Rob's Painting and lining efforts

Still tinkering with the wagon weathering backlog, the next up is an LMS Steel Bodies vent van.

I mentioned in one of my threads that I would do a posting showing some of the stages of my weathering processes

Starting from this:


I started by giving the body work with a coat of Ronseal satin hardglaze the water based variety.

A couple of days later I coated the entire body work in a 'grot' coat made up from Vallejo Flat earth, Dark Sea Grey and a hint of black.





Once again I left it for a few days- I had done this much while up at the cottage but the rest from this point was done at home.

Next I started to remove the 'grot' coat using a flat ended brush dipped in Meths a bit at a time.







At this stage I left it for a few more days while I decided if I had finished.

I decided that I wasn't, so I did a bit more using the same technique of flat brush and meths.

With the other van that I built and painted at the same time I tried a different technique.

Here is a reminder of what it looked like at the outset.



This then had 2 coats of Johnsons Klear (the original variety) brush painted on and left over night.

Next I mixed up a mixture of Vallejo 'Dark Fleshtones' which was the colour that I used for the bauxite finish and my mix of 'grot' described in the last post.

The body work was liberally coated with it and again it was left to dry while I got home from the cottage. Then I set to with the falt brush and meths....







The eagle eyed amongst you will notice that I managed to knock of the steam pipes while weathering and again no door handles or guard irons......









This has given a completely different look to the vehicle than the other one so I now have a few different techniques under my belt.

Now I need to master subtle....

Here is the gas tank wagon after weathering - I have really struggled to get some decent photos that show the colours on this. Daylight seems to have washed it out to a grey colour when in reality it very much has an uneven brown cast to it.

All the photos I have in my LNER books show that gas tank wagons got very dirty but without exception (in the photos I have) the lettering is clearly visible.

My weathering mix was made up of the following Vallejo Model colour range, all diluted for spraying with Tamiya acrylic thinners.

Flat Earth
Leather Brown
Blue Grey
Black Grey

I started with a base of a more brownish colour and spraying from 8-10" away so their was a bit of splatter giving texture as well as colour. Then I added more of the greys to the mix and went over it again. I used a small brush and meths to uncover the lettering before adding another light coat with the greyish mix to blend it in. I used some antique brass to paint the handwheels before the weathering, again easing back the gunge with a small brush and meths.

Having looked at the photos, besides the lighting I still felt that something was lacking on the weathering of the tank wagon -despite the texture it still looked a bit flat. So with some input from Chris a bit of tweaking has taken place. No more paint has been added just some careful dragging of the pain with a small stiffish brush and some meths. I seem to have the lighting better this time around with it bringing out the true colours.

I had a small break from the CCT yesterday/this morning and did a bit more weathering on the Timber and Ore wagons. I then assembled them and took a few photos.

Having been pleased with the look of the Skytrex barrels that I did earlier ver Christmas I took advantage of a Skytrex special offer and bought some wagon loads. These consisted of two different loads of barrels - from a choice of three or four, a load of sacks and a couple of loads of carboy's (demi-john type jars) packed in straw.

In between other jobs I have painted a couple of them.

This weekend hasn't seen any construction works but I did added transfers to the open wagon and start to weather it. I also finished the weathering on another NBR 8 ton box van.

I am on the look out for some more of these to use as the basis for some semi scratch builds.

I used this van as a bit of a test to see if IPA works the same as meths for manipulating acrylic paint after it's dried and I am pleased to say it does and it isn't quite as aggressive as meths which is a bonus - I have had a couple of instances with meths where I have inadvertently taken the paint back to bare plastic

The next one to get hit by the weather is the Midland 10 ton Brake van.









And then I noticed that I haven't painted the lamp.......

Hi Rob,

Never said it was easy!!!!!!

Interesting however you comment about them disintegrating. Maybe this could be another weathering technique?????? I wonder how far they let the LMS lettering go before they repainted it?????

Have you thought about doing some pre weathering before putting the transfers on. I look at the brake van above and it seems very clean in the "S". Although I do appreciated that the wagon was probably lettered before any weathering was contemplated.

Now a question as I know very little about the LMS, but the brake vans L seems very square. Is this a result of the transfers used or was it a deliberate type thing?

Cheers

John

QUOTE (john woodall @ 11 Feb 2015, 07:11) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Hi Rob,

Never said it was easy!!!!!!

Interesting however you comment about them disintegrating. Maybe this could be another weathering technique?????? I wonder how far they let the LMS lettering go before they repainted it?????
Hi John,

It could be another weathering technique but I am not sure that it would look natural because they fracture and all the photo seem to show either the paint work faded or covered in grime without any obvious chunks missing if that makes sense - the only way it might look natural is if a plank had been replaced but then you would need it to disintegrate to order...

QUOTE Have you thought about doing some pre weathering before putting the transfers on. I look at the brake van above and it seems very clean in the "S". Although I do appreciated that the wagon was probably lettered before any weathering was contemplated.
Funny that you should say that because I have been doing that very thing. But the experiments that I have done so far have been spraying dark colours in corners and recesses before spraying the top coat so not actually the weathering coat as such. Your question gives food for thought though.

QUOTE Now a question as I know very little about the LMS, but the brake vans L seems very square. Is this a result of the transfers used or was it a deliberate type thing?
I could be wrong but I think that it was a deliberate 'type' thing on goods stock all the photos that I have have to hand (my LMS wagon books are at our weekend place at the minute) show a very plain square L when compared to the font used on coaches and NPCS.

In between other modelling I managed to finish weathering the Avery tool van. I am quite pleased with the finish on this one.

Another one that got some weathering attention last weekend was the LMS coal wagon.





The sunlight has lightened the inside somewhat - much more than in reality.









I am undecided as to whether I put a few lumps of stray coal inside to finish it off.

A couple more wagons have passed through the weathering bench.





This one I have been tinkering with for 6 or 8 weeks in total - doing something at it each week but not being satisfied with it until now.

I mentioned previously that I took advantage of a Skytrex wagon load offer over Christmas. Among those that I bought were a couple of loads of carbouys. I sprayed them a while ago with a base coat of Vallejo matt earth but it took until last weekend to get any detail paint on them.

The look that I wanted was the dark green glass that I remember from my youth.

In the flesh I think that I have achieved it but they were quite difficult to photograph. I used Vallejo bronze green covered over by a couple of thick coats of the original Johnsons Klear - I stocked up before they changed the recipe. The woodwork and straw packing is Vallejo Bleached Bone with a drop of Model Air New Wood mixed in.

In between progressing the lime wagon last weekend I also finished painting my last Skytrex wagon load which is a set of pipes.





I have struggled to get some decent photos that show that they do actually look like ceramic pipes - achieved by painting them with artists acrylic terracotta (which I managed to get to spray without problem by thinning with Tamiya thinners). This was then painted with a couple of layers of Johnsons clear to get that deep sheen that you get on glazed ceramic pipes.

I may need to scratch build a pipe wagon (if I can find a shortish prototype - the load is designed to fit a 10' wagon). I have a Connoisseur Pipe wagon kit in the stash but having looked at the size of one when built up this load would be dwarfed by it I think.