The Hornby Dublo Cowen cranes are now finished.

[cypherman]

Hi all,

Well this was a fairly easy refurbishment for me. made a nice change from hacking engines apart. Please note this was basically a refurbishment of these cranes and not a modernisation to todays standards. I had no intentions of trying to make them look as real as they could be.

I bought 2 Hornby Dublo Cowen cranes to refurbish and then when I wanted new transfers for them I got another crane that came with the transfers. And thanks to Gary on Ebay I bought them off, He also sent me several more sets free of charge. Both vinyl and water slide for me to play with.

Any way here is what has happened.

For all 3 I got replacement hooks and new out riggers. 

Crane 1 was just a revamp new transfers and a repaint to keep it as near original as possible. I did paint all the bogies black which I prefer to the complete overall red that Hornby Dublo did. That's the one with waxed cotton lines. Put wooded planking in the jib wagon. Plus replaced a missing coupling.... Nice and easy.

Crane 2 same as above except that I tried to use  fine gauge chains for the hook and jib. Plus painted the tops of the distance wagons black. Replaced several missing wheels.

Crane 3 same as crane 2 except tried a heavier gauge chain to see which one I preferred. Had to completely scratch build the winding handles and locking mechanism as they were missing. The locking mechanism is quite simple. They are a pair of loose pressure fit wooden wedges that lift up when I wind the handles

I just have one question, When did they start to paint the axel boxes yellow.

Here are some pictures of them Plus picture of the Gaffer monitoring the proceedings. Note she has that look of DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Typical.....lol

Edited October 15, 2020 by cypherman

[hallmodelspares]

Lovelly restoration done on them. What paints did you use, and did you try patching the finish or go over the enamel one?

[cypherman]

Hi Hall,

Cleaned the old paint off and then did a full repaint with Humbrol satin red enamel for the main bodies. Humbrol Satin black for the underframes and wagon tops and two of the roofs. The ends of the crane jibs are painted in Humbrol matt white. Then sprayed with Halfords matt varnish. The insides of the jib wagons is balsa wood cut into planks and then painted with a varying mixture of Humbrol dark earth and matt black diluted with varying amounts of thinners to give a less even colour tone

Edited October 15, 2020 by cypherman