Fourdees Whiting Hunslet-style Tram Loco

After the push to get Whittingly ready for the deadline, then prepped for the NEC, it was time for an easy and quick project. This Fourdees kit seemed ideal. The 3D printed body kit "Whiting" is a tram loco inspired by Hunslet designs, and fits the Kato 109 chassis.

Very little prep was required. I cleaned up some printing marks and burnished some faint layering on the boiler. I also opened out the square coupling pockets for Microtrains couplings, this took a few minutes with a file - it's not often that fitting Microtrains is this easy.

The body, plus separate roof and backhead detail, and some crew, were primed. One of the crew is a poor quality whitemetal casting of unknown origin, but his face won't really be visible and his weight might help. The other is from my favourite recruitment agency - Dapol. The body was sprayed with a Halfords green enamel aerosol, which turned out to be problematic as the can seemed to be leaking propellant, clogged the nozzle, and when I realised I'd missed an angle it would only dribble. Fortunately, I could dribble some into a jar and touch-up the final bits with a brush!

The remaining painting was done with acrylics and a brush. The backhead detail is rather good, the half-height cab rear means there is a chance of seeing it though the crew mostly hide it. 

The resin body needs some weight, which helps the light chassis too - the Kato 109 runs smoothly enough but doesn't have much inertia. Roofing lead was cut and squashed to fit through the gaps into the side tanks, and a length was stuck under the boiler. 

Chassis fitted, and couplings installed with the screw through the coupling pocket. I had to use long-shank Microtrains to clear the nice cowcatchers. 

Crew stuck into the cab before fixing the roof (with PVA so it can be removed if needed). A little crushed coal was added over the moulded stuff in the bunkers. 

And complete. A very light weathering of water soluble oils has been applied, more may follow but I think it will stay reasonably clean. This view shows how good the print is, with no obvious layering, 3D printing has come a long way since the early days. The handrails and cab roof are a little clunky, perhaps the only clues of it being a 3D print?

I took a couple of photos with the new camera too.

And the final shot, a viewpoint on Loctern Quay that has been very difficult to capture due to the depth of field needed to get both loco and background buildings in focus. The new camera, set to F32, manual focus, and a long exposure on a tripod, can do it with no post-processing.

As expected, this kit has gone together quickly and easily, with most of the time painting it. It's a good looking and smooth running loco, which I hope will fit in well on Loctern Quay. The Fourdees kits are a great introduction to 009 loco kits, especially using the good value Kato chassis. 

Emery paper and masking tape

I have been making slow progress over the last few months with two 3D printed Diesels, a Narrow Planet Baguley-Drewry and a CWR Hunslet, both as used at RNAD depots. I was keen to get a good surface finish so spent much time with fine emery paper, then a coat of primer, more rubbing down, this was repeated 4 or 5 times until I was happy the print lines were gone. These were both good quality prints, but the effort in surface preparation is worthwhile.

The recent fine weather was a good chance to spray with the top coat - I chose Halfords enamel dark green, as I've used for other locos, and looks rather smart. The rattle cans give a good finish with little effort, so I decided to spray the black frames and roof too.



This is the first time I've used masking to spray different colours, and I was very pleased with the result. It helps that the break is between body and footplate so lining up the tape straight is easy, and there's little chance of bleed under the tape. I used Tamiya tape (yellow) for the edges, which sticks well with a clean edge but low tack, and "domestic" masking tape for covering the bulk of the model in between.



After spraying a few coats of Halfords black enamel, the exciting bit is peeling back the tape!



The Tamiya tape was carefully pulled away with tweezers. I'm very pleased with that finish!



You may notice I haven't yet fitted the etch components including the bonnet sides, I thought it might be easier to paint this way. The etch has been blackened, primed, and painted separately.

So now the details are being brush painted with enamels. Buffer beams get a coat of white followed by two of red (I considered yellow and possibly even wasp-stripes, but I do like red with the green). Cab interiors are cream. You may notice another loco has made it to the paint shop too...