Putting paint on the Hunslet

I've gradually been progressing the Hunslet towards painting. First the final details were added - the handrail and injectors. The handrail knobs were tiny and drove me potty, but I got there in the end. The injectors are made from nickel silver wire with a piece of wire insulation, following the prototype photos, fitted into holes drilled in the footplate, cab, and boiler, then super-glued in place. Actually right after gluing the left side solid I realised they might be better fitted after painting... so I left the right side off.

After a small amount of filling gaps and removing excess glue the body was cleaned and polished with a fibreglass pencil. However it doesn't look it in this photo as I then gave it a wipe over with a blackening solution. It doesn't blacken whitemetal, but it does dull it so perhaps paint will stick better.

Then it's out to the garage for priming, along with the Atkinson Walker Steam Tractor which has also been waiting for warmer weather! Halfords grey etch primer does the metal bodies, in about 4 thin coats from different directions. Standard primer was used for plastic parts too. This was followed by the main body colour - Halfords Racing Green for the Hunslet; a rather glossy finish but I'll deal with that later.

As seen here it has also received the first coat of black, though 48 hours later that doesn't seem to be properly dry so perhaps the paint has gone off? In addition the buffer beams have had a priming coat of white as red doesn't cover well. You can also see I've been scraping the paint off the injectors this side (the masking tape is to protect the paint behind), and that on the other side has been fitted.

Meanwhile, in between painting, the workbench has moved to other projects!