Coach upgrades

I've been doing a spot of work on some coaches. Firstly, a couple of older models. The Five79 Dundas Tramway coach was built in 2015 for Awngate, while the Dundas kit for a Vale of Rheidol brake van is even older and also saw service on Awngate. However, having adopted a darker shade of green for the Ashover coaches more recently, I thought these would look better in a matching shade rather than the lighter green used on Awngate. 

I removed the roofs, glazing, and vacuum pipes, and some of the seating from the coach came out too, but didn't strip the existing paint. The Tamyia deep green acrylic paint was brush painted, thinned with a little water to flow well and not dry too quickly, and allowing 3 coats for full opacity without obscuring the detail. The frames were painted off-black, and the window frames picked out in pale brown (a fiddley job but worthwhile). The roofs were sprayed with grey primer, the coach roof was given a covering of masking tape first though I didn't bother on the van since the lamp top was well fixed. 

The pair were then weathered in my usual way: a dirty brown wash over the underframes, a track brown airbrushed over the underframes and just onto the lower edges of the body, and an off-black airbrushed over the roofs and ends. These vehicles retain their Microtrains couplings, and can accompany a pair of the Ashover coaches with which they fit well, to form a longer train of mixed but matching vehicles for Hexworthy. 

This pair of Peco Glyn Valley Tramway coaches are much newer, having been acquired ready-to-run in the last year. I expect they will add to the stock suitable for use with smaller locos, such as quarry Hunslets, on Hexworthy. However, like most RTR stock, they look too clean and plasticky, even for a preserved railway. 

End details of steps, handrails, and brake levers were touched in with off-black, as were the underframes and lamp tops to take away their shiny finish. Foot steps were painted weathered brown, and inside, the seats painted green although this is barely visible through the windows. I had some seated figures left over from previous coaches, so both got a scattering of passengers. 

Weathering follows the same process as the other vehicles, the "soot" being even more effective on the white roofs. Not really visible here, but I've added wire droppers to the couplings to allow magnetic uncoupling. 

Weathering 009 Coaches in BRM

December's BRM magazine has another of my articles. This time it is covering subtle weathering and detailing of ready to run coaches, for which I used a couple of 009 coaches for Hexworthy. 

The techniques are those I've used on other 009 coaches and have described here. I do use an airbrush, but in a very simple way, and the basic tasks include painting details and adding figures as well as adding shadows, smoke, and road dust.

The coaches look so much better for the small investment in time, and remain smart enough for use on a preserved railway, but have lost the box-fresh plasticky look for a more real-life appearance. 

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!

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!

Readying ready to run

I've a lot of small tasks ongoing in parallel at the moment, mostly preparing stock for Hexworthy in preparation for its first exhibition next month. The first to be finished was a small but important task, making ready-to-run coaches actually ready to run. Lovely though the Peco coaches are, they have a bit of a plasticky look (particularly the roofs) and are too clean even for a preserved railway.

The three Lynton and Barnstaple coaches had a number of little jobs done:

• The white plastic roofs were airbrushed with off-white acrylic, as much as anything to reduce the plasticky sheen and to take the edge off the starkness
• They then had a fine mist of black splattered over the top to represent soot, as with the Ashover coaches
• The lamp tops were then picked out in matt black (well, very dark grey), the little covers next to them were left white
• The plastic moulded hand-rail had the edge picked out in black, which from most angles makes it look much more like a handrail than a white ridge
• The steps, lamp brackets, and handrails on the coach ends were also picked out in matt dark grey/black, I also painted the buffer beams black
• The grey/black thinned slightly was also run along the footboards and underframes to soften them and make them matt
• A mid-brown acrylic was then airbrushed lightly over the footboards and underframes, allowing a little to mist onto the lower sides and ends. 

The airbrushing was done very lightly, using the end-stop to limit paint flow, aiming for a very subtle weathering from track dirt and loco soot, but otherwise leaving the coaches clean as though regularly washed. I guess it reflects my increasing confidence with the airbrush. 

I've also been painting passengers, a mix of Faller and the 3D printed Finescale Figures (the legless ones). These used acrylics, some were a bit shiny so I added a coat of Humbrol Matcote - which left them more shiny. Am I doing something wrong? Fortunately I had some Vallejo matt acrylic varnish, a couple of coats of which worked. 

Passengers fitted to the L&B coaches, and also the WHR coach built a little while back. A couple of people per compartment works well, so 5-6 per coach is sufficient to give the impression of a partially occupied train. 

The passengers are just visible through the windows, and the subtle weathering to roofs and underframes is effective at removing the plastickyness. 

The four-wheelers  got the same treatment. I didn't like the white roof on the brake so it was sprayed with grey primer, and the lamp-top painted black along with the steps on the ends. As with the L&B coaches a light airbrushing of soot from above and track dirt from below gives the impression of use, a few minutes work makes a big difference. I've not yet fitted passengers, although the small windows means it probably isn't essential. 

Ashover coaches Part 6 - completion

In the last update the Ashover coaches had been painted. I applied a brown enamel wash sparingly to the bogies, underframes and steps, and in places allowed this to wick up into the match-boarding grooves, mainly on the ends. The result is subtle and barely noticeable, but does soften the black and give a clean but used look. Then, a spray of matt varnish was applied. 

In parallel I painted a selection of Faller seated passengers using artists acrylics, mixed on the palette on the go, I don't find these paints as nice to use as enamels and the result is rather crude, but it was a fast method that gave acceptable results considering they will be visible only through the windows of the coach. I used deliberately varied colours to ensure they could be seen though!

The next step was glazing the coaches, a slightly tricky and involved job, complicated by the open windows! I used 0.5mm clear styrene which was protected with a peel-off layer both sides, I removed this after cutting to size and just before fitting to avoid scratches and fingerprints, then stuck in place with Humbrol Clearfix which doesn't fog the glazing, dries clear, and excess can be removed easily with a cocktail stick as it dries. The glazing is fitted behind the sides so not flush, which is noticeable at the open windows but only on close inspection. The ends with open doors used thinner clear plastic. 

Then the passengers could be installed, sitting on blobs of contact adhesive. A couple of ladies had diverted to the Hexworthy station café but there were enough for 5-6 people per coach, sufficient to suggest occupancy. 

The bogies had their couplings fitted. Some had been prepared for Microtrains couplings already, so these were attached with a cut-down screw. The rest have Greenwich couplings fitted, they're not my normal coupling and I found them fiddly to make up, though it got easier with practice. They needed a couple of bends in the shank to bring them from under the bogie to the correct height. To ensure they are securely fixed I drilled a hole through the bogie and inserted an L-shape piece of 0.5mm wire inverted so it protrudes below the bogie, and slotted one of the holes in the coupling shank (opened out slightly) over the wire as I superglued it to the bogie. The wire "peg" should take the lateral shear force.

You may be wondering why the couplings are different at each end of the coach! I want to run them with my existing kit-built locos fitted with Microtrains couplings, or the ready-to-run locos now available which have standard 009 couplings and are difficult or impossible to fit Microtrains couplings to. By having a pairs of coaches with different couplings at each end, either coupling type can face outward from the set. The fifth coach has Greenwich couplings to make a rake of three either coupled onto or between the pairs. 

Finally, the roofs were fixed with matt Modge Podge, this is sticky enough to hold them and yet easily removed without damage if needed, while being easy to clean up and leaving no trace. And so the five coaches are complete and ready for service on Hexworthy. Three fit the platform with space to spare (four don't, but there may be space for a 4-wheeler), while two fill the bay. The livery looks great, and they fit well with a variety of locos. 

I didn't quite manage to finish them ahead of the Bachmann models release, and missed my own hoped for deadline of the end of the year by one day. But that doesn't matter. I know my models are unique, not just in livery but the details such as handrails (which appear moulded on the Bachmann model) and open windows, and of course the brake conversion (well, that's not totally unique as my friend Tim did his first!). Most importantly, I'm pleased with the way they have come out and I expect they will provide useful service on Hexworthy. 

New coaches and people

 Christmas has brought a couple of new coaches...

A Festiniog Railway "bug box" and a freelance Glyn Valley style brake van. There were a few other model railway related presents with some scenic items and some 3D printed figures...

These are from Finescale Figures (actually ordered in a sale some time ago), the selection includes some seated figures destined for coaches, a variety of animals, and some modern dress figures. These are resin printed and although the detail is not as sharp as Model-U, they are realistic in proportion and pose and I'm sure will benefit Hexworthy. 

I trust Santa brought you nice goodies too!

Ashover coaches Part 5 - Painting

 Having decided on the colour - the Tamyia deep green with white window surround - it was time to start painting the coaches. I'd primed them in white, but the areas to be white were painted an off-white (white with a few drops of beige mixed in) so as to be not too stark. 

The upper part of the body around the windows was masked. There's a handy recess between the waist beading and the top board, 9mm tall. The tape I had was 10mm wide.. so I cut to length and trimmed 1mm off the edge while stuck to glass, then transferred the tape to the coach body. I have the glass from a broken picture frame taped to it's backing board with graph paper in between, handy for assembling things square and flat but also for cutting tape.

The green acrylic paint was airbrushed. I'm still learning here, and find the frequent cleaning of the airbrush tedious, but I think getting getter. Mind you, I'm still getting used to acrylic paint too. I added some Tamyia acrylic thinners to the Tamyia acrylic paint and it seemed to start coagulating, and the airbrush clogged. Using water to thin the paint worked better, how is that? Anyway, it was worth persisting for the good finish from airbrushing. (The clothes peg helped to hold the coach while painting).

With the masking removed I was very pleased with how it had worked. There were a few places paint had leached under the tape as seen on the lower coach, which needed touching up, but mostly the join was clean and tidy. 

While I had the airbrush out I weathered the roofs (which were in grey primer) with a dark grey acrylic mix. This is varies a little in density and hopefully represents smoke deposits. 

The frames, steps, and handrails were painted with black acrylic, as were the lamptops. I considered masking but the matchboard sides and handrails would have made that difficult, and probably ineffective. Hand painting was tricky and even so some black paint wicked up into the matchboarding requiring touching up. I realised I should have painted the lamptops before fitting! The window drop-frames were painted very carefully with light brown enamel paint - I still prefer the way enamel paint flows - and the tiny door handles dry brushed with enamel brass colour. The insides were roughly painted with brown bench seats and cream/white walls, although I left the end vestibules in green. Not seen here, but the bogies were painted with a black-grey enamel. 

I'm very happy with the way the painting has gone, but there's a little way to go yet. I'd like to matt varnish them, but the weather isn't great for spraying at the moment. I'm wondering about subtle weathering - not to take away from the clean look expected of a preserved railway, but to add dust to the underframes. Then there will be glazing to cut and fit, including around all those open windows!

Ashover coaches part 4 - Shades of green

The Ashover coaches got primed today. Not much to share from that, but the next question is what livery to paint them? My usual livery is a light green, sometimes with white upper panels, sometimes with the drop window frames picked out in light brown. I think the usual green is Humbrol 101, although I am sometimes confused and the balcony coach in the background is Humbrol 76 - which is also my usual loco green. I'm also wondering if the lighter green is a little too bright, perhaps because of the way it looks under the daylight LEDs?

So, do I go for a plain green with beige window frames? The Ashover painted their coaches one colour (dark red), so this would make sense, and is much easier to paint. The modern interpretation is lined, but I don't see the lining in black and white photos of the original coaches.

(Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/rossendalian2013/33942012544) 

On the other hand, white upper panels will look more interesting, on these coaches I'd go for white between the waistband and the top of the windows, rather like this (imagine green in place of blue):

(Photo from https://www.flickr.com/photos/kitmasterbloke/29351598477)

A two-tone livery can be brush painted, I've done it before, but may be neater/easier by masking which would allow airbrushing, although there's a lot of masking for 5 coaches. Airbrushing could give a nicer finish and is less likely to bleed under masking, but that means using acrylics (I have no spray booth and so no desire to vaporise solvents in the house). And so we are back to paint choice, and like decorating a room, we have paint samples on the underside of the coaches, seen under layout lighting:

From the right we have three shades of Humbrol enamel:

• 101 is the usual coach green
• 48 I thought would be a touch darker, but I think is too dark
• 76 is my usual loco green, and used on the balcony coach seen above

From the left we have three shades of acrylic (all the shades I have!):

• Vallejo mid green, actually not far off the current green. I used this on a couple of locos recently
• Vallejo gunship green, rather an olive green (or, unsurprisingly, camouflage)
• Tamia deep green, a darker but a nice shade

On the plus side, the roofs are simple - primed in grey, which I think will do nicely.

Ashover coaches part 3: Details and roofs

The instructions don't mention handrails but pictures of the coaches show them prominently, and with the steps for low platforms they are an obvious requirement. I realised that staples were slightly too long but would fit if I was happy to accept them running to the bottom of the door, lower than the prototype, and being a flat section. I'm not making an exact model so figured the precise length and bends would save a lot of time, and look better than I can manage bending wire.

I drilled all the holes (80!) with the dremel in the stand, using a slightly undersize bit as it tended to melt the hole bigger than the drill, even in short bursts (I wish it could go slower!) - but much quicker and easier than using the pin vice by hand. The staple legs were cut shorter (especially to avoid the window openings), and supergled in using a 20-thou strip of plastic for even spacing from the body. 

The brake coach had steps made up from plasticard. Those at the left (saloon) end were made to match those of the other coaches, those under the guard's compartment doors made to a similar style but longer to match the double doors, and passing in front of the frame bracing. The steps are 20-thou plastic but the upright supports are 40-thou, and with a second thickness of 40-thou between the steps to support them. 

I also added door handles. They are not very prominent on the photos and are quite slender on the frames of the sliding doors, so I just used short lengths of microstrip vertially on the outer edges of the doors, but horizontally on the brake compartment doors which are assumed to hinge inwards in the usual way.

Experimenting with roofs led me to realise that they didn't fit well to the ends of the coaches, and it seemed that the ends were too low, and the top edge sloped down to the outer edge. To avoid an unsightly gap I added a strip of 20 thou plastic to the top of the end, and filed it smooth to the front and level across the top. I also added a little microstrip to the top of the door frame. You can just see the door handle behind the left handrail here.

I decided on the drinks-can roof. The moulded plastic roof was slightly too curved and wasn't smooth underneath, making shortening and fitting complex, while fabricating a plastic roof to be a neat fit and not warp is challenging, especially as the partitions leave little room for bracing underneath. 

The metal was cut to size with a scalpel using lots of light cuts. I decided to cover the metal with masking tape to give a tarred cloth finish, it also serves to stiffen the metal slightly. I took care to roll the roof onto the tape rather than flatten it, so the curvature is maintained. The sides and ends are then folded underneath. 

To further strengthen the roof and prevent it distorting I added a couple of lengths of 40-thou plastic longitudanally underneath, the strips spaced apart with slices of plasticard then superglued to the roof. 

Some of the kits came with lamp ventilators but they didn't match, and some kits didn't. I found a load of matching whitemetal ventilators in my bits box, not sure of the original source. I think the prototypes had torpedo type ventilators rather than these "sea-shell" type, but at least all 5 coaches will have the same type. Holes are drilled with the dremel again and they are superglued from underneath. 

I'm also fitting rainstrips which, perhaps surprisingly given the doors being at the ends, curves over the whole length of the sides. The strips are tacked in place with plasticweld solvent, which doesn't really stick to the masking tape/metal roof, but holds it long enough to dribble some superglue along it. A fiddly job, 2 roofs are now done so just 3 more to complete!