After quite a long break - some of it because of moving, some of it because of sorting out my train shed - I finally managed to spend some time last night and this evening doing some modelling. The project at hand was the "shiny train" aka The Grove or Royal Train.
For the project I had obtained from the excellent service of Electra Railway Graphics the full set of Royal Train coaches and from the equally excellent service of those purveyors of parcels wrapped in brown paper (and sometimes tied with string) Hatton's for Liverpool 7 of their cheapest Mk 3s (which happened to be GNER TGSs) and a brace of their cheapest Mk 2s (which were something in Blue and Grey - can't remember).
Adam recommends Brasso - I found this a) tedious and b) time consuming and c) not working as well as I had hoped. Perhaps the Australian formulation of Brasso is different to the UK one - although the tin says they are appointed to HM for stuff. In any case I made up a solution of Caustic Acid (caustic soda mixed into some water) which I poured into a handily spare Dapol box and, at two at a time, the rest of the coaches were done quite quickly - soak for about an hour and rinse off with the aid of a toothbrush (old) and make sure you wear a pair of those latex disposable gloves, just in case.
During this afternoon I then painted the roofs, under gear and bogies with a tin of grey primer - this is slightly darker than my usual choice and looked pretty good compared with the photos of the train so that was that.
This evenings work consisted of painting the springs on the Mk3 coaches bogies yellow and some leaver things on the Mk 2 coaches bogies blue - matching the pictures I have of these coaches in BR Coaching Stock in Colour since 1960.
I have put the sides on the Mk2s and the Prince of Wales' saloon and very nice they look with my dummy Class 67. I still have to paint the corridor connectors black and find some door boards. I also plan on fitting Scale Scenes curtains on the insides of the coaches for the more authentic look - particularly as I can't be fussed making interiors and in any case, all of the pictures I have found both in books and on line have the curtains drawn.
Photos tomorrow when a) the camera battery is charged and b) I can do it out doors with natural light!
It is good to have something OMWB again!
