Commission: Conway Castle in 0-14...

I've been working on this model of Conway Castle for a customer who supplied the body (a 3D print from Mountaineer Models) and chassis (Mark Clark of Locos'n'stuff), and today it's heading off to it's new home in mid-Wales...

The 3D print was well designed but needed cleaning up where the support wax had left a white powdery resisdue after rinsing in white spirit. Once this was done I then sanded and prepped the model, being careful to smooth rough areas although around the doors this wasn't entirely possible. Handails and buffer beam pipework were formed based upon photos, and holes drilled carefully to fit them, using the dimples in the print as a guide.

The paintwork was layered up on top of a coat of primer, first matt white as an undercoat for the ivory colour, then the dark green, then the light green. This needed a little tidying up carefully with a fine brush as it was very difficult to mask around the cab on a fully finished model - although I did leave the handrails until after painting. The fine green line was added with a bow pen, with the curves done freehand to match the masking used for the main bodywork colour. The chassis was painted matt black and the buffer beams in signal red.

Once dry, it was sealed with dull-cote and the handrails added, touched in with satin black paint. The lovely etched plates are from the Narrow Planet range, and finish it off nicely. Glazing was added using clear styrene, the nature of the end windows necessitating a fiddly flush finish, but worth the effort. Headlights were 'filled' with a drop of PVA glue. Once dry a white spot was painted in the centre, and then when this was dry a light wash of silver applied to the centre, with a solid silver edge. When dry, I used HUmbrol Clearfix to make them flush, and add some lustre to them, I think they're reasonably convincing, and at normal distance look just like headlight on the prototype when not turned on. The photos were taken under indoor light which isn't very forgiving of the paintwork around the doors, the perils of one piece body shells and complex paintwork.

If you'd like me to work on your own dream model then get in touch. 2019 has been a bumper year, more on that later, and 2020 is filling up fast. Do get in touch via email, the website form, Facebook or a forum messaging service. More soon...