Brand new Skoda…

Denton Road has always been about memories. N gauge too, for me, has been an opportunity to collect, explore and enjoy trains from my childhood. A class 90 was always an inevitable addition, and of course, in Swallow livery. Denton Road becoming the opportunity to give it a home…

Since the early days of this layout the 90 has marked a commitment to add some OHLE catenary to the station - but equally, whilst models more recent have been modified, repainted, weathered, she has remained box fresh.

It has not been a reticence to spoil a wonderful paint finish, as you might imagine - instead a trepidation to weathering something this small, this subtle and white!

My first hand experiences imprinted the sense of subtle yet dirty effects this virgin white paint quickly collected. Whilst in larger scales an airbrush might help with this subtlety I felt I couldn’t rely upon it in N over a white finish.

Crewe, humming and clicking, brand new and exciting to 9 year old me - photo James Hilton

Of course an electric locomotive doesn’t have a dirt making machine on board - no engine or associated equipment to cause oil or soot. Instead they display dirt collected at speed, like our cars do on a motorway. Whilst I chose to use to usual weathering washes from Humbrol 98 and 33, I actually used plain 98 on the cab roofs to give a very subtle effect. It was Boomer diarama (if you haven’t seen his videos on YouTube you are missing some wonderful work) who discussed a ‘wet on wet’ method for weathering and these days I find it works well in N - and here with these subtle marks it was perfect. A wash of neat thinners, then a little thinned paint applied carefully to avoid the sides or cab windows. A wide flat brush slowly removes most of this side to side but leaving the front edge. I then masked the cab windows and cleaned and dabbed dry the flat brush with every stroke, from the back edge of the cab roof to the front. This imparted subtle streaks along the whole roof, but left a greater concentration at the front, as I remembered and observed in period photographs.

Cab ends followed, here the wash was applied to a dry model, only where I wanted it to collect, the flat brush used to control the effect and give streaking, if required, in the right direction.

The lower body side also needed some careful work. Here a mix of 98 and 33 as a thicker wash was applied to the bottom edge, brushed upwards a little with the old flat brush leaving a scrappy mess. Working carefully to keep strokes vertical, I used the same method as for the roof to remove much if this, brushing from the red stripe downwards. The result is incredibly subtle but reminds me of the way the dirt seemed to collect along the lower sides of these machines after a period of prolonged running in wet weather.

The rest of the weathering was nothing special, those two regular shades applied in various varied locations giving a feel of road dirt and grease to the bogies and buffer beams at each end. A touch of black Posca paint pen on the centre of the buffers gives a greasy touch perfectly on scale with the rest of the finish. 

I often see weathering over done or completed with a paint by numbers approach. I would counsel start with a memory, back that up with technical understanding and then practice your craft using the best, most appropriate tools and methods, not the easiest. The results will give you a great deal of satisfaction, they’ll bring a mass produced toy to life for you, telling your story - for it is you who have brought this model alive… of course, you can always find someone to help with the technicalities, but always make sure you share photos and memories to help the artisan make the model personal, for it to mean something to you.

This Class 90 helps mark the end of Denton Road’s journey. From concept to reality in little over 12 months, it has been a rather lovely muse and will be long enjoyed here in the workshop. The Class 90 has a place to call home, and now, itself is part of the same story. Until next time, more soon…

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