Dyfrdwy tramway in 7/8ths: wood and metal...

I've been making progress on finishing the bodywork of my 7/8ths wagon, infact the first 7/8ths model I have produced, and its been a steep learning curve...

I shared the model recently, in raw plasticard. It's funny we spend so long trying to make plastic look like other materials - however, even though 7/8ths is a large scale, I do wonder though that using wood and metal would be harder to make it look scale - but that could perhaps be something for me to look at in the future...

So how did I get the finish shown here?

For the wood, I wanted to achieve a sun bleached unpainted look. I started with Humbrol Matt 72 as a base, then dry brushed with a light grey mixed from white (34) and Humbrol Matt 64. Once dry I used Humbrol 64 to add more texture and details, curving to match the grain. Then I used 98 to pick out knots, and add some patterns to the wood. When all of that was dry I used a wash of Matt 98 and Matt 173.

For the metal I mixed Humbrol 27004, 98 and 173, and painted this on neat to the corner metalwork and touched the bolt heads on the inside as well. I'm wondering if it needs another wash on the planking, and I intend to dry brush with a touch of gunmetal on the metalwork, and give it a light polish before sealing with lacquer.

Whilst I had the paint out I've made a start on the chassis, this has the deck painted with Humbrol 72, and a wash of 72 on the chassis sides over the grey primer. I plan for this to appear like a wooden deck and an old grey painted chassis. The metal work has been painted in the same fashion.

It's been an interesting journey building up these colours and layers, studying photos and experimenting with techniques I'm not so familiar with using in my usual 009 modelling.

More soon...