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GNR (Ireland) VS Class 4-4-0 - a Skritchbuild in 4mm


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There is a precedent for the above combination of S Class and VS Class. A very early RPSI railtour had 171 piloting 207. 171 was, of course, preserved, but 207, alas, was not.

 

Just looked at the RPSI's website. The railtour in question ran on 11th September 1965. UG class 49 worked from Belfast (York Road) to Portrush, returning to Lisburn. 171 and 207 then took over and ran down the GN main line to Portadown, then returning to Belfast (Gt. Victoria Street). The tour was significant for several reasons -

It was the first railtour ever to be run under RPSI auspices.

It was the last time 207 (by then the last of the VS class) ever worked. She was broken up soon afterwards. Only her tender (as noted by Horsetan above) survived - it was later used with 171 and with 85 for short periods.

It was the only time a UG worked to Portrush.

 

I have seen film (probably cine) and photos of this railtour in the past; hopefully they still exist somewhere.

 

 Here's some footage of a double header by the RPSI albeit a V instead of VS,

 

Certainly gives a good idea what it would have looked like. Thanks for the link, Nelson. Hopefully this particular combination will be seen again in the not too distant future.

 

Going back to the VS, I will continue posting updates here as I begin test running it, etc.

 

Alan

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  • 2 months later...
  • 10 months later...

The project finally moves on.

 

I've been given the Class VS to paint and the first photo shows it stripped down into its component parts. Very sensibly the boiler is a separate item as it is difficult to get an even coat of paint all round the boiler with the running plate in the way. As a bonus the smokebox is a separate item, which certainly eases the masking. Most of the chassis has been painted so all I have to do is paint the balance weights, cylinders and frame behind the crosshead guides.

 

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The second photo shows it after cleaning and coating with a red oxide etching primer. The cylinders are roughly masked with common masking tape. The boiler hand rails are masked with Copydex, which is far superior to Maskol. 

 

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Now a 24hr wait while the etching takes place.

 

Ian R

 

www.ianrathbonemodelpainting.co.uk 

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Might I ask which brand of etch primer you use? Thanks.

 

I don't use a 'brand'. The formula I use is 2 parts activated thinners, 2 parts cellulose thinners, 1 part cellulose paint. I can choose any colour of etching primer but in this case it is a traditional red oxide. It is a good base for crimson lake and as blue is a dense pigment it is ok for that. It is also good for the inside of frames, without further top coat, as it appears as a dull red, which is better than the bright vermilion seen on some models.

 

The VS painting continues. I sprayed a cellulose satin black on the underside of loco and tender, smoke box, deflectors, cab roof and cylinders.

 

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After about an hour I masked off the cab roof and sprayed loco and tender in GNRI Blue. I was given a pot of blue enamel paint with the model but it had drying problems so I had half a litre of cellulose paint mixed to match it (I have three more GNRI blue locos to paint). I finished off the cylinders, cross heads and frames behind the cross head guides with brushed on black enamel. I then masked off the inside of the tender frames and sprayed the outside in Precision Buffer Beam Vermilion.

 

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Ian R

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When all was dry enough to handle I masked off the sides and back of the tender body and sprayed the interior and front with cellulose satin black. The platform angle of the loco is vermilion but the area is so small it is not worth spraying so I used a technique I call pen painting. This is loading the bow pen with paint, setting it to draw a fairly wide line, then drawing touching lines until the area is filled. I actually used compasses rather than a pen, offsetting from the edges.

 

Because of the time it would take to apply masking for spraying I brush painted the running plate and steps. I will apply a second coat at the end when the lining is complete.

 

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There is still the interior of the cab to do. This is black below the waist and 'biscuit' above. For the latter I use Humbrol 63 brushed on - at least two coats, maybe three. That's it for the painting apart from second coating the running plate and a few odds and ends.

 

Lining next.

 

Ian R 

 

 

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I start with the white lining for which I use a light grey gloss. It is very unforgiving as it stands out, so any errors are very visible. I generally start with the more difficult areas, the front of the cab and back of tender - these are also least vulnerable.

 

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This view shows splasher and cab sides. The top curve of the splasher was lined with compasses with the needle, actually 1mm brass wire, running along the top and the pen drawing a parallel line adjacent to it. The bottom pair of lines were drawn with the bow pen using the running plate edge as the straight edge - you don't always need a ruler. The pen can't get right up to the coupling rod splasher so I filled that bit in with a fine brush.

 

The cab side was mainly pen and ruler work but the compasses were used adjacent to the cab cut-out and the lower front curve. Corners were filled in with a brush after making sure the straight lines finished at the tangent points, either by extending the lines with a brush or cutting back with a brush just damp with white spirit. The corners are 3" radius to the outside so the tangent points were determined by using dividers set to a scale 3" (ie 1mm).

 

The platform angle was lined using compasses again, following the lower edge. Before starting to paint I did run a fine file along the edge just to remove any potential rough bits.

 

I can't do the other side until the lining paint has dried, but I can start the tender.

 

Ian R  

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I started the tender lining, again white first. The rivets were a little oversize and got in the way of the lines so there was a lot of correcting to do. I would normally have done the curves with compasses but there was a slight misalignment between the top edges of the side plates and the beading, which tended to throw the compass point off line so I had to do more brush work than I normally do for,say, a Stanier tender.

 

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Having finished the white lining on the other side of the cab I could do the front buffer beam and the upper plate. Here again rivets got in the way but, when I put the black border on all will be tidied up.

 

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Jumping on a bit, here is the completed running plate and cab unit. The lining on the cab front was mainly applied with compasses following the outer edge. The short horizontal sections on the half splasher were done with a brush, as it is difficult to get a straight edge and pen in there. 

 

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The only major things left on this part are second coat of black on the running plate and a further coat of 'biscuit' on the cab walls.

 

Ian R 

 

  

 

  

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Work continues on the tender. As the body is not fixed to the frames lining the rear was fairly easy as there were no lamp brackets or vacuum pipe to get in the way of the lining along the base. The frames have been lined using offset compasses but with a few tweaks where the curve of the cut-outs wasn't quite true. In this photo there is a little touching up to do.

 

The boiler has been reunited with the smoke box and boiler bands applied (my own transfers).

 

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Tender virtually complete. I used the supplied transfers, I don't know the origin. They appear to be a scan but were heavily pixillated and the wrong colour, but were an excellent base for overpainting in a more correct ochre.

 

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Ian R

 

 

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Now that I have received the fully painted "Liffey" back from Ian, a few words of explanation.

When the competition was running, I made a conscious decision not to proceed with the painting at that time and the model was submitted "in the brass". There were two reasons for this, firstly, time was getting short and I didn't want to risk doing a rushed and potentially botched paint job. It's been said that a poor model can be made to look well with a good paint job, but that even the most perfect model can be made to look terrible with a poor paint job (or even a mediocre one). I think this is very true.

The second reason was that I had come to the view the VS as a fairly special model to me, and therefore it deserved the best finish possible.
I was chatting to Ian at his demo stand at Warley. What clinched it was that one of the locos he had on display was another VS. It was a beautiful model of 207 "Boyne" which had been built by Mike Edge, and painted by Ian.

Going for a full professional paint job is never going to be a cheap option, but the superlative job that Ian has done makes it, I believe, well worth it.

Since it has come back, "Liffey" has been sitting in my display cabinet to give the paintwork an opportunity to fully harden.
There's still a few detail parts (already made) to add, now painting is complete.  The whistle and manifold piping. The cab backhead and fall plate. Couplings, Crew, and Coal.

 

Then there are some parts which may or may not be added. Can the cylinder draincock piping be added between the front steps and cylinders without fouling the bogie wheels on curves? The injectors are attached to and partially behind the cab footsteps. Can the injectors fit in without fouling the rear driving wheels? There are a whole bundle of small lubrication pipes which run from the cab forward along the side of the boiler. It would be possible to make these from fine copper wire, but is it possible to fit them without compromising the paintwork? - I'll have to think about that one.

The other major task will be to continue trials with the loco on my test track and make sure that it is set up and balanced correctly.

Alan

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