East Barnet Joint Stock - a workbench

[WFPettigrew]

Chas, just to echo what everyone else is saying - you are achieving astonishingly good results.

 

I have been, on and off and mostly off, been trying to sort out the lining of a Ratio Midland clerestory.  I tried doing it "the other way" to your/Ian Rathbone method - putting on the black over the crimson lake, with a view to then using the bow pen to lay a hair's width line of yellow on either edge of the black.  But a combination of a lack of skill, on top of hamfistedness, and, did I mention, not much skill, meant it all went awry.  

 

Reading your recent posts, and it did strike me that doing the yellows first might also allow the yellow to be slightly broader (and possibly therefore easier), which is then partly overlaid with black.  I vaguely recall seeing Ian Rathbone doing something of this sort with BR black loco lining on a video but I may be mistaken.  So I am now thinking about paint stripper and starting again...

 

All the best

 

Neil 

[Chas Levin]

31 minutes ago, WFPettigrew said:

Chas, just to echo what everyone else is saying - you are achieving astonishingly good results.

 

I have been, on and off and mostly off, been trying to sort out the lining of a Ratio Midland clerestory.  I tried doing it "the other way" to your/Ian Rathbone method - putting on the black over the crimson lake, with a view to then using the bow pen to lay a hair's width line of yellow on either edge of the black.  But a combination of a lack of skill, on top of hamfistedness, and, did I mention, not much skill, meant it all went awry.  

 

Reading your recent posts, and it did strike me that doing the yellows first might also allow the yellow to be slightly broader (and possibly therefore easier), which is then partly overlaid with black.  I vaguely recall seeing Ian Rathbone doing something of this sort with BR black loco lining on a video but I may be mistaken.  So I am now thinking about paint stripper and starting again...

 

All the best

 

Neil 

Thank you for the kind words Neil - and thank you again to everyone for the enormous encouragement! I'm still very much in the midst of it and mainly I just see the errors - which, in the case of things that can be corrected at a later stage is, I think, generally a good thing...

 

Regarding your Midland project, I found the practice panel I made up to be enormously useful, both in terms of honing the physical and motor skills of handling the bow pen, but also in the sense of enhancing my confidence. When you've drawn 100 4cm lines - even though many might be very far from perfect - the 101st seems far less daunting. Using the same type of paint and using a feeler gauge to set the blade gap consistently (it took me a while to remember that I had a feeler gauge in my non-modelling everyday toolbox!) you get used to how the paint behaves too, including at different ambient temperatures. As I mentioned in a recent post, seeing how it's coming off the pen in the first 1-2mm of a line is extremely helpful as you can make minute adjustments to the speed or angle of the pen if things aren't going quite right and thereby improve the rest of the line, so that only those first couple of mm need major correction afterwards.

 

For the practice sheet (which you can see some of in my post last Sunday) I used a piece or brass sheet, 0.3mm I think, one of several I'd bought from Eileens a while back in order to have material for cutting and rolling my own brass roofs; I applied the same combination of Halfords etch primer and the GNR light green aerosol I'd had matched from Phoenix Precision's enamel, to give a similar surface to that of the loco. The sheet is 6"x12", so I felt there was plenty of space to draw as many lines as I felt like without worrying. I was amazed at how well my skill and my confidence improved and I also found that it's very relaxing, gentle and pleasant work, simply ruling lines...

 

I wonder - re. Ian R videos - if you're thinking of the ones on the Missenden modelling site? He covers lining there too and I found there's a great deal to be learned from actually watching someone rather than reading. The videos on priming and spraying are particularly enlightening: actually seeing the paint going on and seeing what kind of thickness of coat and coverage he goes for is something you have to watch, as a couple of people recommended to me on posts quite a long time ago on this thread, before I had seen the videos myself.

[Chas Levin]

With all this talk of lining and how to do it, I thought I'd show three of the tools I've come to rely on the most and without which I'd not have been able to do what I have so far. They're nothing very special, but in case it's helpful, first up is a Lightcraft Headband Magnifier, available from various places (current price £22) and which I bought from Eileen's Emporium (product code: OPHBML, no connection either with Eileen's of Lightcraft) several years ago:

 

 

 

I initially found it a bit uncomfortable and - as I also wear glasses for any close work, as at 55 I'm already significantly long-sighted - I found it quite cumbersome and awkward to have the two lens systems in use together... I also have a large desk-mounted magnifier lamp with ultra-bright LEDs round the lens and on a sprung arm and I'd found that perfectly fine for everything I've done up to now, but this GNR lining business called for a closeness of view that wasn't achievable with the lamp, so I got this headband out and persevered. It took a while - and quite a lot of head movements that would probably have looked quite odd to anyone observing me - but eventually I got used to viewing things through my glasses and the headband's lenses at the same time.

The front part of the headband is quite comfortable on the forehead, the rear - with the tension adjustment - less so on the back of the head but a little wiggling and you'll find where it sits acceptably.

You can see there's a small LED lamp on the front: doesn't look much, does it? Just the one little LED, runs on a couple of AAs - what can it really do? Well, it can make a huge difference!! The little lamp can be moved around and it's on a decently solid mounting so you can get it where it needs to go. You do need to keep fresh batteries in though; I haven't timed how long they last but I might do that, for my own info...

 

 

 

The other excellent feature is that the headband comes with a case containing four lens (1.8x to 3.5x). They're plastic, which initially put me off, but I really can't fault the quality. There are two slots: this means you can put in two, for really close work:

 

 

 

And both mountings pivot, so you can flip the front one out of the way quickly and easily, for an immediate 'medium' view:

 

 

 

I find that trying to use the two highest magnification lenses together results in an impractically short focal length - only a couple of inches - which is fine for examining something extremely closely, but not great for actually working on the model, as the brush or bow pen is apt to knock into the LED lamp, with disastrous results. Don't ask me how I know...

I've therefore mainly been using the 3.5x in the front slot and the 1.8x behind it. With both in place, focal length is about 5-6", which works for really detailed work like I've been doing recently, where you need to see exactly what the paint is doing as it comes off the pen.

Then, by flipping up the front lens, you're looking through the 1.8" at a focal length of nearer a foot. Why is this useful? Because as well as my point in a recent post about the need to examine things from all angles, I've also learned that things can look very different close up to the way they do from further away, so you need to see both views and sometimes, you need to see those views quickly, before paint starts to skin over...

 

(As an added trick, available only to those who wear glasses with what used to be called bifocal lenses but are now often called 'occupational', the glasses I wear for this type of work have two levels of magnification themselves:  the lower half of the rectangular lens is for close-up or reading, the upper half for objects about 18" away (intended for things like computer screens). This means that by moving my head - and the headband - up or down, I can look through one or both of the headband lens and also through either the top or the bottom half of my glasses lenses, giving four different levels of magnification).

 

Next up, an everyday object, but an equally essential one: a small (3.5"), lightweight, ultra-bright multi-LED torch:

 

 

I keep finding that although I have a nearby window, a posable multi-LED lamp and the posable LED on the headband, in the middle of working on a paint area, some aspect of the model's position - which may be necessary for ease of wielding the bow pen or the brush - causes a handrail or some other protruberance to cast a tiny shadow, just where I need to see very clearly. These ultra-bright torches - this one, a Rolson which cost about £3.99, has nine LEDs - leaves no shadow unilluminated and it's often been an absolute lifesaver, revealing faults and poor areas I had no idea were there. You have to get into the right position to allow use of the brush or pen without the added support of your other hand - because your other hand is holding the torch - but again, a highly recommended piece of kit!

 

And last but very obviously not least, a really good, really fine brush! The best I've found so far - and I've tried a few in the last few months - is the Da Vinci range (again, no connection, just a delighted user):

 

 

 

I've been mainly using the 10/0, which is pretty fine:

 

 

 

(Ha - finally found a use for that giant inflatable pound coin someone gave me last Christmas...)

 

The gap between the two white lines on this loco is a little over half a millimeter and this brush will comfortably hold - and gently and reliably release, when and where it's wanted - paint to cover a third to half of that width (although I'm doing the straight sections with the bow pen, I'm filling in the black in the incurved corners by brush).

Also, when used lightly dampened with white spirit, the sable is sufficiently good quality that even though there's not much of it, it reliably wicks away tiny amounts of paint in exactly the right way, unlike some cheaper brushes I tried which made a bit of a mess of things... and there's the one downside to these brushes: their cost.

That brush costs £9.99, so I realise it's not for everyone. However, it does seem to me - based on admittedly only a few months' experience, but a pretty busy few months - that with paint brushes, as with so many other things in life, you do get what you pay for.

I think the trick is to use 'normal' brushes for most tasks - I have the usual collection of sizes and types - but keep one or two really, really good, fine ones like these for things like painting incurved lining corners (I don't think I could have done those white corners with a poorer brush) or for infilling a centre line between two others - Ian R in his book refers to First Division brushes and I think this is the sort of thing he means. I realise this may be viewed as totally obvious common sense, but in case anyone's reading this and thinking they cannot afford to re-equip themselves with a full set of new brushes at a tenner a pop, it isn't as bad as it seems!

I'll also have a better idea of how long they last by the time I've finished this build: I've been using the one in the pictures for several hours every day since buying it about a month ago, so it's early days yet, but so far I've not noticed any diminution in performacne.

 

So, there we are: nothing exactly revolutionary, but perhaps useful info to some .

Edited April 7, 2022 by Chas Levin

[Jon4470]

Hi Chas

 

Just want to echo the other comments. The lining work is excellent. I think that you are demonstrating (really well) the three Ps: patience, persistence and practice......sadly three things that I don’t always have!

 

Jon

 

PS (and firmly tongue in cheek) really looking forward to the weathering that you’ll put on the model

[Chas Levin]

1 hour ago, Jon4470 said:

Hi Chas

 

Just want to echo the other comments. The lining work is excellent. I think that you are demonstrating (really well) the three Ps: patience, persistence and practice......sadly three things that I don’t always have!

 

Jon

 

PS (and firmly tongue in cheek) really looking forward to the weathering that you’ll put on the model

Thanks Jon, I appreciate your kind words. Yes, I guess this does show that the three Ps work. I trained as a musician as a kid and learned to practise carefully then.

Around the same time, I built lots of Airfix kits, but there wasn't the same level of skill involved and I don't remember practising anything much in the way of modelling skills at the time...

 

Ha - you refer, I see, to my occasionally mentioned lack of fondness for weathering! Actually, there is a little 'auto-weathering' going on anyway. In correcting the edges of the recently applied black lines with the spirit-dampened brush, tiny amounts of black are moved onto the white lines and however carefully I clean them, the white is a little dulled. Which, in the grand scheme of things, is probably good because it'll stop the white looking too bright.

 

Not only that, but where there was white paint residue from cleaning up the white lines that looked poo on the green, some of the black is neutralising that too.

 

So (equally tongue in cheek)... does that count as weathering?

[Chas Levin]

And here's this morning's results, the right-hand bunker side:

 

 

In real life I think it actually looks a tiny bit neater than the left-hand side, but my photography is less flattering this time!

 

I find the very early morning a great time to do this sort of detailed work: I get up at 6, have a quick cuppa and a bowl of cereal and then have a good couple of hours of quiet time before real life gets going...

Edited April 7, 2022 by Chas Levin

[Florence Locomotive Works]

16 hours ago, Chas Levin said:

Thanks Douglas, high praise indeed! There doesn't seem to be a huge amount of competition actually, in that I've only managed to find a handful of photos of GNR-liveried C12 models; nothing remotely like the number of LNER- or BR-liveried examples. A poster on Tony Wright's "Wright writes" thread put up a picture recently of one painted by Larry Goddard, in response to my posting a progress picture of mine, which certainly sets the bar high!

 Your welcome Chas. Thinking about it now I haven't seen to many GNR c12s either although I nearly bought one made from a Will's kit back in 2019.

 

I've also got a slightly off topic question for you. I'm currently in the planning stages of building a non scenic LNER (will be track on a well varnished board) minories based layout and I'm giving some consideration to building my own coaches which will mostly be Gresley bogies. Would you recommend it? 

 

Douglas

[Chas Levin]

7 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

 Your welcome Chas. Thinking about it now I haven't seen to many GNR c12s either although I nearly bought one made from a Will's kit back in 2019.

 

I've also got a slightly off topic question for you. I'm currently in the planning stages of building a non scenic LNER (will be track on a well varnished board) minories based layout and I'm giving some consideration to building my own coaches which will mostly be Gresley bogies. Would you recommend it? 

 

Douglas

Morning Douglas, I wouldn't call that question off topic actually: this thread - this whole forum - is about railway modelling and layouts and coaches are about as closely concerned with that subject as it's possible to be!

I'd definitely recommend building any rolling stock you feel like having a go at. There's nothing more satisfying in this hobby than seeing something you've built actually running and there are plenty of kits available to produce suitable LNER coaches and the relevant Gresley bogies.

I'm a big admirer of Gresley's design ability - genius is probably not too strong a word I think - and the coaches are no exception. They look beautiful (I'm thinking here of the elliptical roofed stock, though I personally like the earlier designs too) and they run beautifully, because the bogies are well designed and that translates from full sized stock into model stock too, so I think Gresley coaches are a good bet for modelling as the yscore on both counts!

I have several in my unbuilt kit pile (D&S mainly but not exclusively) but the Comet range is a good place to browse too. I see from your forum signature that you're in Oklahoma: do you have suppliers of this sort of thing over there or would you be using UK modelling supply people like Wizard/Comet?

[WFPettigrew]

20 hours ago, Chas Levin said:

Regarding your Midland project, I found the practice panel I made up to be enormously useful...

 

Yes, I do need to practice.  A lot.  But reading all of this is giving me the mojo to have a proper go at it!

 

Quote

I wonder - re. Ian R videos - if you're thinking of the ones on the Missenden modelling site? He covers lining there too and I found there's a great deal to be learned from actually watching someone rather than reading. The videos on priming and spraying are particularly enlightening: actually seeing the paint going on and seeing what kind of thickness of coat and coverage he goes for is something you have to watch, as a couple of people recommended to me on posts quite a long time ago on this thread, before I had seen the videos myself.

 

Yes I think it was those - either that or the YouTube rip offs of the DVDs presented by Tony Wright.   But I agree, there is much to be learned simply by watching someone else - not last for me, just that visible evidence that yes it can be done!

 

All the best

 

Neil 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

6 hours ago, Chas Levin said:

have several in my unbuilt kit pile (D&S mainly but not exclusively) but the Comet range is a good place to browse too. I see from your forum signature that you're in Oklahoma: do you have suppliers of this sort of thing over there or would you be using UK modelling supply people like Wizard/Comet?

Unfortunately we are devoid of any OO kit suppliers this side of the pond bar eBay which occasionally turns up some gems, lots of unbuilt Keyser stuff oddly. 
 

I’ll head over to the Wizard website and see what they have.

[Chas Levin]

11 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Unfortunately we are devoid of any OO kit suppliers this side of the pond bar eBay which occasionally turns up some gems, lots of unbuilt Keyser stuff oddly. 
 

I’ll head over to the Wizard website and see what they have.

Sorry to hear that - I had the impression there's a fairly thriving HO scene there, so I assumed there'd be OO stuff too: clearly not! Ebay would be your only reliable way to pick up older kits like the D&S range though, wherever you lived; although Danny Pinnock, the proprietor, does occasionally reissue some 4mm kits, he's done so increasingly rarely over the last few years (due in part to family commitments).

Wizard Models are brilliant though, both in terms of the range they stock and also the service from the proprietor there, Andrew Hartshorne - he's always very helpful and super knowledgable (as usual, no connection, just a happy customer). Also, unlike some online retailers, Wizard's search function actually works properly and you can usually find anything you're looking for quite easily. For instance, typing in "Gresley Coach" brings up lots of interesting kit options: https://www.wizardmodels.ltd/?s=Gresley+Coach&post_type=product&title=1&excerpt=1&content=1&categories=1&attributes=1&tags=0&sku=1&orderby=date-DESC&ixwps=1

I just took a look at his T&Cs page and he does send overseas (by Royal Mail International TRacked & Signed which I've used frequently myself and which is almost always very quick and very reliable.

 

Another one you might want to have a look at is the MJT Components range sold by Dart Castings (https://www.dartcastings.co.uk/mjt.php) - they also have a sort of Self Service system, where you can put together your own kit, by choosing the sides, roof, floor, ends, chassis, bogies and other details separately. You need to do a bit more research of course, but it's good fun along the way and they send overseas too .

[Chas Levin]

I realised that all the photos I've posted recently have been rather harsh, clinical, straight-on views, showing just the panel I'd worked on - here are a couple of slightly more relaxed shots, showing how the rear of the loco is looking now that the back and both sides of the bunker have their black and white lining done:

 

 

 

The next updates won't be until next week as I'm away for the weekend... which will be welcome news for my back: all this close work doesn't help the posture very much! 

Edited April 7, 2022 by Chas Levin

[Florence Locomotive Works]

On 03/03/2022 at 10:21, Chas Levin said:

Sorry to hear that - I had the impression there's a fairly thriving HO scene there, so I assumed there'd be OO stuff too: clearly not! Ebay would be your only reliable way to pick up older kits like the D&S range though, wherever you lived; although Danny Pinnock, the proprietor, does occasionally reissue some 4mm kits, he's done so increasingly rarely over the last few years (due in part to family commitments).

Wizard Models are brilliant though, both in terms of the range they stock and also the service from the proprietor there, Andrew Hartshorne - he's always very helpful and super knowledgable (as usual, no connection, just a happy customer). Also, unlike some online retailers, Wizard's search function actually works properly and you can usually find anything you're looking for quite easily. For instance, typing in "Gresley Coach" brings up lots of interesting kit options: https://www.wizardmodels.ltd/?s=Gresley+Coach&post_type=product&title=1&excerpt=1&content=1&categories=1&attributes=1&tags=0&sku=1&orderby=date-DESC&ixwps=1

I just took a look at his T&Cs page and he does send overseas (by Royal Mail International TRacked & Signed which I've used frequently myself and which is almost always very quick and very reliable.

 

Another one you might want to have a look at is the MJT Components range sold by Dart Castings (https://www.dartcastings.co.uk/mjt.php) - they also have a sort of Self Service system, where you can put together your own kit, by choosing the sides, roof, floor, ends, chassis, bogies and other details separately. You need to do a bit more research of course, but it's good fun along the way and they send overseas too .

Thanks Chas,

 

There's very little OO here but there is one supplier in Canada’s of rtr stuff, however he runs out of stock extremely quickly.

 

I’ll definitely do some research on the Wizard kits, I’ve bought from them before but I do remember it taking nearly 2 months for my parts to arrive. Dart Castings was a lot better with their shipping time of only 12 days, I bought an etched horse drawn van kit from them.
 

It is looking like it may be cheaper to just slowly acquire a set of the super-detailed Hornby Gresley corridors, which are surprisingly good models. 

[Chas Levin]

5 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Thanks Chas,

 

There's very little OO here but there is one supplier in Canada’s of rtr stuff, however he runs out of stock extremely quickly.

 

I’ll definitely do some research on the Wizard kits, I’ve bought from them before but I do remember it taking nearly 2 months for my parts to arrive. Dart Castings was a lot better with their shipping time of only 12 days, I bought an etched horse drawn van kit from them.
 

It is looking like it may be cheaper to just slowly acquire a set of the super-detailed Hornby Gresley corridors, which are surprisingly good models. 

Glad to hear that Dart Castings is noce and quick at any rate! Two months for Wizard does sound a long time - was that perhaps a particular Customs hold-up?

 

Fully agree about the Hornbys: before I started builing kits I put together a short rake of them and fitted interiors, passengers and Train Tech automatic coach lighting and I still think they look terrific!

I found dismantling the coaches very time-consuming, quite difficult and frustratingly prone to breakages of the plastic securing clips, so I de-soldered the battery holders from the lighting strips, ran wires from the strips where they're mounted on the carriages' inside ceilings and connectd them to replacement battery holders mounted beneath rhe chassis.

I keep meaning to show some photos of this on my thread, because I suspect some people may be put off fitting the Train Tech strips because of the difficulty of opening the coach bodies each time the battery needs changing... I'll try and sort that out shortly.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

On 07/03/2022 at 15:21, Chas Levin said:

was that perhaps a particular Customs hold-up?

I couldn’t tell you I received no communication from either wizard or the government, didn’t get tracking info either. Then again I don’t think he offers RM Tracked. This was last year though so it may have changed.

On 07/03/2022 at 15:21, Chas Levin said:

Fully agree about the Hornbys: before I started builing kits I put together a short rake of them and fitted interiors, passengers and Train Tech automatic coach lighting and I still think they look terrific!

I found dismantling the coaches very time-consuming, quite difficult and frustratingly prone to breakages of the plastic securing clips, so I de-soldered the battery holders from the lighting strips, ran wires from the strips where they're mounted on the carriages' inside ceilings and connectd them to replacement battery holders mounted beneath rhe chassis.

From what I’ve heard the Gresleys are very hard to get apart but the new 3 wheelers are designed for disassembly.
 

The one thing against the Hornbys is the price.They are very expensive in the USA coming out to around $75-90 per coach including shipping! I haven’t done the cost on a kit yet but I think it may be slightly less.

 

Douglas

[Chas Levin]

Actually I think if you ask, Wizard would send tracked - they'd charge of course, but generally it's something people will do. Postage costs from here to the US have really gone up high though, so be prepared for a shock!

 

As to the relative costs of the Hornby coaches vs kits, I think the kits would work out more, by the time you factor in wheels, transfers, paints etc.

 

And you're dead right about the difficulty of dismantling: that's why I opted to mount battery holders underneath. I'll sort out some photos of the process to post on here, including how I got the bodies apart...

[Chas Levin]

After a few days away in sunny Norwich (first trip anywhere in some time) it's back to the important work, where the next sections to receive their black centres are the front faces of the side tanks - please excuse the multiple photos but they're difficult surfaces to show and the grab-rails obscure things too:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You'll see that the black-to-white intersections along the inner vertical straights are the least well executed and the reason for that is obvious: what with the neighbouring tank-front fittings and the nearby boiler surface, those two areas are an absolute b^gger to reach!

The rest wasn't as difficult as I'd anticipated, though once again the combination of the posable vise, the home-made lining stand and my new favourite Da Vinci 10/0 brushes made things a whole lot easier.

 

You'll also see that there are a few areas accumulating now where the white lines are looking less good - in some cases the small deposits of black left after cleaning up have affected them, in some cases tiny amounts of white have worn away during work on the black and in some cases, poor application of the white in the first place in areas that had previously escaped scrutiny now appears more prominent next to the the black!

 

Rather than scuttle about spreading black and white all over the place like a demented penguin, I've decided to do all the black centre lines and only then go back and touch in the white. That's the great thing about hobbies: you can make decisions and organise things exactly how you want them; it's compensation for the poor way real life is so often organised...

 

Ooh - forgot to add, Mike Trice very kindly pointed out a thread on the Western Thunder forum where Warren Haywood (a top league professional painter) joined a discussion about the order of lining for things like black centres flanked by white to say that he too does the outer thinner light lines first, filling in the darker centre, so that's another vote for that system. And, as with Ian Rathbone, here's a link to Warren's site where you can see similarly fantastic lookking work: http://www.modelrailwaypainting.co.uk/

Edited April 7, 2022 by Chas Levin

[Citadel]

Scuttle about spreading black and white all over the place like a demented penguin - love the imagery.  So impressed by your methodical approach, can’t wait to see the finished article. 

[Chas Levin]

7 hours ago, Citadel said:

Scuttle about spreading black and white all over the place like a demented penguin - love the imagery.  So impressed by your methodical approach, can’t wait to see the finished article. 

Thanks Mike - it's getting there! Screwing up my courage for the long black horizontals on the tank sides this weekend...

[richard i]

I think Rathbone prefers if the boiler is removable to make painting easier. If I remember the csection in his book correctly.

something to plan in at the building stage.

richard 

[Chas Levin]

1 hour ago, richard i said:

I think Rathbone prefers if the boiler is removable to make painting easier. If I remember the csection in his book correctly.

something to plan in at the building stage.

richard 

Morning Richard, totally agree and things would certainly have been easier that way.

This is my first etched loco kit though (and only my second loco kit at all, the first being a DJH white-metal J9, pictures earlier on this thread) and I wasn't confident enough early on in the build to attempt a fully modular construction.

The one part that is removable is the cab roof, mainly because Daddyman very kindly posted suggestions and drawings earlier on this thread, showing a very neat way to fix the roof with bolts.

After doing that, I was fully converted to the modular concept, but by then it was too late to do anything about the boiler and the rest of the superstructure.

 

There's one thing to be said for doing it this way though: many other future painting jobs will seem easy by comparison...

[Chas Levin]

The side tanks now have the first pass of their black centre lining:

 

 

 

I say 'first pass' because the long horizontals need some more tidying up. I considered doing them in three sections because of lines starting to dry before I can finish the tidying up, but fear of poor and/or visible joins and possibly worse overall uniformity fueled the decision to plunge in and do each line as a whole.

You can see the problems I had, where some sections aren't as tidy as they could be. That being said, some of the poor sections of black-to-white are actually where the inner white edge isn't straight - same issue at the time with them, where doing lines that long means some parts start to dry before I can work on them fully.

Each new section of this job shows up any problems that I let by at a previous stage and in this case, I was mistaken in thinking I could leave the inner edges of the white lines less tidied up because they'd be covered by the black; that works some of the time, but where there's a significant deviation of the inner white lines' edges in a direction outward from the centre, I can't fill it in with the black or the line of the black would deviate visibly too: I should have thought of that!

 

I think I'll end up treating this in the same way as I've dealt previously with neighbouring colours (red oxide van bodies and their black underframes, for instance) where I've alternated coats: one black, one red, second black, second red, so that each successive coat can be used to correct mistakes in the previous one; although this is of course a far finer scale than a van body and underframe, I think it should be possible with the black and white.

 

I'm not sure what the solution is to managing longer lines, other than to keep practising so that I can do a better job more quickly! Each of these long tank sides took three hours, for all four straights and four corners, which is an improvement: the small bunker sides took two and a half hours each and they're only about a third of the size.

 

I'm also still frustrated at times by how surprisingly different things look from different angles and distances, as well as in various types and angles of lighting. Sometimes, I can see a fault using a single headband lens when viewed straight on or from a particular angle at 6-8 inches away, but when I look again using both lenses close up and at an angle I can work at, the fault's no longer visible...

Edited April 6, 2022 by Chas Levin

[Chas Levin]

Painting continues on the C2, but it's not terrifically photogenic currently: I've been going back over the black and white lining,  touching in where things don't look as good as I think I can get them, but I won't fill up the thread with photos of tiny (and I really do mean tiny) alterations, I'll wait until the overall effect has been improved. Apart form anything else, the pixelating and funny light effects from my phone camera somewhat negate some of the improvement.

 

In the meantime, I've done some more work on the Slaters NER Brake, for which I decided to make some better lamp irons than I have done in the past, using the excellent ones from Rumney Models' B108 'General Wagon Detailing' etch. First job, having drilled through the 0.3mm holes in the lamp iron bases, is to solder some 0.3mm brass wire into the holes, in order to be able to locate the wire into pre-drilled holes to assist fixing, pinning and gluing being definitely a good idea with brass and plastic I think, especially as a fairly new convert to pinning before soldering!

 

 

Nice to be wielding the soldering iron again, as it's been a while - I've been spending almost all my modelling time painting! After trimming the backs to sensible lengths, you have a little row ready to trim out of the etch:

 

 

Each one is small but perfectly formed:

 

 

And the pins give a place to hold with tweezers (I'm finding ever more uses for the ceramic tipped ones, in this case making use of the fact that the entire length of the tips' inner faces are parallel) while another pair applies the double bend:

 

 

0.3mm holes are drilled in the plastic body - the hole above the upper location is for the wires from the rear lamp LED to go back into the body:

 

 

One of the very handy features of this Rumney etch is a little jig for drilling the lamp irons' locating holes, a section on the land of the etch, near the side, with three holes drilled at the correct spacing so you can hold it over the model. Needless to say, I still wasn't quite as accurate as I should have been and had to enlarge the lower hole of each pair to allow for a little wiggling - here's the result:

 

 

Still a bit of cleaning up to do plus a quick lick of thin cyano and there we are.

 

However, after doing three each end last night, I took a closer look at some of the photos I'd put aside of this vehicle and realised I'd missed the two side ones - I had wondered whether there should be any - so they'll be done at the weekend.

 

The body also has internal braces, plus two plasticard blocks cemented to the floor for screws to come up from beneath...

 

 

...to hold the DCC Concepts pickups shown below, with wiring coming down through the leftmost hole in the floor:

 

 

I bought some of these pickups a while ago after seeing them used on a couple of other peoples' loco chassis and I wanted to see how they might work on a vehicle like this, partly because it'll be a while before my next loco build and partly because I'm never quite happy with my wire pickup efforts for things like brake van lights. We shall see...

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by Chas Levin

[Chas Levin]

Missing side lamp irons are now in place on the Slaters birdcage brake:

 

 

 

The upper middle lamp iron in the upper picture has had its top lopped off because that's where the DCC LED lamp will sit and I plan to glue that to the vehicle body and to the horizontal part of the iron, the assumption being that the vertical part is invisible, up inside the back of the lamp.

 

I think this is the first time I've added brass parts - however minor - to a plastic kit; I've seen it done by lots of people on various forums and for some reason it's oddly satisfying .

Edited April 6, 2022 by Chas Levin

[Chas Levin]

Well, like everyone on RM Web, I'll have to sit tight and see which pictures reappear... Fingers crossed!