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Tarting up Fleischmann's Black Anna


Neil

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Last week I found myself buying Flieschmann's rather charming 0-4-0 tank engine. It was cheap, ran well but had been messed about with previously. My first task was to pull off all the crudely applied extra pipe runs which revealed damage to the splashers. These were tidied up with thin plasticard and filler. I then took a look at all the tampo printed markings on the cab sides. One side I attacked with wet and dry (took ages) the other had a quick brush of solvent wiped over which one thoroughly hardened was smoothed with wet and dry (much quicker). This brings the tale up to the point where I thought it might be interesting enough to point the camera at and document here.

 

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The witness coat of grey primer revealed a rather nice moulding with fine detail a bit lost in the factory finish of intense black. The was one area that cried out for attention though, the cab front. I think it's a consequence of the moulding process that gives the solid arc above the cab front windows and the matching bulge from their lower edge down. The lower bulge has been disguised by adding solid coal rails to the tank tops with plasticard.

 

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I decided to carve away the solid arc above the windows leaving a 1mm overhang on the top edge to represent the overhang of the cab roof. To mark out this dimension I made a sort of marking gauge with a stop set 1mm above a pin hole that I could use in conjunction with a pin in a vice to scribe a guide line which could be deepened with a craft knife.

 

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The carving away was achieved with a small terminal screwdriver with its blade sharpened into a chisel point. Though care is the order of the day it didn't take too long to get to this stage.

 

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Though there's a little tidying up to do the bulk of the carving is done. Comparing the photos before and after makes me realise just how worthwhile tackling this particular part has been. Meantime the chassis has started progressing through the paint shop. I'm aiming for a scruffy little engine for my forthcoming Belgian industrial layout so thought that the red chassis block should go. A coat of dark gunge Humbrol enamel has been applied. The side rods will be toned down and the red wheels dirtied, but that's for another day.

 

post-6793-0-06536000-1476906565_thumb.jpg

 

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Last week I found myself buying Flieschmann's rather charming 0-4-0 tank engine. It was cheap, ran well but had been messed about with previously. My first task was to pull off all the crudely applied extra pipe runs which revealed damage to the splashers. These were tidied up with thin plasticard and filler. I then took a look at all the tampo printed markings on the cab sides. One side I attacked with wet and dry (took ages) the other had a quick brush of solvent wiped over which one thoroughly hardened was smoothed with wet and dry (much quicker). This brings the tale up to the point where I thought it might be interesting enough to point the camera at and document here.

 

attachicon.gifba 01.jpg

 

The witness coat of grey primer revealed a rather nice moulding with fine detail a bit lost in the factory finish of intense black. The was one area that cried out for attention though, the cab front. I think it's a consequence of the moulding process that gives the solid arc above the cab front windows and the matching bulge from their lower edge down. The lower bulge has been disguised by adding solid coal rails to the tank tops with plasticard.

 

attachicon.gifba 02.jpg

 

I decided to carve away the solid arc above the windows leaving a 1mm overhang on the top edge to represent the overhang of the cab roof. To mark out this dimension I made a sort of marking gauge with a stop set 1mm above a pin hole that I could use in conjunction with a pin in a vice to scribe a guide line which could be deepened with a craft knife.

 

attachicon.gifba 04.jpg

 

The carving away was achieved with a small terminal screwdriver with its blade sharpened into a chisel point. Though care is the order of the day it didn't take too long to get to this stage.

 

attachicon.gifba 05.jpg

 

Though there's a little tidying up to do the bulk of the carving is done. Comparing the photos before and after makes me realise just how worthwhile tackling this particular part has been. Meantime the chassis has started progressing through the paint shop. I'm aiming for a scruffy little engine for my forthcoming Belgian industrial layout so thought that the red chassis block should go. A coat of dark gunge Humbrol enamel has been applied. The side rods will be toned down and the red wheels dirtied, but that's for another day.

 

attachicon.gifba 03.jpg

 

I remember these from childhood catalogues, but have never seen one in the flesh. 

 

A great project and I look forward to seeing it develop.

 

I am impressed at the crispness of the moulding and the level of detail revealed by the grey primer, and I am now wondering about Anglicising Anna for my freelance Line.

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Here's an alternative version, much amended and converted to p87 as the RGVJ's No.3 on Obbekaer.

 

I take no credit for this - all the work of Ian Thomson, who can no doubt fill you in on its provenance. A definite favourite with me and with many of the visitors to Obbekaer though!

 

Regards,

 

Geraint

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Thanks for the pictures of the lovely No.3 Geraint. I had seen it on your layout thread and it was one of the motivating factors when it came to trying to make the cab more like one a real loco would have. Further inspiration had lain dormant since the nineteen eighties when our model railway club hired the Middleton Railway for a summer evening visit where we had an all line tour behind their DSB 0-4-0 tank engine.

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I don't have much progress to report as I'm currently waiting for a new plain tapered Fleischmann chimney which Gaugemaster are kindly ordering for me. In the mean time I realised I could tackle painting the buffer beams. My plan is that the loco will be repainted in black and be quite heavily weathered. Like many small steam engines it has a high 'cute' factor so to stop it looking too twee I think it needs to be in a grotty finish. I thought the fight against tweeness would be aided by wasp stripes on the buffer beams, however the beams have cut outs for the couplers and the buffers moulded in (I didn't want to cut off and replace)  so transfers were ruled out. I therefore got out the brushes and applied matt white followed when dry by matt yellow Humbrol to the buffer beams. When fully set I masked up diagonal stripes with strips of 2mm wide Tamiya masking tape cut from a wider roll. I found it took quite a bit of pressing with a screwdriver blade to settle it down firmly particularly on the inside corners under the rear of the cab. Next I applied matt black, the masking took care of the buffer beams but I had to exercise care to leave the buffer stocks and their base plates yellow. It was all a bit of a fiddle but I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.

 

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The tapered chimney arrived a couple of days ago. Once assessed for size and appearance I took the razor saw to the original spark arrestor chimney cutting it off just below the flange/ring at the junction with the flared section. The replacement straight chimney comes complete with this flange so I thought it best to engineer the joint at this place. I had to trim the locating peg on the straight chimney to fit the hole which I opened out in the flared section; being made of plastic it was a simple matter to solvent weld the replacement chimney in place. Still to do is a little work with filler and files to finesse the join but I'm already pleased with the more workaday appearance the straight chimney gives.

 

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