Hunslet in 006.5: named and plates...

Now this has turned out very nice indeed, the lovely etched 'Hunslet' works and name plates arrived from Steve at Narrow Planet this weekend and they've really finished off the small minimum gauge Hunslet...

These are sized from the Quarry Hunslet, so look right at home on the cab side. The 'Leeds' across the middle is clearly legible, although the rest isn't. The ELEANOR is perfect, totally on the money for Hunslet name plate. Now you probably won't believe me but my 4 year old son painted and finished these with me - he applied the paint, carefully with as much precision as I did, and then patiently waited a few minutes for it to harden a touch before polishing off the excess on the back of a piece of card (in this case the Narrow Planet card header). This leaves paint in the recesses and doesn't scrape the raw metal finish, providing a nicer finish than the usual approach of rubbing over on emery or wet and dry paper.

So next up, a touch of detail painting in the cab, and then some weathering. This will be quite subtle, some dry brushed gun metal on rubbed edges, dirt to the top of the tanks and a few dribbles here and there, before airbrushing on some soot. Final touch will be the driver and some coal in the bunker... more soon...