Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Coal tub train


Completed train
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker
Painting the tubs started with a quick spray of grey car primer - partly to help subsequent coats stick but mostly to give me a useful base colour to work with. Mid brown and gunmetal were then dry-brushed on following the line of the supposed wood grain where possible. The bogies had a quick brush with rust to show up the detail.

Once this coat was fully dry (24 hours) a wash of dark brown (Humbrol 170 RIP) followed by many washes of weathered black built up the dirty look I wanted for this train. Inside this took at least three washes to build up the effect.

Leftover coal decorates the inner corners and floor of each tub. Proper Welsh steam coal (get in touch if you want some) too, none of your fake stuff. Stuck in with watered down PVA the black paint washed round this as well and was supplemented with dry black powder paint which gives a nice gritty finish. I'm going to run these empty for the moment but if they are ever loaded this will be a fake load supported on a platform in the tub so it can be removed easily.

The train is formed as a block with simple bits of wire between the wagons and knuckle couplings at the end. As built they seem to run up and down the straight test track very nicely - not sure how they will cope with points as I don't have any handy to test on but I can't see why there should be a problem.

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