Planet Industrials: Ruston 165DE painted...

I've spent the past few days painting up the Ruston 165DE prototype, as it's always nice to see the models come together, and I think the kit box artwork looks nice with a finished model...

If you recall last time I shared I was pondering the livery, well I plumped for green with red wheels and wasp striped buffer beams. The green was mixed from Humbrol gloss 3 (brunswick green), gloss 69 (yellow) and 220 (red) to get a nice rich shade reminiscent of the Ruston paintwork. The buffer beams were masked, and sprayed yellow.

The wasp striping was masked by hand, and sprayed with matt black - and then the body chassis was painted matt black too - and the wheels picked out with Humbrol 100, a nice dull red. At this stage I had planned to add a fine white/black/white lining, based on photos of one at Purfleet Deep Wharf and Storage - and I used the excellent Fox N gauge lining for this...

However, I wasn't pleased with the result, the white was just too 'bling' over the dark green - it might have worked with orange/black/orange, but the result wasn't right in my eye - I decided to seal it in dull-cote and dull down the green to see if that improved matters...

It didn't! So out came the Micro-sol (which works through dull-cote) to soften the transfer, and it was gently peeled away. I will give the bonnet a second coat of dull-cote later on, before adding glazing and a very gentle weathering. 

Here she is (top) posed with the Planet Industrials liveried Hornby Sentinel, for scale. It's a really neat kit, I'm very pleased with the fit and finish - just one small adjustment to make for the NEM coupling mount at the front, and I want to include a rudimentary cab interior on the print and I can get the prints in manufacture. Exciting to see it come together. More soon...