Exmoor - Paintshop Progress (Part 1)

By the middle of May the Exmoor build had entered the paintshop and the first coats of primer were applied using Halfords aerosol cans. I find it helpful to use red oxide on the buffer beams to avoid too many coats of red acrylic later on. 

I then masked off the smokebox, footplate edges, buffer beams etc, essentially anything that would not be body colour. I then applied Halfords Rover 'Tahiti Blue' from another aerosol. After masking was removed the result was this rather ghostly looking appearance.

The red bufferbeams, cream cab interior and various areas of black were applied by hand using acrylic paints, largely of Vallejo origin. Once a coat of Testors 'Dulcote' had been applied I started the process of assembling various sub-assemblies over the last fortnight, the cab/tank unit being securely fitted to the boiler/front end, then all the pipework was added including the regulator lever to the outside of the dome.

At this stage I gave the model a further waft of Dulcote to hide some of the glue marks and set the model aside for a few days to allow the varnish to fully harden.

To be continued...

Colin