Wednesday, July 19, 2023

Ivor the Engine

It's been six and a half years since I was first given the PH Designs kit to build Ivor the Engine and while the build process hasn't taken that entire period it has been long and involved. There have been a number of frustrating setbacks but I'm so glad I stuck with the kit as I'm over the moon with the finsihed model. Hopefully my enthusiasm comes through in this video looking at the finsihed model...

Monday, July 3, 2023

Lining Ivor

After all the fun with the large 16mm scale Hudson Hunslet I've switched back to doing some work on Ivor.
Since we last saw the model I've added the chimney and water filler cap and painted in their brass sections along with the brass window surrounds. Having added those I sprayed the model with a gloss varnish (specifically Vallejo Mecha Varnish 26.701) using the airbrush. While I don't want the model to have a gloss finish this was so that I could have a nice shiny surface to paint on the lining.

Doing the lining has been the most difficult part of the painting so far. The lines are etched into the model and I was hoping I could just flood the lines with yellow paint. Unfortunately that didn't seem to work, mostly as the yellow paint was almost transparent and so didn't show up. In the end I mixed yellow and ivory paint together to give a thicker more opaque paint. This was then painted, fairly roughly, over the lines with the excess then wiped away using a wet cotton bud. I did have to do some of the lines a couple of times to get enough paint into the lines; mostly as some of the lines were quite shallow due to a build up of the green paint.

Looking at the model I'm really happy with how the lining has turned out. Clearly it wouldn't be appropriate for most locos, but for Ivor I think it's perfect, as the colour in the originals varies in both hue and intensity along the lines and between different shots and I think I've managed to capture that quite well.