Latest examples just delivered to Hattons

Nick the weathering looks absolutely superb, what colour(s) did you use in the Airbrush and powders?

Regards Connor

Hi Nick,

Great weathering. Really looks the part. How about sawing off the drivers legs and mounting him on a latching spring? That would solve the problem of driving from the engine/autocoach cab. Now you see him…

Close-ups can be cruel, I can see what all the comments are regarding the number plate on the side.Not sure that would be noticeable from 3 feet.

Nigel

Thanks John and Connor.

A difficult process to describe but in a basic fashion here goes.

The colours used in the airbrush are exclusively Humbrol Matt Leather (62) and Matt Black (33). Neither colour is used on its own. The base colour for the underframe and tank sides is roughly 6 parts leather to 1 part black. The underframe is given 2 very light passes and the tank sides one pass. On the underframe there are perhaps 4 different mixes ranging from 6-1 down to approx 3-1. As the shades darken the airbrush is used to add variations of colour to certain areas i.e. not a complete pass across the loco. After an hour or so a wide (12mm) flat brush is slightly dampened with white spirit and drawn lighty down the tank sides to clean off some paint and introduce barely noticeable streaks.

The top of the boiler, chimney smokebox, cab roof etc are given a couple of light passes with a 1-1 mix to produce a sooty, heated stained finish.

I only use two powders for rusting and brake dust etc. The ones I have are made by MIG but I am told these are no longer available. The MIG colours are P003 Dark Mud, which is a quite dark red tinged brown and P414 Track Brown which is a very dark brown. I absolutely avoid any powders which claim to be rust colours as they are always far too orange in tone. Only very new rust would look bright orange and then only in small spots. P414 is applied first to all the rusty areas. Use an old brush and lightly stipple a very small amount of powder into place and then blow it off. Repeat with a smaller amount of P003 over the same areas to give some variation. This can be seen clearly in my photo of the bunker. P003 is then used on it's own around the brakes to represent dust.

I learnt my methods initially at a Pendon weathering workshop 2-3 years ago under the tuition of Tim Shackleton who has written some very good books on the subject. More lately I have developed my skills with Mick Bonwick who was assisting Tim Shackleton at the time and now himself teaches weathering at Pendon, Missenden Abbey and for the Airbrush Company. I would highly recommend a course at any of these venues. 

Footnote: If you are looking for suitable powders to use in leiu of MIG then don't worry about what they are called just go for something that is dark / very dark brown, preferably with a slight reddish tinge to it. Oh, and powders can be mixed just like paint so you could add some red powder to a brown one to get the same effect and introduce variations. Beware though, weathering is adictive.

[user=1632]BCDR[/user] wrote:

Hi Nick,

Great weathering. Really looks the part. How about sawing off the drivers legs and mounting him on a latching spring? That would solve the problem of driving from the engine/autocoach cab. Now you see him…

Close-ups can be cruel, I can see what all the comments are regarding the number plate on the side.Not sure that would be noticeable from 3 feet.

Nigel

Thanks Nigel, interesting thought regarding the driver.

It wasn't until I saw the close up photos that I could tell by eye if the numberplate was standing proud of the tank sides or not. It is definitely not defineable from 3 feet away.

Better late than never the 14xxs have finally come to Canada



This is in GWR Wartime Black livery and "lightly weathered". Renumbered to 1407 with additional weathering plus crew coal and other detail

I have written a more detailed account of my experiences on my Granby thread

http://yourmodelrailway.net/view_topic.php?id=5500&forum_id=21&jump_to=270325#p270325


In summary…..it was worth the wait…….a brilliant model which does however require spotlessly clean well laid track.

PS How did you get on with your CV settings Bill?

Hi John,

I'm so pleased you like your locos, as there are so many anti DJM 48/58/14xx comments at another place, you'd think these beautiful models were worse than the Airfix one (soon to be re=released again by Hornby)!

I suffered a fall and broken wrist two months ago and have just had the pins removed and have much discomfort now, trying to re-educate it to work again. Alas, this has put a major downer on just about all activity from my own point and I'm looking forward to getting back to something approaching normal before too long. No major complaints though, as it could have been much worse and I should be able to enjoy the summer, which will be soon upon us.

Let's compare notes again in a while. I'll just mosey along to Granby now to do some train spotting!

Best,

Bill 

Hi Bill

I am so sorry to hear about your wrist…….I suspect if I was a more diligent follower of YMR I would have known of it sooner….do forgive me.

I am glad that you are back on the road to a full recovery. It must have been amazingly difficult for you…..particularly at this time of the year.

Look forward to comparing notes with you about the 14xx in due course.

Best wishes

John

Hi Everyone,

Just a question when did these locos begin receiving whistle shields and top feed. This is because none of the GWR ones I have have top feed and only 4807 (GWR Black) has the whistle shield. Even 1420 doesn't have a whistle shield.

Regards Connor 

Hi Connor,

The Hattons' range covers variants from 1933 to 1958, so there were in fact many differences. All earlier GWR tanks up to the end of the war had no top feed, this being feed through from the cab and whistle guards came in, I think (without further research) in '34 and seemed to get taller as time went by. 

Hope this heads you in the right direction, as further research would be interesting, but I suspect there may be no definitive answer to whistle guard dates, as local practise will often be contrary to Paddington or Swindon dictates!

Bill

Hi Bill,

Thanks for your reply. After some further research I found that the last batch of 4800s was fitted with whistle shields (becoming larger later on) and eventually fitted to the whole class. So it is perfectly reasonable for some not to have the shields. This particular website also indicated that top feed began to be fitted in 1944 so it is also reasonable for some not to have top feed. The boilers were swapped during overhauls so engines with top feed fitted could go in and come out with it absent and visor-versa.

So reasonable as it may be in model form I still am questioning a few things.
1. Only 3 locos in Great Western Livery have whistle shields (No. 4871,4807, 5802) (No. 4807, 5802 being the larger variety). Should there be more variety here?
2. None of the Great Western Liveried locos are fitted with top feed. Why?
3. All of the British Railway liveried locos have either a whistle shield or both.
4. No.1420 in GWR Green has neither, yet I would have thought that by the time this livery was introduced that it would have at least acquired a whistle shield. Unless Hattons were going for the preservation outline which I think is unlikely as in preservation it is fitted with both top feed and whistle shield. Have Hattons missed the beat here or are they just giving us modellers options if we want to take them? Hope this was informative.

Regards Connor