I've decided to start painting the loco and in a revolutionary move will be colouring it in with marker pen. Far easier than messing around with paint I think.
Only kidding. The marker pen currently spoiling the lovely brassiness of the coal tank locomotive boiler is my version of engineers blue. Blue is a liquid painted on to metal before marking out so that the scribed lines show nice and clearly - on untouched metal you have to get the light right by looking at odd angles to see your line. Either that or scribe it so deeply that you can still see it after painting, neither of which can be called A Good Thing.
Trouble is it's horrible stuff. It stains your fingers and seems a very messy way of working in an age of computers and pop tarts. I prefer to use a permanent marker pen which is easier to apply and works just as well. Don't worry about the cleaning off either - Shiny Sinks removes it when cleaning up after a soldering session.
The marking out is for handrail holes. The boiler doesn't come pre drilled so I have to do this the hard way. First a line is established parallel with the footplate using an oddleg or Jenny caliper. The dividers are set to provide the spacing and scribe the vertical lines. Finally the centre is each cross has a scriber pushed into it to give a dimple that guides the drill bit.
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