Complete strip, repaint and weathered

Hi all.
I thought I would share with you my first real attempt at weathering. I am modelling BR blue set in the eighties and all my loco's will be Stratford based. I bought two old DC Hornby Class 31's, both bearing the number 31411 and converted them to DCC. Whilst not a perfectionist, I would like all my loco's to resemble the era and area I am trying to model. 31411 needed to be re-painted and re-numbered. Given that this section is about weathering, I will gloss over the paint stripping and re-paint - pun intended.
How did I do it?
I work with Railmatch acrylics. The bogies and chassis had a coating of air brushed frame dirt. The re-painted body had a light airbrushing of frame dirt concentrating on the lower half and middle.
I then tried something new (to me anyway). I used powders but applied them wet. Rather like we used to do at school with the mixed powder paints. The effect that I was looking for was a well used loco that rarely saw the likes of passenger work and was relegated to merely hauling goods so it never got cleaned. I also wanted to show how nature would have got to work and to show the grimey water streaks from the heavy rain falls. I had various mixes and strengths of diluted black weathering powder and a lot of just clear water to use to dilute to taste!!

Well here we go. The first image shows the original Class 31411.



This next image shows the newly refurbished Class 31194 from Stratford.



And finally, the original 31194 trundling through Stratford for a comparison.

 

I am reasonably satisfied with the results and will have another look tomorrow. I can dilute what I have done if necessary but on my layout it looks ok as a grubby old 31 workhorse. When satisfied, I will give it a coat of matt varnish to seal my transfers and paint. 
Please feel free to comment as all advice will be welcome.

Just as an aside, lights have been fitted and working and I am just waiting for my new Loksound decoder to arrive.

Cheers
Gary

Nice work, Gary.   :thumbs

Are you sure that it's the same loco?  The side panels look different.  I'm not a UK modeller, so I could be well out of order.   

Thanks Max.

You may well be right with regards to the panels and you are not out of order. It was the only Class 31 I could source at the time and to be quite honest, I hadn't noticed but now you have suggested it I can see a slight difference. Strange how another pair of eyes can pick out what can be so easy to miss when your a bit blinkered.
That said, it will do for the time being until I can find a more suitable model.

Gary

Just further to my last Max, I had a look at the photos I had of the original Class 31411 and the panels were different on that one too. Looks like Hornby got it wrong. Still I shall make a note to myself to do some more homework before embarking on the next paint job.
Cheers mate, we live and learn.

Gary

Absolutely!  No one would notice it on the layout.   :cool:

I often find stuff like that when I photograph my models and then look at them on the screen.

More than once, there has been a wheel off!   

The photo of the real one looks to have had the waistline strips removed, something that was done when they were refurbished. For all that, the model looks superb. You've done a great job there, Gary.

I was trying to figure out the exact origins of the model; it looks to me like the ex-Lima moulding, which was actually a very good starting point. If I may make a couple of suggestions, these benefit from shaving off any moulded handrails on the cab ends and replacing with wire, and the cab windows and windscreens benefit from painting the rims with black (or very dark grey), and possibly also from flush glazing if you can do that.




p.s. I think your paint job is rather better than mine. :)

p.p.s. My example is a disc headcode one, so the handrails will be different on yours. Note mine is missing one cab handrail, which were separate, extremely fine and delicate plastic mouldings provided in the box for the Lima model - I'm not sure if Hornby's RailRoad one has them separately supplied or already fitted.

I'm struggling to see much difference in the side panels, perhaps I just don't look hard enough.

Looks great Gary, dirty without overdoing it   :thumbs

As Jeff says, wire handrails would make a difference.

Think you've just inspired me to do something with my Railroad version.



Ed

Cheers guys,
Jeff, thank you for the advice, I will have another look at the cab end hand rails. I bought the loco second hand and it came without any cab handrails so I will be manufacturing those and the cab end ones at the same time. I like the idea of flush windows so will look into that too.
Ed, I think the difference in the panels that Max was referring to was the one just behind the cab. On the model, it has the recessed steps but on the original it hasn't. I have also found another difference but will keep that to myself for the time being unless anyone else spots it.
Have a go Ed. I have dabbled in a bit of weathering before with the airbrush but this is the first time that the powders have come out. I find it very relaxing to do and it is very easy to put to much on in one go - I know - it is better to build up up the grime gradually until the desired effect is reached.
By the way Jeff, I think your paint job is quite acceptable. We all have different ideas about what we want to run on our layouts and what is one persons preference is another persons horror.

I love this hobby.

Gary

Thanks Gary.
The steps behind the cab were plated over in the 1970s at some time. The bottom step may have been left uncovered on some locos. They could easily be covered with some rectangles of 10 thou plastic card.

I thought maybe the lack of the centre waist strip was the issue. Lima did most of the variations possible with their class 30/31 mouldings, and the Lima bodies clip straight onto the newer Hornby chassis (that was what my blue one showed, - that photo was taken before I had numbered it).

I have another Lima one which has remained as Lima painted it, but also has the wire front handrails fitted and some etched nameplates after this photo was taken. The point of this one is to show the plainer sides minus the waist mouldings - it also has the covered steps but they are not visible in the photo (wrong side!). The cab door handrails were missing from this model, so I have fabricated some wire replacements as well.

I think the steps are to access the radiator filler (?) and are only on one side Gary, but someone on here will know for sure.

Never sure if the end with the steps and roof fan are the front or the back, think it's the front.


Ed

The steps lead to the steam heating boiler water filler.

Thanks Jeff   :thumbs

Thanks Jeff, that explains a lot. The other difference that I alluded to was in fact the steam heating boiler water filler. On the photo of the original at Stratford, this was also plated over where as on my model it is still there.
So there we have it, my model of 31194 missed out on the re-plating and was still running around in the eighties with the old panels - it is plausible isn't it?
I like the idea of the plasticard infills Ed. I will leave it as it is for the moment but I think I will certainly re-panel it later.

Gary

At least the dirt is starting to hide the blue …………………….. :roll: :roll:

Nice job of weathering Gary.  :thumbs

It always interests me how people use an airbrush …………………. :hmm  I've got one but seldom use it because it takes an age to clean it after what seems like just a few seconds spraying.  You said you gave the bogies, chassis and lower body sides a light covering of frame dirt.  Did you then clean the airbrush or did you have some kind of "assembly line" running with other stock to justify dirtying the airbrush ?

[user=6]Petermac[/user] wrote:

At least the dirt is starting to hide the blue …………………….. :roll: :roll:

:tongue



Ed

You hit the nail on the head Peter.
I would have used the airbrush for just one loco but I actually had three on the go at the same time, the Class 31, a Class 37, and Class 50.
Believe me, I am new to this airbrush/powder/weathering lark. I have found that it takes a couple of minutes to dismantle the needle, nozzles etc from the paint brush and chuck them in cleaning fluid and give them the once over. I agree it is a bit of extra work but I feel it is worth it to get the base colour for the proper weathering stuff to take place. That said, I did airbrush the weathering on a Class 47 and it looks ok to me.
I suppose you could equate using the airbrush for a few seconds work to having to fire up a boiler for a few seconds of train running!!

Cheers
Gary

Hi Gary,

Very nice weathering job.

One thing you may notice if you put a coat of matt over powders or apply powder to wet matt is that the colors darken and tone down dramatically, which may be far removed from what you intended. Great for crud in the corners, ventilators and seams though. Might be worthwhile applying gloss for the decals, decaling (no need to do it all, just where the decals are going), sealing the decals with matt, doing the wet weathering, sealing with matt, and then dry weathering. Rather than diluting with water, try acrylic paint diluent. You will get better adherence, as it has fixative, which water doesn't..

Nigel

Thank you Nigel. There is some good info there to take on board. I wasn't aware of the toning down and darkening after spraying with matt varnish. Thanks for the tip.

Gary

Hi Gary,

Another thing you can try for that washed out look is to give a misting with IPA or denatured alcohol after using dullcoat (well known trick over here). Most brands will go chalky white, looking like weather-aged, sunlight-faded paint. If you don't like it just redo. Humbrol liquid masking works a treat for peeling paint. One thing often missed is the speckle of insect splat on the front in summer (most noticeable with yellow fronts). Plus wiper arcs on the screens (use triangles of masking tape and mist with dullcoat).

Nigel