Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Painting the wheels and sideframes


Well, I haven't been looking forward to this (as I said), but I really need to paint the sides before I fix the steps.

My blackened chassis has got quite a lot of shiny metal showing through now. I think it'll be OK to leave it like that, but perhaps this means blackening isn't the way to go for the more visible areas.

I still like the Humbrol black I used earlier so I start with that on the wheels.


I've heard that these soft metal wheels are susceptible to rust so I polish the tyres and rims with wet-and-dry paper, grades 500 then 1000 and 1200.

Same colour on the sideframes, well thinned at first.



With a second coat and dry brushed with grey weathering powder it's looking better.


Already I can see some shiny metal showing through on the left axle-box. It's one of those things that always distracts me on a model, but that's going to happen where there are moving parts, I suppose. Wonder if you can get ready-coloured metals...?



The bright unpainted rims look very obvious here, but reluctantly I'm leaving them. If I find that the wheels don't need much cleaning once in use, I can revisit this.

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