Commission: A North Eastern workhorse in OO...

This EFE Rail Austerity arrived in the garish yellow and blue livery with DCC sound fitted, and my customer wanted me to re-create a hard working machine from the North East...

The prototype was fitted the gas producer combustion system which meant adding a valve on the smokebox door and a conical chimney from RT Models. Once these had been fitted the model was stripped down and dipped in 91% IPA to remove the factory finish before a coat of grey primer.

The ‘Ashington’ blue was hand mixed to photos, and applied by airbrush and brush painted on the wheels and frames. The buffer beams picked out by hand in red, and the frames touched in black. Once this was dry I had some custom transfers that I designed to match the prototype made, and these were fitted including the cab number and works plant number, NCB on the tanks and buffer beam numbers. Ashington locos had black shaded yellow numbers on the buffer beam, quite a distinctive feature that needed to be replicated. Once dry the model was sealed with dull-cote before weathering could begin.

These locomotives were often filthy by the end of steam, I wanted to depict a hard working locomotive, and the soft sheen of the dull-coated finish worked really well. Airbrushed road dirt over a dirty wash and finished with dry brushed gun-metal on the polished metal edges have provided a realistic depth to the finish. 

If you’ve got a favourite prototype you’d like me to re-create in miniature i can offer a one stop shop - whether its a simple repaint, or adding some specific detail, that requires scratchbuilt, custom etch or custom 3D designed and printed parts - and combining that with transfers I can design, and nameplates I can design, we can get pretty close these days. Get in touch using the contact form on the website, Facebook or the forum messaging systems for a personal proposal. Until next time, more soon...