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Classic Queen Mary

Buckjumper

Entry posted by Buckjumper

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When I handed the painted EWS Queen Mary brake van back to Jim McGeown of Connoisseur Models for his exhibition stand last spring he said, 'Thanks very much old chap, would you like to do one in Southern livery too?'

 

I said 'Yes please Jim, delighted to, old bean,' and skipped away with another heavy box of brass and whitemetal.

 

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When I got home I opened it and found the model constructed to Jim's usual high standard; free from excess solder blobs and squeaky clean. Nevertheless it now had the oils from both his and my hands all over it, so I gave it a good scrub with Barkeeper's Friend, a rinse in hot water and left it to dry for 24 hours before blowing it over with a hairdryer to chase out any trapped droplets.

 

After blackening the wheels with Birchwwod Casey Super Blue I drifted Clostermann black etch primer over the sprung(!) bogies and Acid #8 over both the body and roof. The Clostermann primer goes on very wet out of the tin, so I had the hairdryer at the ready, just in case it decided to droop or run, but all was well, and half an hour later it was dry enough to remove the paint from the wheel treads with a moistened cotton bud. The coverage was such that no top coat was needed on the bogies and they were ready for weathering. As well as reducing the time and expense, on less coat of paint helps to keep the detail nice and sharp.

 

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I applied the vermilion to the body first then while that was drying painted the roof white. 24 hours later I masked off the ends and painted the body brown. All the Precision paints for wagons have a dull finish, so after leaving the paint to cure for 72 hours I sprayed Windsor & Newton Galeria gloss varnish in the areas I was going to add transfers and left it to dry for another 24 hours. Transfers were a mix of Parkside left over from the earlier Pill Box and some Fox waterslide I had in stock, and I sealed these with a mix of matt and satin Galeria varnish.

 

Weathering was pretty much as before - my limited palette of Humbrol matt black and satin brown, with addition hints of leather, light grey and gunmetal where appropriate, putting it on and taking it off again to build up the patina. Again, I spent much more time than anything else over adding the highlights and shadows with a dry brush, finishing off with a grain or two of powders here and there.

 

It's a bit of a beast of a brakevan - there's certainly a lot to it - and I can heartily recommend the kit Southern aficionados with a couple of etched kits under their belt.

 

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These are the last completed photos I can find on my cloud (so far) so until I get the computers up and running again things could a little quiet. I have some 'work in progress snaps' on my phone, but they may not be up to publication standard - I'll work through them and if anything jumps out will post them.

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richbrummitt

I love how the detailed painting makes the smallest pictures pop. It seems to be a similar style of painting to wargaming miniatures but not overdone like these figures so often are.

 

A question: I find that drybrushing has a way of wrecking brushes when I do it - the hairs split and splay and the shape is impossible to restore after a short period of time. Do you keep specific brushes? Perhaps you treat them better than I find possible.

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Job's Modelling

I love how the detailed painting makes the smallest pictures pop. It seems to be a similar style of painting to wargaming miniatures but not overdone like these figures so often are.

 

A question: I find that drybrushing has a way of wrecking brushes when I do it - the hairs split and splay and the shape is impossible to restore after a short period of time. Do you keep specific brushes? Perhaps you treat them better than I find possible.

 

For dry brushing I use old brushes.

 

I agree this is a beautiful model.

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Mikkel
  • RMweb Gold

What a beast indeed. I especially like the detail shot. So crisp, I wonder how it would taste with a bit of cheese.

 

As for dry-brushing, I'm sure it was invented by brush-manufacturers so they could double their sales! My son recently gave a me a set of wargaming "drybrushes" from Citadel, they're supposed to be more durable, we will see!

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Buckjumper

Thanks for your comments chaps!

 

Yes, in a way I suppose it is similar to the techniqes used by some wargamers, but I also find the results in that genre are usually overdone to the point that it becomes a caricature and I lose interest.

 

When I say drybrushing, I mean even more dry than is usually meant by the term - only a barely perceptable smudge of colour should be seen when wiped on a kitchen paper towel before use, and the colour should only be a shade or two either side of the base weathering mix. I use light grey instead of white, and find black works ok, but just a dob or two (the ratio is very technical stuff you see), not much.

 

Brushes - ha! I should have shares in brush emporiums and get through them like the clappers. I do have newish ones for drybrushing bodywork and they soon work down the pecking order as I sort them by degrees of bog-brushiness; the more splayed the bristles, the lower and more inaccessible confines of underframes they're relegated to. I trim the more wayward terrors as I go with nail scissors, but there comes a point (always too soon) where the brush is useless and  binned.

 

Cheese? You're crackers ;)

 

I often use Citadel brushes. They're good, for drybrushing, and I find they last a little longer than other more delicate makes, but don't expect too much more mileage from 'em!

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Mikkel
  • RMweb Gold

Glad to hear you like the Citadel brushes, I look forward to trying them out. I agree about the overdone weathering/shadowing on wargaming figures, but then they are also more or less intended to be charicatures I suppose.

 

I had to look up "like the clappers", always nice for us foreigners to learn a new expression :-)

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chriscleveland

Very nicely done has inspired me to try and complete my kit of the toad brake van Connoisseur Models very nicely painted too

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Buckjumper

I had to look up "like the clappers", always nice for us foreigners to learn a new expression :-)

 

Whoopsie; your written English is much better than a lot of natives, and as such I sometimes forget it's not your first language! 

 

Glad to be able to expand your repertoire -  I suggest reading PG Wodehouse's Jeeves & Wooster or Blandings for delving deeper into a truly bizarre (and often archaic) potpourri of top-hole English phrases from the roaring 20s and onwards :)

 

It's the bally balliness of it all that makes it all so bally bally.

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