Saturday Film Club: Paint like a Pro - Three Top tips for mastering Acrylics

A video by my colleague Steven Draper with some useful hints on mastering acrylic paints. I learnt a bit, and now need to do some shopping!

Break out the airbrush

 

My dream workshop includes a room for airbrushing. All the equipment will be set up, including a great big extractor fan. The door will be close-fitting so the smell stays in the room. And it will be warm. 

As it is, I have to spray in the garage, setting some of the equipment up each time. The smell escapes into the kitchen, and it's the coldest room in the house. 

Which is why the first coat of Humbrol Wine (73) was applied to the wagon using a brush. The second coat on one side and the end was applied the same way. 

Then I caved in, stopped being lazy, and fired up the airbrush. Even allowing for cleaning, a task I hate, painting this Gauge 1 wagon this way was far, far quicker than manually slapping it on with the brush. The finish is much better too. 

I still wish I had a suitable spare room though.  

My Dad was not Batman!

 

While painting the 4mm scale Dad figure for the VER car, I thought I might as well do the 7mm version I have at the same time. 

It looks fine, but without glasses, his face looked a bit empty. Hoping to cure this, I loaded the finest tip in my Bob Moore lining pen with paint, and set about drawing on the specs. 

Trying to draw straight lines proved more than tricky, and to be honest, the results were rubbish. It looks more like a mask than glasses! Even refining things with the finest brush to hand didn't help. Truth is, the frames of his glasses are very thin in real life, and would be narrower than a hair in model form.  

So, the glasses were washed off, and I've decided to live with the slightly empty face. If you look at real people from a distance, you don't really notice anyway. 

However, on the G and 16mm scale figures, I can't escape the problem. So, out with some fine wire. 

This is 0.45mm brass wire on the G scale figure. It would be 10mm thick in real life in this scale. 

Now, the results aren't horrible, but they are a long way from acceptable. I tried thinner wires, but 0.33 nickel silver just broke, and I can't find the brass. Some beading wire sort of worked, but it was very difficult to form. 

This might work for the glasses on characture Little Phil, but it's not right here. However, after a bit of thinking, I might have a solution. Stay tuned... 

Unfortunate stains on the WC

 

I've been pondering the paint job for the wooden WC. Nothing too smart I feel, but I'm not up for the sort of paint peeling masterpiece beloved of military modellers. This is a quick build, not a chance to pour hours into learning new techniques. Not that they wouldn't be useful, just that this I'm doing this for FUN. Anyway, if I go that route, those plywood ends beside the door would need attention. 

Anyway, with wooden models, step one is usually to age the wood with EDM Models weathered wood stain. A quick coat of this usually turns the wood a delicate silver, with further applications for a deeper shade. 

Not this time. My bottle, which is main years old, is a bit thick, and sent the wood a deep silver in one hit. A less than subtle result, and one that makes me think I need to buy some new potion next time I see Paul. 

It's not a disaster, but it's not really the effect I was looking for, so in an effort to bring the colour back a bit, I tried Coach & Wagon Works Old Oak Wood Stain.  

 

 Much better. There is still ageing, but this looks like a building that has enjoyed the occasional coat of creasote every few years. 

Annoyingly, where there is glue on the surface, neither stain penetrates. Not an issue, except around the toilet roll holder inside, so I might have to hit that with the weathering powders.  

Ratio SR van finished

 

It's not special. Not a stand-out supermodel. This is exactly what I wanted - a very run-of-the-mill "layout wagon".

I used to turn these out all the time. Meldridge Dock was full of them. My thinking is that you see a mass of vehicles, rather than a load of individuals. As long as the weathering, and overall effect, is harmonious, the layout looks good.  

Well, that, and I'm hopeless at applying transfers when they are in the kit, and too stingy to buy them when they aren't. Mind you, on the kit box, the transfers show plenty of silvering, so I'm not the only one. 

My solution is blobby numbers. Just get something in the right place, and no one bothers to read them. Anyway, if you are wagon spotting on my layout, I'll think there is something wrong with you. For this model, some Humbrol 147 was applied with the smallest brush (note to self, buy some more) to hand. You can read "XP" and not the rest. 

 I had planned to use a mapping pen, but my white ink had the consistency of semolina pudding when I dug it out, so I need to buy more of that too. 

Chalk marks are pencil crayon. Again, my pale grey has hidden itself, so they are white. 

Weathering is a little dry-brushing and lots of weathering powders wiped with a wet cotton bud. 

So much of this is easier if you practise. As I say, this used to be bread-and-butter work, but I can't remember the last time I built a wagon kit. I enjoyed this one though, and there are more in the stash... 

 

Painted van

 

Now the cat has wandered off, I get a precious morsel of modelling time to whack some paint on the van. As this is a traditional build, I'm painting it by hand. All my other rolling stock is hand-painted, and with a bit of weathering, it looks fine. Saves sorting out the airbrush too. 

Colour should be bauxite, but the shade on the Ratiop box looks like a pale earth tone. I don't think it has faded either. I tried that, and decided I didn't like it, so whacked some Humbol brick colour over the top. It needed a second coat anyway. 

I probably should have bought a bottle containing an "approved" shade of paint, but bauxite is one of those colours that seems to change shade depending on the photo you look at. My feeling is that it wasn't as stable a shade in real life, so always using the "correct" version isn't any more accurate than my bodge. 

The result isn't bad in real life, it looks a bit streaky in the photo. Once I've added lettering, and dirt, this should look fine. And at least I'll have managed to wrangle some modelling time for myself!

Oh, and the roof is a mix of Humbrol 66 and 67, with loads of talcum powder dabbed into it. The resulting texture is very pleasing.  

Painting delay

 

Just paint for the SR van then. Slight snag, for the last few days, Stampy has decided that my modelling board is the perfect place for a kip. He might be comfortable, but it does really slow me down...

Saturday Film Club: Transforming A New Wagon into a Railway Workhorse!

Some proper modelling from Lucy Pitch - who I've known since I first bumped into her running Modellers Mecca. There are some handy techniques in here, especially the printing removal. One mystery though, how does she keep the workbench so tidy? 

Wasp striped bufferbeam

 

Wasp stripes - done. 

Last week's advice about using masking tape passed me by, because by the time I'd read it, this was all done. Having said that, I wanted to try this method anyway, and it seems to work. 

There's nothing sophisticated here - I made a guide 10mm wide, marked the centre of the buffer beam, and used a 45 degree square to draw the first lines. The guide allowed me to do the rest. 

Then, using a bow pen, I marked the edges to get a nice, straight line. After that, I filled in the middles with a paintbrush.  

Buffers and rivets were added to finish things off. Spraying those black rivets yellow was a paint. You need a lot of paint to cover the base colour, and to be honest, I've not really achieved perfection. This loco is going to be weathered though, so hopefully this will cover it up.  

Yellow

 

I know that PS Models show their loco in industrial grey, but I've decided I want to paint mine yellow. That's an industrial colour too, and a bit different from anything else in my fleet. 

The MDF parts were treated to a couple of coats of sealer, sanding between them. Then nice thick coat of white primer - yellow is a pain if you don't undercoat with white.

Finally, a coat of Fiat Broom Yellow, from my new favourite spray can supplier, The Range. The paint is good, I just wish they would put a price on the stand (it's £4.99) as I'm sure that would encourage sales. 

The sharp-eyed will notice that I haven't put the rivets on yet. That's because I fancy wasp strips on the ends, and reckon it will be easier to paint them on a flat surface. We'll see how that pans out, I may go back to pure yellow! 

Painting the driver

 

Sometimes, several of these posts are generated in a single modelling session. But not this one. 

Painting the driver took place over a series of evenings. Nice little, fun jobs that  I was able to keep working on, even after a busy day in front of a screen. 

His head is separate, and supplied in two halves. I used my usual trick of painting his skin with Humbrol flesh, and the dry-brushing with Revell's version.At this scale, picking out his eyes wasn't hard, he's even got pupils from a 0.3mm Rotaring pen. 

The helmet was painted white, masked, and then painted Signal red. I should have used narrower tape, as the masking wasn't perfect. Some narrow Trimline tape hid the worst niggles though, and a generous coat of matt varnish will hold it all in place.  

The future, is orange

 

I've spent a lot of time pondering my Sand Scorcher's final colour. The only thing I was certain of, was that I wouldn't be using the colourscheme on the box lid. For a start, it's very common, but more importantly, I race in orange. And I like orange cars. 

After much perusing through Instagram, I found the photo above. This is a good-looking paint job. Lots of life, and very much not the same as Tamiya's box art. 

Unlike more modern Tamiya kits, the Sand Scorcher body, is a single-piece massive moulding, in white plastic. So, unlike those made in clear plastic (lexican?) you paint it the same way as any other plastic kit. None of this working inside out. 

On RMweb, several people have discovered that Halford's has changed their paint supplier, and the new cans are a bit rubbish. They also found that the original range, had moved to The Range shops - so that's where I headed for paint. 

After much deliberation, I've gone for Ford Carnival Red (913A). A strong, deep orange colour that on the model, looks great. It sprays really well too. Wings have been masked to keep them white - I'll apply some vinyls later, and I don't want the orange, showing through. I have used most of the 150ml can on this job, and the shop only had one of them, so let's hope I finish all the ancileries too!

Some delicate painting, and we are done

 

Finishing he Brandbright wagon took a bit of time, but I'm pleased with the results. 

Inside, there is a coat of Coach and Wagon Works light teak wood stain. I like the colour, and it matches my recenlty built brakevan, but I'm concious that it might not offer much protection from the rain. The firm make some matt varnish for outdoor use, so I'll pick up a bottle in the future. 

Outside, there is sanding sealer, followed by a spray of grey car primer. I masked the inside, and removed the wheels and axleboxes to avoid grey where I didn't want it. 

Then the fiddly bit. All the metalwork was hand painted with Revell No.9 (Anthracite). A large, pointy brush allowed me to do the sides of the metalwork without too much paint in the wrong place. A damp brush was enough to tidy up any mistakes. Mind you, there is best part of a coupe of hours work in all this, over two sessions. 

Job done - and I'm really pleased with this. OK, it's not an exciting piece of rolling stock. It IS nice and solid. Exactly what I want to put behind a steam locomotive in the future. 

Thanks again to those who helped me out of my modelling funk. I can't promise to always be full of joy, but this simple project has helped a lot, and got a box off the shelf!

A tickle with the paintbrush

 

My first decision with the Jag, was to leave the body alone. It's shiny, but not too shiny. This is 7mm scale, and so a cherished car would enjoy a little shine. No need for my standard spray everything with matt varnish here. 

Looking at photos, I worked out which bits of the bumpers should be black, I used matt and should have probably gone satin, if I could find the paint, and "chrome". I didn't use chrome of course, I think I picked up a pot of matt aluminum for embelishments, including the screen surround and wing mirrors. Actually, thse were black, until I found a pretty close match to the model and realised they should be silver. Prototype research is always worthwhile.

Inside, the cream plastic has been painted cream, the dash binnacle is black, and the dash face, a sort of woody colour. 

My favourite touch is to wash the wheels with black Citadel ink, which has highlighted the spokes nicely. Strictly speaking, some of these could be gold, but I didn't like that look, so left them silver. 

The back end is more of a problem as the rear lights are wrong, but painting the brake ones red, and washing the whole lot with the black ink tones it down a bit. 

Finally, the numberplates come from an online generator, and are printed to the right size and glued in place. 

OK, this isn't the most amazing model, but with an evenings worth of painting, it sits in the scene very nicely. There, but not too gaudy. Good job I didn't buy a red one!

Weid resin reaction

 

I need a spare locomotive for the NG7 layout, and in the cabinet, I have this model, built from a Smallbrook studio kit many years ago. A quick wheelclean and lubrication, and she's good to go. 

But, the tank sides both exhibit a weird bubbling under the paint. 

Does anyone have any idea why? The rest of the model is fine. If I've followed my normal practise, the resin body will have been primed with Halfords primer, then the the top coat is enamel. 

For the moment, I'm going to pretend it's a clever weathering technique.

Saturday Film Club: Wagon weathering

Another one of my videos, initially made for BRM TV subscribers - this time ruining a perfectly good ready-to-run wagon. Put it back in the box Parker, you've destroyed its resale value!

Driver Phil

 

What should I get someone for their birthday? How about a little model of me. 

Obviously, this is what everyone wants, especially my friend Ken. This isn't ego on my part, but simply when we'd been running on his line, I gave the Rob Bennet make mini Phil I carry around at all times (that's not weird) a trip around the line in his AnDel Models gas-mechanical. 

Little Phil fitted in the cab perfectly, and Ken decided he'd like one as a driver in the diesel. Now, we can't have Editor Phil getting his tweed jacket dirty, what is required is Driver Phil

I had a couple of spare models, and so quickly painted one up with something a bit closer to enginemans overalls, and a suitable wash of dirt. 

As expected, Driver Phil is a perfect fit, and Ken is delighted. The figure is Blu-Tacked into the cab, carefully positioned to allow access to the on/off switch. 

Now, where can I get one of those locos? Ken's is a really lovely performer with its remote control. Time to start watching the second-hand market. At least I know where I can find someone for the cab!

Looking for 145

 

Humbrol 145 (Medium Grey), has long been my go-to for painting jeams on model figures, usuaully dry-brushed with 144 on larger models. However, it's become difficult to aquire recenlty. I was in a model shop last week, and there wasn't even a space on the rack for it!

In th same shop, there was a Revell rack, and from memory, 79(Matt greyish blue)  looked like a reasonable match. 

Sadly, my memory for colour isn't that good as it's a lot darker. That said, it IS a useful colour, so money not wasted. One positive, the test piece required two coats of 145, but only one of 79, so it's a nice paint. 

The hunt for 145 goes on though. Perhaps something in an acrylic range is where I need to go. Now, there is a shop locally that stocks the Vallejo range, so I'll have a look there.

Loco driver

 

 

My loco needs a driver, and digging through my stash of large scale bits, I found this Model Earth Design "Shorter Staff" figure. Cast in resin, from a master by Chris Johnson, it's supplied in two parts - torso and head. 

Painting is simple enough with enamels, followed by a wash of Agrax Earthshade to add some shadows. The effect is over-emphasised in the photo, but it looks great. I even painted the cap in a check pattern, although you can't see it from this angle. 

Since I prefer my large-scale people to be caractures, rather than scale models, this little man is ideal for the job, and was a pleasure to paint.

More magnolia

 

You don't mix a can of trade emulsion with a Tamiya paint paddle! No, we need a special mixer bit fitted in a power drill to do the business. 

And mix it it did. I'd already finished off (with Dave's help) one can, and once everyone had gone home, I was on a mission to paint three bays and the back wall. I wasn't leaving until they had all been given two coats. That's about 9 litres.

Being a generous space, this isn't as bad as it sounds. No furniture to get in the way, and you can use a big roller. It was still a couple of hours work, but the results were pleasing, and this Thursday, we are having our first club night, back in the clubrooms!