HO Adam's Italian Diversions: Ein Supermodell (Brawa Köf)

[AJC]

grubby...

Glad you like it.

Weathering is cathartic, I find, and having been away for most of the week and having damaged my right thumb playing cricket (which prevents me playing any more for a bit), this goes some was towards explaining why the modelling shelf has three weathered Italians on it rather than anything that requires a lot of manual dexterity. Oh, and this:



Nicely glossy.

Adam

 

[ullypug]

Sorry to hear about the thumb.
Disappointed to see the top half of the door isn't cream.
You could have at least put in a couple of gold lines at the split...

 

[AJC]

Sorry to hear about the thumb.
Disappointed to see the top half of the door isn't cream.
You could have at least put in a couple of gold lines at the split...

I did consider LMS period I style, briefly. Maybe for the front door?

At least I caught the ball in the process and the thumb is now back to its normal size. Skipper made me bowl afterwards until the swelling got too bad to grip the thing which struck me as a bit cruel, but we were slightly short on numbers and... Village cricket, eh?

Adam

 

[steve50]

Good to hear your thumb's improving, your weathering looks great Adam, what paint's do you use for the fading and are they airbrushed?
Steve.

 

[AJC]

Good to hear your thumb's improving, your weathering looks great Adam, what paint's do you use for the fading and are they airbrushed?
Steve.

Hi Steve,

All done with washes and brushes - like watercolours, basically. You apply a bit of pigment (Humbrols, in my case) and let it down with thinners. If you use too much paint, apply more thinners with a clean, soft brush. The idea is to sort of float the colour on. First the wagon was sealed with a pass of matt lacquer (the matt surface provides a bit of keying). The fade was done with a first pass of a lightish grey, so as to soften the colour. This was sealed (more matt lacquer) and then a second fade with matt white. It isn't as faded as the real thing, but that has gone so much that to achieve that effect you'd need to start with a light colour and then darken the corners.

Adam

 

[steve50]

Thanks Adam, I'll find something and have a practice at that. I've tried using oil colours in the past but always like to hear different techniques.
Steve.

 

[40126]

Great thread Adam. Spent parts of today, inbetween sunbathing in the beautiful Spanish sun, reading from the begining. The weathering & graffiti is superb.

Steve

 

[AJC]

Great thread Adam. Spent parts of today, in between sunbathing in the beautiful Spanish sun, reading from the beginning. The weathering & graffiti is superb.

Steve

Thanks Steve. I'm pleased with both. The other day I stumbled on another couple of boxes from the collection containing a Rivarossi D.245 shunter (these come in a variety of different series: some rod drive, others, like this one, with all the business hidden between the frames). This is a modern, Hornby-produced item and is, aesthetically, as good as one might hope, but mechanically was a bit of a let down. The gearing gives a top speed round about 90mph and all-wheel drive is transmitted by toothed belt which is effective but which has acquired a bit of a set causing slight lumpiness at low speeds.



That said, it's quite nicely engineered, the wheels aren't too bad and it's more than adequately powered; it's just geared for high speed running which for a machine with a top speed (apparently) of 64km/h (40mph) won't really do. And so prompted by a cheque for a magazine article I commissioned a replacement from the now - very sadly - defunct Hollywood Foundry. Compare and contrast:



This is an excellent bit of kit which runs smoothly and, more importantly, slowly. I've run it in on the circuit of set track that passes for a test facility (can't do that in EM!) and I'm currently grappling with how to fit it to the body. Happily the body is plastic so that's relatively straightforward, and a few bits of 60 thou' welded inside the frames serve to locate it. A proper fixing will require a little thought and a bit of scrap etch, I think:



No cutting required and the upper works still fit so no trimming needed there either:



Compared to the real thing, the handrails appear a bit overfed so these will be replaced - the various other handrails are supplied to fit by the purchaser (etched metal, pre-painted) which will make weathering much easier - and yes, that number plate is etched. In case you're wondering, the buffers are only on the one end because you also get alternate buffer beams (without a huge cut out for Euro-style couplings - thoughtfully these also have all the markings applied) so I could check ride height. Fairly simple work so far...

Adam

 

[AJC]

Back from the depths - fiddly detailing has taken a back seat to work on the house just recently - but I've acquired a scenic item, something close to home (for me), but a way away in this context. A Herpa model of a Somerset-based Scania (not quite, because of course it's left hand drive and that will be a fiddle to sort so I mightn't bother) on the Autostrada. There's a trailer as well, of course, and it seems that Sparks also have or have had Italian operations because there's details of a Verona depot on the back...

Thus far, all I've done is to replace the grille which had gone missing somewhere along the line. It'll need a bit of repainting and detail painting, especially on the bottom half as can be seen from the company's gallery: Gallery of the Sparks Fleet

This also shows that the green isn't quite right, but never mind, I like the idea of a Somerset lorry appearing somewhere in northern Italy.



Adam

 

[AJC]

I think this is where I left this, don't ask how long ago.



And here we are. Both vans are painted, but only one is shown here - they look much the same, but this one has all the lettering. The weathering treatment of the other, with lots of patch repainting, means that the lettering isn't needed yet. These vans suffer the same issues as parcels vans in UK operations in that they get very dirty and you'd never know the door panels were bare aluminium, unless repainted/repaired. As such there was no point in doing the doors the colour they should be, hence the grey primer treatment.



A bit of matt lacquer next.



Adam

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

As you've said - all to clean .

I only have these two corners of similar aluminium bodied vehicles (both my photos).

Meiringen SBB (Brünig Bahn) - DSB van on a metre gauge transporter - taken from the train departing for Interlaken Ost.



And just rolling off the hump at Nürnberg Rbf.

 

[AJC]

Because I've been making up a batch of couplings over the last day and a bit, primarily for a couple of EM projects, I've diverted my wandering attention to a pair of weathered ROCO Eanos-x gondolas which will be used for scrap metal. As they come they look typical of the breed - nicely moulded and reasonably detailed - and subjected to a couple of shades of murk which isn't... well, quite how the real thing ends up.



So I found the packet of cotton buds and some enamel thinners and scrubbed most of it off:



The shiny wheels are on the hit list as are the safety bars between the bogies (I'm out of 0.7mm wire which is a pain) as I've broken one already. The attempts at patch repainting are a nice feature - and not atypical - which I will be reinstating, hopefully in a more realistic fashion. Looking at shots of the real thing, a lot more fading and rust is necessary: Eanos-x (31 80 5376) - gingespotting

Adam

 

[Antonio Rampini]

(...) The couplings are from Masokits, my standard screw coupling in 4mm since they are simple, cheap and, most importantly, indestructible in service. (...)

Wow!

 

[AJC]

Wow!

Thanks! But if you want Wow, take a look at this: Cessy-en-Bois: Une petite gare de triage

Adam

 

[AJC]

The pair of Eanos have now had most of the detailing they need (are you interested in lots of wire handrails?), but there's a new arrival, intended to shunt the grain hoppers - yes, there is a layout plan - in the form of a Brawa Köf II, billed as 'ein Supermodell' on the box which, to be fair, it probably is despite a mechanism design that is so old it has 'Made in W Germany' on the casting. If the body moulding is of similar vintage then it's astonishing. The handrails are incredibly fine, the sprung buffers are the best I've ever seen and just about soft enough to work, the glazing flush and the livery application first rate. The wheel flanges are a bit generous but given that they're so well hidden I can probably live with that. A Köf is perhaps not the most Italian choice, but a few are certainly in industrial service in Italy and this one was extremely affordable. Some de-Germanification (not a word), awaits.



There's some very nice (and usable) screw couplings in the box, too.


The very shiny pick up strips need attention, as do the running boards and the lettering is not long for this world...



Not sure I can live with the silver roof, either. But a useful start.

Adam