Setting the Bar

As I mentioned in the previous post the newest prototype of my Hudson-Hunslet diesel locomotive wasn't behaving very well and so spent most of it's time at Rainford last weekend in the Narrow Planet display case. This meant though that I didn't need to leave the first prototype on display in the same place. Instead I put it on display in the 009 Society display case which meant it was entered into the modelling competition. Unfortunately I had to leave before the results were announced, although after the judging had taken place. It turns out that people really do like it!

I actually found out earlier in the week that it was awarded runner up in its class (Internal Combustion Locomotives) but it was nice to have the confirmation arrive in the post today. Given that this is only the third locomotive I've finished, in any scale, and the first one I've designed myself I'm really impressed that people seem to like it so much. It does mean that I've set the bar rather high though for any future models I build or design. I'm hoping it wasn't just beginners luck and that I'll be able to hone my skills and maybe one day produce an even better model for the competition.

Snug as a Bug

So having received the updated etches I started to build up the second Hudson-Hunslet body. This time I had a deadline as I wanted to take them to the 009 Society AGM held at Rainford last weekend. Unfortunately with pressures of both work and family that didn't actually leave me very much time for modelling. By Friday night though I had a second assembled and painted prototype. Unfortunately when fitting the body to the chassis I managed to mess up the pickups (I actually drew blood by stabbing myself with the end of the pickup wire). I did my best to quickly sort them out and packed both locos nicely in a box for the Saturday.

Unfortunately the damage to the pickups was worse than I had thought and while it did run briefly on James' Creech Bottom layout (thanks James) it didn't behave well enough to earn itself a place on the layout for long and it spent the rest of the day in and out of the Narrow Planet display case as a steady stream of people came and admired it. Many of them also gave lots of useful advice regarding the pickups so I've a few more ideas to try. If you were one of the people I chatted with thanks for taking the time to talk to me. It was a really great day and by far the friendliest model railway show I've ever been to.

I did get the chance to wonder and take a few photos (although somehow I managed not to buy anything) so hopefully there will be another blog post at some point.

Etch v2

The updated etches for the Hudson-Hunslet arrived in the post this morning (thanks Steve) and at first glance they look perfect.

After the problems with the nameplates disintegrating on the first batch I'd gone for half etched plates which you can see bottom left. Steve thought it was worth a second go with a slight adjustment. Basically the idea was to combine the grill and nameplate and to tweak the lettering slightly to give more surrounding metal to help keep things together. You can just see this attempt top right of the full etch but it's obviously clearer on the closeup shot.

As you can see we tried a couple of approaches for a single part, but the top right is just perfect; it's etched through and still keeps the grill forward of the nameplate. In other words, SUCCESS!

The other problem with the first etch was that the folded part didn't fit properly as I'd drawn it wrong. A quick check and that problem seems to have been solved as well, so I can now start building up a second body.

Better Pickups

So as I mentioned in the previous post I'd been having a few issues with the pickups on the Hudson-Hunslet. The main problem was that the material I was using to make the pickups was too thick which means it generated too much friction when pressed against the treads of the wheels. I did experiment with fitting it so that it brushed the backs of the wheels and while this was much better it was unbelievably difficult to setup.

I've now changed the material I'm using to 0.112mm phosphor bronze wire and this is both easy to fit and springy enough to give a good connection without producing excessive amounts of friction. You can see in the photo that the pickups now push gently against the tops of the wheels and this seems to work really well as the following video should demonstrate.

As I said in the previous post this isn't the final body for this loco as I'll need to check the revised etched parts so there will be more posts with another body at some point soonish.

Dirty But Well Maintained

I've finally got around to painting up the body of the Hudson-Hunslet; I ran out of the crimson paint half way through hence the pause. While the etched parts didn't fit perfectly they fit well enough to give a good idea of how the final model will look. So here we are.

I went for a dirty but well maintained look, which I think I've pulled off reasonably well. I'm having a few issues with the pickups (replacement parts on order) so I won't subject you to a video this time. The artwork for the etches has been updated and sent off so hopefully I'll be able to build up another body shortly. Any suggestions for how I should paint that one? I've already had one vote for this colour scheme, although I notice that loco is quite the same model as this one.

White or Black Underwear?

In the comments to yesterdays post, Paul mentioned that he uses a white undercoat when painting figures to avoid overly darkening the topcoat of paint. As I had a few spare figures laying around I thought I'd paint one in exactly the same way as yesterday but with a white undercoat.

On the left is the figure from yesterday while the one on the right started with a white undercoat. I think the difference is most obvious on the faces of the figures with the white undercoat giving a lighter skin tone. One thing I did find was that I had to use more paint for the topcoat as the white showed through a lot more than the black did, and any spots I missed were very obvious.

At the end of the day I don't think there is much to choose between the two approaches but I think I'll probably stick with the black undercoat as I found it ever so slightly easier.

Figure Painting

As I've mentioned before I prefer painting things that are simple block colours, although I am now happy with my approach to painting weathered wood. Painting figures to look realistic is something I'm still not entirely happy with though.

Over the years I've actually painted quite a lot of figures, but these have been the slightly larger Warhammer miniatures from Games Workshop and I focused on painting Orcs and Goblins. While I learnt a number of useful techniques they don't necessarily help with painting human figures. Fortunately there are a myriad of tutorials on the web which I've now read through to come up with an approach that is fairly easy and seems to work reasonably well.

The main point many of the tutorials stress is that you are aiming for something that looks right from a sensible viewing distance, rather than something that looks good in a close up photo. This means that you can often leave out details such as eyes and lips etc. as they would be so small as to be invisible. This is very different from when I painted orcs and goblins where I deliberately painted large eyes to add that slightly demented look I was after. So as you can see the close up photo does make the painting look rather crude but when viewed from even just a foot or so away the effect seems to work. The main idea is to use block colours and then a brown wash (not black interestingly) to add shadows and some dry brushing for highlights.

For this specific model I went with a blue overalls effect and used Model Color acrylics throughout, except for his shoes which were painted with RailMatch weathered black (#2412). I started by painting the whole figure black (#70.950) I then painted the overalls with flat blue (#70.962), the shirt ivory (#70.918) and the exposed skin was painted with dark flesh (#70.927). I then made a thin wash of burnt umber (#70.941) and ran this over the entire model to help add shadows. I then tried lightly dry brushing with dark sand (#70.847), which is a creamy colour, to add some highlights but I felt this looked a bit unnatural so touched some bits back in with their original colours and then applied another wash of burnt umber. Once dry a light wafting of matt varnish sealed everything nicely.

As I said before the close up photo is very unflattering but when viewed from a sensible distance I think he looks quite good. Now I just have to paint a locomotive for him to drive around in.