Great Southern Railway (Fictitious) - Signalling the changes...

[sem34090]

Interesting to note your success with the Posca - This was my last attempt:

With your attempt being so very much neater I might yet have another go.

 

[Skinnylinny]

It might be that because I'm using laser-cut card overlays, they have a very sharp corner to the edge of the beading,
while yours being printed looks like it might be more rounded-edged?

[Edit: Also, is that a 3D printed LSWR carriage? Asking for a friend who is me.]

Edited April 17, 2020 by Skinnylinny

[sem34090]

That's one of the GRAmodels ones - Resin cast but almost certainly a printed master (the layering gives it away).

[Skinnylinny]

Is that the 42' ones? Would be interested to compare it to one of mine some time!

[Edwardian]

Linny, I think the posca pen gives a better shade of gold as well as the benefit of two lines, and I think the new mahogany looks stunning.

 

I had considered the Gramodels coaches, but I have to say that a resin cast based on a 'stepped' 3D print seems to represent the worst of two worlds.

 

The 3D printing service I have talked about in the past, has revised its pricing structure and is likely to be a good way to print small volumes for own use and sale.  I would like to get sample prices for wagons, short (4 or 6 wheel) coaches and bogie coaches. It is dine by the same factory that makes the Rails vans and is closed for the moment while production shifts to printing PPE components for the NHS, but once re-open is something for you and others to bear in mind. 

[Compound2632]

Also consider experimenting with Posca "straw". Larry Goddard (Coachman as was) was a firm advocate of not using gold paint to represent gold lining. (His actual recommendation was a 50/50 mix of Humbrol gloss enamels 7 and 69.) I've tried the Posca "straw" on some trial pieces - the body colour being crimson lake of course - and think the result is more effective than some of my teenage gold pen attempts. The bit I haven't quite got sorted is getting a good uniform black line down the middle of the straw with a Rotring black ink pen - I think that's down to using the right varnish over the Posca ink.

[Skinnylinny]

35 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

Also consider experimenting with Posca "straw". Larry Goddard (Coachman as was) was a firm advocate of not using gold paint to represent gold lining. (His actual recommendation was a 50/50 mix of Humbrol gloss enamels 7 and 69.) I've tried the Posca "straw" on some trial pieces - the body colour being crimson lake of course - and think the result is more effective than some of my teenage gold pen attempts. The bit I haven't quite got sorted is getting a good uniform black line down the middle of the straw with a Rotring black ink pen - I think that's down to using the right varnish over the Posca ink.

Do you have any comparison photos of the gold vs. the "straw yellow"? In their range on their website at the moment I can only see "Apricot" and "Sunshine Yellow" as pale yellows. I've definitely heard of using straw rather than gold, and it may be that I'm being guilty here of not following "Model what you see, not what you know". 

 

I do like the reflective nature of the gold paint - it catches the light rather beautifully, but given the whole carriage will be getting (probably satin) varnished, that may be lost anyway.

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Skinnylinny said:

Do you have any comparison photos of the gold vs. the "straw yellow"? In their range on their website at the moment I can only see "Apricot" and "Sunshine Yellow" as pale yellows. I've definitely heard of using straw rather than gold, and it may be that I'm being guilty here of not following "Model what you see, not what you know". 

 

 

I've not got any good examples I can show - here's a test piece with straw:

 

 

The best comparison I can offer is with one of my teenage efforts:

 

 

Also, I think the formula used for gold pens has changed since the 1980s - the Rotring black ink won't adhere to it - at least the one I have.

 

The Posca "straw" - or "straw yellow" I have is in the PC-1M range - here on Cult Pens' website.

 

 

[Malcolm 0-6-0]

The problem with any metallic paint like gold is that usually the pigment size is so coarse that it is almost impossible to brush it successfully. I've found that only the very finest of spray paints do it justice but that requires an inordinate amount of masking and patience to get it right. The result is worth it but it isn't a quick process.

[sem34090]

6 hours ago, Edwardian said:

I had considered the Gramodels coaches, but I have to say that a resin cast based on a 'stepped' 3D print seems to represent the worst of two worlds.

This is why I only ever bought the one, and even that was about four years ago.

[Skinnylinny]

3 hours ago, Malcolm 0-6-0 said:

The problem with any metallic paint like gold is that usually the pigment size is so coarse that it is almost impossible to brush it successfully. I've found that only the very finest of spray paints do it justice but that requires an inordinate amount of masking and patience to get it right. The result is worth it but it isn't a quick process.

I would agree if I were brushing, but I've been using the fineliner paint pens which have very very fine pigment, in order to flow nicely through the fibre nib. Indeed - I can see the glittery pigment particles in the "gel pen" ink, but the Posca pigment, even under several times magnification, is very smooth.
 

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Also, I think the formula used for gold pens has changed since the 1980s - the Rotring black ink won't adhere to it - at least the one I have.

Are you still using gel pens for gold, or the Posca paint? I've found that some gel pens seem not to dry at all, which is infuriating! I've since tidied up the gold lining a bit on another test carriage using a black ink fineliner (from the Uni Pin range) while I await my brown arriving:

Not perfect, and you can see the black showing where I used it to tidy the edges of the gold, but it'll do for the test piece! 
 

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

The Posca "straw" - or "straw yellow" I have is in the PC-1M range - here on Cult Pens' website.

Aha, that one seems not to be available in the PC-1MR range which I've been using, which has a more rigid tip, I think.

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, Skinnylinny said:

Are you still using gel pens for gold, or the Posca paint?

 

The gold pen I have to hand is a uni-paint extra-fine (0.8 mm) marker PX-203, rather than a stationer's cheapo gel pen. On that Triang test piece, I used it to touch in the brasswork - door handles and grab handles.

[Skinnylinny]

I did think that carriage didn't look very MIdland, but didn't dare to say anything! I've no experience with the Uni-Paint pens. Is that the one you were having trouble getting the black to adhere to?

[Compound2632]

49 minutes ago, Skinnylinny said:

Is that the one you were having trouble getting the black to adhere to?

 

Yes, but I can't remember if on that test piece I used the Rotring black ink or the Posca black. With the Rotring pen, I could get a good even line on a piece of scrap plasticard. I think the steel nib of the Rotring pen was digging into the Posca straw - which I think suggests I had not adequately varnished.

[Skinnylinny]

The first bit of lining has been done - two carriages have had one side lined (or at least the gold part). I'm awaiting my brown fineliner to do the bits where there are two bits of lining adjacent on beading. The quarter lights should also, I think be lined - no bolection mouldings here! - I'll have to look into this too.



The lining is over-wide but it'll get slimmed down with the fineliner.

[NeilHB]

Looking good Linny - the mahogany colour looks very nice. 

[Edwardian]

Proper job there Linny, very nice.

[Skinnylinny]

Thank you both! And to prove that other projects aren't being forgotten, I fitted the bars to the openings on the LSWR cattle wagon - this now just needs couplings and a roof (this one borrowed from a ventilated van for photographic purposes), then transfers.

[Skinnylinny]

So the carriages are still on-the-go, but awaiting the arrival of the ultra-fine-liners. I had a rummage through the kits box this evening, I found another LSWR cattle wagon (a "large" this time, with no provision for a moveable divider). Well, the soldering iron was already on from work, so...





The brake gear is not quite right though - it's a bit low and a bit long - it's slightly in front of the wheels. I'm probably going to have to replace that once I fit the plasticard floor. Otherwise, it went together beautifully! A pity I have no idea whose kit it is - it came from Gary @BlueLightning in exchange for some LBSC stock, labelled simply "LSWR Cattle Wagon". It looks to be a D1506. Any thoughts?

[BlueLightning]

Looking good!!

 

Pretty sure it's D&S

 

Gary

[Skinnylinny]

I mean, there were no instructions but it was pretty clear how the thing was supposed to go together. If that's indicative of the quality of D&S kits, I'll likely keep an eye out for more of them!

Incidentally, even with an all-whitemetal kit, isn't it amazing how a coat of primer brings everything together and makes it look much more like a finished model?

 

[Compound2632]

On 21/04/2020 at 18:40, Skinnylinny said:

It looks to be a D1506. 

 

A LSWR cattle wagon of that diagram is listed in the D&S Spring 2005 catalogue I have - DS611, with DS612 being the S&DJR version. No picture, though.

[Corbs]

Hi Linny, I was browsing my vast collection of leather-bound books whilst sorting through my apartment that smells of rich mahogany, and I came across this one if it's of use?

 

It was in The Great Southern Railway in Photographs (Achingham Press, 1987)

[Skinnylinny]

Oh, I say, @Corbs, that's a really good shot! Are there any photographs in there of the carriage in service?

[Skinnylinny]

Not much of a modelling update today, but rather a preparation. When I was down south for the Uckfield show (which feels like many, many moons ago already, but only six months ago (!)), Gary @BlueLightning and I did a trade - me offering some LBSC wagons, in exchange for some "resin wagon kits, I think they're LSWR".

I was presented with many resin parts, carefully wrapped in tissue, which unfortunately had gone very brittle and "tacky" and removing them from the tissue turned out to be difficult - I broke three wagon ends just trying to get them out of the tissue. They turned out to be Maple Models kits.

Today while searching for something else, I found a post online about these kits and remembered I still had them. A moment's thought led me to think "maybe I could straighten the bits with hot water, and it would soften things enough to let me drill/file them". Well, into the boiling water they went and the tissue started to come away. Gentle persuasion with a toothbrush (and regular refreshing of the hot water) and I now have a pile of bits!



Top left, in grey, looks to be an LCDR van, top right is an LSWR Panter road/brake van (no, auto-correct, not a Panther or a Panzer!), underneath which is what I think is a D.1736 10 ton ballast brake. On the left under the LCDR van is another LSWR van (D1410?) and then a D1409 beneath that, along with some extra ends including ventilated ones for meat vans. What a haul!