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Mick Bonwick

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Blog Entries posted by Mick Bonwick

  1. Mick Bonwick

    Dapol O Gauge 14xx No. 1444

    By Mick Bonwick,


    Weathering
    A layer of Sleeper Grime/Frame Dirt mixture was prepared for airbrushing the sides, using more than the usual amount of white spirit. I wanted to be able to apply very thin layers, even thinner than my usual approach. Why a mixture of the two colours? Laziness, basically. My pot of one was empty and I couldn't be bothered to find another. The two colours are so similar that I didn't think it would matter.
     
    The whole of both sides and ends was given a thin application of this mixture and then a wide flat shader brush was used to drag it down the tank sides before it dried compeletely. This was to give an impression of dirt being carried down the side by rain and generous tank filling exercises.
     

     

     
    It worked better on one side than it did on the other.
     
     
  2. Mick Bonwick

    Dapol O Gauge 14xx No. 1444

    By Mick Bonwick,


    Weathering
    The cab roof comes off!
     
    Heart in mouth moment when I removed the engine from its wheel-spraying cradle - something fell on the floor. Only the roof, though, not being held in place by the two small magnets any more. This gave me the idea of adding some grime to the easily accessible cab interior, so out came the MIG Dark Wash again and some was applied to the brightly coloured pipework. Not covering the whole assembly with grime, but just hinting that there had been some work going on in that area.
     
    Nothing more than a white spirit dampened rigger brush being dipped into the wash and then applied to pipe joins from the tip of the bristles.
     

     

     
     
  3. Mick Bonwick

    Dapol O Gauge 14xx No. 1444

    By Mick Bonwick,


    Weathering
    Out of the box this locomotive has a rather shiny smokebox, much more so than I would have expected. Before going any further I decided to apply a layer of Testor's Dullcote to that area so that pigments could be applied at a later date and that I could be sure that they would stick.
     
    Dullcote dries very quickly into a usable state. These photographs were taken only two minutes apart.
     

     

     
    My masking wasn't very good, so the Dullcote has landed on part of the leading wheels. I'll need to load up the airbrush to cover that small patch with another layer of Sleeper Grime. This was a good example of the change in appearance a layer of varnish will make to a carefully planned and coloured area of rolling stock, whether it has been done with paint or pigment.
     
     
  4. Mick Bonwick

    Dapol o Gauge 14xx No. 1444

    By Mick Bonwick,


    Weathering
    It's the turn of the airbrush now. The inderframe will be discoloured using Railmatch Sleeper Grime, applied with an Iwata Eclipse SBS. The driven wheels are turned while the paint is sprayed, to prevent there being a patchy finish to the rims. With N Gauge and OO/HO Gauge engines this can be done with a PP9 battery, but this doesn't work with O Gauge. I use two pieces of scrap OO Gauge rail screwed into place through a piece of wiring terminal block set at the width of the wheel treads and bent to the width of the battery terminals on the other side.
     
    The wheels are airbrushed first and then the rest of the underparts, not forgetting the buffer beams.
     

     

     
    The wheels on the trailing axle are turned by hand. After I thought I had finished I saw from the photographs that I was wrong. I had to return to the spray booth and finish off the patchy bits I thought I had avoided!
  5. Mick Bonwick

    Dapol O Gauge 14xx No. 1444

    By Mick Bonwick,


    Weathering
    The chassis of this model includes a representation of the inside motion, visible in the gap 'twixt boiler and running plate. It's bright red!
    I didn't want to hide this completely, so decided to add a layer of wash to the parts that were visible. The rigger brush was ideal for this task, enabling just enough wash to be deposited.
     

     

  6. Mick Bonwick

    Dapol O Gauge 14xx No. 1444

    By Mick Bonwick,


    Weathering
    Buffer beams get dirty. They're not alone in that, obviously, but this aspect of weathering doesn't always get the attention it deserves, and I include myself there.
     
    There is much opportunity for detail weathering in O Gauge, so I decided to put a little more effort into this subject by applying a wash to the varied protruberances on the buffer beams. A straightforward process, involving a rigger brush, white spirit and MIG Dark Wash.
     
    The brush bristles are first loaded with white spirit and then dipped into the bottle of wash. The tip of the brush is applied to the edge of a detail (bolt head in this case) and capillary action will take the fliud as far as the consistency permits. The thinner the wash the further it will travel. You should be able to see just where it has been applied by studying the photographs. Note that the colouring will be lighter once the wash has dried, as is always the case with the paints we apply to our models.
     

     

  7. Mick Bonwick

    Dapol O Gauge 14xx No. 1444

    By Mick Bonwick,


    Weathering
    The Sharpie is indeed used for removing the bright shiny finish of the wheel rims, and the coupling rods, too. I have found in the past that airbrushed paint on these bare metal surfaces can rub off too easily, and even flake off  if applied too thickly. I read, many years ago somewhere, that this could be prevented by blackening the surfaces before applying the paint. At the time I didn't fully understand the term, 'blackening', and used a marker pen. That looked blue to me, rather than black (yes, I did use a black marker!) so immediately rejected the idea. If I now work on something with bright surfaces that will be airbrushed, I will apply a coat of black (still looks blue to me) from a marker pen before airbrushing starts.
     
    You might be able to see the difference in this photograph, where the wheel rims and coupling rod have been done, but the flanges have not.
     

     
    Perversely, they look pink in the photograph rather than blue.
     
     
  8. Mick Bonwick

    Dapol O Gauge 14xx No. 1444

    By Mick Bonwick,


    Weathering
    A full story for this subject - I remembered to take photographs with my newly serviced camera while doing it. The plan is to weather it in a used but serviced condition, working from a photograph in a book from my reference library.
     
    I'll be using a selection of materials from my usual stock and will hopefully remember to introduce them as the steps progress. Being a small engine it sits quite comfortably on the painting turntable.
     
    Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin . . . . . . .
     

     
     
    What might we use a Sharpie for?
     
     
  9. Mick Bonwick

    It's Another Peckett

    By Mick Bonwick,


    Weathering
    Just can't resist them. Can you?
     
    This one started off with a layer or three of water mixable oil paint (black) that was left to dry for three weeks. Not because it needed that long, but because I was doing other things. Each of the three layers was disrupted slightly by rubbing gently to remove that area of paint between edges of panels.
     

     
    The next step was to use an airbrush to apply a layer of AMMO by MIG Rust Wash, thinned with white spirit, across the upper surfaces to give a matt finish. Chimney, cab roof, dome and top of saddle tank. This was given 24 hours to dry.
     

     
    The same wash was airbrushed over the wheels and chassis to tone down the bright colours and impart a dirty tinge to the surfaces.
     

     
    Once the wash had hardened, an application of black pigment was added to the cab roof and a few random areas of the running plate ro represent accumulated dirt.
     

     
    Final touches were the addition of some metallic gunmetal pigment to some of the handrails and some rust coloured pigment to the firebox showing through the frames behind the rear wheels.
     
    There's another view of it here:
     

     
     
     
     
  10. Mick Bonwick

    A Pair of Bulleids

    By Mick Bonwick,


    Weathering
    Two recently completed tasks, one rebuilt Battle of Britain and one unrebuilt West Country.
     

     

     
    The camera has gone away for a jolly good seeing to so, with any luck, normal service will be resumed soon.
     
    The same colours have been used for both of these locomotives. See if you can work out what they were.
  11. Mick Bonwick
    Problems with my camera (or maybe the lens) have disrupted progress recording with this subject. I have managed to salvage one shot of the airbrushed underframe, though, and here it is.
     

     
    Once the main colour was finished, an application od MIG Dark Wash was run into all the detail areas with a rigger brush. This served to highlight the shadow areas and bring out the intricate details of the bogies.
  12. Mick Bonwick
    The three colours are mixed in the airbrush paint cup, but thinners (white spirit) are placed first. That is because  the first thing to reach the nozzle is then thinners rather than unmixed paint. The latter will block the nozzle before you even start the weathering. When mixing colours, start with the lightest and add the other colour(s) using small amounts at a time. In this case the orange was added to the thinners first (a small drop), the leather was added next (one brush load) and the black (another small drop) was last.
     

     
    A 9v battery is used to turn the wheels while they are being sprayed with the underframe colour. By bringing the airbrush close to the target, only a small area is painted at a time, and using this airbrush the area covered is only the wheel.
     

  13. Mick Bonwick
    Something a little more modern, just for a change.
     
    My reference library doesn't contain any photographs of this locomotive in this livery, so I looked through one of Strathwood's "Looking Back" series and found a Transrail liveried example that was depicted in a fairly well used but cleaned state. Sides and roof looked fairly clean, but the underparts were not.
     
    The tools and materials list:
     
    Iwata Eclipse SBS airbrush - not a large volume of paint to be used, but fairly close work to be required around the bogies.
    Wide flat shader, filbert and rigger brushes.
    Humbrol Matt Black, Matt Leather and Lining Orange for the main grime application.
    MIG Productions Black Smoke, Dark Mud and Track Brown pigments.
    MIG Productions Dark Wash.
     
    Airbrushed paint to be applied to the underparts but with a little overspray allowed onto the body sides. Small areas to be given a thin treatment of Dark Wash. Pigments to be applied to the silencer, grilles and some roof panels.
  14. Mick Bonwick

    Something Agricultural for Christmas

    By Mick Bonwick,


    Weathering
    Back in the days of Summer I had a go at a 1/43rd scale Ferguson TE20 - a Little Grey Fergie. I had found a couple of these, after much searching, and wanted to work on one and leave the other pristine, just to show how much of a difference could be made with just Dullcote, washes and pigments. Unfortunately I didn't do a particularly good job when using my smartphone to take the photographs!
     

     
    This will keep you going until January.
     
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/laughinglobster/48464090546/in/dateposted/
     
    All the weathering gear has been set aside to make room for some work to be done on other things for several weeks. There will be a Ruston and an Experiment to come in the New Year, though.
     
    Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
     
  15. Mick Bonwick

    Accurascale HUO Hopper

    By Mick Bonwick,


    Weathering
    This isn't the only place you can see examples of weathering. One of Accurascale's HUO hoppers has been worked on and the account of it can be seen here:
     
    https://accurascale.co.uk/blogs/lets-get-involved/wagon-weathering-with-mick-bonwick-lets-get-involved
  16. Mick Bonwick
    The underframe is where I invariably start with any model because everything that follows can be done with the model on its wheels.
     
    I was introduced to foam cradles, that originated as worktop edging protective covers, by a friend who liberated some from a skip. I use them for most models that I work on now. Having exhausted the supply that I, in turn, liberated from waste disposal receptacles, I decided to buy some direct from a manufacturer, but had to order a minimum quantity. I now have enough to last workshops, demonstrations and me for several years!
     
    The model is inverted in a foam cradle.
     

     
    In this instance I'd like to keep overspray to a minimum (not always the case) so make use of another precision instrument to give a little bit of control over the paint flow.
     

     
    I have a selection of pieces of 2mm A4 sized greyboard, that have been cut into strips of various widths, that can be used to rest on the turntable and against the edge of a roof, a body and anything else that is to be airbrushed.
     
    The paints to be used for the underframe are Humbrol Matt Black, Matt Leather and Lining Orange. The last of the three is introduced because the leather now has a green hue to it and needs the orange to bring back the gingery hue that is just right for track dirt on underframes. I have used up all of my stash of older style Matt Leather! I have been using Railmatch Frame Dirt and Weathered Black occasionally, but still prefer the Humbrol paints.
  17. Mick Bonwick

    A Pannier

    By Mick Bonwick,


    Weathering
    There's no step-by-step account for this one, just a summary of what's been done with what. My close-up camera is off for servicing, so these were taken with the standby.
     
    Underframe airbrushed with Railmatch Frame Dirt, then sides with a mix of Frame Dirt and Weathered Black. Top surfaces and cab front and back airbrushed with a darker mix of Frame Dirt and Weathered Black. Wheel centres and coupling rod joints were given a quick waft of Weathered Black.
     
    The tank and cab sides were then brushed vigorously with a wide flat shader while the paint was still damp, to remove enough paint to make those areas look cleaned.
     
    Running plate was given random applications of MIG Productions Rubbel Dust and Dark Mud, the cab roof, chimney and smokebox were given an application of Smoke Black (or is it Black Smoke?) and highlighted metal edges were achieved with AK Interactive Gunmetal pigment. All pigments were applied with a filbert brush.
     

     
     
  18. Mick Bonwick

    A Busy Weekend

    By Mick Bonwick,


    Weathering
    This weekend has been taken up with some weathering in unusual circumstances. Because the Missenden Abbey Railway Modellers Autumn weekend could not take place at the Abbey, an online event was arranged to provide some small compensation. This event included a little bit of weathering:
     
    https://www.missendenrailwaymodellers.org.uk/index.php/virtual-missenden-recordings/
  19. Mick Bonwick
    The cab roof has now had some MIG Productions Black Smoke pigment brushed on to represent the build-up of grot ejected by the chimney/funnel, and random applications of the same pigment and Industrial City Dirt have been made to parts of the running plate. This locomotive is to be portrayed in a quarry environment, so a layer of dust is needed to reflect that. The Industrial City Dirt is also applied to areas of the wheels, steps and areas where crew's boots would take the stone dust.
     

     

     

  20. Mick Bonwick
    To finish off the dusty look I have continued to use the MIG Productions Industrial City Dirt. Small amounts have been taken from the inside of the lid of the pot and placed in areas where dust.would have built up in normal use. Where is that? Reference to photographs will provide the answer and I have been using Gordon Edgar's photographic books about industrial railways to help me in this task.
     
    Study the photograph below and see where the differences are between the original model (out of the box) above and the finished version. Although this account has taken several days to produce, the model was completed in two working days. Well done to those readers who have stuck with it and not abandoned the story half way through.
     

  21. Mick Bonwick
    Before starting work on the chassis, some protection is needed for the fragile whistle on the cab roof. I learned the hard way from working on the Peckett 0-4-0STs that these break off with only the slightest touch. The locomotive will be inverted in a foam cradle for chassis painting, so a large lump of BluTack is used to prevent the whistle from touching the cradle.
     

     
    To help with the application of paint to the coupling rods and motion I usually position the wheels so that one side is at the bottom limit of travel, or close to it. This allows me to access the largest surface area of wheels on both sides of the chassis without having to turn them too often.
     

     
    On this occasion the paint used in the airbrush will be Railmatch Sleeper Grime. I use this and Frame Dirt, interchangeably, as a basis for most current projects. The enamel paint is thinned with nothing more expensive or complicated than white spirit. A small quantity is transferred from the glass dish (which originally held a Gu dessert) straight into the airbrush colour cup, and the paint transferred from the jar using a normal no. 4 round brush. The small quantities of weathering materials being used requires nothing more than half a cup of mixed and thinned paint. The airbrush being used is my favourite, an Iwata Eclipse SBS.
     

     
     
  22. Mick Bonwick
    In order to establish just how much grease needed to be removed, the chassis keeper plate was unscrewed and the result was:
     

     
    All this was tackled with a cocktail stick and some clean paper towels. Even though lots og grease was removed, there was still a plentiful layer left to lubricate all the moving parts. I thought I'd better check the top end of the transmission mechanism as well, and found this:
     

     
     
    Back to work with the cocktail stick and paper towels.
     
  23. Mick Bonwick
    In response to a recent request, there follows a summary of materials used in this project with the blog entry numbers where they appeared.
     
    Railmatch Frame Dirt - Step 3.
     
    AMMO by Mig Panel Line Wash Black Night - Step 12.
     
    Railmatch Weathered Black - Steps 13 and 15.
     
    AK Interactive Fresh Engine Oil - Steps 14 and 21.
     
    MIG Productions Dark Mud - Step 18.
     
    MIG Productions Track Brown - Step 18.
     
    MIG Productions Black Smoke - Steps 18 and 22.
     
    There is another photograph of the (almost) finished locomotive in my flickr photostream at:
     
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/laughinglobster/43570994831/in/dateposted/
     
    The techniques, tools and materials used in this project can be used for many different weathering tasks. If there are any queries about anything shown here, then don't hesitate to ask.
  24. Mick Bonwick
    There is a great level of detail on the body of this model, and it will look even better if it can be highlighted in some way. This applies to pretty much all of the ready to run rolling stock available these days.
     
    My plan for this shunter is to use a panel line wash applied to all the crooks and nannies with a rigger brush. What's a rigger brush? It has long bristles and a small point - some folks call it a lining brush. The idea behind using this type of brush is that the bristles hold plenty of paint, but the small tip allows it to be applied with a degree of precision.
     
    The wash I am using is Ammo by Mig Black Night, but you can use any dark colour to achieve the effect. The process involves dipping the brush into clean thinners (in this case white spirit), dipping the brush into the wash and removing the excess (the blob on the tip of the brush). The tip of the brush is then touched to the corner of a panel or edge of a door/window moulding, and capillary action takes the wash along the detail. Easier to do than describe!
     

     

  25. Mick Bonwick
    There is more than one way to weather wheels!
     
    For this project I have chosen to show how to use a 9 volt battery to turn the wheels a quarter of a revolution at a time to avoid paint-less shadows behind the connecting rods and motion assembly.
     
    The sequence of photographs should demonstrate how successive light coats of paint can be applied after each quarter revolution to cover up these areas.
     

     

     

     

     

     
    You will, by now, have noticed that I wasn't entirely successful! After the photographs were taken and I had studied them, I went back and did some more. I use photographs regularly to check that things are progressing properly, and can go back to rectify things before it's (hopefully) too late.
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