respray of the cab roof would have been needed.  Likewise would have been required fitting the Extreme Etchings roof grill.  As such I have taken the logic to hold fire on the modifications until such time as the grills can be done, or potential replacement with an Acurascale model.  As for the buffer beam detail, it will be fitted at some point soon, when I do the next batch of locos. 

Back to the model…

Working from a couple of photos on Flickr, I started off with the roof / bonnet tops.  I used Vallejo paints thorough out the process, starting with a mix of black, sea grey and oily steel and the paint on / wipe off method.  Several layers were applied to the roof with slight variations in tone, building up the density around the exhaust ports.

On to this mornings work,  this time with a mix of various browns, sea grey and a hint of black.  The bogies, headstock and fuel tanks were all painted with the paint mix (always extending about a third of an inch up the bodyside.  At the same time the footsteps / sandbox fillers were also given a coating.  The lower body was then wiped back leaving a build up of dirt along the lower edge along with dirty footsteps.   Given that 521 was recently painted in 98, the grills were very clean compared to other locos I have worked on, so they were given a very dilute wash of brown to give a little more definition.)   The same mix was then used to add further dirt to the cantrail area & bonnet tops, before adding a little more brown to weather the noses (using the same paint on / wipe off approach).

The final job for this evening) is to reattach a buffer and cab side window which fell off while working on the model.  Thought with the former it will be easier to drill holes for air pipes while its off…..