Phil@HH work bench

[Phil Atkinson]

I have loads of projects both personal and business that I thought you might be interested in. Due to the pressure of work for Hobby Holidays, most projects take a long time and others frequently get thrown in between.

But the first to show you is a Sidelines LNWR coach, which has reached the painting stage. I am not a novice to spray painting, in fact running quite a few "Beginners spray painting" workshops some years ago. The problem is you have to practice, and I haven't for quite some time. However I thought I would take you thru the problems and successes.

I purchased some paint many years ago from a well known company selling railway colours but found the coach plum to be very gritty. Taking onboard my own lessons and that of Warren Haywoods list of RAL/BS colours I ordered some etch primer, cellulose coach white and enamel coach plum and some black of both. All in Gloss
Etch primer went on well.
The black for the bogies and underframe I did not do a test spray just went ahead and sprayed them. But the mix was a little too dry. Lesson 1 - do a test spray. I know the sort of viscosity it should be but temp, humidity and different paint type need different amounts of thinners. The finish was a little bit "orange peely" but it matted down latter so it was not a problem.
The White I did a test and it went on well, but I concentrated too much on the area around the windows, the white areas. so at first look to over spray in the lower half of the body I thought was going to be a problem. I gave it a gentle touch of 1200 wet and dry.
After masking the top half I sprayed the ends and bottom with the plum. The problem here is maybe the paint or me making the enamel too wet but it did not cover. Red never does, and I would always normally recommend a red primer under red paint, I was concerned over paint build up over the detail.

What you see here has 2 problems A) the colour is too light and B) the paint has moved away from the sharp edges, showing the white which happens anyway but is made by being too wet.
At this point I washed all the red off, removed the masking tape and started again. Coach plum is quite dark and I assumed the darkness would cover. Mistake No 2. I then sprayed a very light layer of satin black. Then re-sprayed the plum. I am now happy in this second picture if you look along the length you will see a reflection giving an indication of the gloss that I got. The moral is practice and test each batch you mix before spraying your model.


comments good or bad welcome but not needed -Phil

 

[Mike W]

A very nice coach. The low elliptical (cove) roof always looks attractive. At least you won't have any trouble finding paint for the engine behind it - its black!

Mike

 

[Phil Atkinson]

I went on to start painting the beading in plum. On the first side I hand painted this. Very time consuming, hard work, and something I can only do small chunks. However I was not very happy with this for 2 reasons
1) As I said previously the paint did not cover too well, I had to put loads on to cover, which even when dry looks built up
2) trying to paint to an edge that drops away was not easy.
A blind man would be happy to see it, and I will put up with it, but there has to be a better way.



The lining has to go yet and I hope that will cover a multitude of sins

My friend and professional modeller and painter, Geoff Haynes had suggested before I even started that he would have masked the panels. So over to side 2.

I have 3 masking solutions in stock. "Maskol" from Humbrol, "Micro Mask" from Microscale and "Liquid Mask" from Abteilung 502 (part of AK interactive group). Maskol was out as it is renowned for being difficult to get off is left on for more than a week. My workload, home and business, prevents me from being certain when I can do anything. I choose "Micro Mask" for no reason other than Microscale have a good reputation.

Now this you may find interesting. Micro Mask is water based (wash brushes out in Water) but it also dissolves in water. It says on the bottle "Paints containing water are not recommended" and now you know why. This would be where the "Liquid Mask" would come in. However my paints are enamels so no problem with Micro Mask.


Never having used it before was uncertain how thick to paint it on but need not of worried. Its a lot easier to paint on to raised edge. It goes on thick but dries very thin.

Do not want to start an open debate here. I decided to paint the bolection moldings around the windows a darkish mahogany, likewise the door frame and drop lights. This was done at the above stage


I now painted another layer of "Micro Mask" over the brown so I could spray both a black undercoat and then the coach plum as I had done previous. I was a little concerned that putting mask over painted mask would give me a problem.

Actually I had 1 minor and 1 bigger problem. Getting the mask off I found a hard bluntish object the best way to make a hole in the mask and then pull it with a pair of tweezers and it came off beautifully. The major problem was the drop lights I did not fit them until the coach body was already made up and could not get to solder all the way round them, and the mask has crept into the very small gap and making it difficult to get off. I will let you know on that.

Again its not perfect when painting the mask on by hand, I tried to wipe off any mistakes but you can make up your own mind

 

[Neil]

When I paint panelled stock (not often) I use a technique described many years ago in the Railway Modeller by (I think) Jim Whitaker. The whole side is painted the colour of the lower half and raised beading. This is invariably the darker colour. Not having an airbrush I use a rattle can for this stage. Once it's hardened off I paint in the areas between the raised beading with Humbrol enamels thinned to a milky consistency. If the thinned mix is pushed towards the beading it will flash along it giving a crisp edge. White and cream cover well but even so several coats will be needed. I use matt white or cream as it seems to cover better than gloss.

 

[John Duffy]

A good alternative to thinned enamels is ink. It can be 'dropped' into the panel areas and will settle. A couple of coats will be needed but as white is more opaque than reds it works well putting the dark colour on first.

 

[Mike Trice]

When I paint panelled stock (not often) I use a technique described many years ago in the Railway Modeller by (I think) Jim Whitaker. The whole side is painted the colour of the lower half and raised beading. This is invariably the darker colour. Not having an airbrush I use a rattle can for this stage. Once it's hardened off I paint in the areas between the raised beading with Humbrol enamels thinned to a milky consistency. If the thinned mix is pushed towards the beading it will flash along it giving a crisp edge. White and cream cover well but even so several coats will be needed. I use matt white or cream as it seems to cover better than gloss.

I thought I had seen this technique recently: Painting coach panels

 

[Phil Atkinson]

Thanks for the feedback from Neil, John and Mike. It had concerned me putting a light colour over a dark, and having to keep a good edge for 2 coats or more. But it would seem I was overly concerned. A bit late for this coach but not to worry, currently I have at least another 4 LNWR coaches either unstarted or in still in soldering. However I have some test etches in progress at PPD which could change everything, in painting, lining and build method. As soon as I receive and try them I will let you know, but don't hold your breath it could be a complete flop.

 

[LarryG]

LNWR coach liveries do not lend themselves to the normal pattern of spraying on the colours and so there is a lot more hand painting to do. There is far less 'white' on 'Toplight' coaches so I spayed them plum first. It seemed to me that the LNWR coach livery was one of the most time-consuming to apply while the loco livery was one of the simplest especially when unlined.