Steve's Caledonian loco work bench

[agt613]

Steve

I used the precision dark blue with a little white in it to produce the colour that you see my Oban bogie and Coast bogie in. Small models can enhance the real colour as there is not enough reflected daylight bouncing off them so need to be a shade lighter to look right.

 

Sandy

I followed a thread to advice that models should be painted as if viewed from 50 scale feet. The writer suggests adding 15% white to dark colours and the same of a neighbouring dark shade to white or very light shade. I did that for my Oban bogie by adding one white brushful for every six blue brushfuls (same brush). On my 782 black goods loco, and on the 55 class roof and chassis, I added the same white to the black. And so on with the maroon underframe on the 55 and even the vermillion on the buffer beam. I'm very pleased with the colour whether it is fully correct or not. All this is because the atmosphere is not perfectly clear but has a whitish hue. Hope this helps. Keep up the great work Steve, Graham

[Mike 84C]

My wife buys me a copy of Aprils BRM and I see a rather nice Caley 0-8-0t in the build a loco section. Well done Steve  

[JCL]

Tell you what Steve, that looks the business.

[ossy5190]

Starting to look pretty good Steve!

 

I use Humbrol aerosols for locos, French Blue for the light blue and Midnight Blue for the dark blue. My understanding of the shades was that the dark blue was the blue of the Union Flag while the later livery was the light blue of the Saltire. The Saltire represents white clouds against a blue sky hence the 'Sky Blue' reference. For the frames I use the maroon/lake of the coaches.

 

Here are a couple of pictures to show the range of blues of some of my engines. The unfinished Cardean is painted with Humbrols French Blue with the Oban Bogie alongside finished in the earlier livery by the previous owner. The Dunalistair and the Pickersgill were part of the Len Wood collection and were painted by Brian Badger.  And finaly a comparison of the '55', '113' and a rebuilt '66' (also from Len Wood).

 

The pictures also show how different colours look in different light. All were taken on a iPad in natural light.

 

Happy Moddeling.

 

Ross

 

 

[Londontram]

Excellent Ross I'll send them all over, I'll leave the lining method up to you so take your time Ross I'm in no hurry.

 

Seriously though I'm going to get the Humbrol aerosols before I go any further and redo the two that I've started so far. The 104 has already been flatted back and only the jumbo will be a bit fiddly but will be worth it in the end.

[46256]

Beautifull locos....

[Londontram]

Thought I would have a play around with the lining on the tender chassis on the jumbo, the blue is not set in stone yet so has been lightly flatted ready for another coat of maybe a different shade/make of paint more of that in a while but the chassis is OK so using one of the smallest brushes I had I tried to do the lining picking out some of the detail in white, What do you think?

yuk isn't it but at this stage I'm not sure of a better way of doing it.

 

Going off at a tangent I picked up another couple of victims... er I mean projects for future builds, the pair both ex Hornby Thomas chassis were had off that well known auction site for less than £15 all in. One will go straight to a second jumbo but the second once chopped around and converted will form the bases of the No. 1 class 4-4-0 tank.

                 Steve

[uax6]

Have you tried with your bow pen compass Steve? Replace the stabby point with a bit of brass rod, and you should be able to run the rob against the cut out and the bow will follow....

 

Oh you'll need plenty of practise, a use for all those GBL T9 tenders!

 

Andy G

[46256]

Steve just admiring your painted blue wheels on your new chassis...very nice

 

 

 

 

Only joking.....the maroon on Ossiy,s chassis seems darker....lining out chassis....a dark art....respect...

[agt613]

Steve just admiring your painted blue wheels on your new chassis...very nice

Only joking.....the maroon on Ossiy,s chassis seems darker....lining out chassis....a dark art....respect...

Absolutely.

[agt613]

Dear Caley fans,

 

Please note I have opened a thread on my efforts (pretty crummy sometimes and lots of repetition!) to build a 179 Oban bogie, at "Graham's Caledonian scratchbuild".

 

Much advice is needed!

 

Graham

[Londontram]

Well after several attempts to hand paint the locos I gave up on doing it that way as I just couldn't get the finish I wanted so I invested in an airbrush. luckily my brother in law has a compressor I could use so after masking the jumbo and its tender and the 104 tank they were set up on a cake making  turntable and the paint was thinned to the right consistency and the spraying started.

 

Well what can I say, I know I'll never brush paint a loco again as the finish is superb. I settled for Humbrol number 15 gloss blue as others seem to get on OK with this colour.

    Now there sprayed  I'll leave them for 24 hours to give the paint time to harden off then I can start picking out the detail.

 

Here's a view of the locos and tender still all masked up left to dry on my work bench

     Thanks for looking Steve

Edited April 21, 2016 by Londontram

[Londontram]

Just been back to check how the locos were drying, boy there looking good. I've got to say I'm extremely pleased with the results the finish is like glass.

 

      As I said in the last post I'll give them a good 24 hours before I even attempt to handle them but I'm one very happy bunny tonight.

                                  

                                                                                               Steve

[Mike 84C]

Another talent added to your skillset!  I did'nt get it so right at my first attempt with the airbrush    ! Oh no!

   Mick

[Londontram]

   Thanks Mike but I think I was just lucky as there were mistakes the first was a slight run on one side of the jumbos tender and the second was I just caught the tank on the 104 and left a slight finger mark but when I went back later both had gone so the paint must have "settled"

 

     All the faffing around with the brush painting of the precision paints wasn't wasted as it made a good undercoat for the top coat and as the precision is a matt I'll keep it and use it for undercoating the others.

 

    I did fear whether I would get a decent finish with the airbrush as I only went for a basic (cheap) one coasting only £11. 50p including p&p but I think I'm going to have fun with it and its certainly earned its keep already.

                                                                                                                   Steve

[Sandy Harper]

Well done Steve, now to master the lining pen!

 

You're halfway there with your gloss paint, as lining, again with gloss paint and a properly set up bow pen, is quite easy. If you don't already have a copy of Ian Rathbone's book on lining and painting, I strongly suggest you get your hands on one. It is the bible!

 

The Class 49 is being lined as we speak. A very long job!! I will post some photos when it's nearing completion. It is presently dismantled into 8 parts for the lining!

 

Regards

Sandy

[Londontram]

Thanks Sandy I've just ordered a copy.

[Londontram]

The paints touch dry but I feel will still mark if handled with fingers so I gingerly removed the masking tape and have started going over some of the areas which will be black with a matt black, areas like the cab roofs and smokeboxes but as I say at this stage its more a waiting game until the paint has dried completely. Still very pleased with the finish.

                                      Steve

[James Harrison]

'Like' doesn't do justice to them.  We need a 'wow!' button or something like it. 

[46256]

Be patient Steve...looking good, to being superb is not that far away...

[ossy5190]

Making good progess Steve. Humbrol 15 was the shade I used for my 439 tank which is pretty close to the blue Hornby used for their last Caley Single release. Slightly of topic, but is that a CR brakedown van lurking in the background?

 

Keep up the good work.

 

Ross

[Londontram]

Thank you Ross.

         Yes I'm happy with the blue now and spraying it has given it real depth, the black parts have been painted with matt black which contrasts a bit with the high gloss of the blue but when lined and lettered the whole lot will be given a coat of satin varnish which should help to blend it a bit and soften the contrasts. the hand rails should be steel but they look so nice in brass I'm loath to paint them at the moment so we shall have to see what I decide with them.

 

There is some evidence that the upper surfaces of the running plate on some Caledonian locos were body coloured instead of black and so far I've left them in blue, as the blue is quite dark it doesn't really show but I guess on the lighter blue locos it will be more of an issue so I'll have to think again when I do the Dunalastair and Cardean in the lighter blue.

 

   Here's a picture of the front of the 104 tank with the black smokebox and the air pump and other detail parts fitted, note to ones self I still need to make and fit the sandbox pipes, in the back ground is the jumbo tender.

 

As to the van its a kit of a 6 wheel Caledonian road van which was amongst a few odds and ends that Tony Brenchley gave me which were surplus to his requirements, its been very poorly painted and hand lettered so I plan to respray it and letter it with some white lettering decals I have. Here's a picture I'm not sure of its diagram but it has a plank effect body so maybe you can tell.

The underframe on this van consists of one fixed W iron one rocking one and the third has a sliding axle and so well does this seem to go through points that its the system I chose and cloned for all of my six wheelers.

Stood on there heads in blue tack off to the right are the crew for the 104 which are just having the last bits of paint done before they can be mounted in the cab and the cab roof gluing on.

                                                                                                                            Steve

Edited April 24, 2016 by Londontram

[ossy5190]

Interesting about the tops of the running plate being body coloured on some engines, I assumed they would always have been black.

 

Looks like the van is a Diagram 91 Road Van built in 1908. They would have been marshaled behind the engine on goods trains on the Callander and Oban section.

 

Ross

[Londontram]

Interesting about the tops of the running plate being body coloured on some engines, I assumed they would always have been black

 

Ross

Its discussed in the Caledonian livery book  chapter 2-1 The classic Caledonian locomotive livery, page 46 paragraph three 

 

   Thanks for the head up on the road van as I said its an awful brush painted finish, who ever painted it had the trouble you get with matt paints sometimes where patches dry semi gloss so I'll sand it back as carefully as I can and give it a spray of Humbrol brick red which I think is a good match to the original Caledonian wagon red. I also have a decal sheet from Hannants models of Lowestoft of different sized white lettering which I believe was intended originally for 1950s RAF vehicles and I can use this to re-letter it.

 

    Also Ross you might notice the buffer beams on both the jumbo and the 104 tank are vermilion  with just the buffer shanks in the red/brown that matched the colour used on the frame and steps, I've used the precision paints Caledonian coach red/brown for this. It seems lesser Caledonian passenger blue locos had full width vermilion panels and it was only the bigger more important passenger locos that had the red/brown buffer beams with just the center panels in lined vermilion. 

Edited April 24, 2016 by Londontram

[agt613]

Good work, Steve. Could anyone explain what the various pipes are that accompany the Westinghouse pump?