Painting MODELU steam crew.

[tomo_76]

I have bought MODELU Driver & Fireman for my Hornby Princess Royal & Coronation class.

I have a variety of 20 locos in LMS and BR early & Late liveries. I would like some advice as to what specific shades of colour i need to buy.

Also should the LMS crew be painted a different colour to BR uniform or does it not really matter? 

 

 

Thanks

Scott

[Porkscratching]

I'd just do 'em in faded & grubby stained blue overalls and black greasetop hats myself... 

[The Johnster]

In general, faded blue and a lot of ‘weathering’ to bring out the features and folds in the garments, but if we’re talking about Princess Royals and Coronations, likely to be found on top link glory jobs where the cabs were swept out and hosed down rigorously, the driver would often be quite smartly turned out, and so would the fireman, at first…

[Hal Nail]

I'd use matt as well. Might seem obvious but you'd be amazed how many people paint overalls in gloss.

[Michael Hodgson]

2 hours ago, Hal Nail said:

I'd use matt as well. Might seem obvious but you'd be amazed how many people paint overalls in gloss.

Gloss seems to be right for the greasetop caps.

[Modelu Chris]

Looks like all the answers are done before I got here. Biggest recommendation when painting figures is to take your time. 

[Helmdon]

Bigger potential issue (and I realise that this is picking nits on nits) for me would be an instinct that that driver is going to work better with a right hand drive locomotive…

[doilum]

Use Matt.

Don't paint from the tin, use a '" palette".

Put a spot of Matt white and Matt black on the edge of the palette and occasionally mix in a tiny amount especially on skin tones.

[SteveM666]

Personally I use Vallejo acrylics. Just a drop of each colour on a small sheet of glass (an old Ikea glass shelf in my case) and mix the colours to create shade variations. Add white, black and purple to blues via this ‘wet oalette’ And I rarely wash the brush when painting similar shades as it adds more variation.

Start by painting the flesh tones, then shirts before the overalls then finish with cap, shoes etc. Start from the middle of the figure and work outwards.

Finish off with a thin black wash for a dirty crew and the lightest of dry brushing with white or grey to pick up the creases in clothing.

If the paint dries slightly shiny the shine can be ‘killed’ with an antishine varnish (not matt) available from the likes of the Army Painter range.

It helps to glue the model to a cocktail stick or similar to act as a handle. If you use a hot glue, the model can be released by brushing on a drop of IPA to the glue joint and it will release.

 

[tomo_76]

On 09/12/2023 at 09:16, Helmdon said:

Bigger potential issue (and I realise that this is picking nits on nits) for me would be an instinct that that driver is going to work better with a right hand drive locomotive…

The picture isn’t the actual one I’ve purchased. I bought the driver with the right arm raised. There are so many options on the website it takes awhile to choose what you think will work best.