Hunslet 233hp in OO: How to paint an industrial...

Earlier in the year (and over Christmas) I have been building a Judith Edge etched brass kit of the Hunslet 233hp 0-4-0 shunter in 4mm scale. I chose OO gauge as I have amassed quite a collection of kit built stock in this gauge at present, but it wouldn't be too difficult to re-gauge in the future if I chose to change to EM...

In my previous post I shared the prototype that had inspired me to build the model, the trio of units exported to Canada to work at Pacific Elevators in Vancouver. I originally planned to paint the model in the blue livery, but with a sensible hat on, I decided the earlier green livery would fit in more easily with my other UK based stock, as I was planning on using it on my existing projects, rather than build a small Canadian micro! At that stage I had a working chassis but had not started the body, I am hoping to write about the project for a magazine at some stage or another, so I'll not share details on that yet. Instead, I will briefly describe the painting of an industrial livery...

After lots of research, and personal experience, I don't use etch primer. Etch primer is designed to 'react' with the surface of the material to improve adherence of the paint, but etch primer, even those designed for brass, do not have much of an etching effect on the material and a good quality car primer, such as Halfords will equally do the job. Apply it sparingly and bake it over a radiator for a day or so to harden.

You need to think out what colours you're applying, here I will describe the thinking behind my livery of yellow stripes over green. I started with a plain grey primer, then used matt white as an undercoat for the areas that would be yellow. I applied gloss yellow, gloss paint works better with masking tape. Once thoroughly dry I masked the relevant areas, this is done using bog standard masking tape - the secret is to cut it carefully with a sharp blade and straight edge, and to get a crisp edge I apply it to a sheet of glass before using the knife to cut the tape to size.

Next I airbrushed the green all over - this needs to be done patiently with thin coats over the masking tape to avoid the paint building up a ridge. If you take you're time over 10 minutes you can build up a good coverage, alternating between covering the masking lightly, and building up colour elsewhere on the body whilst it dries a little. Whilst it is still tacky carefully peel of the masking by using the tip of a sharp blade to 'pick' up the tape and tweezers to carefully remove it. Leave the model to dry for another 24 hours to ensure the paint is hard.

Detail painting is then done by brush, again with the handrails I used a matt white undercoat. The window frames were very carefully picked out in silver - to do this I wear a head magnifier so I can easily see what I am doing, and have a spare 'clean' brush moistened with thinners incase of over brushing the green.

Finally, apply the livery elements. If you're using transfers, you need to apply a gloss varnish or lacquer to ensure adequate adhesion. In this case I used Woodland Scenics dry rub lettering which works over a satin or matt finish. Once applied, seal the model with Dull-cote or your chosen lacquer or vanish.

Here the body has been re-united with the chassis - the chassis has been painted matt black, ready for weathering. I need to cover the Romford axle nuts too, as well as paint the side rods. More on this project when it's finished. For now, I hope that was useful! More soon...