Going Loco

Well, this is where we are with that model railway locomotive I've been working on for a couple of years now.  As you might recall, when I bought it, it was sporting an entirely fictional blue livery.  After labouriously stripping that off (and discovering that whoever did the painting hadn't stripped the factory coat off), I'm finally close to completing a repaint into the correct British Railways livery.  After two coats of matt black, a couple of coats of the correct shade of green have now been applied to the relevant areas, (after the abortive first attempt using Railmatch paint, which turned out to be far too dark - the Precision Paints BR standard green has dried to a far better match to the correct shade).

As you see the model's upperworks now, they are just waiting for some minor retouches to the black to dry.  Once dry, the buffer beams will be repainted red, after which lining transfers will be applied, before the smoke deflectors and handrails are replaced.  Then a number and nameplates will be added before it is reunited with its chassis.  Speaking of the chassis, this too is currently undergoing a repaint as the wheels, bogie and trailing truck had all been painted red, as had the tender chassis.  The cylinders were blue.  So far, the chassis tender frames have been repainted in their entirety, while the bogie, cylinders and driving wheels on one side of the chassis have so far been restored to black.

It has been a labourious and long drawn out process, halted for long periods by last year's illness and problems at work, but the end is finally in sight.  My shift to a four day working week this year has been a Godsend, finally giving me the time to press ahead with this project. Once completed, I've got another locomotive constructed from parts bought on eBay nearing completion - the tender still needs some minor work before it can be painted.  Thankfully, this second loco will be a far simpler painting job: as an unrebuilt light pacific with its 'streamlining' intact, it doesn't have any of the odd shapes and angles of the rebuilt pacific just painted and has very simple lining, so it should be a much quicker process.  In the meantime, I have a couple of shabby Trix coaches needing attention...