Waton

[SouthernRegionSteam]

Following your progress with interest as ever Dave.

I never seem to get the whole PVA water thing right. Others do it with ease... I hope this turns out OK.

You are certainly a fast worker, and the effort you put in shows through in the finished result - the layout certainly looks brilliant from where I'm standing.

 

Looking forward to more as and when.

[Pete Harvey]

Dave it looks good if you have any problems with the water effect if I were you I would contact Mr Nevard as he is the PVA Water expert.

 

looking good.

 

Pete

[eldavo]

Well the first coating of PVA has dried and it's nice and shiny and clear but highlights the fact that several more coats will be required.



Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[eldavo]

I seem to be having a week where things aren't going quite according to plan (assuming I had a plan). The river was coming on quite nicely until the 5th coat of PVA which for some reason appears to want to stay cloudy! All I can do is leave it a few days and hope it clears. Maybe I've added the layers too quickly.



I've also been tinkering with a signal gantry and that has rather gone awry but that is a whole other story. For a break I spent a few hours knocking up a GWR style platelayers hut in 4mm for someone else and then, as I was sort of in the mood for building buildings, I started roughing out the Waton station building. In this shot it looks rather large and stark white.



It's actually pretty small but there are other bits to add to it, including a tricky looking stairway, before I can clad it in some sort of brick textures. I'm pushed for space width-wise on the platform so have had to compress the building to get something to fit. Hopefully I can give the feel of the rather complicated Water Orton structure even after squeezing it. Time will tell.



Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[Pete Harvey]

Dave

 

The Water looks great and I'm finding it hard to get to grips with what you are modelling as I keep on visualizing it as 4mm not the 2mm it is, it just goes to show how well it is all going together.

 

Pete

[Highlandman]

I am watching the PVA river with interest as that is something i will eventually have to do for my harbour scene. I hope it works. The work to date looks fantastic.

 

 

Above:- Can cupcakes really be used to hold down scenery while it dries?

[eldavo]

... Can cupcakes really be used to hold down scenery while it dries?

 

Nope but freshly baked muffins can! Actually this not an uncommon situation with this layout. My only available workspace is the top of the chest freezer so I frequently get odd items deposited on the track and comments from the staff along the lines of "When it's next convenient to USE the freezer can you put xxx in and get yyy out please!".

 

Cheers

Dave

[eldavo]

Two steps forward and one back seems to be the theme. Still that's significantly better then one forward and two back! Yesterday all 4 boards were assembled together again to see where things have got to, mainly as I had a couple of visitors who wanted to see what's what. There are still some large areas where I have yet to finally decide what I am going to model.



I had convinced myself that I was not making progress and was stalled but comparing the shot above to the last time the boards were all assembled, on the 16th of June, it's actually quite clear a lot has been done. In fact just over a month ago boards 3 and 4 had no ground shape at all and the track was unpainted and unballasted. The comparison has somewhat improved my mood!

The basic core shape of the station building is now complete as I have added the stairway down to the platform and also a strange extra lump on the rear of the building on the far (platform 2) side. It needs some tidying up but then the major work will be in creating and fitting printed textures to it and adding architectural details which the decrepit prototye is covered in. I suspect this may be rather a lot of work to get something convincing and so I may duck the issue for a while and create some simpler structures for elsewhere on the layout.



The river saga continues unfortunately. I've left it alone for a couple of days and the milkiness in the PVA has not gone away. In fact if anything it has got worse not better. I'm investigating some remedial actions and have just tackled it with some fairly aggresive paint thinners which looks to be capable of softening it. I'll leave it a bit again to see if it improves after softening and if not then I'll probably apply more and try to remove at least the last layer.



Onward...

Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[Loxborough]

Alternatively you could leave it the way it is and claim it as an authentic depiction of West Midlands pollution...

 

... always available for helpful suggestions...(looking for emoticon depicting person ducking to avoid bricks)

 

George

[Will Vale]

With the PVA, is there a chance that one of the earlier layers didn't cure completely? I did some water with gloss medium (so a similar acrylic) on a very short time scale, and I don't think the milkiness ever quite went in a few places. I think they were where an earlier layer was a bit thick and got recoated too soon.

 

Will

[eldavo]

I suspect you may be right Will. As ever I was in a hurry and so piled on the layers. I'm going to try some paintwork on the top surface to disguise the milkiness then try another layer of PVA on top. If that doesn't work it will be a dig it up job I think.

 

Cheers

Dave

[eldavo]

Let's try that one more time. Rather than dig up the river and start from scratch I decided to paint over the cloudy PVA and add more layers of PVA. This time I am trying to be patient and using thinner coatings of PVA with nice(?) long drying intervals between them. I'm itching to add another layer today but as it's raining outside so I'll leave it for a bit. Here is where it is at after the repaint and two layers of PVA. Not too shabby surprisingly. I've lost some of the more subtle textures I was trying to get on the river bed as the grit and dust that I had laid are buried under the milky PVA but it'll probably do and time is of the essence.



Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[Will Vale]

Looks great so far, and it seems to have hidden the vertical edges (card or paper overlay?) which were visible in your first shot, so all to the good I reckon. Concrete texture looks smart as well.

 

Will

[pirouets]

Ahh, patience. The death of many of my models in the past because I want to do it NOW!!!

 

Looking at that picture Dave I also wonder how different it will look when the banks have their scenic coverings applied because at the moment you have the brown of the river against the brown ground cover.

[eldavo]

Not much progress over the last couple of days due to an excess of socialising taking up almost all modelling time. Did get some fence etches from Pete Harvey of PH Designs and starting experimenting. Very detailed fine etches. Fences in N Gauge are awful small and fragile so I've started with a gate and a bit of fence nice and close to the backscene. Even in this "safe" area it has got clobbered more than once already!



Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[Will Vale]

Looks good, as do the clamp locks and weathered ballast. Amazing that you can make out the spear points on the fence too!

[eldavo]

There's a string of barbed wire running across the top of the gates but it doesn't show up in that shot! You have to avoid breathing while removing the gate from the etch and assembling it otherwise the barbed wire gets out of shape!

 

Cheers

Dave

[eldavo]

As always when I have a huge list of stuff that needs doing I get distracted and play with something else! A week ago I bought a new airbrush and compressor, primarily because I needed to do some work on Cramdin Yard, but today I thought I'd have a play. I've never used an airbrush for weathering only ever using brushed acrylics and powders so why not give it a try?

I've been aquiring odd bits and peces of rollingstock for Waton over the last few months and almost all of it is in it's original pristine livery, far too clean for a working railway. Enter a couple of willing(?) victims. I acquired a pair of the early version Dapol EWS 66s now christened "The grumbly twins". They work fine but have the noisy Dapol mechanism. Some attention and running has smoothed them out considerably but they still aren't the quietest by a long chalk. Good enough to pull the odd freight train though. Here is 66050 as she came out of the box.



Five minutes later and she has a had a very dilute wash of browny/grey acrylic applied none too carefully with a brush. This is to add some shading and help pick out some of the moulded detail. Not a lot of difference but you can now see the bodyside corrugations more clearly.



Out with the airbrush. The roof area has had wafts of black to represent the oily soot and muck that accumulates. I've tried to get some variation but I'm not sure it's come out as I intended. Maybe I should have started with a plan? The uderframe and bogey areas have all been sprayed with several thin coats of raw umber acrylic to generally dirty things up. A smidgeon of black weathering powder was also dabbed around the exhaust area. When I was reasonably happy with the effects the model was then given the merest misting of Ronseal Matt varnish to try and seal/protect things.



Here she is with her sister also in a rather workstained though not filthy state. Not sure whether(!) I'm happy with the result but I'll live with them for a while then see if I want to add or remove anything.



Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[Revolution Ben]

Hi Dave,

 

Nice job on the weathering. The most important thing for me is that your locos have lost that "shiny toy" appearance and the matt finish, with the dirt, gives them instant "weight."

 

If you do fancy going further then have a look at some photographs. My own observations suggest that the wheel faces are never black. Even when brand new locos arrive on the dockside with freshly painted black bogie frames, the wheel faces have a rusty finish. To replicate this I use the technique pioneered by Pelle Soleborg (sp!) of painting with a dark/dirty grey-brown then dusting on dirty rust weathering powder.

 

I don't know about you, but I am always wary of how colour "scales down." For example, pure black never seems to me to look right in N. I tend to give all my bogies (not just locos - all stock) a dusting of dark grey sprayed from above to create a feeling of depth, and to give the impression of the black "catching the light" in upper facing areas. If you have a copy to hand, the MBAs and Class 60 pictured on p105 of this August's MR have had this treatment - see what you think.

 

Also, even newly painted locos rapidly acquire a patina of track dust on the bogies - as soon as they've travelled just a few miles it appears - and as it's carried by disturbed air it tends to gather on horizontal or forward facing areas first. Weathering powders or a dusting from the airbrush can help here - once again you can assess the effect for yourself on the models mentioned above.

 

Peronally, while I find the airbrush invaluable, I find weathering powders are brilliant for depicting some of the more localised spills and stains seen on most railway vehicles.

 

Incidentally, thanks for posting all the images and updates. I really enjoy following your progress and I think you're doing a great job! I too think the second attempt at the river looks even better than the first!

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[James Hilton]

Well considering the images on my screen are probably bigger than these are in real life Dave, I think they look really great - and rolling through Waton have that 'lived in' look - by adding the exhaust, frame dirt and matt varnish you've definitely lost the toy appearance. Do you mask the windows when applying the matt varnish?

[eldavo]

Thanks for the comments Ben and James. Suggestions are always welcome.

To have masked out the windows would imply a certain amount of preparation and planning, not my strong suit! I didn't mask but took a bit of care to avoid (much) paint getting on the glazing.

Having said I would leave the 66s for a couple of days before doing anything more of course I didn't! As has been suggested the underframe colour didn't look right so out came the Tamiya weathering materials and a few dabs with the squirrel hair brush and the bogeys etc. are now more muddy. While I was at it I thought I would give the glazing a coat of Johnson's Klear to hopefully make it look more glass like.

There's more to do I think but they are definitely getting there.



Cheers
Dave (Really going to do something else now honest)

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[branchie]

Very impressive Dave.

 

I must get myself an airbrush me thinks ......

[eldavo]

The river is turning out to be a real pain in the ... After 4 coats of PVA (2nd time round) done over about 4 days it was starting to look OK. I thought I'd add just one more to build the depth. The glue dried and cleared and things were looking good then the surface started to dull and cloud a little. I left it a couple of days and it didn't seem to get any worse.



I decided I would just have to live with it but, following other folks experiences, I decided to add a final coat of clear varnish to add a bit of shine to it.
I routed around in the cupboards but didn't seem to have any gloss varnish but did have some Johnson's Klear floor polish. As some may know this is pretty much an acrylic gloss varnish so I decided to give it a whirl. On went the Klear and very quickly the PVA turned white. Not just misty but white!

Having coated it with Klear there wasn't much I could do. I couldn't get it off so I just stood there in wonderment(!). If there was scope for panic this would have been the time to do it. I walked out and left it assuming it was done for. After a short interlude doing other more mindless things, like browsing the forums, I returned to the garage to do something else and lo and behold what did I find?



The white mess was turning clear! Not just the surface but it seemed as though some of the milkiness deeper into the PVA was clearing as well. Really odd. I thought in for a penny in for a pound and whacked on a second coat of Klear. Not all the surface turned white this time, just some of it. After a few hours again things were clearing except for an odd patch at the front left corner. I left it overnight to see what would happen.

This morning surprise, surprise the formerly cloudy corner has cleared. Yay! Unfortunately the rest of it has started to mist over again. Very very strange.



I plan to leave it a couple of days and then possibly whack on one final coat of Klear. If that doesn't sort it this may be turned into a muddy congested riverbed with very little water flowing.

Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo

[will5210]

66's look fab! Weathering has really brought out the detail superbly!

[eldavo]

The never ending saga of the river continues. I left the whole thing alone for several days and it seemed to stabilise. Not entirely clear but only slightly cloudy in places. I figured the cloudiness is not going to go away so I better find a way of using it. To that end I have applied a number of thin coats of Johnson's Klear with different tints to it. Some brown and some green. I think these have disguised the white cloudiness to the point that it is now workable, just.

It still seems to vary from day to day so I plan to leave it alone for a long time (famous last words) and get on with other stuff. Hopefully it will stabilise sufficiently that I can then just make a few fine adjustments. Here is where we are at. It doesn't really show in its best light in a photo. Actually I should probably say I can't take a good shot of it!



Cheers
Dave

Edited September 4, 2017 by eldavo