Garden Railway Forum

I must admit, the more I get into the build of this locomotive the more I'm enjoying putting the kit together. There are a few more annoyances (to me!) about the design of the kit but generally it goes together pretty well. I managed to get a good amount of time to work on this over the last couple of days. Both the cab ends are now constructed, filled and have had a first pass of sanding.


A chamfer needs to be created on many of the cab pieces to achieve the desired angle of the front. I think I've made a satisfactory job of putting this together and I'll use filler to hide the gaps..

Speaking of filler here are the two cab fronts after some filler and a light sanding. I think I'll probably give the entire locomotive a coat of primer and then touch up any gaps as required.

I've now fitted the side panels to the locomotive. It's starting to really come together. The main chassis has been lightly sanded. I've tidied up the 3D printed parts with some model filler so they can now be attached. Currently pondering whether to fit the roof before the primer goes on, I figure it might be easier to access without the roof in-place.

georgesheppard wrote: ↑Mon May 03, 2021 3:12 pmI've now fitted the side panels to the locomotive.

Something odd with those doors. The two with vents at the right hand end should be in positions 5 and 6, not 5 and 7.

The little vent on door 4 is for the exhaust from the cab heater.

The two sides are not mirror images of each other.

Purely from a build perspective it's looking very good. I am looking forward to seeing it with some paint on, it always makes a huge jump forwards in terms of where you feel you are at in the build.

TonyW wrote: ↑Mon May 03, 2021 4:14 pm

georgesheppard wrote: ↑Mon May 03, 2021 3:12 pmI've now fitted the side panels to the locomotive.

Something odd with those doors. The two with vents at the right hand end should be in positions 5 and 6, not 5 and 7.

The little vent on door 4 is for the exhaust from the cab heater.

The two sides are not mirror images of each other.

It seems this is incorrect in the kit unless I’m missing something.



Side by side from the instructions
Side by side on photos.
The incorrect panels are a double and a single, if they weren’t firmly affixed by super glue I could probably cut the double panel in half and use the blank door in place of the door with the grill. I’m more concerned about damaging the panels than it being totally correct, so my model will have to keep the incorrect panel arrangement.

The problem with a lot of mechanical subject matter that is modeled is that it evolves over time and its working life, sometimes in just minor details, sometimes in more radical ways.Take this loco in it's original form as Imported from SA, before it's evolution into a "Western" mini me we are more familiar with. It would seem to bare no relation to it's original guise now except they are both diesel locos with two bogies.

Researching subjects can be problematic. If you do not have access to the research material used in the development of this product you cannot be sure if at some point the doors were arranged as seen in the kit and not as seen in more widely accessible published pictures. Some research material can be misleading when seen in isolation. I'm sure the maker or the Ffestiniog railway can nail it for you. If not then somebody might have needed a visit to Specsavers. Max

And then there was this:

The doors lift off their hinges and can easily be swapped around. Quite why somebody thought the fuel tank needed a vented door is a mystery to me.

TonyW wrote: ↑Tue May 04, 2021 10:19 am And then there was this:

The doors lift off their hinges and can easily be swapped around. Quite why somebody thought the fuel tank needed a vented door is a mystery to me.

Precisely my point. And it seems as the doors are configured in the model it appears, at least on that side of the loco. The other we can glimpse in the instruction sheet but does it match the other side of the loco as pictured at that point ? It can be a problem when the widely accepted published detailing/configuration of a prototype does not match the way it is depicted in a scale representation. As they say the devil is in the detail.

Trust me research can be a real nightmare when producing models of, for example, racing cars of any era. There, a specific subject could be altered in appearance not just between races but actual testing and practice sessions.......and your buyer is very well aware of all the variations and when and how they manifested themselves. So you have to be extra careful when verifying your research material and stating what and when you model offering is depicting. The model railway world is so much simpler. Max

I managed to make a little more progress yesterday evening. I covered up some of the chassis joins with cross patterned plasticard. I don’t think this is accurate to the actual loco, further googling leads me to believe the pattern is straight lines.

I think it looks good though!

I did exactly the same with mine, and I think it looks good too!

Peter Butler wrote: ↑Wed May 05, 2021 9:35 pm I did exactly the same with mine, and I think it looks good too!

IMG_3259.JPG

Great minds Peter!!

Today I found some time to get the bogies and chassis primed. After the first coat extensive additional filling was required. I’m quite happy with the finish now. I could tidy up further but I have to keep reminding myself no one will generally be looking at it only a few cm away!

I’m having a bit of a dilemma with paint choices. I had previously ordered some samples of RAL 6020 and RAL 6021, which seemed to be the closest standard colours I could find. Looking at photos online it seems a reasonable match but struggling to find much information of what the colours actually should be.

Any one have any pointers?

The full-size loco wears BR Loco Green (dark) and Sherwood Green (light).

Thanks Tony! I took a trip to Halfords earlier and found what I thought was a good match

Dark - Vauxhall pine green
Light - Vauxhall Reed green


Looking at railmatch colours the match looks good.



Now I’m really torn!

This graphically illustrates the problems and pitfalls of trying to colour match using a computer screen! In your photo the dark green of the prototype looks almost black on my laptop and the light green has a brownish tinge.
To my eyes, your Rattle Can colours look pretty good but given what my screen has done to the other two, who knows?

Once you give it some weathering and a matt finish it'll look fine, the real Funkey lives outside and (according to the recent diesel line-up on Moving Pictures) it's in need of a repaint at some point anyway as it's looking tired.

Be careful when using Halford's cap coulors as a guide to colour matching - they no longer, like the old fully painted caps, directly represent the actual colour but might be described as a bit "generic" instead. Also take them outside into the daylight, even given the noted limitations.

Having come from a hobby many years ago now, model racing cars, where colour matches were always given with any kit - in some cases a particular colour match could become so established it would be universally used by kit builders and "mass" producers - it has always surprised me the dearth of information supplied by kit makers in the 16/15 mm NG railway world. With the Vale of Ffestiniog it was pretty clear there was a homage to the old BR two tone diesel going on and the matching information for SG stock is well established. Everything else ? I find Roundhouse/Phoenix Capri Blue for Darjeeling subjects a bit suspect when I compare to other similarly liveried stock.

Little story about how mistakes can be made - A noted model car maker released a subject depicting a well known Indy 500 winner. Most knew it to be a bright orange, this model was salmon pink ! Why ? Well, the makers had diligently done their research, at the Indianapolis museum itself where the car resided. The problem was all the pictures were taken inside the museum and under the prevailing florescent lighting. Now, if you photograph a bright orange subject under (blue) florescent light you will end up with salmon pink. Don't just do your own research but check against know published material if you can. Admittedly this was some 30 years ago , before the days of the WWW. There are now an awful lot of easily accessed published pictures of that car in the daylight. Then, the maker only looked had their own source material as they thought they had nailed it by going to the museum. Doh !. Max

Tingewickmax wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 1:30 pm Be careful when using Halford's cap coulors as a guide to colour matching - they no longer, like the old fully painted caps, directly represent the actual colour but might be described as a bit "generic" instead. Also take them outside into the daylight, even given the noted limitations.

Having come from a hobby many years ago now, model racing cars, where colour matches were always given with any kit - in some cases a particular colour match could become so established it would be universally used by kit builders and "mass" producers - it has always surprised me the dearth of information supplied by kit makers in the 16/15 mm NG railway world. With the Vale of Ffestiniog it was pretty clear there was a homage to the old BR two tone diesel going on and the matching information for SG stock is well established. Everything else ? I find Roundhouse/Phoenix Capri Blue for Darjeeling subjects a bit suspect when I compare to other similarly liveried stock.

Little story about how mistakes can be made - A noted model car maker released a subject depicting a well known Indy 500 winner. Most knew it to be a bright orange, this model was salmon pink ! Why ? Well, the makers had diligently done their research, at the Indianapolis museum itself where the car resided. The problem was all the pictures were taken inside the museum and under the prevailing florescent lighting. Now, if you photograph a bright orange subject under (blue) florescent light you will end up with salmon pink. Don't just do your own research but check against know published material if you can. There are and awful lot of published pictures of that car in the daylight, the maker only looked art their own source material as they thought they had nailed it by going to the museum. Doh !. Max

Thanks for the insight Max! I sprayed another piece of balsa-wood with the Vauxhall paints I purchased and I think the colour match is looking pretty good!

Photo of sprayed paint on the left, railmatch online colours on the right.

georgesheppard wrote: ↑Sun May 16, 2021 3:38 pm... I think the colour match is looking pretty good!

So do I.