TFW’s workshop

Spoken like a true Yorkshireman, Dave.
Had quite a successful session spraying today.


The engine and tender were firstly masked using Tamiya 6mm tape which is jolly good stuff.


Most of the large black areas have been made black. I have discussed with Ian Rathbone how to paint and line the front end and a cunning plan has evolved....

Tim

The front curved junction between the smoke box black and apple green is quite subtle on an A4/P2 front end. The line passes through the second handrail knob and is then straight back to the chimney rear. The curves at the front end feed back to the corner of the blast pipe and streamline casing and then do a jinx round this. The problem is that if the smoke box black is masked and put on first - not a trivial exercise - then the lining has to be made to accomodate that. So, discussing this with Ian Rathbone, it became clear that the trick is to do the lining first. Even so, determining where it should go is tricky and making some marks with a dark green permanent marker gave me something to aim at.



A twisted straight edge was made out of styrene sheet to guide the bow pen on the straight bit: the photos shows it in place after use.


The white (actually grey) Humbrol gloss line was put on.


There will obviously be errors, but these can be reduced by judicious use of a cocktail stick, dampened with lighter fuel.


The black border was then applied in Humbrol gloss paint using a long thin brush, laying alongside the white line until it came down to an acceptable width.
.

With it all dried off under a lamp overnight, the apple green and lining were masked off with Tamiya tape and a really useful masking solution from Japan (Google U.K. suppliers)


It is water soluble and can be painted with some finesse using a fine brush.


It can be used to make sure that the ordinary tape is also well sealed.


After spraying the tapes and masking solution are peeled off very carefully. This is within 20 minutes of spraying the cellulose: better to remove the tapes before the paint becomes hard and brittle. Very nerve racking: a bit like a plastic surgeon removing post-op bandages!


The weathering varnish will tone down the whole assembly when complete.



If it were a blue’un, the engine would be painted and lined by now....

Tim

I'm loath to tackle lining at 7mm scale, so I tip my hat to you, sir.

Tim, fabulous as always.

Ken

Lining out on the P2 has progressed with the use of pens, paints and ink. It’s important that you have a painting cradle to support your hands and straight edge when painting, whilst also holding the engine: the white plastic bar helps to stabilise the object and all surfaces have a soft neoprene lining. The photo shows the set up that I made years ago. It’s actually a bit small for the Mikado, but works well enough and the old school ruler certainly has heritage.



I would again heartily recommend Ian Rathbone’s book on painting and lining, and what I am going to describe is very much based on Ian’s input. The bow pen needs to be well made and have very smooth jaws that meet rigidly. The tips can be honed with a file and fine grit carborundum paper.



For lining from an edge, a pair of compasses can be useful and a dogleg on the passive side will allow the blades of the pen to sit at a better angle to the work.


The paint is loaded into the pen using a cocktail stick and any excess wiped off. The paint should be quite viscous, such that it wants to stay in the pen and is always gloss. The white lines are, of course grey, and the red lines maroon.


To get the paint flowing, I always try out the pen on a spare body, painted as per the current project to check line width: a gentle tap downwards on to the work will sometimes start it off. Also it is better to leave the gap between the white lines rather than one solid white line, as it is then easier to fill in the black line.


The ruler (with polished edges) is used bevel side down, so that there is clearance for the pen above the workpiece, and of course is mainly supported by the cradle. Very important to take your time and ensure that the lining sequence doesn’t interfere with itself and smudge the paint. Any mistakes are wiped off immediately with a pledget of paper towel, held in tweezers, soaked in lighter fuel. The cellulose paint will resist any actions with the oil based solvents. A sharpened cocktail stick will again be very useful for tidying up stragglers.

With everything nice and dry, the next stage is to place the black line between the white ones, or at the edge of them. Ian uses black gloss Humbrol in a bow pen for this, but I prefer Indian ink through a drafting pen. These are much easier to use than bow pens and the Indian ink is water-based so can be removed with a moistened paper pledget (saliva) without affecting the white lines.


The pens I use were made by Mecanorma, but are now made by Aristo in Austria. 0.18mm will produce a good black line, although there is a 0.10mm that will work in tight spaces. They make it much easier to see where you are going than a bow pen; especially important when you are putting the black line down the middle.


These pens do not work with white ink as it is not opaque enough. However, I have very successfully used a yellow acrylic ink in the past for full panelled LMS coach lining. Next stage will be to make the boiler band transfers.

Tim

The boiler bands on the P2 are transfers, which very adequately represent the metal strips that hold the cleading in place. The transfers are made by spraying plain transfer paper with a good coat of the grey lining colour. When dry, black lines are drawn on using enamel paint and a bow pen. Before cutting out the transfer a piece of paper is used to give a rough guide to the length required.


The transfer is cut with a single light stroke of a razor blade, using a straight edge (for this I use an old power hacksaw blade on my workbench - bolted through at one end to stabilise it). The tricky bit is getting both sides of the line the same. There will be quite a few rogue lines, so make plenty to play with. To be suitably narrow, the ‘white’ line should only just be visible from the margin of the straight edge, and the black line relatively wide - that is the proportion of LNER lining. The razor blade is much sharper and finer than a standard scalpel. However, a scalpel is used to gently cut through the paper either side of the lines.


The strip is then soaked in water and the excess white strips peeled off, rather like one of those ghastly cheese straw thingys. The transfer proper is then re-wetted and slid into place from the backing paper, with Micro Sol decal softening solution on the model to make sure that it is well adapted; helped by a gloss finish on the paint. Final positioning can be undertaken using a wet paint brush and the ubiquitous cocktail stick.


The lining is now in place. It will tone down with the varnish coat and some weathering.


Tim

After a month in the paint shops we now have an ex-works engine, called “Mons Meg”. This engine was named after the medieval cannon resident in Edinburgh Castle and the engine, when new, visited Kings Cross a few times - it should look at home on Copenhagen Fields. Few more little jobs to do, but tomorrow I’ll probably make the cab windows on the MRC Demonstration Stand at Ally Pally.




Tim

I still find it hard to comprehend that this is only the length of the average pencil, really good work

MD

Inspirational work.

Thank you for all the kind comments, I have enjoyed posting the “how-to” stuff in this thread. Actually, the engine still needed glazing, which was done yesterday at Ally Pally and last night at home. The front windows took three hours to do, they were swines (equivalent to a difficult root treatment in an upper second molar). I made about three times the number of windows required and they are a tight fit, held in place with a bead of varnish.


I wasn’t happy with the final finish in some areas and so they were rubbed down with a pledget of Duraglit wadding, followed by polishing with a paper towel, especially the smoke box front and tender sides.


The deliberately reflective photo shows the improved finish; indeed the camera now has difficulty focusing on the black. Judicious weathering will follow.

Tim

Mind boggling modelling which is both stimulating and inspirational...

Apart from fitting loco lamps, final coaling and a fireman, Mons Meg is now complete. The repaint has been worth it, I think, and she is now weathered as if she is newly in use, but still very clean.









Should look the business storming up Holloway Bank with 16 on.

Tim

Exquisite.

And difficult to believe it’s 2mm...

Thanks for posting
Simon

The finishing touches for an express passenger engine must be the fitting of lamps. Alan Butler makes some beautiful little examples in the ModelU range. However, these are plastic and I’m not sure the little handles would stand the hurly burly of an exhibition layout.



However, they are easy to use as patterns for casting. After a little bit of experimentation at work (Guy’s Hospital) we were able to cast them in cobalt chrome alloy; the incredibly hard alloy that hips and dentures are made of.



The investment needed a lot of heating to ensure that the loop would cast which, in turn, has led to a little bit of surface breakdown (at least it gives the paint something to key onto!). Trimming the lamps was achieved with a diamond bur in a high speed turbine or diamond discs. The back pocket of the lamp casting needed removal, so that the lamp could seat neatly in the bracket.



Tim

Mind blowing!

Thanks for sharing...

JB.

A tidy workbench.

After the P2 was completed I have re-sanded and sealed the MDF workbench. What is also visible is my new John Stevens mill-drill (with a tray behind it to make it more obvious from the stuff behind). It can be sen with the drilling quill in place, the milling attachment is laying on its side at the front. The cross slide is also fitted with a very precise 100 mm vice made by John, that can be dismounted and fixed to the round base, just to the left of the Bergeon watchmakers vice. I believe Tony Reynolds has both of these devices, so it should help me to up my game a bit....

On the right is an Ersa soldering station, Proxon ‘Dremel’ (soon to be replaced with a dental technician hand piece) Toyo mini drill and a Profiform guillotine - an incredibly useful bit of kit. Off stage is a Prazimat 8 mm watchmakers lathe and a Cowells milling machine.

Whilst these tools may be considered to be way OTT by many, they give me a great deal of pleasure and many have been in use for over 25 years. The new mill-drill will be used for a high precision work-related project.

Tim

Tim - having built a few signals for my Club's 7mm layout, and all of them for the 4mm layout, I'm in total awe. I thought the 4mm efforts were akin to watch making........

Brian

Goodness