Wenlock's Blog

Delightful... How did you do the open droplights?

Delightful... How did you do the open droplights?

Hi Western, making the open droplights is really simple, but does in my opinion give that little extra touch of realism.

 

Take your plastic coach side and using a pencil mark the height that you want the droplight to be open by.

 

Then get a scalpel and carefully cut away the droplight moulding above the marks on both sides of the window and the top.

 

Take a piece of plastic microstrip of suitable thickness and cut this so that it fits ontop of whats left of the droplight moulding and liquid poly in place, then leave to dry over night.

 

Once everything has hardened, I get a small amount of milliput putty and apply it the top internal corners to form the small radii and once dry. smooth with fine wet and dry paper.

 

Probably takes longer to describe, than to do, apart from waiting for things to dry!

 

Hope this helps

 

Dave

Did T34s (built 1894-6) have those tall oil pots?

Did T34s (built 1894-6) have those tall oil pots?

I don't know I'm afraid, probably not in all likelyhood! I built the coaches a couple of years ago and just wanted some variety in the roofs. If this coach definetly didn't have oil pots, then I'm happy to change to gas ones.

 

Any further information would be useful, Just goes to show it's always best to work from photographs!

 

Best wishes

 

Dave

Hi Dave,

 

black or brown ends?

Brown with black strapping, no gold lining though that's just for the sides!

what about the ducket ends (with the windows), can't make it out from the pics

The ducket ends should have the raised moulding in black, with the recessed panels in chocolate below the waist panel and cream above. All the recessed panels should be lined in gold, the cream panels should also have the fine brown line if you feeling very brave!

 

I hope this helps, have fun

 

Dave

I think the gold will be pushing my skills right to the ragged edge - Got a Bob Moore pen, but will be using it in anger for the first time on this coach ......

 

will practice on the unassembled S9 sides first methinks

I did the lining on my coaches with a Bob Moore pen, it was also my first go using one. I found the metalic particles in gold paint clogged the nib really quickly and that I got much better results using a yellow oche colour. In the end I went round each cream panel with chocolate brown first using a 1 mm nib. Once this had dried I went round again, but this time using the yellow oche with a 0.5 mm nib. To my eye although not perfect because the cream is missing, at least you get the black panelling edged in gold, then the fine brown line before the cream panel starts. It certainly tried my patience on more than one occasion! I had a long chat with Bob at one of the shows and his tip of using unthined enamel paint with two drops of lighter fluid, really helped me to get to grips with lining.

 

I hope it all goes well!

 

Dave

I've only got the standard (0.34mm head) so will get some Humbrol 83 and use that. I can live without the brown line

Yeah, the brown line is pretty subtle, the coaches will look fine without it! The raised moulding guides the pen pretty well, I haven't tried to line with a ruler on a flat panel yet. Turning the model so that you are always pulling the pen is the key, I painted all my sides before I assembled the body which helped me I

I think!

 

Looking forward to seeing the fineshec result

 

Dave