'The White Rose' is Revealed

A vintage photo of a 15" gauge Bo-Bo diesel 'The White Rose', mid to late 20th century, location unknown...

I can now reveal the completed A1 Models 3D printed diesel. Why the name? Well 'Royal Anchor' was named after the pub where the workshop it was built in was located, and this name sounds like of could be the name of a pub. Of course the loco isn't actually white, but neither is the Curwen diesel 'The White Heron' at the Stapleford Miniature Railway...

I last illustrated this prior to going onto the paintshop and it has been a slow process to get it through to the finishing point. The main body colour was sprayed using Halfords Rover Tahiti blue, which was left for a good week or so to dry in order to avoid any masking mishaps. The bufferbeams were masked off and painted with Vallejo red, similarly the roof in London grey and the solebar in black-grey. As can be seen I chose to paint in the curved join between the blue and grey on the cab front, achieved using masking tape cut against a template.

I painted the window recesses in matt black and picked out the frames on the front windows in silver, which looks a lot untidier in the pictures than reality. Headlights were picked out in light grey and the tail lights in a dark red. The yellow chevrons are Dapol railbus transfers, applied with plenty of Micro Sol and Set, then varnished with Johnson's Kleer to protect them prior to the final varnish coat of Testor's Dulcote. I say coat, it was several coats as the first (from an old can) went on a bit patchy, leading to me starting my final can... Again I left the model for a week after this to dry thoroughly. Once dry the lights had Araldite floated on as lenses and I started the tedious process of glazing the windows with individual panes.

Looking down from the roof the fan grille can be seen, this was added during painting, as the recess below had to be painted matt black prior to fitting the grille just before the roof was painted. Despite the many coats of Dulcote the roof had a slightly speckled appearance so it has had a slightly heavier dose of weathering than I might normally give a miniature outline locomotive. But miniature railway locomotives do get dirty! Air horns are old whitemetal castings from a very old A1 models packet and the nameplates are also A1 products.

Taking these photos did reveal a window that was not in position properly, which has now been corrected, and there are a few areas that really do look worse in close up than reality! But generally I am happy with the result although the jury is still out on using a chassis with a shorter bogie wheelbase than intended, that could be revisited in the future if required.

Colin