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S7 scratch building


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I took it as a question of how to make cast iron look like cast iron, not how to look like cast iron which has been painted, based on the question put.

 

I know Mike has stated he has problems with dyslexia, but this was a straightforward question and Mike would know better than most of us if the plates were painted black, so I ruled out the alternative interpretation.

Edited by Regularity
Typo.
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Oh dear !  My poor education is  getting me in trouble again. Perhaps I should have said more clearly that I believe that the plates were probably cast iron and then painted. Going back to my source photography it looks like they were painted a dark background colour with faded white letters. A benefit of this discussion has been going back and having another close look is that I have noticed there isn't a tare weight visible but there is a number painted between the V-irons.

I only started posting 3 years ago to hopefully help others learn a few things from my experience and not to cause controversy. That is the reason I have done demo stands at a few exhibitions. The pleasure I have had when people sit down and talk for 10 minutes and go away saying I never thought of that is enormous. And yes I would not have been able to post most of this without the help of the computer spell checker.

 

 

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7 hours ago, Regularity said:

 

 


The question was about painting something to look like cast iron “I now have to cut out the etch plates and paint them to look like cast iron. I am not sure how I am going to achieve that. ”

 

I really can’t see anyone, let alone a modeller of Mike’s talent, asking a question about what colour paint to use to make something look like it has been painted black.

First world problems eh...?!

I got the gist of Mike’s question thank you very much. I was wondering as an aside if they would ever have been left as naked cast iron and therefore prone to rust. I would have thought they would have been painted from the start and I would also have thought probably black text on a white background like so many other cast iron signs etc were at the time. 

I could have toned my reply up but let’s leave it there...

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Steel plates would rust through. A surface layer of rust will form on cast iron plates if exposed to moisture but that will then for a protective coating preventing them from rusting through. Neverthelesss I would expect them to be given some sort of protective coating - would they be treated in the same way as all the other ironwork in the wagon? 

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I have put the plates in some gun blue and then polished them with a Garryflex block. I did try to rub them on a white printing pad to make them look like the raised letters were painted white. Unfortunately because the depth of the letters is so small this was not successful. I have managed to lose a bit of the paint above a couple of plates which I will have to touch up. I think with a bit of a tone down and some matt varnish all over it will lose the shine on the plates. I am not sure if I can do any better. I did think I could spray the plates with a white paint and leave this to dry before attempting to fill in all around the letters with black paint. But there is only so many times I can keep going trying to make everything perfect if I am ever to build a layout. I still have to paint all the ironwork black inside and out.

image.jpeg

Edited by airnimal
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1 hour ago, airnimal said:

I have put the plates in some gun blue and then polished them with a Garryflex block. I did try to rub them on a white printing pad to make them look like the raised letters were painted white. Unfortunately because the depth of the letters is so small this was not successful. I have managed to lose a bit of the paint above a couple of plates which I will have to touch up. I think with a bit of a tone down and some matt varnish all over it will lose the shine on the plates. I am not sure if I can do any better. I did think I could spray the plates with a white paint and leave this to dry before attempting to fill in all around the letters with black paint. But there is only so many times I can keep going trying to make everything perfect if I am ever build a layout. I still have to paint all the ironwork black inside and out.

image.jpeg


Mike,

 

On the few etched plates that I have painted black with white raised lettering I painted the whole plate white, rattle can spray usually.  When dry paint all over with black and quickly wipe it off with a paper towel to leave the raised letters showing white.  
 

Ian

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2 hours ago, airnimal said:

I have put the plates in some gun blue and then polished them with a Garryflex block. I did try to rub them on a white printing pad to make them look like the raised letters were painted white. Unfortunately because the depth of the letters is so small this was not successful. I have managed to lose a bit of the paint above a couple of plates which I will have to touch up. I think with a bit of a tone down and some matt varnish all over it will lose the shine on the plates. I am not sure if I can do any better. I did think I could spray the plates with a white paint and leave this to dry before attempting to fill in all around the letters with black paint. But there is only so many times I can keep going trying to make everything perfect if I am ever to build a layout. I still have to paint all the ironwork black inside and out.

image.jpeg

Sharp. Very nice indeed.

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2 hours ago, ian@stenochs said:

On the few etched plates that I have painted black with white raised lettering I painted the whole plate white, rattle can spray usually.  When dry paint all over with black and quickly wipe it off with a paper towel to leave the raised letters showing white.  

Another way is to paint them white, then allow thinned black paint to flow off your brush into the sunken areas, just 'persuading' it into place with the tip of the brush.  Capillary action will draw it along the edges.  I've used this technique to paint the white panels on etched coaches in 2FS.

 

Jim

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Jim and Ian, thanks for both your suggestions. I have tried both methods in the past without much success. Perhaps I should have tried again but there is still so much to do including the axleboxes and springs and all the ironwork painting. I think that alone will take me a couple of hours because even with magnification, I don't find it as easy as I use to.

I have given it a quick coat of matt varnish to tone everything down but it will be next week before I will be able to do any more work on it. It doesn't look a lot different to the last photography but I have touch up the paint above the plates where I caught the paintwork.

image.jpeg

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6 minutes ago, airnimal said:

Thank you to everyone who have been kind with positive comments. I think it is nearly finished with just a coat of matt varnish to seal in the powders and 3 link couplings to go on.

I went to the Bristol show on Sunday and ran my coal tank and 8 wagons on the S7 test track. I was pleased everything went well without derailments or faults. Several people recognised my work from this thread and were equally kind although one friend mentioned that I had miss the fixing bolts on the inside of this wagon where the number plates attach. Grrrrrrr.......

I was pleased to show it to Chris Brown who did an amazing job on the etched plates. I think the plates make the wagon.

image.jpeg

image.jpeg

 

Brilliant, just brilliant.

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50 minutes ago, airnimal said:

one friend mentioned that I had miss the fixing bolts on the inside of this wagon where the number plates attach

Possibly a dab of paint, applied with the end of a piece of wire ground flat? 

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50 minutes ago, airnimal said:

Thank you to everyone who have been kind with positive comments. I think it is nearly finished with just a coat of matt varnish to seal in the powders and 3 link couplings to go on.

I went to the Bristol show on Sunday and ran my coal tank and 8 wagons on the S7 test track. I was pleased everything went well without derailments or faults. Several people recognised my work from this thread and were equally kind although one friend mentioned that I had miss the fixing bolts on the inside of this wagon where the number plates attach. Grrrrrrr.......

I was pleased to show it to Chris Brown who did an amazing job on the etched plates. I think the plates make the wagon.

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image.jpeg

I expect the ‘kind’ gentleman who saw fit to make an insignificant criticism had his own work to hand which no doubt was streets ahead of this. Although I somehow doubt it. The etched plates look grand against such exemplary work. Top notch. 

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25 minutes ago, Tricky said:

I expect the ‘kind’ gentleman who saw fit to make an insignificant criticism had his own work to hand which no doubt was streets ahead of this.

<Sigh>

I thought we had got past this sort of nonsense?

 

I have acted, performed music on stage, written and directed plays at school.

That gives me some insight into what is involved in all of these activities, but as you can probably guess, I didn't excel at any of them. 

Does that mean I am not allowed to comment on, for example, a production of "Cats"? Does it make my opinion somehow better than another person's if they haven't done any of them?

I failed 'O' level art - just. Does that mean I can't appreciate or criticise Rousseau's "La Guerre", which bowled me over when I first saw it in the Jeu de Paume not that much after I had "failed"?

 

Personally, I'd be happy if someone pointed out such a detail to me, especially as it is easily rectified. But I would ask if it was photographically verifiable (or via a drawing) as they may have used flush fitting bolts, or even hex-headed screws from the front, to fix it.

 

For anyone who is interested, and partial to a franglais pun, c'est manifique, mais ce n'est pas la gare...

henri-rousseau-la-guerre-1893.jpg!Large.

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Being the person who remarked on the fixing bolts...  and the person who drank tea and ate cake whilst staring at Mike's prototype photo when discussing the shape of the letters with Chris Brown (who did the drawing for the etching)...  the actual comment to Mike was in relation to the difficulty of locating the plate fixings from the photo.  Chris and I noticed that the bolt heads for the plate fixings could be seen on the inside of the sheeting and that gave the lie as to the position of the bolt heads on the plates - it was this pleasant and fattening exercise, over a couple of evenings, which was the subject of my comment to Mike.

 

Graham

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Graham, I took the comments in good faith but as I said to you that I am only human. We all miss things along the way and sometimes I rush to complete a wagon and not notice these little bits and bob's until someone points out the error of my ways. No harm done, water of a duck's back spring to mind.

Edited by airnimal
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On 14/08/2017 at 12:01, airnimal said:

 The rivets are brass pins with the heads turned down.

If you were to do another of those resin D32s or D33s, would you still turn the heads of pins...  or would you use rivets from Historex?

 

thank you, Graham

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