Powell Duffryn 07 weathering…

I recently picked up a Powell Duffryn liveried Heljan 07 with a view to reverse engineering the cab for a future Planet Industrials project…

The finished model on shed at Pont-y-dulais. 

However, in the meantime I have worked over the model and enjoyed producing a subtle, clean look but still bringing the ‘toy’ like finish to life. If you take a look on Flickr there are plenty of reference photos, as I always say, the best thing to do is to work from what you actually see, not what you think you see…

It’s difficult to capture the subtle water marks and exhaust on the white uppers, this over saturated photo makes the exhaust in particular look pretty awful. In the flesh the appearance is more subdued and realistic.

The model was first treated to a dark grey panel line wash, carefully worked in and removed, leaving subtle streaking on the white surfaces, to break up the bright finish. Left to dry overnight I then applied a wash of browny black to the chassis and footplate, and used the same wash, thinned, to tackle the buffer beams and air tanks. These steps are the same as I always do, but it is in their application, observing how marks and stains have been created by oil, dirt, dust, wear and the weather. A light dusting with the airbrush of road dirt on the chassis and then a small amount of exhaust. The trick is to be subtle and careful to build things up slowly, as it’s easy to over do things… the final step is dry brushed gun metal on the step and handrail edges.

The result is convincing, if subtle, and it’s a superb performer. Matched with the Planet Industrials MDOs, it looks very much at home on Pont-y-dulais…

I’ve left the NEM socket covers off for now, in case I need to fit a different coupler in future. The screw links go some way to disguising the fact I’m normal viewing, and I certainly don’t notice on Pont-y-dulais, viewed mainly side on.

If you have an ‘out of the box’ model you’d like me to breathe some life into then get in touch using the contact form (on the ‘=‘ menu, top left), Facebook, Messenger or the forums. In the meantime, more soon…