Sunday 15 January 2017

A Salted Tub

An oddity on my fleet of stored O9 wagons was a Black Dog Mining WA25 mine tub, a recent purchase from ExpoNG in 2015. It came with the Gnine version of the chassis which looked odd in O9, so an old 5' Black Dog chassis was re-purposed from another wagon and placed underneath.

As it was not really suited to my usual interests I proposed to experiment and use the method of using salt to mask to create a rust effect on this wagon, as described most recently in 'Narrow Lines' (7mm NGA) but previously published elsewhere. This base layer of rust effect is stippled on acrylics over Halfords red oxide primer - Humbrol Red/Brown, Vallejo Hull Red and artists Red oxide, followed by a slightly more orange mix of the latter:


Having left the rust stippled paint to dry overnight I wet the surface of the wagon body and added the salt - a mix of rock and table salt - with hindsight a lot of the rock salt was far too big in size (despite my efforts to crush it). This was then left to dry out (aided by the airing cupboard):


Once dried out I did remove some of the larger particles of salt before spraying over the wagon with Halfords grey primer and again left to dry:


Once the grey paint was dry I rubbed off most of the salt and then washed off the residue. The effect is very pleasing and I think I would struggle to achieve this any other way:



The next stage was be to paint the underframe to enhance the wood effect and also to add some further weathering to the body by adding some texture to selected rust areas using weathering powders. This was applied over dabs of Vallejo Matt Medium to provide some adherence. It does look rather bright but once varnished it toned down:


Before varnishing I did add a little more rust coloured weathering powder to the worst patches, then the next day I sprayed with Humbol aerosol matt varnish which dried satisfyingly matt. Once the varnish was dry I added some light dry brushing around the body edges and wooden chassis frame, and some metallic dry brushing on the coupler blocks and axle boxes.



This has certainly proved to be an interesting diversion during the Christmas and January period where a lot of real life happenings have restricted the modelling time somewhat....

Colin

Monday 2 January 2017

Adding a Touch of Rheidol?

It appears to be the time of year for raiding the 'grey' projects box - those almost complete models in primer awaiting the inspiration to complete the paintwork. Following on from the recent wagon exploits and due to join them in the queue for another blast of primer is my semi-enclosed conversion of the Chivers O9 coach kit. That I hadn't got around to painting it is in some ways is a bonus as I have now decided that it would benefit from a different roof.

Although I was making best use of the Dapol Railbus roof parts in the original build, I wasn't happy with the way I had treated the ends of the roof, it looked more like a GRP moulded roof plonked on an older coach, which whilst perfectly feasible in 15" gauge wasn't the look I wanted. It didn't help that the roof was under-reinforced and starting to banana upwards, further not helped by gentle pressure to relieve this... Snap!

I decided to cast about for alternatives and offered up a Parkside Vale of Rheidol roof (available as a spare ref. DP08) - the width is just right...



With the roof trimmed to length, rainstrips added and the ends reconstructed, I think that this is an improvement. As a bonus it now sits a little higher and matches my other enclosed stock a little better. What isn't apparent from the picture is that this roof was once split down the middle and widened in a failed attempt to re-roof one of my 'Exmoor' coaches, then reconstructed and filled at the original width! I won't tell anyone if you don't....

I managed to get the shed workshop warmed up sufficiently over the New Year weekend to put a coat of primer over the rebuilt coach and new roof. All seems well, when the time comes to add a top coat it will just need a light rub down with 1500 grit wet and dry. I am getting the urge for a two-tone scheme but I'm not sure what yet, that may depend on which project it is intended for.



 Colin