N Gauge LNER painting and lining experiment

[Atso]

Hi all,

 

Firstly, apologies to those who have already seen some of the pictures elsewhere on the forum.

 

I recently purchased a copy of Ian Rathbone's 'A Modeller's Handbook of Painting and Lining' during a visit to Pendon and have been reading it with interest. I've long wanted to be able to produce an acceptable attempt at fully lined LNER green livery using a bow pen. I've managed to do a half decent job with LNER lined red as well as lining out some teaks but the distinctive white and black lining of the apple green locos has defeated me every time. For my one and only green locomotive to date, I ended up using Fox Transfers and carefully cut one of the white lines off the boiler bands to line out the cab and tender. This worked well but was exceptionally fiddly due to the large number of curves on the cab and tender.

 

Having done a bit of reading, I spend some time honing my bow pen and practicing on various bits of scrap plastic. Then came the next problem, what to line? I've got a rejected print of my B2 'Sir Sam Fay' class to hand (chimney and dome malformations) and so I set about giving this a session or two using the airbrush. The colours were all from the Tamiya acrylic range and their 'Flat Green' proved to be an acceptable substitute for LNER Donny Green. Following the painting sessions, Sir Sam looked like this:

 

 

Please excuse the odd hair that's attached itself to the paint - in my haste to splash some paint around, I forgot to make sure the model was totally clean. Lesson number one learnt! However, I was really quite please with how this had turned out for my first airbrushing session in years. Next the loco got a gloss coat straight from a rattle can of Halfords 'Clear Lacquer' and once dry I started to attack the model with the bow pen in earnest. I'd already decided that I would only line one side of the loco for this experiment as it will never see a running chassis. I started with the white and red lining using Humbrol gloss enamel paints which had been thicken by pouring most of the oil away (having purchased new tins and let the pigments settle) and then blotted in the builders plate in brass. By this point I'd already broken another rule - only line one colour per side per day. However, in this case I got away with it! Below is the state that 'Sir Sam' found itself in after the first round of lining (about an hours work, not including all the practice time on scrap plastic!):

 

 

Next came the bit I was dreading, lining in the black! The before mentioned book says that it is possible to brush paint in the black lines, but I didn't believe this. So at first I used the bow pen to line the straight sides of the cab, but what to do about the curves. After much debate, I decided 'what the hell' and found a 000 brush in half decent condition and had a go at brush painting the rest of the black. I found that by only exposing about 1mm of the tip of the bush to the paint, it IS possible to brush paint a thin black line! Some minor corrections using a tiny amount of white spirit and the 000 brush easily corrected the slight blemishes I'd created. I also took the opportunity to correct an error in the cab lining as well as better define the red lining and builders plate. The Dapol A3 in the background is serving as the benchmark I'd like to try and achieve.

 

 

Next came the brass beading above the splasher, again this was a combination of pen and brush work. However, I have learnt another valuable lesson here - paint the beading before the black! I'll most likely come back and touch this up later to better define the 'brass' and black line below it. I also had fun with some homemade Scotch tape boiler bands! These are a fraction too thick and I've had great fun trying to get the tape to stick where I want it to, in future I'll try making up some transfers for this instead. Only the first three boiler bands have been done as I seriously underestimated the amount I'd require to line one side of the boiler. So 'Sir Sam's' current state as of today is:

 

 

So three days and about three hours invested so far in this experiment I have to say that this is my most successful attempted at apple green livery to date. To complete this experiment, I'll finish off the boiler bands and may have a go at tackling the front of the cab and buffer beam. Ian Rathbone's book has been a major help in achieving this, fine so there are still quite a lot of blemishes but this is far far better than I previously thought I could achieve.

 

All that's left to be said is the usual disclaimer - no association with the author, just one very satisfied customer!