More of the tale of a Terrier

[burgundy]

The initial conversion of a Dapol Terrier into a rather more detailed EM model is outlined at

 

http://www.rmweb.co....865#entry443865

 

But having previously produced models that have ended up in Stroudley’s Improved Engine Green in pristine condition, this loco, as a quickie, seemed like a good candidate to try to produce a weathered Brighton loco. Most photos of the LBSCR seem to show locos in an immaculately clean state, although as you look more closely, some common threads emerge. The boiler feeds seem to have leaked, so that paintwork was progressively stripped off by boiling water, and the bare metal was then polished bright. There were also leaks from the joints between the condensing pipes and the smokebox, which left stains down the side of the smokebox and there were similar sludge stains from overflows from the tank fillers. Paintwork around the smokebox came in for particularly hard wear, with scorching and blistering often evident.These thoughts generated a lively discussion on the Brighton Circle E Mail Group, with Buckjumper pointing out the first hand description of the muck that accumulated on locos (and the process of removing it) that is contained in Curly Lawrence's autobiography. (‘LBSC’ Footplate Experiences, by Curly Lawrence published by Oakwood Press) “Fass†described the mixture of dirt, ballast dust, oil and grease that accumulated on locos, to which was added soot, sulphur and other ingredients gathered in and around the East London line tunnels. With this in mind, I had another look at the photos and tried to imagine how this might look in colour, when photos from the 19^th century are inconveniently in black and white. The only available colour equivalent is either Stepney, which has led a pretty well groomed life in the fresh air of Sheffield Park, or the Brighton Works shunter. Photos of the latter show that the livery was subject to significant fading, which raises all sorts of further questions. Would the paint and cleaning processes have been the same? I presume that by the 1950s, it was no longer fashionable to rub locos down with large dollops of animal fat (tallow))? And would the atmosphere of the 19^th century East London line have produced the same effect as 20^th century Brighton sea air?

 

Studying the photos, I concluded that, as long as Terriers remained in front line service, they remained well cleaned, albeit showing signs of use in traffic. Once they started to be relegated, then the signs of neglect are more obvious, so that many of the photos showing Terriers in poorer condition are of locos without condensing pipes and therefore nearer the turn of the century. Really scruffy examples tend to be shed pilots or those waiting in Horsted Keynes sidings for attention at Brighton Works. What I was aiming for was a Terrier in its prime, well cared for, but looking as though it had been in traffic. The vertical surfaces above the footplate should therefore look shiny, below the footplate should be more dull, but with oil streaks, etc. and the horizontal surfaces should be grimy and showing signs of boot damage. I suspect (and I have no real substance for this view, other than black and white photos) that a cleaning process that involved rubbing the paintwork down with tallow would maintain the shine, but would gradually cause the colours to darken. Certainly, Curly Lawrence refers to the E tanks, which were painted the dark “Goods Greenâ€, as “black tanksâ€. This suggests that, for whatever reason, colours darkened, unlike the fading effect, seen on the Brighton Works shunter of the 1950s. My aim was therefore to try to produce a range of different finishes, to highlight polished areas and dull down the rest, with quite subtle variations in actual colour – certainly not a deluge of “end of steam gunkâ€.

 

The starting point was the even, almost matt, all-over finish provided by a light spray of Micro matt. The first step was to add a few highlights around the tank fillers and smokebox door with a dry brush and some Games Workshop Boltgun metal (don’t ask me what a boltgun is, but it evidently comes with a rather nice dark metallic finish). The stains by the condensing pipes and the tank filler were done with some grey ink. Progress to this point was recorded in the photo below (fortunately).

 

The next step was to try to reproduce the shine on the side tanks, for which I needed to bring up the near matt finish to a deeper gloss. I had a panel on a sheet of card, on which I had reproduced the colour scheme so far, and I tried some T Cut on it, which seemed to have the right effect. So I applied T Cut to the side tanks ………….and watched in horror as the lettering disappeared into a soggy mess together with most of the top coat of varnish. I said quite a number of things at that point – of which the general theme was “oh botherâ€. I should perhaps have remembered that T Cut is solvent based and features primarily on this site as a way to remove lettering and numbers. Fortunately the lining transfers are evidently made of sterner stuff than the lettering, as they largely survived the experience.

 

So back to the drawing board, with the resolution to stick exclusively to water based products for the rest of the exercise. Fortunately (!?) this corresponded with a thread on this site about thinning acrylic colours. http://www.rmweb.co....using-acrylics/

 

and this provided the necessary clue (and kickstart) to see what could be done with the airbrush and acrylics that were in stock. Some of the shine on the tanks was restored with a quick coat of Klear. As luck would have it, a large container of screenwash was in the garage as this provided a most effective thinner. The first pass was a dusting of Revell tar black, heavily thinned with a mix of water and screen wash. My initial thought was just to mess around with the airbrush on a piece of paper, but after a couple of minutes, playing with the air pressure and the needle setting, I felt sufficiently confident to turn on Wandle. There was no intention to try any clever effects, but a gradual mist of very dilute paint across the upper surfaces, using a fairly narrow jet.

To be honest, the effect came out rather heavier than I had intended, but this was only really obvious when I stood Wandle next to the so far unnamed second Dapol body.

 

At this point, I paused, as the chassis needed some further work – to fit pick ups, reassemble the brake gear and shorten and secure the crankpins. This provided a little bit more time than intended, as the chassis found a new and different way to bind, with pickups, brake gear and flywheel in place. In the end, I went for a similar mix with a bit of Khemri Brown added (sorry, I have no idea who or what Khemri is/was), which I applied mainly upwards from below the footplate and onto the chassis. And that brings Wandle to the stage shown below – badly in need of grooming, but otherwise in good shape. It seemed a good moment to stop, as any further work was likely to lead to an impression of dereliction. If anyone has some suggestions for further improvements, I would appreciate them.

 

Reflections

 

• Using the airbrush with a compressor, acquired at the recent Eileen’s Emporium open day and barbeque, has been a revelation. It is entirely liberating not to have to worry about running out of tinned air at the critical moment – or about using more air to clean the brush than you have to apply the paint. On the other hand, I have not got anywhere near exploring the subtlety of colour and effect that others on this site have achieved (and not just in 7mm!).
• I am quite pleased with the overall darkening effect that I have got (mainly by accident), but, without a colour photo to work from, I cannot claim that it reflects the real thing (anyone got a Tardis that I can borrow?).
• Apart from the base colours, Railmatch golden ochre and Precision olive and claret (for the borders and valences respectively), I have stuck to water based paints for all the subsequent effects. They seem more user friendly to have around the house and are less hassle to clean up.

Eric

[number6]

Eric. Very nice - and such a hard thing to work on. Both the 'messing up' of a hard worked intricate livery but also working in colour from only black and white reference! I think you have the concept just right. The abrasive cleaning on the paint finishes of the time must have lent itself to much more variety of finish and colour tone than we can detect in photographs of the period. There are more than a few images where large areas of boilers and smokeboxes appear to have no paint left on them at all. And it makes me think about those photographic grey liveries that some Brighton locos ran for prolonged periods of time and what they looked like after a few weeks in service...

[Oldddudders]

Not being a great fan of weathering of locos and stock, I nevertheless find this to be a very plausible result. I am also on record as decrying black-and-white digital photos, but wonder whether reducing your colour shot to b&w might enable you to compare with the C19 pics you used for inspiration, even though the original pics might not be shown on here for copyright reasons?

 

As with a number of other RMWebbers - but by no means all - your ability to describe in detail the processes involved is certainly very helpful.

[James]

Great stuff!

 

It's fantastic to see someone else modelling pre-group and weather stock and not subscribing to the myth that the pre-group railway was spotless. I think capturing the look requires a great deal of subtlty to achieve the right look. Many locomotives of this time displayed a working-but-cared-for look. And I think you've got this pretty well sorted

[jwealleans]

Hi Eric,

 

I've read and enjoyed your threads for a while... I too am pleased to see some more pregrouping work on here. I was surprised by what you said about T-Cut. I've used it on a couple of locos I've weathered for other people without finding the effects you describe. What varmish had you used on the transfers? This Bachmann K3 was certainly renumbered.. I don't recall whether I changed the crest or not. I did on one of the two I did together. It had a thick coat of weathering goo which was then removed first with cotton buds and kitchen roll then T-Cut on a cotton bud. I was after that 'oily rag' look and was quite pleased.

 

 

I would have given it several light coats of Games Workshop Satin varnish after whatever transfers I applied and left it a week or two before weathering.

 

If T-Cut really is too fierce, Larry G mentioned that he uses Brasso to sort out blemishes and tidy up his coaches. He says it's a finer abrasive than T-Cut.

 

However you got there, that loco looks mighty fine.

[burgundy]

Thanks to all for your comments on Wandle.

 

Eric. Very nice - and such a hard thing to work on. Both the 'messing up' of a hard worked intricate livery but also working in colour from only black and white reference! I think you have the concept just right. The abrasive cleaning on the paint finishes of the time must have lent itself to much more variety of finish and colour tone than we can detect in photographs of the period. There are more than a few images where large areas of boilers and smokeboxes appear to have no paint left on them at all. And it makes me think about those photographic grey liveries that some Brighton locos ran for prolonged periods of time and what they looked like after a few weeks in service...

Number 6

One of the hardest moments was taking the airbrush to a loco that I had spent some time painting and lining in the Stroudley livery, knowing that the result would be irreversible! However, that was an advantage of trying the technique out on a "quickie" project where the loss ultimately amounts to little more than a Dapol body. Having done it once, I shall feel a bit braver next time I try it.

The Brighton e-group spent some time debating the effect of paint peeling off quite large areas of metalwork. The conclusion was that Stroudley locos had an air gap between the actual side tank and the cladding sheet so that the paintwork was not directly exposed to the heat of the tank, as it was on some other railways which used condensing locos. On the other hand, there are some photos of Craven tenders where you can see exactly where the tank begins and the coal space ends.

 

Not being a great fan of weathering of locos and stock, I nevertheless find this to be a very plausible result. I am also on record as decrying black-and-white digital photos, but wonder whether reducing your colour shot to b&w might enable you to compare with the C19 pics you used for inspiration, even though the original pics might not be shown on here for copyright reasons?

 

Ian

Nice idea - I couldn't resist it! See the photos below.

 

Great stuff!

 

It's fantastic to see someone else modelling pre-group and weather stock and not subscribing to the myth that the pre-group railway was spotless. I think capturing the look requires a great deal of subtlty to achieve the right look. Many locomotives of this time displayed a working-but-cared-for look. And I think you've got this pretty well sorted

 

James

Thanks

 

Hi Eric,

 

I've read and enjoyed your threads for a while... I too am pleased to see some more pregrouping work on here. I was surprised by what you said about T-Cut. I've used it on a couple of locos I've weathered for other people without finding the effects you describe. What varmish had you used on the transfers? This Bachmann K3 was certainly renumbered.. I don't recall whether I changed the crest or not. I did on one of the two I did together. It had a thick coat of weathering goo which was then removed first with cotton buds and kitchen roll then T-Cut on a cotton bud. I was after that 'oily rag' look and was quite pleased.

 

 

I would have given it several light coats of Games Workshop Satin varnish after whatever transfers I applied and left it a week or two before weathering.

 

If T-Cut really is too fierce, Larry G mentioned that he uses Brasso to sort out blemishes and tidy up his coaches. He says it's a finer abrasive than T-Cut.

 

However you got there, that loco looks mighty fine.

 

jwealleans

Thanks. The oily rag effect on your K3 is the sort of finish that I was actually aiming for. It looks great.

The T Cut was applied after a coat of acrylic MicroMatt varnish. I thought that I had checked it out on a piece of card to find any interaction - but evidently not thoroughly enough. The T Cut went straight through both the varnish and the lettering. The moral that I have drawn from this is that, once you start with a layer of water based paint, don't use anything other than water based from that point onwards. I think I would include Games Workshop varnish in this embargo. I like GW paints (as the names of the colours that I have used will suggest), and I like the effect of their satin varnish, but I have had a couple of cases where it has reacted badly with the previous coats and produced a hideous orange peel effect. I will give Brasso a go, but Klear might be a readily available, water based alternative.

 

As Ian suggested, I have played with some photos to try to get comparable tones.

Here is a sepia(ish) Wandle.

For comparison, at the cleaner end of the spectrum is Wapping

and somewhat less clean, Bonchurch, with the lining a vague memory - and the name going much the same way. Note the heavily whiskered driver.

There are also some other good examples on the Basilica Fields web site at

http://basilicafield...-coast-railway/

 

Again, thanks for the comments and I should welcome any other suggestions.

Best wishes

Eric

[pete_mcfarlane]

The bearded midget driving the D1 deserves to be immortalised as a 4mm figure!

[burgundy]

The bearded midget driving the D1 deserves to be immortalised as a 4mm figure!

 

Pete

The distance from the footplate to the bottom of the spectacle glass is 5' - which seems more or less to match his height. So a slightly tubby HO driver would be just about right!

Please let me know if you find one.

Best wishes

Eric

[burgundy]

Having set Wandle on one side for a few days, and digested the comments that had been made, I have had another go at it.

As it was, the lettering on the sidetanks was a bit vulnerable and needed a bit more varnish cover and I had not achieved the variation between gloss and matt that suggests "once polished but now looking used". A classic example, which has just reappeared in the list is the model of 6023 at

http://www.rmweb.co....pic/40126-6023/

which really captures the "oily rag" look.

My first step was to add a bit more Klear on the side tanks which provides more protection to the lettering but still resulted in a rather uniform level of gloss in the one area. I also applied it to the wheels, since they needed a rather more oily and less dusty look, and that seemed to come out rather better, contrasting with the frames which remain matt. I did think very hard about adding some metallic dry brushing, but decided not to as it did not seem appropriate on wheels that are painted olive and improved engine green.

After further thought, I reminded myself that the whole point of this exercise was to see what worked and so I reloaded the airbrush with a weathering mix (matt, black and brown heavily diluted) and had another practise on a piece of paper, varying the air pressure and seeing how fine I could get the jet. The result is

which has reached the point where I think even New Cross shed would wipe it down with an oily rag before letting it out of the roundhouse! Not really what I wanted, but since it is much easier to put more grime on than to take it off, it is clearly time to stop with Wandle and to pick another victim. Even with the pressure turned right down and the finest jet that I could get, I found it quite difficult to be sure where I was spraying and, more particularly, to see how rapidly the colour was building up. To illustrate the point, the photo below shows Wandle with the second body which is in the original golden ochre.

So for now, Wandle just needs a crew and some screw couplings. A possible follow up has already been debated at

http://www.rmweb.co....-frame-chassis/

and would provide a home for the second Dapol Terrier body, but I am not sure that that is the next project on my agenda.

Best wishes

Eric

[James]

Eric that is absolutely superb!

 

I think you've judged that perfectly! And by saying you "think even New Cross shed would wipe it down with an oily rag before letting it out" shows exactly how I approach the pre-group railway; it was cared for but it all worked for a living.

 

I think I would do beyond what you've done, would be to blacken the buffer heads just to remove their 'newness' in appearance - if you don't mind me saying.

[burgundy]

I think I would do beyond what you've done, would be to blacken the buffer heads just to remove their 'newness' in appearance - if you don't mind me saying.

 

James

Thanks for your comment - no problem at all with your observation about the buffers. They have, of course, been fitted after everything else has been painted so that they stay nice and springy. The downside is that they are still nice and shiny! In the past, I have used a chemical blackener - but it is a rather drastic soluton which has clearly eroded some of the metal, besides having a skull and cross bones on the label. I must see if I can find a more environmentally friendly alternative.

Best wishes

Eric

[James]

Cilit Bang may work!

 

I use balckening fluids but I've ntoiced when I clean models for painting with CB it does darken the metal slightly!

[bertiedog]

Cillit Bang works on Brass to an extent, it is weak hydrochloric acid, and this can darken brass dependant on the grade. It also darkens steel, but has no effect on plated nickel or chrome finishes, but may "grey" nickel rail. It does dissolve zinc out of the surface of brass, and may roughen the finish. Some grades of brass look like a gilt gold finish after Cillit has been used, not the required effect!

 

Commercial blackeners are either copper sulphates or selenium oxide, Gun Black is usually selenium based, and the types supplied are indeed poisonous, but is relative, lots of other items are nastier.

 

The best black for brass is Copper Carbonate dissolved to saturation in pure Ammonia solution, but it is a noxious smelling solution that has to be applied hot,(40degC), but makes a durable black surface on most brass grades. This is the classic "bronzing" used to make brass look like old bronze that has aged. It was used for high quality optical equipment as well.

 

For buffer heads try a glossy varnish with added black paint etc, to get the finish toned down, it is simpler than blackening.

 

Stephen.

[3 link]

A classic example, which has just reappeared in the list is the model of 6023 at

http://www.rmweb.co....pic/40126-6023/

which really captures the "oily rag" look.

 

 

Hi Eric,

 

That particular loco was weathered by my good friend Fred Lewis, and I know that he uses enamels when it comes to his weathering skills, enamels and acrylics do usually mix OK but do try that Humbrol "gunmetal" I told you about. Try it neat on a scrap piece of card or something, wait for it to dry then buff it up with a cotton bud, and you will get that oily sheen you are after. As for the buffer heads, on their front surface try some pencil lead, that also gives that sheen. B).

 

ATB, Martyn.

[sem34090]

weathering.jpg

and somewhat less clean, Bonchurch, with the lining a vague memory - and the name going much the same way. Note the heavily whiskered driver.

weathering_1.jpg

There are also some other good examples on the Basilica Fields web site at

http://basilicafield...-coast-railway/

 

Again, thanks for the comments and I should welcome any other suggestions.

Best wishes

Eric

Oh dear... I appear to be 'bumping'...

 

Just to add that I think that driver has been immortalised by a 4mm scale figure, as has the fireman!

 

Incidentally, Mikkel of this parish (who created the LBSCR Loco Driver Stationmaster for Farthing on the GWR) converted the figure from a Dart Castings skipper... for a boat...

 

So this bloke and his distinctive beard clearly got around a bit! Starting off on the boats, progressing through the ranks, then joined the LBSCR and worked his way up through their ranks. After moving to Wiltshire he then joined the GWR and progressed until eventually becoming stationmaster at Farthing!

 

The fireman appears to have also moved to Farthing at some stage...