Henley-on-Thames - GWR in the 1930's

[John Besley]

I wouldn't be guided by pictures of static locos unless you were building a static ex works engine, any paint in a loco cab gets chipped, smoke stained, grimy as its a harsh enviroment, think sulphur, heat etc.

 

The picture of 2999 would be a good guide for the era of the loco as built, if the loco was assigned to a regular set of men as was the case back in the day then yes they would keep it in a clean tidy state, it's when they got to be common user engines that standards slipped unless the crew took a pride in (a) their appearance and (b) their job.

 

Case in point Richard Smith at Buckfastleigh ex Reading used to always wear highly polished shoes, have the floorboards scoured clean with the pep pipe and a newspaper on the tray above the firehole doors before the Billy can went there, I learnt a lot from him in how to do a dirty job but work smart and tidy which has paid off time after time even now all those years later.

 

 

Edited February 1 by John Besley

[Coach bogie]

On 27/01/2024 at 05:55, Neal Ball said:

 

Its always an issue getting the right size characters inside our carriages - mine light look under-nourished as they sit on their cushions 🤣

If my repeated parents stories of the 1930's are to be believed they were undernourished. 'Eat your carrots. We had to grow our own when I was a lad!'......and they did

 

Mike Wiltshire

Edited February 2 by Coach bogie

[Coach bogie]

22 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

Preservationists seem fond of red reverser handles and regulators. Is that wrong? Or was there a change from unpainted to red at some stage?

 

If it helps, I have a faded colour picture of my uncle working on City of Truro at Swindon Works in the early 1960's. A visitor took it and sent him a copy. Reverser casing is green and the handle is polished steel. No red.

 

BUT .......... there is a 1959 colour shot of 4083 ABBOTSBURY CASTLE on ebay and the handle is red

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/363840539417?customid&toolid=10050

 

Mike Wiltshire

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Coach bogie said:

If my repeated parents stories of the 1930's are to be believed they were undernourished. 'Each your carrots. We had to grow our own when I was a lad!'......and they did

 

Mike Wiltshire

Carrots? You were lucky...

[Neal Ball]

Thanks for all the cab comments for a moment (I should have checked my photos first!), it’s still on the bench and will be painted again soon.

 

The SRM passengers are also on the workbench still, needing to be finished…. No sign yet of the SRM, but that’s ok. I would rather wait a while longer and know that it’s been tested properly before being sent.

 

However after being on “holiday” since before Christmas my Anthony Manor has been fixed and is due to be returned today. 
 

Yesterday I checked on the previous days spraying and hopefully will manage another coat of primer today. As ever primer shows up where more work is needed and a bit of filler to be applied in a couple of cases.

 

My preference for batch spraying, proved a bit hectic…… 2 x 70ft carriage bodies, underframes, interiors, bogies…… plus c23 carriage body; roof; bogies… plus the County chassis and body - that’s a lot of separate items all needing cover to prevent dust landing etc. 

 

Anyway, onwards and upwards, there will be another coat applied today. Photos to follow!

[Neal Ball]

Spraying day 2 - today was far better than yesterday, the paint flowed, the spray gun behaved etc. etc.

 

Starting with the County tank 4-4-2T this has had another coat of white primer.

 

 

The loco body and chassis have now had two coats of primer. The protrusions through the wheel bearings are heat shrink with cocktails sticks inside and then insulation tape, to hold it all together. It means I have a handle to hold onto!

 

Onto Carriages - in total there are 3 carriages being sprayed together.... thats 3 sets of under frames; 3 interiors and 3 sets of roofs.

 

Starting with the 70ft carriages. These are 1st/3rd class composites (Left and Right handed), these will sit either side of a Restaurant carriage. 

 

 

 

The final 70ft interior is in the middle of the two parts of the C23 all third Clerestory:

 

 

The primer is shewing a few places where extra filler needs to be applied.

 

To be continued....

[Neal Ball]

The primer I am using is the Vallejo white surface primer 73600:

 

 

I realise there are white and black primers, there is also grey... 

 

They also do Red; Green (various shades); Cream; Brown (various); Blue. Maybe I am missing out by using one primer colour! It looks as if a lot of them are aimed at wargamers / WW2 modellers. 

 

I cant help to be intrigued by (say) a Red Primer and how the results might be different.

 

This weekend is the Murcia half marathon, which is a City to the South of us and we are staying over for a couple of nights. As we come home on Monday I will go over to the model shop to get some more Primer: https://www.hobbyonline.es/buscar?controller=search&orderby=position&orderway=desc&search_query=Primer&tm_submit_search=

 

Obviously its all in Spanish, but strangely they quote the paint colour names in German!

 

A while ago Alan Butter at modelu tried using a white primer on some figures and black primer on others and was going to compare the results. I shall have to search to see if he finished that.

[lezz01]

Vallejo aim at military modellers and fantasy modeller market they also do many useful weathering colours as well. AK Interactive is another range that has very useful colours along with MIG who are into washes and pigments in both enamel and acrylics. Life colour has some dedicated railway modelling colours, all are water based acrylics apart from MIG and include ranges formulated specifically for airbrush use. 

Regards Lez.  

[The Fatadder]

Is the Vallejo primer ready to spray or does it need thinning?

 

[lezz01]

I would say that almost all paint needs thinning before spraying. I always mix my paint in a 30ml plastic medicine cup. How much you thin is determined by how well it flows. So I pour paint into the cup and then give it a good stir. Then I get a good amount on the stirrer and blob it onto the inside of the cup and see how well it flows down the inside of the cup. You are aiming for a consistency that flows freely down the cup, add thinners a few drops at a time until it flows well but it's not so thin that it just runs off the plastic. Even Vallejo air needs thinning to some extent. 

Regards Lez. 

[chuffinghell]

17 minutes ago, lezz01 said:

…..Even Vallejo air needs thinning to some extent.

I must admit I’ve never thinned the model air colours but I do thin the varnishes.

 

I never thinned the Vallejo primers but I don’t use them anymore because I found that they don’t adhere to the surface very well (probably using them wrong) they scratch off far too easily* they appear to form a skin over the model instead of biting into the surface 
 

*however I’ve seen something on the t’interweb that recommends cleaning the surface with booze isopropyl first so I’m going to try that

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, The Fatadder said:

Is the Vallejo primer ready to spray or does it need thinning?

 

No, it needs a bit of thinning first.

 

1 hour ago, lezz01 said:

I would say that almost all paint needs thinning before spraying. I always mix my paint in a 30ml plastic medicine cup. How much you thin is determined by how well it flows. So I pour paint into the cup and then give it a good stir. Then I get a good amount on the stirrer and blob it onto the inside of the cup and see how well it flows down the inside of the cup. You are aiming for a consistency that flows freely down the cup, add thinners a few drops at a time until it flows well but it's not so thin that it just runs off the plastic. Even Vallejo air needs thinning to some extent. 

Regards Lez. 

I try to get the consistency of milk, not always easy! Mixing in an old Railmatch glass pot, not the pot on top of the airbrush.

 

41 minutes ago, chuffinghell said:

I must admit I’ve never thinned the model air colours but I do thin the varnishes.

 

I never thinned the Vallejo primers but I don’t use them anymore because I found that they don’t adhere to the surface very well (probably using them wrong) they scratch off far too easily* they appear to form a skin over the model instead of biting into the surface 
 

*however I’ve seen something on the t’interweb that recommends cleaning the surface with booze isopropyl first so I’m going to try that

That’s interesting, not tried that one. I usually use soap and water. But I must admit that a couple of whitemetal bogies have a couple of scratch marks where the paint has chipped off.

[chuffinghell]

13 minutes ago, Neal Ball said:

No, it needs a bit of thinning first.

Probably where I was going wrong? I use to just crank up the air pressure 😳

 

I tend to use aerosol primer now because it sticks like 💩

 

Edited February 2 by chuffinghell

[The Fatadder]

1 minute ago, chuffinghell said:

Probably where I was going wrong? I use to just crank up the air pressure 😳

 

I tend to use aerosol primer now because it sticks like 💩 but it is thicker than I’d like

I tend to do the same (using etch primer if it’s metal).  
 

for mixing enamels I use cheap disposable plastic shot glasses, which work really well

[Neal Ball]

5 minutes ago, The Fatadder said:

I tend to do the same (using etch primer if it’s metal).  
 

for mixing enamels I use cheap disposable plastic shot glasses, which work really well

Id rather have a shot of vodka in them 😎

[lezz01]

I use these for mixing and thinning.

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B65G4W43/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=A2XTPDLL0J8EW0&psc=1

0.8 pence each you can just throw them away after use with enamel and wash them out with acrylics.

When thinning acrylic you can just use water with a tiny drop of washing up liquid to brake the surface tension. Don't waste money on thinners even with enamels, I just use either white spirit or lighter fluid.

Regards Lez. 

[Neal Ball]

7 minutes ago, lezz01 said:

I use these for mixing and thinning.

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0B65G4W43/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_3?smid=A2XTPDLL0J8EW0&psc=1

0.8 pence each you can just throw them away after use with enamel and wash them out with acrylics.

When thinning acrylic you can just use water with a tiny drop of washing up liquid to brake the surface tension. Don't waste money on thinners even with enamels, I just use either white spirit or lighter fluid.

Regards Lez. 

I am careful about the measuring when doing varnish, otherwise it’s a rough measure!

Having been caught out a couple of times with a bad finish I always use Vallejo paint and thinners.

[Tim Dubya]

You guys talking of paint has reminded me of one of the most useful "modelling" apps I have on me phone.

 

paintRack

 

iOS & android

 

"A virtual paint rack for miniature, hobby, and wargamer painters!

Track your hobby model paint collection now! Scan their barcodes. Find matches of paint colors across brands. Save your miniature paint recipes for future reference.

 

FEATURES:

 

LIBRARY: track your paints with over 20000 paints from top manufacturers!

SETS: create custom paint SETS (or recipes) for your models

*WISH LIST: helps you track paints you need

*RAPID SCAN: most bottles can be added by scanning bar codes on bottles

*COLOR TOOLS: will help you find the best matching paint colors"

 

Enjoy 👍😁

 

 

 

Edited February 2 by Tim Dubya
linkage... and a sip of cider

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, Tim Dubya said:

You guys talking of paint has reminded me of one of the most useful "modelling" apps I have on me phone.

 

paintRack

 

iOS & android

 

"A virtual paint rack for miniature, hobby, and wargamer painters!

Track your hobby model paint collection now! Scan their barcodes. Find matches of paint colors across brands. Save your miniature paint recipes for future reference.

 

FEATURES:

 

LIBRARY: track your paints with over 20000 paints from top manufacturers!

SETS: create custom paint SETS (or recipes) for your models

*WISH LIST: helps you track paints you need

*RAPID SCAN: most bottles can be added by scanning bar codes on bottles

*COLOR TOOLS: will help you find the best matching paint colors"

 

Enjoy 👍😁

 

 

 

Wow that looks great Tim thank you

[lezz01]

1 hour ago, Tim Dubya said:

You guys talking of paint has reminded me of one of the most useful "modelling" apps I have on me phone.

 

paintRack

 

iOS & android

 

"A virtual paint rack for miniature, hobby, and wargamer painters!

Track your hobby model paint collection now! Scan their barcodes. Find matches of paint colors across brands. Save your miniature paint recipes for future reference.

 

FEATURES:

 

LIBRARY: track your paints with over 20000 paints from top manufacturers!

SETS: create custom paint SETS (or recipes) for your models

*WISH LIST: helps you track paints you need

*RAPID SCAN: most bottles can be added by scanning bar codes on bottles

*COLOR TOOLS: will help you find the best matching paint colors"

 

Enjoy 👍😁

 

 

 

Well I have to say I'm going to download that right now.

Regards Lez.

 

[Neal Ball]

I see Kernow have received stock from Dapol of the next GWR mogul 2-6-0 locos:

 

https://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/p/70645/4S-043-009-Dapol-GWR-Mogul-Steam-Locomotive-number-4321-in-GWR

 

 

I wonder if this means the Mainline and City carriages were in the same container? It will be nice if they were.

[sjrixon]

Oh... Both my Mogul and coaches are on order from Rails... That could be one interesting box! 

 

Can I add.. Kernow probably didn't need more stock to ship right now! 

Edited February 3 by sjrixon

[Neal Ball]

1 hour ago, sjrixon said:

Oh... Both my Mogul and coaches are on order from Rails... That could be one interesting box! 

 

Can I add.. Kernow probably didn't need more stock to ship right now! 

Yes indeed, I have the SRM and the Toplights on order from Kernow. Customs will have a field day if they ship together🙁

[longchap]

17 hours ago, lezz01 said:

Don't waste money on thinners even with enamels, I just use either white spirit or lighter fluid.

 

Ah, the dulcet tones of the sadly late, yet undoubtedly great Mick Bonwick come back to me, as I always use inexpensive white spirit to thin enamel paint. Yes it stinks, hence my filtered face mask.

 

[ChrisN]

Yes, the primer does affect the final colour, unless of course the paint is so thick it covers it completely.  Warhammer advises a black primer for Dwarfs and a white one for elves as you want different skin tones.