7404 at Pont-y-dulais…

The NCB were often forced to spot hire a locomotive from British Rail at Pont-y-dulais when it's own needed repair or workshop attention, mainly due to the remote nature of this outpost in South Wales...

On this occassion (thought to be the early 1960s but our photographer has failed to note the date) 7404 and her crew are waiting on shed at the start of the afternoon shift. Her fire has been cleaned and she's been topped up with water ready for the second 8 hour stint of her day working empties back up the valley to the colliery. 

Yesterday I shared photos of this latest commission completed, but I wanted to share just a few more staged on my NCB micro layout, Pont-y-dulais. They show just how much character this finish exudes under layout lighting. I'm really really happy with the tonal variation, texture and finish I've achieved in her finish. It's all to easy with an airbrush to 'kill' a model by deadening all the paint and texture under a uniform coat of matt dirt. The real art is how to vary that shading, letting the underlying paintwork shine through and then introduce texture through dry brushing and other post airbrush methods.

Sat on shed, 7404 looks very much at home, but unfortunately she will be heading on to her owner later this week, hence the urgency in getting these photos, for a life working on a 4mm recreation of the Fairford branch. 

If you've got a prototype (any gauge, any thing) you'd like me to recreate I can work with kits, ready to run, kit bashing or full scratch building. Get in touch for a personal proposal. Until next time, more soon...