A Happy New year to my readers, 

Sadly, like all good things this project is nearly at an end, but with the end of this project it allows me to begin and continue the MILE END PARK layout build. As I said at the beginning of this project the quints play the most important roll on the layout, acting as the mainstream of suburban working into the capital. This and other pieces of rolling stock which I have been working on for sometime in the background have allowed me to build quite the operational roster for the layout as a whole. Of course the aim will be to have two operational Quints on the layout and I'll likely do a 

comparison blog on the Early & Late sets 

At the end of the last part the coaches were left ready to go into primer and being the painting phase, The first thing I did was put the coaches into all over white, this way there would be a better application for the paint when it is applied. Once completed I masked the Yellow up and had the coaches painted all over black. Removing the masking meant that I could look into painting the teak coat.

Having spoken to a number of people about the teak process, it became clear it's not something you can easily replicate with a paint brush, this is why looking at Hornby's LNER 61ft.6in stock is quite difficult to match or even attempt to replicate. Teak is something that LNER modelers have to work at and practice even after that the coaches will all look different, which is exactly how they would have looked back when operating under the LNER. So, with this in mind I wasn't too worried if the coaches looked very different from each other.  I took an old Hornby 4 wheeler and practiced this effect, because my nerves gave out. I refused to do the quints first, having recently built a Chivers LNER Pigeon Van kit, I tested the teak effect on the body side, with a stiff brush and giving a very high result. I thought "okay I'm ready to do this". So a few day's ago I took the plunge and painted the full set, with a good set of results. The final task was the paint the window frames on the doors, with was a job which needed a steady hand and a very fine brush. All but one of the coaches had this done, and I'll let you see in the video below which one it was. 

Following this, I took the coaches out on test at my model club at the Whitwell & Reepham Railway, in this I was able to run an LNER N7 with a Quint of Teaks. I think it looked very smart, the video below demonstrates this. There are two video's available showing the teaks operating on the layout. 

After a bit of running in and a good number of photo's taken which make the header of the project. I will say the coaches run extremely smoothly now and that Isinglass has done a fantastic job to insure that they've not causes or had any problems when running. After a bit of time I took the coaches in for the final little jobs, painting any area's where the black had some of the wood paint applied, this also went for the foot boards, and some of the coach ends.  I then began the task of painting the door handles and grab handles in LNER Teak (Brown) paint, a result which has turned out quite nicely. Concluding the paint work, I gave the Quint's roofs one more final coat of paint, just so I can have a really smooth and nice surface. With that completed only a few job's remained.  

Transfers 

In terms of what I like doing the most, transfers are my favorite task in modeling. Having modeled Military tanks for many years and not actually completed any railway kits, I must admit I was getting quite excited about finishing this project. Following the drawings, I noted that LNER coaches have the LNER lettering and Numbers at each end of the set, however they are opposites on each coach. Which was an interesting thing to get used too. 

(Above) This was one of my favorite details to add to the coaches when I completed this end, it made the coach end stand out and it certainly looked different! 

Having completed the transfers, this is a major milestone for the whole project. At this point I'd like to say I'm very happy how this has turned out, the paint work has set off the transfers and I think it certainly looks like teak. I do look forward to doing an Early Quint set and the East Anglian at some point just to have another challenge and see set out the backbone of Mile End Park's operational fleet. 

In the next part which will be the end of this build, I'll aim to put the final coat of white on the roofs, apply a Satin varnish on the sides & Matt varnish on the ends, followed by re-gluing a few seats, applying Glue n Glaze to the windows and finally sealing the figures into the coaches for the last time. 

So until next time...