White water

After the last post about the river, my local expert Tom Dauben pointed out (with photographic evidence) that Dartmoor streams flowing through rocky areas do have areas of white water, such as over rocks or through narrows. So, I thought I should make the stream look a bit more dynamic with some more texture, and a touch of white water in appropriate places.

Out came the heavy gloss gel again and "ridges" were created over and upstream of rocks and where the stream narrows to suggest the water flowing over obstructions. 

As expected from the previous experience, these ridges didn't dry completely clear but had some milkyness in the thicker areas, but this time that's OK. I then added more white with white acrylic paint dry-brushed onto the tops of the ridges, and streaking downstream of them, where water would be turbulent and appear white. I obviously forgot to photograph that stage...

After about 5 days I added the Magic Water over the lot, despite the extra wait this still started to look milky in places, though not as bad as last time, but this time I knew I only need to wait.

And here's the result, I think the magic water might have smudged/blurred the dry-brushed white a little but that's OK, it does add a clear and high-gloss finish and slightly softens the texture from the gloss gel which finishes off the stream nicely. The little rapids as the stream flows through and over the rocks hopefully looks convincing and adds interest and drama. 

After the culvert the stream opens out and after some final rocky obstructions joins the slightly slower flowing, deeper river.

The rest of the river edge has also had the magic water treatment now and sparkles nicely. I also moved the heron from the wall where he was vulnerable, and didn't have a good solid foundation (the wall is just foam), and is now rooted into a hole drilled into one of the plaster rocks. 

Over the last couple of weeks I've also been testing stock, carrying out repairs and adjustments to couplings and mechanisms, and generally preparing for Heworthy's second exhibition this weekend at Uckfield. It's always a good show, and Hexworthy will be easy to spot as it will be located in the entrance lobby. If you visit do say hello!

Coaching for exhibitions

Hexworthy has a couple of exhibitions coming up, the first being at Uckfield next weekend. Having done little modelling over the summer, there were a number of jobs I wanted to finish, so the last few weeks have been busy with multiple projects on the go. Starting with a pair of 009 Society kits for Hudson "toast rack" coaches. 

The instructions said to add the etched circular rails to the sides before assembly, but I found that made assembly more tricky - especially fitting the benches - and positioning the railings was fiddly anyway. For the second coach, I assembled the body and fitted the bench seats first, adding the etched rails just before adding the seat back rails, fitting the rails was still fiddly but overall it was easier. 

I also found fitting the etched steps tricky. It didn't help I bent the first one in the wrong way as the instructions weren't clear, but while on one coach superglue held them in place straight away, on the other they just wouldn't stick in place. I eventually got them fixed on the third attempt, but you can see the mess...

For some reason, one of the coaches started bowing in at the top edge, so I inserted some plasticard supports, but the other seems just fine. With little to the sides they are delicate. 

Bogies are the standard WD moulding, but I added the handbrake wheel to the end rather than the upstand (which would foul the end of the coach). The back-to-back of the wheelsets was checked, and my new pinpoint reamer tool used in the axleboxes before inserting the axles to ensure free running. 

Another batch of passengers were painted, again a mixture of Preiser HO and the 3D printed Finescale Figures (with no legs) I got a while back. This job is tedious, but at least in the open coaches, noticeable. The Preiser HO figures were used in the toastracks since the lack of legs might look a bit odd, they're a bit small but better than empty coaches. 

This coach got painted with enamel (Humbrol 48), not happy with the way it was covering I decided to airbrush the other coach. That said, while not the best paint finish, it's come out looking OK in the end, with a coat of Dullcote. The roof is primer with airbrushed soot, the underframes and step got airbrushed dirt. 

This coach got airbrushed with the Tamia deep green as used on the Ashover coaches, but coverage was poor, and it dried shiny. This didn't seem right. I decided to brush on another coat, then realised that the pigment had settled and the pre-airbrush shake hadn't mixed it well as the jar was getting low. So, the finish in the end isn't really any better than the coach above. This got a little more dirt, as though older and due a repaint. 

The completed pair, although the coach on the right will match the Ashover coaches while that on the left is a better match for Ffestiniog coaches. 

Or, as here, matched with the WHR coach and a small brakevan for a suitable train for a quarry Hunslet - perhaps a private charter or coach party?

Another job was this Dundas kit of Ffestiniog Railway coach no. 10, this I'd made years ago but the green was a bit bright, the windows had turned yellow, and a footboard had got lost. Repainted with Humbrol 48 it is a better match to other FR coaches, a replacement footboard was made up and fitted (can you tell?), and new glazing fitted - I confess I didn't cut to recess the glazing so it's not as flush as it could be. I also noticed the handrails never got fitted, but it may be neater without than with wonky ones. It already had passengers, but I've fitted Greenwich couplings in place of the Microtrains, they're body mounted but this is a short coach and curves on Hexworthy are relaxed so I expect that will be OK. 

Another job was the light weathering and fitting of passengers to the Bowsider bogie coach (and also a couple of bug-boxes) acquired recently. 

And so a few more coaches are ready for service on Hexworthy, giving more options for train consists and redundancy in case of issues (such as broken couplings). The weekend was spent testing trains, particularly for smooth running and reliable coupling/uncoupling, though that doesn't mean new problems arise during exhibition running!

Colourful wagons

I've three exhibitions coming up this Autumn and with little modelling done over the summer, I've several jobs ongoing to finish some projects before the exhibitions. Most of these are focused on Hexworthy, but first up three wagons have been completed for Loctern Quay. These had just been awaiting weathering which was done with an acrylic wash followed by a dusting of the underframe with the airbrush. 

The Royal Daylight tank has also had a dark wash around the filler caps and streaked down the sides, I used water soluble oils for this which allowed a damp brush to remove paint until a subtle rain-streaked look was achieved. Whether this is spillage during loading, or just soot, is open to conjecture...

As well as weathering the weedkiller wagon, I decided the valves and spraying gear were not visible enough. I touched in the valve handles in red, and also put red ends to the "spraying" bar - since it is low to the ground and protrudes beyond the sides of the wagon, this seems a plausible measure. Although intended for Loctern Quay, this wagon could also be used in works trains to Hexworthy.

The Peco banana van has had the roof painted grey and the couplings removed to be replaced with Microtrains ready for shunting at Loctern Quay. The wash was applied then dabbed off with a damp kitchen towel until it settled in the planking and crevices, without looking overly dirty. The airbrush applied a little track dirt along the lower sides and underframe, and a little soot over the roof and upper ends. It now looks more at home at Loctern Quay - OK, it's unlikely to be actually carrying bananas, but could have been painted as a joke or advertising stunt perhaps?

Three more wagons that are colourful and distinctive, so should work well in the shunting puzzle at Loctern Quay and add interest to viewers. Now I just need to make photo cards for the puzzle, and run some tests to thoroughly check coupling reliability. 

River ups and downs

Following the last post on the experiments creating ripples, I applied the same techniques to the river and stream on the layout. Or at least, I thought I was using the same techniques.

I stippled on the gloss gel and pushed it into wavelets with the airbrush, using a cocktail stick to push it into the cracks between the rocks, but after 24 hours the waves were still opaque. 

This might be OK for whitewater rapids or surf on a beach, but wasn't what I was after! I thought it might be a disaster, but actually the gloss gel layer proved easy to peel off. Perhaps it wasn't fully hard. 

So, back to square one. This time I was careful to keep the gloss gel to a thin layer with the stippling much more fine. Again, a cocktail stick was used to push the gel between the boulders. 

The airbrush has minimal effect to be honest, but the higher peaks of the stipples take on a more wave-like appearance. I tried to make these wavelets in a broadly consistent direction. 

This time the gel dried completely clear, and the ripple effect was much finer and I think more effective than before. 

The water glistens nicely in the layout lights. I then thought I'd apply the Aqua Magic as I had on the test piece.

Another disaster! As I was applying the aqua magic, the gel layer underneath started to turn opaque again. I stopped after the first length of riverbank, but there was nothing I could do but wait and see what happened as it dried. This hadn't happened on the test piece?

Fortunately, the next morning the river had dried clear again. I guess the Aqua Magic softened the gloss gel, despite that having had over 24 hours to dry. This bit of river looks nice and glossy but not really noticeably different to the rest of the river that hasn't had the Aqua Magic, so I'll hold off applying that for now. Quit while I'm ahead I guess...

Making ripples

While the river and stream have depth and look shiny, I'm not sure the effect is quite what is needed. A little while back Tom Dauben suggested I add ripples using a thicker gloss gel, hence I got a tub of Liquitex Gloss Super Heavy Gel. Once again, out came the test pieces for the river for experimentation. The base river uses gloss Modge Podge with a brown tint as described previously. 

The gel was stippled on with a small brush, giving small surface undulations and enabling the gel to be worked up to the banks and around stones. Doesn't quite look like water though. 

I then used my airbrush - without paint - to blow the wet gel. I found about 30 psi pushed the gel into little wavelets which had direction. This looked much better than just stippling, though probably the wavelets are a bit high. 

I'd noticed on Loctern Quay that the gloss Modge Podge does gradually lose it's shininess, becoming a little dull. In my test pieces, the Delux Materials Aqua Magic hadn't gone far with a tendency to thin when drying, but it was noticeably more shiny than the Modge Podge, with no sign of dulling - astonishingly it's been 2 years since I first did these tests! So I decided to try a layer of Aqua Magic over the Modge Podge. The left-hand river here has Aqua Magic over smooth Modge Podge over the lower 25%, and over the stippled and blown gel covering the upper 25%. I also tried a deeper layer of the gel on the right hand river.

Here's the results. The deeper gel (lower right in the above picture, top right in the below picture) didn't dry clear, showing it can only be used in thin layers (as expected). The stippled and blown gel does look quite effective. The addition of the Aqua Magic (at either end of the upper / left hand river) definitely makes the surface look shinier and more wet, and over the textured gel it helps smooth and level the surface a little while leaving plenty of texture. I think this combination works well, there may be better ways of achieving wet looking ripples but this looks effective without a lot of effort. 

Just need to repeat over the several feet of stream/river on the layout now.

The writing's on the tank

I can't believe the last update on the tanker wagons was in May. Progress has been a bit intermittent. While sourcing some suitable transfers I finished the painting. The wagon chassis were painted grey, as usual for my freight stock, with black underframes. The round tank got sprayed with a red aerosol I had in the garage, I picked out pipes and valve/filler caps in metallic aluminium. The square tanks were painted off-black, as were strapping and other details. I'm not sure whether to paint the weedkiller pipes in a more visible colour?

I decided on Woodland Scenics/Model Graphics rub-down white gothic lettering. This provides a range of sizes, which was useful as I wasn't quite sure what size to use, and I thought rub-down lettering might be easier given I've not used transfers since my teens. I printed out the wording in the nearest font I could match at a range of sizes, decided which size would fit the wagons best, then found the nearest size on the transfer sheet. 

Before starting on the tank wagons I used an old Colin Ashby wagon as a practice run, lettering it for loco coal. I found the transfers easy to apply, but tricky to line up, especially if handling the whole sheet and where there is uneven detail. So, I decided the cut out each letter and align and space them onto a piece of masking tape, before transferring (ahem) to the model. Of course, this had to be done upside-down, I put a length of tape half onto a steel rule and flipped it over then placed the lettering on face down and back-to-front.

The tape was then peeled off the ruler and lined up on the model, ensuring the lettering is straight and positioned correctly, before rubbing the lettering down with a pencil.

The same technique was used for the round tank, this time I used one of the printouts to help get the right spacing - albeit in mirror! Positioning the right letters in the right order and the right way round when they are upside-down and back-to-front takes some concentration...

The tank was still attached to the coffee stirrer used for holding it for painting, so I taped that to the edge of a block of wood to hold the tank on its side. The ruler was flipped and positioned with the letters along the centre of the tank, and a second strip of tape used to hold the top of the letters in place. With everything checked for alignment, the letters were rubbed down and the backing sheet removed one by one.

And here's the result. The lettering gives purpose to the wagons, and should help make them stand out in Loctern Quay's shunting puzzle. 

I've refitted the wheels and couplings to the tank wagons, these are now just awaiting weathering, and of course picture cards for the shunting puzzle. I'm sure I put the wheels from the open wagon somewhere safe... when I find them it could get added to the fleet, though it has already served its purpose as a practice for the lettering. 

A Baguley and a pair of Bug Boxes

A few additions to the stock list today. A couple of Ffestiniog bug-boxes and a yellow Baguley Drewry. 

The bug boxes will of course go well with the England and Double Fairlie locos. The Baguley will probably end up on works trains, I don't really need another modern diesel but it is nicely detailed, looks great on the layout, the yellow pops out, and of course it runs sweetly. 

However, I was also drawn to it because of the one at Amberley, in which I had a cab ride a year or so back. 

My model will no doubt get some weathering to make it look like a well-worked loco, but I don't think I'll go as far as the "weathering" on the Amberley loco!