Painting and lining

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
I had the chance to peer at the LMS coaches and the two locos yesterday at Kettering. I think "wow!" sums them up.

Incidentally, I did eventually find Mr Beattie! I had indeed walked right past his stand about five times on the trot. :oops::confused::))
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Wonderful paintjob Warren - does anyone know whether you could see through the grills on real thing like that? Surely there was something there?

Adam
 

FiftyFourA

Western Thunderer
In response to Warrens comments about Sparrowhawk, I have started to give her the traditional Gateshead cleaners attention. Just a little bit at a time and in the right places!
 

Riefler

Member
I find it much easier to rule the in the straight lines then put the corners in with a brush, the ruling pen must also stay square to the edge you are drawing against and is very difficult to turn through 90 degrees for the corner. Also remember there are 2 or 3 lines with differing radii so more than one template would be needed, keeping them equally spaced would also be a pain.
Warren

Hi Warren,
I'm a bit off the pace on this thread so I'm referring back to a response you made some time ago. My other interest is collecting drawing instruments and I have a Kern set dating from @ 1950. The set has 3 ruling pens, a detail pen and a curved line pen.

The nib on the curved line pen swivels and so stays at 90 degrees to the template so I guess that could be used for lining corners on panels. Maybe I'll give it a try sometimes but have you ever used one of these? I believe they would have been used mainly with French curves and possibly the radii involved in lining models would be too small? ??
Cheers,
Peter
 

warren haywood

Western Thunderer
Peter,
I have never used templates so can't comment, nor one of the pens you mention. The nearest I have got to templates is using French curves for the front of streamlined coronations, and even a lot of this is brushed in. With plenty of practice and over time I have got reasonably good just brush painting complex curves. For 3and 4" radius corners I don't think you will beat good old hand painting.
Decent equipment and plenty of practice is the key, the picture below shows what is achievable

image.jpeg
 

Riefler

Member
Hi Warren,
It was just a thought after reading the earlier comments. Looking at your superb lining on the Britannia I would agree entirely with what you say.

However, I think the key to success above all is the practice. Good brushes and ruling pens can easily be sourced. In fact I have dozens of pens in my collection in sets and also loose pens bought separately. More or less they all draw beautiful lines with ink and paint, but apart from the odd panel on the valances of my BR Std 7 and Std 8, I use Fox lining transfers. It's not that I think they give a better result than can be achieved by Artists such as yourself, it's just that I don't have the skill to use the pens and brushes and I don't have the time or models to gain the skills. So for me personally, the transfers are the better option.

However, I will try the Kern curved line pen with a small template just to see if it can handle the small radius curves expertly painted by yourself with a brush. I'll do it with ink an paper and if it's any good I'll let you know.

All the best,
Peter
 

Riefler

Member
Hi Warren,
I gave the curved line pen a go with a template using ink on paper. As you can see not perfect but not bad. It's just cheapo printer paper and the ink tends to migrate slightly. I've got some A3 drawing paper for playing with the pens etc on the drawing board and the lines are perfect.

As I said before, I don't have the opportunities to practice lining with the pens so I'll stick to transfers. However a guy with your abilities might find these pens offered something over the brush. I'm not trying to teach my grandma to suck eggs though. I appreciate that the clock's not broken so why fix it. Just a thought.
Cheers,
Peter
2016-06-10 08.57.56.jpg
 

warren haywood

Western Thunderer
I primered this loco about a month ago after having to strip it once before because the builder had used s paste flux.
I took it out of storage today and even though I thought I had got it clean it's still seeping out from just about every joint causing a sticky mess.
The safety valve bonnet and the front boiler band a particularly bad. Just a reminder for those of you who think power flow flux is great:rant: and what it can or probably will cause
This ones going back to the builder as unpaintable.


image.jpeg
 

warren haywood

Western Thunderer
Graham, I would expect they are all made from similar ingredients, but I'm sure someone on here will know. I think it's the fat that the flux is mixed in that is causing the problem
 

D816Foxhound

Western Thunderer
Whilst not being a prolific kit builder, all my brass kits so far have been soldered together with Fry Powerflow Flux and I have not experienced seepage like this when it comes to painting. And incidentally, I've never been overly fussy about cleaning up brass work before painting. A quick brushing in warm water with CIF is all I do and I achieve a reasonable ( for a novice) paint job, ie no flux seepage or signs of fingerprints.

The joints that are seeping in the photo do not look to be well soldered joints and perhaps too much flux paste has been used.

If liquid flux had been used would this still cause the same problem on poorly soldered joints?

From a painting point of view, what do other WTers think is the best flux to use?

Roger
 

warren haywood

Western Thunderer
Roger, this is not the first time I have had this problem but it's the worst. It's along virtually every soldered joint. I was given another loco at the same time by the same builder and that one is fine. I have never had any problems with models built with liquid fluxes, just experience after about 5000 kit built paint jobs.
 
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