Garden Railway Forum

I have been following an article by Will Curry in a back issue of garden rail featuring the detailing of his countess. So far I have got up to painting the interior cream along with installing a raised wooden floor. It has been neccesary to raise the floor, like the prototype so that a scale person stands at the right height. I bought a model town figure, painted it and stuck it in. You'll probably notice that it is looking backwards but this is how I usually run the loco. I think it looks nicer that way! Glazing has been stuck to the rear and I need to run the pressure gauge around. On the outside I have added a bucket to the tanktop along with chain and a set of fire irons that I made up. I have painted the backs of the buffer beams black along with the drain as it really stands out otherwise. At lincoln garden railway show I bought a GWR working lamp which looks nice. The next stage is the nameplates, which I managed to prise off with some damage to the paintwork, although it will be covered when I fix them on again. These were never made of brass but apparently were cast so the accucraft ones are innacurate. The origionals have the raised numberes and W in GWR to represent western region painted cream. The accucraft ones have a very shallow etch making it hard to paint with good results. I asked Will how he did his and kindly offered to give me his, as his is the countess he didn't need them and had already started painting them cream. I will also paint the cranks black. I want to model the loco in BR days, the model is of the preserved model. This means that a new buffer beam will be made, along with a cover for one of the pipes on the smokebox and a cab ventilator on the cab front or a safety valve steam deflector. I haven't decided yet. I think it's coming on well but theres still alot to do.

AAAAHHH sorry, wrong section. Is there any way I can move it?

Moved!
And a nice job you've made of the loco as well

Wow, looking good Lewis! Very handsome looking loco!

You've done a stirling job there so far! Looking forward to the "finished" loco when you've done the list of jobs - should be excellent!!!

Today I have painted the numbers on the numberplates white. This is because the real ones aren't actually made from brass as the ones accucraft have supplied are. BR painted them like this along with the W in GWR to indicate western region. It has atken a long time to wor out a way of doing them. Because the engraving isn't very deep you can't paint them in the normal way. for example I wanted to spray the whole thing white, then black and rub off the black on the raised portions. Instead i have had to paint each part individually which took some time! I don't think they look too bad though and certainly stand out from the black tanks alot more. It's these small details that I think makes the difference.



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taliesin001 wrote:BR painted them like this along with the W in GWR to indicate Western Region.

At risk of being pedantic, this wasn't always the case...although in recent years No. 822's numberplates have been painted as such, all the BR-era photos in the David & Charles W&L book show all three letters painted over in black...

Anyway, the loco is certainly looking most impressive. I saw an "Earl" at GRS last year and thought "surely no-one can add any more detail than that" - but I've been proved wrong!

I've got the past and present welshpool and llanfair book by hugh ballantyne and there are a few photos showing the white numbers. Of course it is possible that this was changed to/from black or became dirty, especially as colour pictures show that these locos seem to have been rarely cleaned.

The loco is looking brilliant! Would look so much better without that clock face in the window....

Most Excellent.

Mr. Bond of the DVLR wrote:The loco is looking brilliant! Would look so much better without that clock face in the window....

It's going to be turned around at some point, the other side has been painted black for when I get round to it.

Alongside Russell I also decided to weather the earl, as it looked a bit silly alongside all the weathered wagons... although I think it still needs touching up in places


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Could you take us through how you weather them please Lewis?

Mr. Bond of the DVLR:71953 wrote:Could you take us through how you weather them please Lewis?

Yes please do!!

Ive had another go at the earl as it still needed a bit of touching up, I am much more happy now. In particular I've worked on the still shiny dome and safety valve cover, as by the time these engines were put into storage it was pretty much black! Anyway the method i use is obviously to start by getting rid of the oil. i then use a grey and paint this on the sides. Straight away i then wipe it of, leaving the grey in all the hard to reach areas. Its important just to wipe downwards, as in real life rain would usually leave the areas exposed cleaner than those that aren't, such as under rivets for example. Streaks are achieved by lightly wiping downwards. Once this has been done I dry brush other colours such as brown, dark grey etc and dap this on. I then wipe away or fade this in until it looks right. I try to have a look at real pictures and find what you would get where, for brown dirt would accumulate on the undersides of areas and on the lower half of the loco, grey soot from the chimney would be present further up. Then you have the streaks from the water treatment when the tanks have been overflowed and run down. On the earl this doesn't happen because the sides are raised but on russell this is particularly notieable in pictures. Hope this helps.

I had missed this thread somehow. Most impressive & inspirational stuff Lewis. It's looking superb now. Thanks for the idea's that I may well have to emulate as well.

almost there now...


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That is amazing Lewis. You need to do the lamp too, its like an advert for colgate at the moment

Yes, now you mention it they do look a bit odd, the frames also stick out too, so will be next

I tip my hat to you Sir- that's magnificent.