Inspired by Brent June 1947

[The Fatadder]

54 minutes ago, Bluemonkey presents.... said:

Fantastic, great job(s). You really are giving it an even bigger push since you have your printer.

the slip, concertina and autocoach are now in cream, while the composite and brake third are both in wartime brown.  The paint didnt go onto the concertina as well as the other two cream coaches, so will inevitably need a little rework.    

While I do have an airbrush, I have found that with care a very good result can be had with car aerosols.  In this case Triumph Russet brown is a perfect match for the wartime redish brown livery, while Ford Sierra Beige is a perfect GWR cream (I think I picked this up from somewhere else...)  The chocolate brown will be my usual Halfords camouflage brown with a coat of varnish for which I really must buy a new can to avoid a repeat of what destroyed the last attempt at the sunshine stock coaches...

 

6 minutes ago, Siberian Snooper said:

The concertina looks exquisite.

Im really pleased with it, as with the Dreadnought these old 70ft coaches really stand out on the layout

 

 

I have been giving some thought as to what comes next,

At present there are still 3 Mainline C77 currently in use (all of which being too short and not flush glazed.)  My plan is for kit built coaches to replace all of them (in turn freeing up two roofs/underframes for 60ft composite builds.

 

A Large Window C73 third is needed for the Riviera set, as is an E158 composite.  I am tempted to go for another 70ft coach to replace the C77 in the sleeper set, I really fancy a dreadnought third with plated toplights.  Again this will free up a composite to build another E155 (which can replace the A20 thats in the wrong position in the Riviera.)

 

The final C77 replacement is in the Exeter - Plymouth M Set, I'm thinking a flush sided toplight would be ideal here, but will probably just wait and see what Dapol end up doing.  

 

[St Enodoc]

37 minutes ago, The Fatadder said:

Ford Sierra Beige

All those years ago when I lived in England and could buy British car sprays, I thought that Sierra Beige was too pale for my taste (BR cream not GWR of course). I settled on Ford Sahara Beige, which had a touch more yellow in it. Almost like clotted cream instead of single cream, as it were.

[The Fatadder]

3 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

All those years ago when I lived in England and could buy British car sprays, I thought that Sierra Beige was too pale for my taste (BR cream not GWR of course). I settled on Ford Sahara Beige, which had a touch more yellow in it. Almost like clotted cream instead of single cream, as it were.

I think for GWR cream a mixture of coaches finished in the two colours might be a good option, given the variation of colour on GWR stock over time.   Will try  the Sahara beige next time (I see that’s the shade Roecar recommend) 

 

here is the current state after spraying the first colours

 

The chocolate will be sprayed tomorrow, before finishing off the roofs (including the two Hornby Collett)

[The Fatadder]

A further update on the Plymouth Paddington rake, progress on painting has stopped awaiting a delivery of masking tape from Amazon.   In the mean time I have been painting droplights, seeing as they will be masked off when spraying the brown.  I haven’t don’t be Concertina yet, there is not much relief between side and droplight on the white metal casting and it looks like it will a real pig to do…. The underframes for the Slip And Concertina were also painted 

 

the two wartime brown coaches have had the ends and roof painted, and are ready for  adding the lining.  

 

While painting the sunshine stock roofs, I also repainted the roofs on the two Hornby Colletts.  They still need the underframes weathering and replacing the logos/lettering

 

While painting underframes somehow I missed the underframe on the toplight.  I did remember to paint it’s interior though

 

Finally there is the H33, it still needs lining on the other side plus door furniture adding.  After taking the below photo I also spotted that the buffers are wrong!  A good candidate to test my new 3D printed ones.   
I am giving serious thought to selling this once it’s finished and replacing with another design.  I saw a picture of a H15 earlier which would be a bit different…

[The Fatadder]

I now have masking tape, so the first job was to mask and paint the orange lining on the two wartime brown coaches.  With that dry it was followed by adding the transfers (HMRS)  I have picked 6111 for the E155 given there is a photo of it in Russell in wartime brown (as mentioned previously I am going to repeat the process for another E155 which will be numbered as the correct coach for the Riviera).  

For the D127 brake (which for some reason I have been referring to as a D121), there was a batch built in the early 40s which presumably would have a good chance of being outshopped in wartime brown.  Better still it has a 3 digit number, so that was a perfect choice.  I really wish that the GWR had only put a single number on a coach side, making up four 4 digit numbers on every coach one number at a time is so painful!

If its dry at lunch tomorrow I will mask up the slip, concertina and auto coach to get the brown sprayed 

Edited February 14, 2022 by The Fatadder

[Neal Ball]

Are the D127 and E155 both on Bachmann sunshine donor bodies Rich?

 

They both look very good…. Maybe suitable for next winters carriage project!

[The Fatadder]

The D127 uses a lot of the Mainline/Bachmann body, and I have shortened the sides to match.  I removed the whole side and slightly recessed the ends by the thickness of the brass.  For the underframe I carefully cut one battery box (and the angled part of the truss) and relocated it to the other side of the underframe to get  both battery boxes at the same end.

 

the E155 is a 60ft coach, I have used the Mainline roof and floor, but Comet ends soldered to the sides (and used the fret to add an angle along the top edge of the side to glue to the roof).  The buffer beams were cut off and replaced with the etch (shortening the chassis) while the roof needed to be shortened as well.

[Neal Ball]

3 hours ago, The Fatadder said:

The D127 uses a lot of the Mainline/Bachmann body, and I have shortened the sides to match.  I removed the whole side and slightly recessed the ends by the thickness of the brass.  For the underframe I carefully cut one battery box (and the angled part of the truss) and relocated it to the other side of the underframe to get  both battery boxes at the same end.

 

the E155 is a 60ft coach, I have used the Mainline roof and floor, but Comet ends soldered to the sides (and used the fret to add an angle along the top edge of the side to glue to the roof).  The buffer beams were cut off and replaced with the etch (shortening the chassis) while the roof needed to be shortened as well.

Thanks Rich, probably sounds worse than it is!

 

I guess it’s a case of fettling to suit. For instance on the H44 as I’m using the Airfix underframe, that was also a case of cutting off the redundant battery box from the truss rods. In fact other than the rods, I cut off all the detail and replaced with Comet parts. Plus of course the H57 sides were shortened to suit the donor body… so pretty much the same I guess.

 

Thanks again, have a good day.

[The Fatadder]

After a stressful day an evening working on coach lettering was a good way to de stress

 

while it was a bit fiddly adding handrails to the two sunshine stock builds (I still have one side to add) not to mention all of the hinges).  The latter still need painting, hopefully I can spray some of the Halfords paint into a cup to touch up with a brush 

 

 

much more relaxing was the work on two Hornby bow ends, re lettering a D95 from shirt button to the simple G W R over crest in yellow, and a composite to full Hawksworth livery.  The former was in shirt button, the latter in GWR over crest (in gold).  In both cases the original words / numbers were rubbed off with a cocktail stick.  The twin city’s crest required some Microsol to shift (as it needs moving slightly to the side)

the Hawksworth liveries example needed the upper brown band adding (which still needs lining).

 

while looking in Russell for photos  (without success ), I saw a photo of the D94.  Same overall dimensions as. D95 but 3 rather than 4 compartments and a larger luggage space.  Presumably would be a useful coach on a holiday service, I don’t recall seeing it listed anywhere but does anyone make sides for it?  Got me thinking it’s a good use for that spare D95…..

[Siberian Snooper]

I have just had a quick shufti on the gwt.org site, Phoenix did kits for the D94, listed as no longer available. If you can knock up a drawing, Worsley Works will probably be able to help you.

 

 

[The Fatadder]

35 minutes ago, Siberian Snooper said:

I have just had a quick shufti on the gwt.org site, Phoenix did kits for the D94, listed as no longer available. If you can knock up a drawing, Worsley Works will probably be able to help you.

 

 

That’s my thinking, either through Worsley or just getting an etch done with PPD myself.  Though its a bit more of a longer term project.

[Siberian Snooper]

An update,  the gwr.org site is behind the times,  sides for both LH and RH versions are available from Worsley Works. £13  a pop.

 

 

[The Fatadder]

2 minutes ago, Siberian Snooper said:

An update,  the gwr.org site is behind the times,  sides for both LH and RH versions are available from Worsley Works. £13  a pop.

 

Perfect, I think an order for one of those will certainly be placed in the not to distant future.  

[The Fatadder]

No rain at lunch today so I was able to spray the brown on the remaining coaches, and then paint the roofs / ends with weathered mixes this evening.

 

the autocoach and slip will get full Hawksworth livery, while the concertina will get the simplified lettering version (as I don’t want to double line!)

 

the slip will use my usual approach, masking and painting the black lines then adding the gold with a pen and ruler.  The concertina I’m less sure on thanks to the recessed doors. While the  autocoach will be number 189 I think, and will probably use transfers for the lining because I’m not sure how I would mask around the end detail.

 

the other area which will need thought is the varnish, the Halfords camouflage brown I use is a good match for chocolate once given a coat of satin varnish.  But is far too flat in its current state.  However given the issues I have had recently with varnishing I need to find an alternative can…

[The Fatadder]

Dammed varnish!

 

This evening I sprayed the two wartime brown coaches with Dullcote to finish them ready for glazing.

the first has a mottled finish and the second the cab ran out half way though.  Need to buy some more varnish and hope it sorts it out…

[The Fatadder]

Quite hard to photograph the dodgy finish on the wartime brown coaches, the first few attempts looked ok on the screen rather than what you see in the flesh.

 

the top right corner shows it off pretty well.

I think there are two options, try revarnishing (once I have some more varnish)

or try buffing out the imperfection with t cut and then revarnish.

 

 

speaking of which, my last tin of Testors Dullcote (sourced from the late Mick Bonwick). I am sure I am right in remembering that they stopped production of this a few years back so I need to find another product.

Amazon offer one from Games Workshop and another from Army Painter, otherwise there is always the cheaper Halfords product.

 

 

[Graham T]

I think the second option is more likely to work, unfortunately.  Hope you manage to sort it out.

[The Fatadder]

1 minute ago, Graham T said:

I think the second option is more likely to work, unfortunately.  Hope you manage to sort it out.

These two coaches are driving me mad with the amount of varnish repeated failures on them! 

[Neal Ball]

2 minutes ago, The Fatadder said:

These two coaches are driving me mad with the amount of varnish repeated failures on them! 

 

If its always the same two carriages Rich, then there must be another underlying issue.

 

Good luck.

[The Fatadder]

10 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

 

If its always the same two carriages Rich, then there must be another underlying issue.

 

Good luck.

This time I think it was just bad luck that the can of mat varnish didnt have quite enough left in it to do the job, if I had a second can available to quickly switch to before the varnish had dried I think it would have been fine.  

 

It appears that the T Cut is working, and getting the finish to a point where the damage to the paint is a good foundation for the weathering.  Though that said I have only worked on the slightly better condition composite rather than the brake third so far...   A couple of numbers have lifted off which is annoying but a simple fix...

[M.I.B]

I managed to buy Testors Dullcote last year via Amazon.

[The Fatadder]

After finishing the T Cut the finish wasnt quite perfect.   However these coaches are modelled something like 6 or 7 years after painting, so they need some dirt applying.  After a couple of washes of a mix of grey black and a couple of browns, the finish is starting to look acceptable.  I think this evening I will add the glazing and see how its turned out...

 

the start point

 

current state

Edited February 17, 2022 by The Fatadder

[Siberian Snooper]

Looks good.

 

 

[Bluemonkey presents....]

Excellent recovery.

[steve fay]

I was discussing matte varnish recently and I’ve been told that tamiya offer a very good spray 

Edited February 17, 2022 by steve fay