Friday, 14 August 2020

Summertime Blues

It's that time of year when I find that railway modelling slows down a little. With little to do other than a couple of tweaks to the ex-Ashover coach, the only other job currently in progress is the revival of  my semi-enclosed conversion of the Roger Chivers O9 coach. Records show it was started in May 2015 and last modified in January 2017, so this has been a long time coming.

Pleased with the result of painting the Ashover coach in LCLR blue and ivory livery I have dug the coach out from storage. This may seem to be an odd link to make but it must be all that vertical planking... Fellow O9 modeller Andrew Blackwell has always said this should be in a two-colour scheme, so here goes...
 

As with the Ashover coach I firstly masked off the areas that would be the darker colour and sprayed white primer on the areas that would be the lighter shade. The colours will be similar, most likely the same shade of ivory but maybe the Vallejo blue I bought as a comparison to the Citadel shade used on the 009 model. However, a lesson learnt from the previous job is to paint the interior first, especially as it is going to be much more visible on this model!

Colin

Thursday, 6 August 2020

Next Stop, South Sea Lane

After nearly a month in the paint shop the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway ex-Ashover coach is now painted to my satisfaction. Apart from primer and varnish this has been completely brush painted. The ivory is Vallejo 'Ivory' and the blue Citadel 'Lothern Blue'. The grey and black shades on the roof and underframe are mixed from various blacks/greys etc. Like a fool I forgot to paint any of the interior until after completing the exterior (!) and opted to use a simple scheme of blue/ivory in the vestibules and just grey primer and brown seats inside the saloon - you cannot really tell through the windows.


After a coat of Humbrol aerosol matt varnish the windows have been glazed individually using 20 thou material (sides) and 10 thou (ends), fixed in place with Johnsons Kleer. The roof was then fixed in place with solvent-free Uhu, but not before a couple of low-key plastic figures were added inside at one end. 


I then applied some weathering, a subtle dry-brush around the underframe trusses and bogies, and some slightly less subtle effects on the roof, which had a wash of a translucent brown paint and then dry-brushing in grey/brown. Part of me feels I might have gone a bit too far with the streaks, but I remind myself that it is from a seaside railway and will have encountered it's fair share of Seagull "deposits" that would have been washed down in the rain...


Whilst I mull over the options for a diorama or operational use it has gone into the display case to be admired. In the meantime another coach has appeared in the paint shop to appear in a similar livery, and that is O9...

Colin