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Hogwarts Express, Scratchbuild, 1/48 Scale


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I keep trying to come up with something wryly amusing or semi ironic to say about this build, but I can't. It's just too damn good. I am seriously impressed by the skills and ingenuity on display and its going to end up a cracker of a model. I think I'm tempted to come over to the sooty side of modelling for a bit. I hope we see more from Baby B in future.

 

 

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On 1/6/2021 at 4:47 PM, Bandsaw Steve said:

available at many stationary shops. 

By far the best kind. They're a bugger to catch when they're moving! 😁

 

She really is looking good though. Nice paint job BB!

 

Ian

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17 hours ago, mdesaxe said:

he crews invariably spent quite a bit of time before starting from the terminal each time to polish their locomotives

I had to go through folders full of photographs to find those I took of these shining locomotives. Here is one showing the crew polishing their steed.

 

y4mKGZF_zCffP_bDjLa9-0WTZ-kbrfd1S03nNMYj

 

This is just before a first scheduled morning departure from Xiamen.

 

Maurice

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Interesting photo - really makes the point about the crew keeping the locomotive polished.

 

I would have to question the wisdom of setting white business shirts as the uniform for steam locomotive operators. 🤔


I think I can spy one or two OHS violations too. 🚨

 

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Can't believe how long it was since I last saw this thread, cripes, you & BB have made a heap of progress & it is looking really good. It is going to look fabulous with the LEDs, does this mean you'll be redoing the Carpathia now? :D

Steve.

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On 1/8/2021 at 1:02 AM, Bandsaw Steve said:

Interesting photo - really makes the point about the crew keeping the locomotive polished.

 

I would have to question the wisdom of setting white business shirts as the uniform for steam locomotive operators. 🤔


I think I can spy one or two OHS violations too. 🚨

 

white was used quite a lot - bit of a statement of cleanliness. the Great Eatern Railway used to paint the loco roof white along with the carriage roofs.  shirt & tie on the footate & all brass polished

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2 hours ago, stevehnz said:

it is looking really good. It is going to look fabulous with the LEDs, does this mean you'll be redoing the Carpathia now? :D

Steve.

Hello @stevehnz

 

I would post a full and frank answer to that question but there is a no swearing rule on Britmodeller so I will leave the exact wording to your imagination... 🤬

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33 minutes ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

Maybe I should start wearing a white shirt and tie when I’m in the shed to force me to keep it clean and tidy. So far nothing else has worked. 

I can remember my great uncles & grandad digging over the garden in a shirt and tie.  One great uncle had tattoos from his time in the merchant navy & would keep his shirts sleeves firmly rolled down as he didn’t want the tattoos on display.  Now my garage on the other hand.....  don’t ask!

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I have distinct memories of both my Dad and Grandfather wearing ties whatever they were doing.
I guess that was the culture of the time (1950s - 1980s) ...

My dad carried on like that until well into his seventies until I bought him some Polo shirts for Christmas. He loosed up a bit after that. :)

 

Cheers,

Alan.

 

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When I’m working in my shed I generally wear overalls and more-often-than-not remember to put underpants on underneath. In winter I will sometimes add a T-shirt. 
 

Gotta maintain standards. 

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Gidday Bandsaw, a white T-shirt I hope. With a tuxedo pattern on the front. I'd expect nothing less. 🎩

 

And Stevehnz, you really like to live dangerously I see. I thought 'Lights' is one of the more foul swear words on the forum. 😁 Regards, Jeff.

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On 1/7/2021 at 6:02 PM, Bandsaw Steve said:

I would have to question the wisdom of setting white business shirts as the uniform for steam locomotive operators. 

The photograph was taken in March or April 1991, very early in the actual manifestation on a more country-wide scale (outside Guangdong and Shanghai) of Deng Xiaoping's "capitalism with a communist face". Wearing crisp white business shirts had become a way for people to demonstrate their professional status after 40 years of everyone wearing washed-out blue Mao suits.

 

Maurice

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15 hours ago, mdesaxe said:

Wearing crisp white business shirts had become a way for people to demonstrate their professional status after 40 years of everyone wearing washed-out blue Mao suits.

 

How truely fascinating! 
 

That’s a whole sociological/ political / historical phenomena in its own right. 
 
 

 

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On 1/9/2021 at 6:27 PM, Bandsaw Steve said:

When I’m working in my shed I generally wear overalls and more-often-than-not remember to put underpants on underneath. In winter I will sometimes add a T-shirt. 
 

Gotta maintain standards. 

Having seen some of the things that run loose in your shed I would make absolutely sure that I was wearing underpants! AND shoes!

 

Ian

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Masks and the Dark Mark

 

The followers of 'He Who Must Not be Named' generally wear masks when performing their evil deeds and once they have struck they generally leave the 'Dark Mark' , a sort of  hologram of a skull and a snake, floating over the scene of their crime. ☠️

 

This post will also involve masks and dark markings. 

 

First the masking. Here Baby Bandsaw is about to start using 'Tamiya Flexible' masking tape to mark out the edges of the red side-walls of the tender.   

0Mm3cEC.jpg

 

I advised her to pay attention to getting this first boundary of marking on exactly in the correct spot and to make sure that it was burnished down really hard - which she did very thoroughly, but it took a lot of time.

Xf75WqU.jpg

 

At this point she decided to amuse herself by leaving a 'dark mark' of her own on the back of the tender.  Fortunately this would soon be covered in black paint.  Teenagers Eh! What can you do? :emo:

c5HegXo.jpg

 

Some wider Tamiya masking was added to infill the large areas between the edging. Some detailed work was done with Vallejo liquid masking, they are the small areas of pale aqua blue that you can see if you look very carefully. 

waDY7QH.jpg

 

The whole tender was sprayed with one more coat of the exact same red as previous. This is always a good idea as any paint that bleeds under the mask's edge is likely to be from the first coat applied after the masking.  Making the last used colour the first post-masking coat means that any bleed-under will be the same colour as the base coat and will not be readily visible. Applying a layer of paint on top of the masking and along the edge of the masking like this also helps to prevent minute movement or wander of the tape edge.  Some folks recommend using Pledge or clear varnishes rather than the previous colour for this job and I guess that would also work.

McqcuGT.jpg

 

Now just apply few coats of rattle-can matt black. 

Mo4ciDw.jpg

 

Let the last coat firm up and start peeling back the masking, here BB is starting the job with some tweezers.

n1TODdt.jpg

 

and then attacking the bigger bits with fingers.  When the masking is successful the removal of it is one of the best jobs going. BB agrees that this is very satisfying work.

9m7tfWh.jpg

 

Although accidents can happen!  Here we have the obligatory fingerprint in the black paint.  This isn't difficult to fix; we'll come back to it at a later date.

eHGH1pE.jpg

 

And now there are dark markings all over the tender.  Ohhhh.... Spooky...🐍

N47rSVD.jpg

 

See what I mean...

hdIgNlY.jpg

 

At this point BB declared herself bored with masking, but as I am determined to press on with this project I waded in and masked off the roof of the cab.  Here I've used some silli-putty and masking tape along with the previously mentioned upholstery foam to delineate the cab roof.  

tnkAFr5.jpg

 

This is the kind of masking I like, not too finicky and very quick to apply.  In my experience there's no such thing as too much masking.  Here I've used some Tamiya Bulk edging masking (it's about 30cm wide plastic film with an adhesive tape margin) to ensure that the sides of the cab won't get the dark mark. I've then popped the entire loco into a plastic shopping bag and taped it up tight to make sure that the black paint goes no-where except on the roof where it's needed.  This was all done in less than 15 minutes and BB was well impressed.

FUGtlf0.jpg

 

She hit the top of the cab with black paint, let it dry and...

zF9ubb9.jpg

 

Removed the masking.

Ctgn49F.jpg

 

Ohhh.... Better than Christmas! 🎅

99rbU4I.jpg

 

And here is the result

gMw8quH.jpg

 

Looking good I think! 

pPGzXqC.jpg

 

Well that's the easy part of the black painting. Next comes the tricky part.  The distribution of black paint across the locomotive itself is more complex from here on so just like in the movies, there will be more masks and more dark-marks in the next installment. 💀

 

Till then, Stay Safe

 

In the words of Professor Horace Slughorn - Potions Master at Hogwarts  -    
 

‘These are mad times we live in! Mad!’

 

Bandsaw Steve

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Bandsaw Steve said:

When the masking is successful the removal of it is one of the best jobs going. BB agrees that this is very satisfying work.

Gidday, yeah I kinda agree. I like the paint job so far. And the next installment will be .  .  .  When? 🙂 Regards, Jeff.

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Gidday, so I'm to be kept in suspense by you and BBS for THAT long? 😲 How could you both? 😩 Oh well, I'll just have to grin and bear it. 🙂 I'm sure the next instalment will be worth the wait. 👍 Regards, Jeff.

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Minimalist Black

 

Not much to say here folks as this is very similar to the previous 'mask, spray, remove, admire' posts. if you have been following along there's not much new here. I'll just post photos uncaptioned for the most part and make some minor comments along the way. This will be a minimalist post with some black paint as the main point of interest.

 

The side of the running board must remain red - so careful masking is needed here. The white tape is Tamiya's 'flexible masking tape' and it really is flexixble.   Good stuff this, just look how it takes the bends!

 

HPx4XvW.jpg

 

T7luXY5.jpg

 

34UJwnW.jpg

 

The last of my rattle-can black was used at this point.  Apparently there is no more black modelling rattle-can paint to be obtained anywhere in W.A. due to Covid related manufacturing and supply chain disruption. From this point we switched to the airbrush.

6LXk7LG.jpg

 

Peel back the first round of masking. Everything below the running board is now black - but I won't show the result just now because I want the 'wow factor' at the end of the post.

mc8wkHh.jpg

 

When masking really critical sharp lines I like to start with the very narrowest masking tape I can get on the margin.  This is Aizu 0.5mm tape and it's brilliant. press this down with a cotton bud and nothing's going to get under that leading edge.

LieGwNX.jpg

 

Add thicker tapes behind it.

HJuJvLs.jpg

 

Fill in any possible remaining gaps with liquid masking.

ypedOJ0.jpg

 

okI8tJx.jpg

 

There's no such thing as 'over-masking'. 

x7TTaGj.jpg

 

tS6qPSO.jpg

 

This is Baby Bandsaw's first ever use of an airbrush.

VNnHFyV.jpg

 

She's a natural.  I wish I was... I often have problems with the damned things.

cPtrREu.jpg

 

Let it dry and peel back the masking.

T0m48pU.jpg

 

The Aizu tape has done it's job beautifully.

SNTldBb.jpg

 

Result! 

OWFCKcZ.jpg

 

fyfgYNo.jpg

 

 

I am very happy with this and so too is BB! 😁

 

The end of school holidays deadline is looking achievable.

 

Best Regards,

Bandsaw Steve

 

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