Kingsbridge - Paintshop

[NoelG]

MM Mk2 - Multi part mission.

1. Convert a black roofed MM mk2d EGV to an orange roofed EGV (orange ones are rare as hens teeth)
2. Weather a rake of orange roofed MM mk2d coaches - primary reason is to dull down the yellow shade of orange they come with out of the box
3. Put some passengers inside the coaches
4. Change the couplings to Kadee
5. Optional - put lighting inside coaches

Well lets see how far I get.

 

I had been unable to acquire an orange roofed EGV so originally I bought a supertrain livery EGV with the intention of adding the tippex white stripes to convert it, but decided it would be easier to convert a black roofed EGV because it would be a quick simple respray of the removable roof, with no masking, whereas adding the tippex without reverse masking to a high standard would have been quite difficult, and wavey stripes are something that drive me nuts - OCD I know perhaps.

 

First job was to figure out how to get the roof off without resorting to use of a vice grips or a block hammer, but Richie came to the rescue with advice and the roof popped off easily with little force required (see clips below).

 

Roof off ready for priming

 

 

Because of the contrast between the black and orange on the roof I decided to prime it with Halfords plastic grey primer.  With hindsight a white primer would have been better as I would have required less coats of the orange latter to fully hide the dark grey.

 

 

 

I mixed Vallejo model air 71.002 (yellow) and 71.102 (red) by eye until I got the shade of tan/orange I was looking for.  The ratio was 35:1 Yellow/Red because the red pigment was incredibly strong.  Only 2 drops of red for every 70 drops of yellow to get this shade.  I know it is more orange than the existing coaches but to my eye right or wrong the shade of orange looks more like I remember than the yellow dominant shade on MM Mk2d's.  Hopefully the weathering will help it blend in on the EGV as I won't have to respray the orange roofed mk2's I have, just weather them, and the EGV roof will get a lot more weathering than the coaches. Well thats my theory anyway - the proof will be in the eating I guess when its all finished.

 

 

 

The roof in the middle is the respayed EGV with the deeper shade of orange, the roof below is the original MM colour with the yellow tint. By way of comparison I put an MM 085 body shell beside the resprayed roof.  They look somewhat closer to my eyes. Anyway photos are very subjective with indoor lighting with white balance issues on cameras so will rarely look like the prototypes outdoors.  

 

That's it for now.  Next step is add passengers, perhaps lighting and then gently weather the rake one coach at a time.

[NoelG]

Ready for weathering after black roof repainted orange

 

[NoelG]

Ok wasn't happy with the shade of orange on the roof.

 

Take two. Closer if not a perfect match, but this seems about as close as I'm going to get. The lower roof is 120:1 ratio Vallejo yellow to red, the upper roof if MM out of the box.  At least the EGV roof will be closer to the colour of the sides.

 

 

Lower roof is the repainted EGV

 

Edited March 22, 2018 by NoelG

[pat141]

Very good, it looks like a good match to the other roof.

[NoelG]

Very good, it looks like a good match to the other roof.

 

Thanks Pat. It's a lot closer now.  I decided to respray the roof again this morning.

 

 

183 about to haul the 08:15 to Galway

[NoelG]

After fix - Goldilocks says this roof feels just right

 

Before fix - Goldilocks says this roof is too dark

 

Thanks to the two maestro's @popeye and @Glenderg for their 'gentle' and much appreciated colour co-ordination advice 

[NoelG]

Ok back to the mk2 air cons for a while.  Successfully changed the tension lock couplings to kadee's tonight using advice from other threads on couplings and @BosKonay's suggestion of gluing the kadee's to the underside of the NEM362 pocket rather than plugging them in so that they would be the correct height as per the kadee coupling gauge (see below).  I fitted a kadee no 20 at one end of each coach and no 19 at the other end, and then couple coaches so that the no 20 end of one couples to the no 19 of the adjacent coach.  Running trails so far have proven successful in forward and reverse around bends and over point work.

 

 

I wanted to get any manhandling work done before weathering.  I failed initially to remove the tension lock couplings so to avoid damaging to the coach I dismantle it in an effort to remove the bogies so I could remove the coupling plates and use force to push out the old couplings, but I could not get the blasted bogies off. So change of plan, I used a scalpel to trim off the nibbles at the end of the tension lock couplings and hey presto they easily slide out of the NEM pockets.  So for the rest of the mk2 coaches I didn't bother disassembly, instead just a few seconds with the scalpel and the tension locks popped out and are reusable in future.  

 

Now that all the other steps are complete its time to lightly weather a rake of these orange roofed mk2 air cons.  

[NoelG]

Mk2 update project complete.  Weathered the rake of orange roofed MM mk2 coaches.  Used a mix of powders and airbrush on EGV below. I made them a little dirtier than the prototypes which were regularly washed because I wanted to mask the shade of day-glo orange these guys come out of the box with the weathering.

 

 

EGV sunny side in on Platform 2 at Woodvale Junction.

 

EGV darkside out standing at platform 2. The powders helped define the doors, roof edges and panels before over spraying roof dirt, frame dirt and a little black here and there.

 

I'm really enjoying this learning journey. Scary at times but worth the risks. I'll try some variations with the rake of black roofed mk2's.

Edited March 31, 2018 by NoelG

[NoelG]

Summary of steps used to weather my orange MM mk2 EGV. Not necessarily the most efficient nor the best way, but the way I tried after reading lots of helpful posts on here by some of the forums experienced and professional paint gyrus.  Lots of scary fun but a most enjoyable way to spend an afternoon.  

 

 

 

 

[killucan2]

Noel, at the end of the day its up to you,time to relax,not been smart you dont need to up date every few min's, Chill out your doing a great job on the mk2s!!

Edited March 31, 2018 by killucan2

[NoelG]

I weathered a 'supertrain' coach yesterday for a WMRC pal who joined me while we used weathering powders and airbrush to match his preference for level of dirt. Personally I've never been a fan of modern era stock such as the Supertrain livery but I could now be tempted. Weathering certainly helps tone down the shade of orange on MM roofs. I'm going to go back and touch up the roofs of some of my own 'tippex' mk2s.

 

 

Always something new to learn and things I want to tweak afterwards! 

[NoelG]

TPO kit went to paint shop. Masking took a little longer than normal due the recessed sliding doors used on the TPO. Masking tape over the white and orange bands.  

 

Black sprayed over the lot. Slightly apprehensive about possible paint bleed under the tape. 

 

One hour later carefully removed the masking tape using a tweezers.

 

Masking the recessed doors was fun

Next up weathering, varnishing, decals, varnishing, glazing and grab rails, etc

Edited May 11, 2018 by NoelG

[NoelG]

Progress continues on the CIE bogie TPO kit. Got some weathering done this evening. Mix of weathering powder in solution (50% decalfix+50% water) and then airbrush for roof dirt, under frame, bogies, coach ends, etc. Next up gloss varnish in prep for transfers, then fit grab rails, letterbox cover, toilet pipework at one end, matt varnish to seal decals, glazing, pop on the chassis and finally couplings. Really enjoying this kit.

 

[kirley]

Your weathering has added ‘depth’ to the model, looking forward to seeing it finish.

[pat141]

Looking good. A nice model, i will have to get one of these.

[NoelG]

Very lightly weathered one of my own Cravens the other night. It's rather therapeutic working on these using a mix of brushed on weathering powders, cotton buds and airbrush. The Black'n'Tan era coaches were kept fairly clean by CIE.

 

 

Weathering powder solution helps highlight relief details, doors, seams, etc

 

Did an MM Supertrain mk2 for a friend during the week

 

Weathered to his spec rather than mine

 

[kirley]

Looks good Noel, never mastered the weathering, but you are inspiring me to research it.

[NoelG]

Looks good Noel, never mastered the weathering, but you are inspiring me to research it.

 

 

Thanks Kieran. Modellers learn from each other and inspire each other. When I saw what others were doing it inspired me to 'have a go' despite a massive irrational fear that I might destroy stock if I dared take an airbrush to it. I bought an airbrush nearly three years ago, but fear prevented my from lifting it until 20 months ago. I watched a lot of YouTubes and Richie gave me a demo back in 2015. Then I realised that if I could get past the 'fear of failure' that airbrush was the way to go for me.

 

The usual crawl before walking and walking before running advise paid off, but believe me, there were some unpublished mistakes along the way, but this learning journey has been one of the most enjoyable things I've done in years. I've learned there is always more to learn, but watching the work of others has been educational, informative and provoked action. Best thing I ever did was buy an airbrush. There are some seriously experienced and talented chaps in the hobby and I have benefited from generous advice, help and tips from many of them for which I am grateful.

 

PS: Weathering powders have been my latest learning curve.

Edited November 24, 2018 by NoelG

[tmcg1959]

NoelG, looks great.

[NoelG]

Had a go at weathering some of IRM's superb new Tara Mines ore wagons yesterday. Not entirely happy with my novice results, but its a start. May have another go at tweaking them tomorrow using dry powders rather than a wet wash.posted Lready on the the IRM/AS Thread, added here for completeness.

 

Aiming to have them look moderately grimy without looking near end of life. The detail on these wagons exceeds even that of the Ballast and Cement bubbles.

 

The photo I was attempting to emulate, need more grey gunk on the upper side panels. Wash of weathering powder gunk on the roof applied wet with a brush and then removed with damp cotton buds.

 

An over all dusting of grime using the airbrush to blend the washed on weathering powders in.

 

[pat141]

They look great, try not to make them all similar.

I have an air brush and have watched YouTube videos but i still can't get it right.

If you make a mistake in weathering you can usually wash it of.

[NoelG]

They look great, try not to make them all similar.

I have an air brush and have watched YouTube videos but i still can't get it right.

If you make a mistake in weathering you can usually wash it of.

 

Cheers Pat.  They were mostly done by hand with paint brush applying a wash made up of weathering powder water/decalfix solution and manually removed again and adjusted with damp cotton buds. Airbrush only used at the end to give a light overall dusting and do the bogies and under frames, etc with frame dirt and sleeper grime. Roof got a vert light dusting of frame dirt and black. The decal fix mixed with the water allows reactivation hours later even after its touch dry so any mistakes can be either removed or adjusted

Edited December 11, 2018 by NoelG

[NoelG]

088 weathered earlier this evening

 

Took the body centre section off as it was easier to apply the weathering powders free of the walkway rails

 

50% water/ 50% decalfix solution mixed with weathering powders helps define panel lines, rivets, and general grubby look on panel surfaces.

 

Weathering powders dry so masked off windows ready for airbrush phase of weathering.

 

End result on the paint stand which is invaluable.

 

[kirley]

Excellent work Noel.

 

[NoelG]

To finish up 088 I added the MM detailing pack to one cab end. Some nice bits it has too, as well as the valence to hide the NEM coupling pocket, it has a proper coupling hook with a screw link coupling and all the hoses which are impossible to fit even with the tiniest of tweezers. 

 

 

The detailing pack really does lift the appearance of one cab end but run arounds will no longer possible as coupling only at one and of the loco, but worth it for a few scale like specimens. I really like the three link screw coupling MM provide.