Thursday, January 18, 2007

LMS 0-4-4


Finished 0-4-4
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
This locomotive is a testament to Just In Time delivery.

It’s scheduled to be on a stand at our show on Saturday, and I’ve just finished it.

The biggest job was weathering. My technique nowadays involves toning the model down with a weak spray of tank grey, followed by one of track colour and finishing up with some earth colour around the chassis. I’d already dry-brushed the chassis with dirt as mentioned earlier.

The weak sprays take the edge off the pure black paintwork. Not enough to turn the model into a collage of grey and brown sludge, just enough to make it look like a model. The human eye needs a bit of help with contrast and reducing it this way makes things easier to see.

Or something like that.

Using a weak paint mix has the advantage that you can use it, look at the effect after drying with the trusty hairdryer, and do some more if you want. I really should sort out the lights where I spray as a mix of fluorescent and incandescent doesn’t exactly give the best colour to decide how the painting is going

The separation of matt and satin blacks still shows through. My intention is to present a locomotive that is clean but has working dirt. Steam engines are filthy things so a gleaming example simply isn’t real. I know that legions of cleaners were employed but they weren’t that good.

After paint I just needed to glaze the windows with Krystal Klear and add some coal to the bunker. Then sit back and look at my efforts, which are in my eyes, full of errors. With a bit of luck no one will notice so please don’t tell them.

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