Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[kimballthurlow]

G'Day Gents

For small GN 2-4-0's and 4-4-0's, I used the County loco chassis combined with the 'Schools' tender.

manna

Thanks manna,
That information might come in handy.
I guess the Schools tenders would often come up for sale independently.

Kimball

[manna]

G'Day Folks

Hi Kimball, I see them on E-Bay, around the 30 quid mark ( app $60 Aust) a lot dearer than they used to be, I have them running behind my, D3,C2 and E1.

manna

[Atlantic 3279]

A large dose of courage, or possibly just my pig-headedness or outright insanity has resulted in an attempt to apply virtually full lining to the splashers, sandboxes, running plate angle irons, steps and tender frames of the Stirling 174 series loco, alongside my attempts to get on with livery of the V4 too.
I had done as much as seemed possible or sensible using HMRS lining that I had to hand, so had to switch to bow pen and fine brushes. Compared to time spent actually applying the lines, I may well have spent longer removing paint with a spirit-dampened brush, and re-touching background colour alongside lining. I know it has all taken a very long time, and I am very conscious that I need to get on with some resin casting soon for a couple of patient fellow modellers.
The red lining to the lower parts of the models is freshly applied today. That on the Stirling model will certainly need some further tidying in places and subsequent addition of the black edges that the red line is supposed to separate from the brown. Unfortunately, the red lines are a darker shade than the more convincingly "vermillion" shade on the buffer beams as I simply could not tolerate the extremely slow drying time of the lighter/brighter red paint, so I switched to trusty Humbrol 19 for the lining. I hope it will not be strikingly different once the black is there too.
Because the hornplates around the axleboxes on my Kitmaster-based tender are wrongly represented on the outside of the frames, when there should simply be flat plate in those areas, and because I didn't alter that feature, I felt that there was no way to correctly or tidily apply the red lines that should run around the frame cut-outs close to the edges of each axlebox. I have however tried to line the faces of the axleboxes themsleves correctly and I hope it will end up looking as if there is enough lining overall. If it all fails to convince, I do have the option or returning to a plain brown finish on the frames. Groves, in his book on the Stirling locos, suggests that the black edging and red lining was sometimes omitted.

The lining of the V4 has proved awkward in places because of original builder's defects that I hadn't spotted at an earlier stage when I removed most of the mal-positioned cast boiler band from the firebox. I should also have noticed that solder had partly filled the angle between the firebox, the cab front and the raised lower rim of one of the spectacles. I was so far into the job when I recognised the problem that I rejected the idea of trying to undo that fault. Lining has therefore had to run over the unwanted irregularity! With the running plate not being quite level under one side of the cab and firebox too I've had to be careful to try to make it look level by applying the red lining horizontally (like the white on the lower edge of the cab) as I think that the eye tends to notice the white and red more than the black areas...

[nzpaul]

Painstaking as the work may be Graeme, at least the rewards are plain to see.

Paul

[Chas Levin]

I'd say the same, lovely results. And I sympathise with the time you spend removing paint and thinning lines with a spirit-dampened brush - I haven't even got to the background re-touching stage yet!

[john coffin]

Graeme,
looks really good.

Given that few people going forward will see the loco and tender as close as your photos I feel certain that
few will be able to see any perceived flaws.
You will just have to keep both locos moving

Paul

[Atlantic 3279]

After adding the black edges I'd decided that the original red lining was too dark so I repeated it in a brighter shade. Once I'd touched in visible defects in the red, the black and the green, some of which had been marked by repeated handling, I was at last able to spray over with a satin mixture of varnish to seal the transfers, protect the fine paint lines better, and unify the finish. In view of the weather yesterday I had to take care to keep equipment and model warm enough during the spraying process! I then considered that save for the need to add vacuum pipes and to carefully re-touch the "brass" in a couple of places on the splasher beadings, the livery of the Stirling 174 series was as complete as it needed to be, so this morning I reassembled it and took some pictures.
I don't begin to pretend that it is up to Brackenborough / Studley / Goddard / Rathbone / Heywood / Haynes or any other true professional's painting standards, but what matters to me is that I did it myself. As the images will show, after some indecision I eventually chose to ignore the incorrect presence of visible external hornplates around the axleboxes on the tender, and added fine red lines around the edges of what should be the plain cut outs. I thought the lining looked incomplete without those.

[Atlantic 3279]

The slightly less intricate livery on the V4 which I'd been applying partly in parallel with the 174 series was similarly completed by red bow-pen lining and final satin varnish. One of these images shows the irregularity of part of the lining at the junction of the cab and boiler, owing to that solder build-up that I'd failed to notice at an earlier stage. At least it's not too bad...

[Atlantic 3279]

Months after I should have done, I also took care of the overall satin varnishing of the A5 body, while the spraying gear was set up:

[Chas Levin]

Three lovely looking locos! It's been a particular pleasure watching the 174 taking shape as it's such a rare sight: thank you for posting all the pics and details.

[manna]

G'Day Gents

All that lining isn't going to do the eyesight any good, now for a healthy dose of weathering.

Hat coat .......gone.

manna

[S.A.C. Martin]

Superb stuff Graeme. The GNR goods in particular looking as fine as anything I have seen out of those modellers. The fact is you built and painted it yourself, including designing the moulds and more to bring it into existence - great stuff, love it.

[mick b]

Excelllent work , well done .

[Mercator II]

A pleasure to look at your work there Graeme , you should be right proud of these

[nzpaul]

Excellent as always Graeme. I'm wondering, now that you've finished one, how long it's going to be before the V4 is announced by one of the manufacturers. Can't be far off now that the A1 group have a 1:1 scale model on the go.

Paul