Monday, November 26, 2007

Putting on a mask


14masked
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
How long does paint need to harden before you can stick tape to it and be confident that you aren’t going to peel it off ?

In this case, about 12 hours. Normally I’d prefer 24 but that’s not an option with this deadline. Besides, I've taken a day off work to do this and a couple of other things and I didn’t want to waste it waiting for enamel to dry.

Working out what colour goes where is a bit of a game. The change on these locomotives between light and dark green varies. My prototype is the one on the front cover of my OPC book. Partly because it’s one of the few colour pictures I have and mostly because it’s the easiest one to mask up. Many locos had the light green on the cab front and getting a good tight line would be tough.

As it was the hard lines were masked using the relatively expensive Tamya tape and then filled in with the cheaper stuff. I pushed this lot down as hard as dare. The cab handrails got in the way a bit but some careful cutting of thin strips seemed to work.

Removing the masking is always a bit of a heart in mouth moment but this time I got away with it. The sides of the cab remain Sherwood Green with a nice clean break into the darker BR loco green.

Now I just have to wait for the main colour to dry a bit so I can touch in the little bits by hand.

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