Airfix Biggin Hill and Kitmaster Coach(es) build ....

[JohnRatzenberger]

Been a while, but I've had other priorities and issues -- now, having fought with trying to brush paint Humbrol acrylic Rail Colors, I'm going to quit on that. Just too streaky and my hope that a semi-gloss coat would hide it failed, so I'm starting over. A pity as I had done the decals and painted all the rails and handles and such.

Anyway, I've never airbrushed these paints before -- anyone have any experience/comments? Particularly what kind of thinner/cleaner to NOT get near them ? I plan to use just water otherwise.

[Dazzled]

Have you tried buffing the streaky paint with micromesh?

[JohnRatzenberger]

Have you tried buffing the streaky paint with micromesh?

Yeah, guess I should do that first; I can redo the decals ...

[splash]

Hi John

I will watch this thread with interest as I have just picked up the Airfix Biggin Hill and the BR Mogul engines from a local antique shop going cheap.

I have built the occasional Airfix steam engine in the past and found them good fun, so when things calm down I might just move them up the pile.

Regards Splash

[JohnRatzenberger]

Well, as you can see, it's two years stagnant -- but they might get picked back up this year for the CBK display. I still haven't gotten over my botched paint and might have to haul out another.

[Chuck E]

I'm enjoying this thread, John. I rode behind many of these locos when I was a kid. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of any of them. They were all in BR Dark Green when I saw them. The coaches were the brighter green and most were just plain green from my memory. This is patchy. It is recorded that the coaches were seen in lined and unlined livery, so it's down to how you'd like to see them. Are you OK for BR decals ?

[JohnRatzenberger]

I'm a great heritage rail fan - I pick up Back Track and Railway Modeller whenever I can. I just don't know squat and am afraid I'll offend someone whatever I do with them. Anyway, I'm semi-over that. Dazzled provided some links for decals that I explored once but never followed up on. He also gave me links for paints, but that was about the time of the Great Mailing Paint Crisis and the shops suspended all overseas shipments - I'll have to look again. Otherwise I 'm just going to come close with Vallejo, which I'm really starting to like.

[Dirkpitt289]

Cool, stuff John. I've never seen these kits before

[JohnRatzenberger]

FYI, FWIW, I am going to pick this up down in the Paper Model GB ( http://www.uamf.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=288&t=10700; ) long enough to build the interior and then finish the coach ...

[Dazzled]

Nice one John. To be honest, I'd forgotten about this build but I'm very glad to see it progressing again.

[beany]

I'm enjoying your coach interiors build in the Paper Kits GB John, and hope we may see your Biggin Hill finished off as well. These (West Country/Battle of Britain class light pacifics) have always been my favourite class of steam loco as they are one of the few I remember vividly as a very young child in the early to mid-1960s. They sometimes had to stop at the signal gantry adjacent to our garden fence where Dad had put a box for me to stand on and sometimes the driver and/or fireman would wave down to me while waiting for the signal to clear. My favourite scheme therefore is the late British Rail Lined Loco Green (orange and black lining). Here are some scans from prints taken of preserved example Swanage that I hope may inspire you







To give an idea of the huge effort that goes into restoring one of these magnificent locos, here is a "before" picture of the same class of loco at the same railway (Mid-Hants Railway, The Watercress Line).


Cheers
Al.

[JohnRatzenberger]

The Corridor Brake 2nd is done ...

Build thead is here.





I have enjoyed this very much and while not a great effort, I learned a tremendous amount about the Kitmaster car and the Peco interior that will help me with my other ones. My two-three lessons learned are:
-- trim and fit all the car windows early on.
-- test fit the roof right after putting the corridor walls and compartments in.
-- don't mess about with various paints & varnishes; I have no idea what I was thinking.
-- put the Peco card into a copier and spit it out on 65lb & 20lb paper; it will be a lot easier to work with.

[SJPONeill]

Looks even better in place, John and the 2D figures are surprisingly 'real' - possibly an approach that would be useful in plastic modelling for filling up those Airfix C-47s for the early hours of 6 June 1944..?

Some good lessons shared too...really pleased that you opted in with this one...

[JamesPerrin]

Do the parcel shelves have printed undersides? It occurs to me now that the interior is in place the top down view of the shelves won't be visible. As they are mesh and the luggage visible from underneath I wonder if they should be install the other way around?

T'is a minor point I think the detail looks tremendous and does make a huge difference.

[JohnRatzenberger]

Peco thought of everything. The parcel shelves are two-sided (once folded) and the underside has mesh under and the parcels, coats, etc are visible from underneath.

The problem is that you cannot see the underside of the shelves once put together and the stuff on top is a) flat and b) also invisible when the car sides are on.

But it's a good touch. If AMS were to kick in there'd be 3D parcels in no time

What I forgot is that I have a number of these Peco sets above the number of KM cars that I have. I should think about cutting the spare passengers, cargo, etc from them and use them to stuff the cars I do build. And I'll have passengers for the restaurant cars also.