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
