hendie

oops - missed these posts earlier, sorry. I spent some time a while back investigating textured papers and didn't really find anything suitable. At this scale, standard paper will be fine I think - as long as I can get a nice matt finish. There will be enough going on with chairs, tables and wotnots to keep it looking busy - I don't want the carpet to draw the focus away from the rest of the carriage

would anyone happen to have a decent reference for the 'gold' color pin striping ? I know it's a flat faux gold rather than a reflective or metallic gold. The only reference I can find (a Hornby PDF) states that it's a close match to pantone 117C. However, given that their humbrol cream and umber colors are so far off the mark I'm not so sure I can rely on this. Once I have a color reference I can see about ordering some decals - it's being able to specify a reliable color that's the current hold up

hi folks... back again with a small update just to prove things are still moving along. As I mentioned above, while searching through my documents and references I came across the original design for the carpet which I have shown here. However it seems as though there were some changes before it got to production. From what I can see in this photo here (and others), it is mainly a change in the background color. (Please 'scuse the old biddy photobombing the picture here) The background color appears to be a bit lighter with more of a green tone to it. After some photo editing (not my strong suite by any means) I think I arrived at a workable solution. It's not perfect but it's close. I added some seating just to help with the overall impression. The color in the photo is a bit off. It shows here as being closer to blue, but is more green in the flesh so to speak. I think I may scale down the pattern just a tad. Size wise I think it's almost there. I think I also need to lighten the tone just a touch so it's not quite so stark. It should be fun trying to glue down that amount of paper without getting wrinkles. It will also need a covering of some fixative and maybe a matt spray to make it look a bit more carpet like now, back to decal work...

work is still continuing but not a lot to show. In my files I managed to find a bitmap of the original design for the carpet. Unfortunately after I did some comparisons between file and photo's, it became apparent that the actual carpet design changed slightly before it got to manufacture. I managed to get one print out done this week, but color is still off and the scale is too large, so back to the photo editing software for another try I also did some solid modeling to see what I could do with the luggage racks with the intention of 3D printing the main carriers. However, at about 5 mm tall I think it may be at the limits of what can be done. Alternatives exploration in process

Greetings all. Surprised to see me here are you ? Me too! It's been a long time and this build has been sitting taunting me every time I sit at the workbench. I figured that since it is a holiday weekend here in the US that I had no excuse for not getting back to this. So without further wossisstuff... Anyone remember this? Yup. A side frame. That side frame took me many weeks to get to that stage. About 3 repaints if I remember correctly, and lots and LOTS of sanding and micromeshing to get it to a point that I was happy with it. All that messing about had one further issue - it further exasperated my fear of painting. I don't know what it is, but painting really puts me off and fills me with dread. Small bits and pieces aren't so bad but any large surface area just makes the old starfish pucker somewhat. Anyway, I had decided that today was the day. First off was to get back to the drawings and dig out the livery specs. It had been so long since I had visited this I had to do everything from scratch again to be sure I had the correct dimensions. If painting filled me with fear... the masking on this was even worse. Have you ever tried masking a straight line over nearly 600 mm ? Aizu tape came to the rescue here. I used tamiya 6 mm tape to mark off some 'heights' along the length, then used those marks to align the Aizu tape. As I got near to the tamiya, I peeled back the Aizu slightly, removed the tamiya and carried on to the next marker. This is about as good as it gets (for me). Sorry, the camera isn't good at depth of field and I couldn't be bothered to mess around with it today - I was on a roll (no pun intended) at this point! As luck would have it, the Aizu tape at 1.5 mm worked out very nicely with the scheme as the ivory/cream panel extended something like 1.45 mm past the top and the bottom of the large windows. I wasn't going to squabble over 0.05 mm! The best part of an hour later sees the cream area masked off. I had decanted some of the brown enamel paint some time back and it sat waiting patiently in a sealed container until today. Although the brown enamel was a great color match, I've always had issues when spraying it. No doubt issues of my own making, but issues nonetheless. After staring at the container for a few minutes I had one of those life defining moments. Stuff it! I'm not going to use it! Nope! I'm not. As part of some testing I did way back when this was an almost regular feature, I had purchased some Model Master Italian Dark Brown. While it wasn't an exact match, I found that it laid down well, and despite being a tad lighter than the color I was after, a quick spray with gloss afterwards darkened the tone down nicely and was pretty darned close. Also, some research on t'interwebby showed that Pullman Umber shades varied widely since they were always hand mixed. So who am I to argue! About an hour later we had this... Success!!!!!!!!!!! At least for the moment. That's just the first coat. (and I've now ran out of paint!) I'm going to leave that for at least a few days then a light micromesh to flatten it back before laying down another coat. It is going to be awkward as I'll need to be very careful not to disturb the masking tape. If that is disturbed I'm never going to get the tape to line up again A large wave of relief is washing over me as I type - this was the single biggest issue I faced in progressing with this build. The fear of painting had made me avoid this build for many months. Now I just need to figure out the transfers... and order some more paint. ...some time later.... The new pot of paint arrived yesterday. I decided today was the day come rain, hail, or shine. As it turned out, we got the rain and it felt like we should be getting hail. I can't believe how it can go from 95° to less than 60° in 48 hours. Anyways... I got the side frames out and gave them a quick once over. They weren't too bad at all. There was the obligatory hair cheekily poking out from under the masking tape on one piece - that was dealt with and I also found about 3 spots/blemishes on the finish. The first couple were pretty easy to take care of - micro-meshed into oblivion, but the last one was a bit scary. It was right next to the masking tape, so an inordinate amount of care (for me!) was needed to eliminate that and not cause any collateral damage. The painting session went without any horrors (that I'm aware of yet) and a couple of hours later.... scary time! Actually the masking tape came off very easily and behaved itself, even right up to the edges. There is a small ridge where the masked edges were (obviously no surprise there) but a light micro meshing will take care of those without too much trouble. As straight a line as I am ever going to get. The side frames still need to get a coat of clear on top and that will darken the brown down nicely and give a bit more of a protective covering but I am going to leave those for at least a week before that happens. Overall, I can now breathe a sigh of relief. Painting those side frames has been my nemesis for the best part of the last year I think. I am so, so glad it's over. Now I need to get back to thinking about the transfers. It's been so long since I looked at those files I am going to have to double check everything before I can order anything. I also need to find someone to actually make the transfers. The two main recommended suppliers both have a 6 month+ lead time so I may resort to finding another supplier I promise not to take so long before the next update!

That's frustrating. Even more frustrating would be to have to go back through and relink each individual photo. That same issue was just encountered on another forum I participate in. Thankfully the owner developed a script that was essentially a 'search and replace' in the forums inner workings and it updated the links to the new domain (there were multiple users of that hosting site on that forum though)

Forgive my ignorance - does this site host images then? If so, I wasn't aware of that. I did spot the 'my media' button on the toolbar but don't see anyway to upload images - perhaps someone can enlighten me

just a quick update to let folks know that work is still continuing. I'm almost done with the cream color on the side frames - maybe one more coat should do it. My photo hosting site is undergoing some issues so I'm waiting until that is sorted out before I post any photo's - that's why some of the previous photo's have disappeared

thanks for that info Trevor. I agree, it helps if those 'small details' are fun to create. I think it's all those small details that help raise something from being 'just a model'

All advice taken on board and acted upon. I waited over a week before I sanded back the last coat. This afternoon I gave the side frames another coat and will leave that for another week before sanding back. There's no point in showing a photo of that - it looks exactly the same as it did last time. While the airbrush was seeing action I also sprayed the two vestibule ends. The paint went on very weirdly indeed - which is strange considering I used exactly the same method/mix that I used for the side-frames. Eventually it evened out but it did not look good during the process. What I didn't like though was the fact that the styrene showed up lots of faults, mainly sinks where glue has been applied on the rear face. I'm not going to throw these away just yet, but I am thinking of alternate methods of manufacture. Particularly in brass. I always avoided making these end frames in brass as I didn't think I would be able to make a decent enough job of cutting out the windows and gangway. However, with my recent success in photo-etching, I am going to seriously consider etching the frames - if I can manage a good way to create the folds. More to come on this later.... once I have figured it out. I had some success in other areas though. I am determined not to let this build fall by the wayside so looked at other areas to see what I could be doing. Door closers seemed like a good idea -why not? We had to fit automatic door closers due to fire regulations. I'm not sure if the original coach had them but we had to fit them regardless. Thankfully there are still vintage looking items being manufactured so we chose to go with a YALE door closer. Starting with some brass rod, I drilled some holes through a section of rod - trying to get them as central as I could. Once the holes were drilled, I chucked the rod up in the lathe and turned the ends. Sections of tube were inserted through the rod and soldered into place. Still some clean up required here! Of course I didn't have the correct diameter rod to fit through the tube so that had to be drilled out. The tube was also cut down in width. Looking at this I almost wonder why I bothered adding the tube But once the hole was drilled through the tube, I could insert another length of rod, and fit a small nut on each side. This is the three stages of fitting the nuts. Once the assembly is together, the excess rod is snipped off, leaving a small section for me to file down. Since I didn't have any brass nuts - these are steel so I couldn't solder them - I used superglue to hold them in place. Then filing the rod down created a burr which acted to hold the nuts in place (I don't trust super glue!) A larger diameter tube was then placed on top of the assembly, which was in turn, soldered into place, then all the bits that didn't look like Yale door closer were filed off. And here we have the finished item - well, without the stays of course. All three have now been completed though I have a feeling they may be just a tad on the large side. I won't really know until I have doors in place to fit them to. A touch more filing may be required to knock the size down a bit - we'll see when the time comes. These will now go in to a safe place until the time comes to paint and fit them

thanks all. It seems patience is one of the key factors at play here. As it turns out, I will have left it for nearly a week by the time I'll be sanding so it should be cured enough at that point. If life doesn't get in the way I plan to attack it again this weekend in between getting the cars serviced, getting tires on one car, and going car hunting for another... and dealing with all the other little niceties that life throws at us!

Thanks Steve. I've been absent from this forum for far too long but hopefully things have taken a turn for the better. Now this post will probably seem almost insignificant for many folks, but for me this is a major milestone. We have color on the side frames. Color that I'm not going to have to take off again! It's not perfect by any means but it's a good start. I have been so afraid of ruining this paint job that I've been actively avoiding it for far too long. I decided a couple of weeks ago that I MUST tackle this one head on and keep going until I beat it into submission one way or the other. I reckon part of my problem has been rushing the job, and probably poor preparation. - and some poor materials. I don't think I'm ever going to use Humbrol again - I took a look inside my can of enamel thinners to find large chunks of rust floating in it - thanks Humbrol! This time around I made sure I took my time and after some experimentation found a good ratio for my paint mix (with some new thinners). This time I opted to decant the paint and airbrush it instead of using the rattle can. It might seem the obvious way to go but I can be remarkably dense at times! Got a decent spray pressure and all that and also made sure I wasn't going to get called away half way through the job. Those numbers are all documented so I won't forget them in subsequent sessions. A few dust particles got on the surface, ( these are too big for my spray booth) but a mild micro mesh should take care of any imperfections and leave it ready for another coat. I tried to capture the finish but the camera hasn't picked it up. I'm going to let that enamel cure overnight - or should I leave it 48 hours ? before prepping the surface with micro mesh again. Hopefully another coat will be enough As I said earlier in the post - pretty boring stuff for most folks, but a significant moment for me.

A relatively easy day today - working on the artwork still. I used a couple of shades of Alclad aluminum for all the brass - the background (sea) was just mixed up from green, blue and white. Then everything was glued on the background - This was a bit nerve-wracking as the Eiffel Tower would have looked a bit iffy had it not been vertical, and the archer's arrow had to land on the black dot that is Paris. The Eiffel Tower was given a light wash of Alclad titanium gold, just to provide a little bit of differentiation from the background. and the archer was dabbed with testors silver and a few pencil marks. All in all, a bit ugly but I never claimed to be an artist. A frame was knocked up from basswood - a bit rustic looking here though. I also noticed that the artwork has been protected by glass in its new home, so I grabbed some scrap clear packaging and cut a new screen. Once that was all put together and trimmed down, it doesn't look quite so rustic anymore. It actually looks quite passable considering how you will be able to view it in the final article. (i.e. with some difficulty!) The current incarnation also has 'TRIANON BAR' proudly emblazoned on the top of the frame, the letters being individual brass characters. I think it would be nigh on impossible to create that with photo etch - getting the spacing right and getting all the characters upright etc... so I think I'll cheat a little and use something like this test piece. I'm hoping to be able to color the entire piece of brass then lightly micro mesh over the surface to (hopefully) just remove the paint from the raised lettering - we'll see how that goes in a future episode.

Once again just a small update. I'm still working way on those side frames trying to get a decent paint finish and I think I am almost there. However, building on my last posts where I made some home brew photo etch - this is what I am trying to replicate... this artwork hung behind the bar for many years until it disappeared. Thankfully, it turned up again in time to be reinstated when Pegasus went back on the tracks. And this is my attempt at reproducing the same artwork. I am very happy with the quality of the photo etch - nice and crisp with some good definition. (this is all just dry fitted at the moment). The archer is still a bit 'flat' but I am hoping with some shading and general paint slopping around that I can make it a bit more like the original. Overall, very pleased though as I was a bit worried earlier in the project that I would be struggling to get anything decent to use as the artwork - I really didn't want to go down the path of a 2D photo. So far, I'm calling this a success

Straight from the tap here - We get our water from a well in the garden so I have some fancy filtration system in place to remove all the nasties.

well, still not perfect, but good enough for government work methinks Capturing the detail on the archer was always a worry of mine, but even the bow came out much better than expected . Very pleased I am.

No I haven't forgotten you guys - I've been busy in the background doing things that are not very photo worthy... painting, sanding, filling, painting etc. The side frames are progressing but nothing worth photographing quite yet. However, I do have one update which I think some of you will find interesting - Photo Etch. A few of you seemed to like my previous post where I produced some home brew photo etch so I thought I would give a step by step guide to show folks that it's really not that hard. There's a few pieces of equipment that you need - but nothing fancy, and nothing expensive! All off the shelf stuff. I got all my equipment from either Amazon or Ebay at very reasonable prices. I'll list everything you'll need at the end for convenience. I'll also apologize in advance for the quality of the photographs - I do this in my kitchen which has granite work tops - very dark, so photographing things is a bit if a challenge at times. So let's start. Let's assume artwork is all sorted and you have cut your brass to the appropriate size. I begin by cleaning the brass. For this I use 400 grit wet and dry with 70% IPA. I also wear some medical latex gloves so the oils from my skin don't contaminate the brass - it (the brass) has to be scrupulously clean for this to work. Try to avoid touching it except by the edges once you have cleaned it. I keep and old toffee tray for doing this in to try and keep the mess to a minimum (often not very successfully!) - I keep going until I have removed all the shininess from the brass. Once the brass is cleaned and degreased I run it under the tap to ensure all grit and other greeblies are washed off. Then it's time to apply the photo-resist. The first few times I tried this I made a real hash of the photo-resist until I had developed a technique that worked for me. I place the brass on top of a piece of kitchen roll, then apply the photo-resist. The resist has a protective covering on both sides - you need to remove one side at this stage. I use two pieces of sellotape to pull the protective layer off - you can just see it in this photo if you squint hard enough. Keep the blue side and discard the clear side - but remember which side of the resists it came off! - This is the side that goes directly against the brass. To apply the resist, I pour a small amount of water onto the brass - try not to put too much, it's all got to come off again. Gently lower the resist onto the water and the water will 'grab' the resist. Now using your finger, gently wipe the resist onto the brass squeezing out the water as you go. Don't worry too much about getting all the water out at this stage... just try to get the resist down without any wrinkles. One of the reasons I use a piece of kitchen towel is that it helps suck the water away as the water reaches the edge of the brass. If the resist has gone down nicely you should have something resembling this... Now I take a folded up piece of kitchen towel and gently start rubbing in circles expanding as I go to bed the resist down onto the brass. Once I've done that a couple of times I start pressing harder and harder to really get that resist in contact with the brass. I use a piece of kitchen towel for this because I found that my finger alone would stretch the resist quite easily. As long as the kitchen towel is dry it will glide easily over the resist making the bedding down process much easier (even with a fair bit of pressure applied). Okay - one side done! Once I'm happy the resist is bedded down, I trim off the excess. The first few times I attempted this I did not trim off the excess and what happened was that the resist on each side trapped water making it impossible to remove completely. Trimming the resist up to the brass makes it much easier to squeeze that last drop of water out. Now repeat the process for the other side of the brass Now both sides are done. My next step is to place the brass on a dry sheet of kitchen towel and once again repeat the rubbing process - better safe than sorry! Now while I've been applying the resist, I have fired up the el cheapo laminator to get it warmed up. The brass is then placed between a folded piece of paper to put through the laminator. I wait until my 'ready' light comes on and then start feeding the paper through. I never start mid cycle (if the ready light has been on for a while) As the laminator turns off and on to keep at temperature, I found that starting the feed when the light comes on gives me enough time to make two passes through the machine. Two passes is important - it bonds the photo-resist onto the brass. Oh, I use the 5 mil setting. Here's one that didn't go so well. Everything looked fine going into the laminator but when I opened the paper up afterwards, I found that a few wrinkles had appeared. There's no point in continuing with this, so I stripped it all back and started again. So, hopefully you have avoided issues like that and your brass looks fine and dandy. Now the brass is ready for the next stage - getting the artwork applied. So, you have made your artwork, and made a mirror image... and sorted out where you want to keep metal and where you want to remove metal. I use crosshairs printed in zero line width (very fine) to help with my alignment. Again, very important - if front and backdon't align, the end result won't be as crisp and well defined as it should be The two pieces of artwork and then taped together back to back I can then slide the brass in between the two layers of artwork. I also use a small piece of tape to stick the brass to one side of the artwork. There's nothing worse than getting to this stage and then having the artwork slip as you are exposing it to the UV light. (don't ask!) So, the brass is secured between the artwork... I now sandwich the whole lot between two sheets of glass (I bought some cheapo picture frames just to get the glass sheets) That is all clamped together so nothing moves. The black you see in the glass is a piece of 400 grit wet and dry that I have taped to the rear of the glass - this is to prevent UV light from bouncing off the bottom and producing 'fuzzy' prints. Artwork all secured, it is placed in my off the shelf Nail UV lamp. It comes with 4x UV lamps inside but I removed two so the light is only directed from immediately above the artwork - and I have two spare lamps!) I expose this to the UV light for about 45 seconds - same on both sides!!! Important! I have gone up to about 55 seconds but found 45 seconds seems to work best (for me) Switch the lamp off pronto at the 45 seconds mark, flip the artwork over (,- here's where the artwork can slip - and why I use tape!), clamp it up again and repeat the UV exposure for the other side. Now that you have exposed the brass/photo-resist to the UV light you can take it all apart. You can see that where there was ink on the artwork, there is now 'brass' showing through and where there was no ink - it's all turned blue. The blue is where the photo-resist has hardened up and will protect the brass from being etched. Remember I said there were two protective layers on the photo-resist? Well, now's the time to remove the second layer. A small piece of tape at one corner will help you remove it. All done and we're just about ready to begin the alchemy part.... (I remain to be amazed at the amount of detail that can be captured) Alchemy ! ahhhhh. Now we have to remove the 'uncured' photo-resist. i.e. Where we want the etchant to actually eat way the brass. For this part I use a 5% solution of Sodium Hydroxide (Caustic Soda).... So here's where I have to provide you with a warning. I know you are all grown-ups but just in case.. THESE CHEMICALS CAN BE DANGEROUS if they are not handled with caution! Please use common sense and all appropriate safety measures. Anyways... a 5% solution of Sodium Hydroxide. I dip the fret into the solution and agitate for it for approximately 10 seconds. The first time I did this I left it in for much longer and it ate ALL the photo-resist away and I had to start all over again! At the end of ten seconds (I just count in my head - no timer) I remove the fret and start working over the surface with a stiff paintbrush - one of the usual ones we all use, nothing fancy. At the same time I'll be holding it under a cold running tap to wash away the resist. You should see a bluish mush start to gather as you are working the surface and then see it start to wash off. Keep going until you have clean brass showing. If need be I'll dip the fret back into the developer solution for another few seconds and keep working it with the brush. Eventually you should end up with something approaching this. Now you can get to the real exciting part... etching the darned thing!. After all, this is what we came here for wasn't it? For the etchant, I use a 20% solution of Sodium Persulphate. Mix up enough to make sure your fret is going to be well covered. I use scrap plastic to make a couple of stand-offs to prevent the fret from sitting against the bottom of the container. You want to make sure the etchant gets to every part of the fret. Now you can sit back and relax.. sort of that is. Keep an eye on things as a fresh solution can eat through the brass pretty quickly. With older solutions I found the process can take up to a couple of hours. I always try and keep agitating the solution every 10 minutes or so. Today I used fresh solution and this is where we're at after less than half an hour - so keep watching! Another 20 minutes or so and it was ready to take out of the etchant solution. So now, how do you get rid of the hardened blue photo-resist ? Easy, just dunk the whole fret into a small tub of Acetone for a while and it will all start to come off. I use the stiff brush again to help things along sometimes - depending upon how delicate the fret is. So, what did the fret look like after all that I hear you ask ? Well, here it is. Well, that's way better than anything I could ever produce by purely manual means. I'm completely blown away by the detail that's been captured on the door escutcheon plates. The window frames have turned out great too - I just hope they fit! Be warned though... things don't always go according to plan. Here's a fret I tried last evening - unfortunately I was rushing things, and I didn't completely remove all the uncured photo-resist. My fault entirely. There's now a repeat of that fret going through the process as I type - hopefully this time I'll get it right. (If you are wondering what on earth that fret is all about - I'll explain later) Okay, so that was the process. Nothing earth shattering was there? All straightforward stuff, and if you follow the process you should be able to produce brass frets just as sharp as this. So what do you need ? Okay... here we go. For producing my artwork I use Draftsight - legally free CAD software. Of course, use what you feel comfy with. Equipment: Laminator UV Lamp (I use a 36 Watt lamp with two bulbs removed) Micro scale (for weighing chemicals to get the right concentrations) Borosilicate measuring jars (around 250 mL is a good size) 2 x sheets of glass Clamps Plastic tubs for the different solutions Scissors (I keep a pair just for cutting brass sheet) Plastic tweezers Supplies: Wet & dry 400 grit Brass sheet 0.005" thick Photo-resist film Inkjet transparency film (for printing the artwork) - note the quality of the film will have a direct impact on the quality of your final artwork. Don't skimp! Sodium Persulphate. Use as 20% Solution Sodium Hydroxide. Use as 5% Solution Acetone IPA 70% If I've missed anything let me know and I'll add it to this list. I would add links to the different items but since I am based in the USA, the links wouldn't be much use to you. Feel free to ask any questions though.

I think it was Nicholas Smith Trains. It's been a few years since I was there so I'll check with a buddy to make sure it was that store I'm thinking of. Downstairs was general models and toys, but upstairs was dedicated to trains only - there was LOT of stock http://www.nicholassmithtrains.com/store/

I'd have to agree. My local Michaels has about 30 colors total. Most of those are shades of red, grey, black and white with a whole bunch of metallics. I think they are aimed at the model car market more than anything. I've had good luck with the Model Master range of acrylics using IPA as a thinner with a few drops of flow enhancer. You do have to watch for tip drying though. Hence my problem. Looking at many photo's, it's obvious that Pullmans came in a range of Umbers, and the Cream can vary too, but not as much it seems. My best bet is to take a drive - I think there's a model shop up in PA which specializes in trains - in the hope that they have a decent range of colors that I can select from. It's about an hours drive or so, but it's probably a better option than trying to buy paint over the internet only to find it's the wrong shade.

ah I see you're a few hours north of me. I normally use Model Master paints and actually like them quite a lot. The problem was that there's no shop anywhere near me that stocks more than half a dozen colors and trying to choose the right color from a web is fraught with danger and a sure path to owning lots of paint I'm never going to use. I even bought the Humbrol Pullman Umber and Pullman Cream but they were worse than useless. The pigment was terrible and the colors were way off. These two aerosols from Ace were the colors I settled on. I managed to find a brown from the Model Master Range which was close enough (Italian Brown I think it may have been - I'll need to check) but I couldn't find a match for the cream/Navajo White) in the MM range. If you know of an MM color that's anywhere near these I'd be grateful.

The brand is Ace - it's a hardware store in the USA. I was having real difficulty in obtaining the correct colors for Pullman here in the USA and these were the closest I could find. It's just a general purpose aerosol. I have a feeling most of the issues are down to my own inexperience... I generally use acrylics for painting. Enamels should not be that different. I love the building part but really hate the painting stage. However, I'm going to persevere and I'm sure I'll get there one way or the other - it may take me a while but I'll get there

I finally bit the bullet and tried again. Paint was decanted from the aerosol and left for a few hours to off-gas. The airbrush was cleaned, new needle and nozzle fitted. The spray booth was cleaned the other day to give the dust time to settle. I bought some new enamel thinners as the Humbrol tin had gone all rusty inside and flakes of who knows what floating around in it. I don't think I'll be buying Humbrol again anytime soon. Everything set, I took a deep breath and started. Fail! I started getting some kind of speckling on the surface. Luckily I had spotted it before I went too far, so I cleaned everything off with some thinners on a rag. Okay, lets start again. Everything was cleaned thoroughly with IPA and dried. No dust anywhere near. This time I went straight from the aerosol.... No, it's not perfect but it might just be salvageable. I'll give it a couple of days to harden up and I'll hit it with some micro-mesh and see what we end up with. There's definitely some dust which managed to get through my defenses, but more worrying is a couple of spots where the paint didn't want to take (again). Anyway, we'll see how we get on. This paint job is the single biggest hold up to me really moving forward with this build. I'm determined it's not going to beat me again. If I can't get a decent finish from this paint, it looks like a couple of hours drive to a model shop - the only one anywhere near which stocks a large selection of paints. I should be able to find something close now that I know what I am looking for.

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men and all that.... I've spent since Saturday in bed with man disease so haven't got anywhere near the modeling bench. It did however give me some time to start working on the etch frets for Pegasus. I'm going to be testing the limits of my photo etching skills with some of these parts I think. I've shown the frets here without any fill just for clarity of the image. From Fret A, top left: Ventilator coverings, immediately below that are a sign, and 5 x escutcheon plates for the door handles. Below that are the exterior frames for the kitchen and bathroom windows. To the right of that is an arrow (!), then a sign for the Trianon bar. In Fret B we have from top left: some more escutcheon plates, and below that is a part for the artwork that hung behind the bar. To the right of that are more parts for the artwork. I'm not convinced that these parts will turn out but it's worth a try. This picture/artwork hung in the bar way back in the 50's (I think). Unbelievably, although it had gotten lost over the years, it was found again and the owner of the carriage secured it so we were able to install it back in it's rightful place behind the bar for the launch of the car back to service. The only thing I have got to lose is some time - the material cost is relatively cheap so it's worth a bash to see if it can be done.

That's exactly what it is. I'm modeling a Wessex HC2 with the tail folded and the kit supplied parts were not really up to scratch so I decided to make my own. Hopefully it should end up looking something like this (with a bit more work)

a small taster just to show that things aren't completely idle My artwork for the photo etch.... which after some witchcraft and sorcery turns into this... Which in turn ends up in parts like this. As you can see, the process is not perfect yet, but I am making good headway in understanding the limitations of home photo etching.