Blog- Monkeyhead's blog of new skills - Hi there, just starting out........

RSS Fetcher · January 9, 2019

Hi, I'm Matt, and I'm writing, well, to get my thoughts down on (virtual) paper, to share what I'm doing, to motivate myself to finish something, and to hopefully gain some critique of what I'm doing, how I'm doing it, and how I can improve.

To be honest, I've not got a model railway - had an n gauge layout as a kid which I didn't appreciate enough, and have never got round to another one. Keep toying with the idea of building one in the loft, but it's too hot or cold, and if truth be told, I can't be bothered. The idea of building it and getting it working appeals much more than actually using it, so it seems a lot of cash to put into something. I have however been intruiged about the box file models that I'd read about on here, and may well give that a go.

Anyway, I digress!

Over the past few years, I've bought odds and sods off eBay or Hattons, which have needed work, and then they've laid about in the loft not getting anything done with them, so I recently decided to get on with doing *something*, and trying to improve my modelling skills (I also have an cupboard filled with varying airfix kits to build "one day", so I want to get better!

So what have I got. A few Heljan 47s, a Hornby 91, a Bachmann 20 and a load of other things in the loft that I keep away from the wife :-)

I've been starting and not finishing anything for a while, for one reason or another, so I've got a few things on the go. Here they are. Looking at the close up, via unforgiving photos, they don't look great - I'm slightly put off actually having seen them, but that's the point, I want to improve, and there's some talented modellers on here, so please (constructively I hope) feel free to point out what could be done better.

First one is a Heljan 47 - I bough the body off eBay in a real state, it'd been roughly done in DRS livery, and was a bit battered - I intended using it for practice, but when I'd cleaned it up, I thought I'd try a loco I've had an interest in for years - 47299, Ariadne. I know you could buy them, but I fancied a dart at a BR blue loco, so went for this.

I've bought George Dent's weathering book, and am part way though it, but have looked at pictures online to get a sense of what the loco looked like.

So what have I done? The headcode box on the model was mashed up, so I filled it and sanded it, and re-drilled the headcode lights using another one as a guide. I've lost the "ring" around them, but I can't think of a way to scribe a circle that small in filler.

A coat or two of halfords white primer, followed by yellow on the cab windows, and a few coats of rail blue. I've got a cheap-y airbrush setup off eBay, which is ok, and a little spray booth in the garage. Am spraying with a combo of railmatch, tamiya and humbrol acrylics.

The cantrail stripe is orange lining tape that I found in a model shop. Looks ok on the long runs, but I'm not happy with the short verticles.

I started to "distress" the paint based on photos using some thinners and a cotton bud. I'm *ok* with the result, but it's not quite the effect I was looking for. Maybe chipping solution is an answer?

A coat of Humbrol gloss varnish (though I then read on here to use anything but!!) follwed by a set of decals from Railtec, applied with decalfix.

I'd bought a set of enamel washes and powders (humbrol) and started to use the washes on one side to represent streaking - again, I'm *ok* with the results, but I know they can be improved - for reading required.

So that's where I am with this one - will "streak" the other side, tidy up the blue overspray around the cab windows, then think about a matt varnish. Then maybe some airbrush weathering, frame dirt, that kind of thing.

I've bought a new set of wheels to replace the ghastly bronze Heljan standard ones, so will re-wheel it when they arrive. I've also got a express models lighting kit, but I'm seeing whether I'm brave enough to splice it into the ESU sound decoder that I have. I'll be keeping this one, so would like it to have all the bells and whistles.

So any thoughts welcome, will add more pictures as I make progress. Will also add a bit around some of the other things I've been doing.

Hope it's of vague interest to someone, and thanks for reading!

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