Adding the couplings

Yes, long time no post. The thought of making a mess on the last lap has been putting me off, but time to get a grip...

I've described my 3-link couplings elsewhere. I understand that 08's often had Instanter or 3-links hanging on the hooks, thereby almost hiding the screw couplings so to keep things simple I'm just going to use 3-links.

There's a lot of gubbins to avoid under a loco chassis, so I've made sure the back of the hooks are bent tight against the bufferbeams.

Painting the nose

The nose is yellow at the front and sides, and black on top.

I'm soon thinking that I might have been wiser to paint this area before the blue sides, as these areas are flat and could have been masked off while I painted the sides afterwards.

Another thing I might have done earlier, is to make sure the flat areas really are flat with no excess resin.

resin flash on nose


clear tape used as mask



I want the area behind the grille to be more of a dirty brown than this, but I'll experiment with watercolour or weathering powder after I've varnished this.

After the time I've spent trying to get clean lines here it's disappointing to see the "close-ups". Having an unsteady hand, I suppose painting was never going to be my area of expertise. Now I need to be careful not to make things worse with the tricky-looking wasp-stripes.

Painting the cab

This has taken far longer than I would have hoped, as past mistakes come haunting back.

I'd folded the cab inside-out then had to correct it. I'd strengthened the corners with epoxy for simplicity but part-way through painting one of the corners came apart. I decided to solder the joint this time, giving much greater strength but meaning I had to strip the paint and start again.

Part-way through painting and the same thing happened to the other epoxied joint, so this is now my third attempt. At least the cab feels stronger now, and I've learned a lesson about trying to cut (epoxy?) corners.

I'm using Railmatch 202 yellow, described as matching the yellow used from 1984 onwards, and it looks pretty much like photos of my prototype from the 1980's.

I'd got some "low tack" masking tape from Phoenix.

Using the tape to protect the finished side.

In the end I found I got a cleaner effect at the edges from clear sticky tape.

Hmm... suppose I should paint the inside too.


... and tidy up the window edges.

But these are minor details. I was concerned about getting clean lines where yellow meets blue, and (enlarged images aside) I feel I've achieved that.

Connecting the motor

The motor will need to collect current from the rails via the wheels.

This aspect isn't illustrated in the instructions, presumably being considered standard procedure, but I now find myself wishing that I'd thought more about it earlier.

Because of the split-frame design, both sides of the chassis are live, so wires can in principle be led from any part of the chassis to the motor terminals.

In practice things like axles, gears and the motor itself get in the way and of course the wires should be unseen on the finished model. So I find myself with a tricky job soldering around wheels to access a small area on the top of the chassis, at the same time shielding the nearest wheel from flux and solder.

The left-hand wire is only a few mills from the wheel and the gear.

Now to connect the wires to the motor. Had to do this twice as first time the polarity was opposite to that on my converted Farish 08.

My "mid-air" soldering never looks tidy.

But it runs. The chassis trundles along comfortably at about 8-10 scale mph. Any slower and it's stop-start, but perhaps a bit of weight in the body will improve things.


Postscript

Thank you to those who showed interest in this blog at the recent 2mm Scale Association AGM. I was inspired as always by the general standard of modelling on show there, but staying on-topic I took the opportunity to see Mick’s prototype model 08 running. It ran smoother and more slowly than mine, so I came home determined to match it.

I’ve cleaned off the dirty oil and gunk from the gear train and axles, polished the wheels with fine wet-and-dry paper and now on my new, flatter test-track with KPC controller the chassis plus coupling rods runs pretty well down to about 1.7 scale mph.



I still feel there’s an issue with my gears, but it looks as though it’s not going to prevent the loco running reasonably well for a first attempt. Mick has made sure that his wheels can be removed if he needs to check the gears for example - definitely something I’ll try to do if I tackle another loco.

Painting the bonnet

I start with a bit of practise on the spare bonnet sides, and soon realise that metal needs a different approach from resin - the paint moves across the surface easily, leaving obvious brushmarks in its wake.

But when I make the paint a bit thinner it flows off the brush and covers the metal almost by itself. The first coat looks uneven but I found that it’s better to leave it like that than to interfere as the paint starts to thicken quickly and soon shows any brushmarks. With three coats applied like this I got a reasonable finish on my test sides.

I also tried using marker pen as an undercoat (I’d seen it recommended as a primer for brass in an old 2mm Association magazine). I found that the first coat of paint didn’t flow and had to be worked on, but both methods produced a similar result in the end.

Eventually I feel ready to have a go for real.


After first coat

Well, some interesting effects. But for a uniform dark blue I expect to give it 3 or 4 thin coats. And doing each side and the top separately, and waiting for each to dry, this could take a while.

After the second coat had dried I found a couple of specks of something on the right-hand panels. Had to remove the paint from the panels and apply a fresh coat.

second coat

I’m not bothered about the colour as those panels will be a dusty brown eventually, but I do need to keep the surface smooth. I find a transparent plastic box (ex-food container) that I can lay over the model to protect it while the paint dries.



That's about 4 or 5 thin coats, and I'm happy enough. It's not dead smooth or totally uniform, but it looks good from 40cms, and certainly much better than I was expecting when I started.

Meanwhile my transfers have arrived and a quick test confirms that they don't look good applied to this matt paint. Think I'll need a gloss varnish.

From this point it would be good to know how I'm going to combine varnish, transfers and any weathering effects, so looks like a lot of research and experimenting before I take the next steps.

The roof ribs

Just been reviewing what I still need to do - more than I thought, it turns out. But at least my worst fear - having to paint the ‘wasp stripes’ - evaporated when I was told that transfers are available for this. Thanks Mick :-)

Next task is to paint the body, but first something I overlooked earlier.

roof ribs

These slide into slots on the body once the tops are filed smooth.


Think I've got this right.

Painting the cab roof

I’ve mentioned my fear of painting before (well, a general fear of screwing up, really) but I remember that the reason I bought this kit was to learn a few things, so... a deep breath and here goes.

I’m using Phoenix Precision dull blue with a small flat brush. I find that diluting 1 part thinners : 3 parts paint seems workable, in fact it takes to the resin quite nicely.

But it’s awkward to hold the cab roof between my fingers, and very soon specks of dust and fluff start accumulating on the wet paint.

Have to clean the paint off and start again, this time with the roof glued atop a “handle” of 10cm of styrene strip.

So much better this time.


Second coat



Three coats and the rivets are still visible, but I’m beginning to get a build-up of paint on one edge (see left side above). The resin texture is still visible in this photograph, but from viewing distance this looks smooth and a good representation of diesel blue, so I think I should quit while I’m ahead.