Philip's Workbench

[murphaph]

I've mustered up the courage to weather my first IRM wagon and I'm glad I did. Having studied several pics from the early to mid 90's it seems brown rusty bogies under dirty bauxite chassis were the order of the day. The later black bogies with green and blue details are definitely wrong for my chosen era anyway. I decided to remove the kinematic coupling before spraying but I don't think I'll do that again. Too fiddly putting it back together. I ended up using a pair of sharp cocktail sticks to manipulate the tiny springs into place. Lord knows how I didn't lose them. Pics to follow. Can't upload them from my phone right now.

 

 

[murphaph]

 

[Dempsey]

Nicely done 

[jhb171achill]

50 minutes ago, murphaph said:

 

Very realistic 

Just a livery question; when did IE start painting bogies black (with little blue, green or yellow bits)? 

Maybe ten years ago? Anyone?

And related, on the subject of “modern image” - when did they start painting the tops of Bell containers white? They were dark blue at first….

Just curious.

[murphaph]

I'm not sure on the former but definitely after ca. 1995 some time. On the latter I have no clue whatsoever. Maybe @Arran would know that?

[DJ Dangerous]

10 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Just a livery question; when did IE start painting bogies black (with little blue, green or yellow bits)? 

Maybe ten years ago? Anyone?

 

A wise man in September 2013 said:

 

On 27/9/2013 at 12:13 PM, jhb171achill said:

Pretty much everything else - sheep-dipped in brown! Though I notice now that newly serviced container flats and other wagons at Limerick have black bogies and brown bodies / drawgear.

 

[jhb171achill]

20 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

 

A wise man in September 2013 said:

 

 

Ah! OK - I had forgotten............... so circa 2012 maybe.

[murphaph]

I've gone for a rustier top side this time. Found a pic of a wagon in similar condition. 

 

[murphaph]

In for a penny, in for a pound...

Many of the Taras exhibit this "dribble pattern" down the sides. Not sure what causes it, probably overfilling around the holes near the top. I'm not done with these but I feel they are heading in the right direction. 

I sprayed the dust coating over the top having tried to simply apply a wash. It pooled in all the wrong places and didn't look right at all. That's the good thing about weathering with enamels...you can just wipe it all off an hour later and start again. Acrylics aren't as forgiving.

 

[Rob]

They look great, Phil

I love a weathered Tara, either in model or real form!

Edited September 9, 2022 by Rob

[Dempsey]

Need to up my game. Thats good work. 

[murphaph]

Easily my favourite wagons to weather so far. Hardly a different combination of reds and browns couldn't be found on the prototype during the 90s. They were well and truly unloved by the end.

Yes the wheels are still masked as I have to wait until everything is really dry before applying a top coat of matt varnish. As a matter of course I am regauging each wagon as it gets weathered.

Strange glare is the light reflecting off the back of my phone

I think the jury is still out on as to whether or not the 48 tonners were ever loaded like this. The restriction bars had definitely been removed as there is photographic evidence of briquettes being loaded in those centre bins. I assume it would have happened with fertiliser too and anyway rule 1 lol.

The obligatory before and after

 

[popeye]

Beautiful weathering, better than the real thing. 

[John-r]

You have nailed it, so realistic, same goes for your other wagons, Top class, very well done.

[Bob229]

Excellent work the heavily used look, will look well in a siding or been hauled by an A class or 71

[Georgeconna]

Mighty Fine Sir.

[exciecoachbuilder]

4 hours ago, murphaph said:

Easily my favourite wagons to weather so far. Hardly a different combination of reds and browns couldn't be found on the prototype during the 90s. They were well and truly unloved by the end.

Yes the wheels are still masked as I have to wait until everything is really dry before applying a top coat of matt varnish. As a matter of course I am regauging each wagon as it gets weathered.

Strange glare is the light reflecting off the back of my phone

I think the jury is still out on as to whether or not the 48 tonners were ever loaded like this. The restriction bars had definitely been removed as there is photographic evidence of briquettes being loaded in those centre bins. I assume it would have happened with fertiliser too and anyway rule 1 lol.

The obligatory before and after

 

They look fantastic, well done.

[Dempsey]

Brilliant work

[murphaph]

Thank you all for your kind words. 

[jhb171achill]

Wow - that's some of the very best weathering I've ever seen!

[DJ Dangerous]

Simply outstanding work, they look incredible! Up there with the best, for sure.

[murphaph]

Just a couple of battered containers. The Kien Hung one must surely be nearly end of life with all those patches....

[popeye]

Looks great. 

[DJ Dangerous]

That is so good that it's beyond words. If you Photo-Shopped an image of East Wall or somewhere in behind them, it would look real.

So, now that you're hitting the ceiling of excellence when it comes to weathering containers and wagons, what's next???

[murphaph]

Well I'll have to have a little tank about that....

[DJ Dangerous]

13 minutes ago, murphaph said:

Well I'll have to have a little tank about that....

[RedRich]

The flats look tasty, infact I would run some without loads as it really makes the skeletal frame look the part of a wagon that's been in service sometime since it last saw a lick of paint.

Plus it would be a shame to hide your fine work.

Rich 

[murphaph]

Yeah that's the plan for the ones I "go to town" on Rich. I will not bother weathering the top surfaces of most of them because they will have containers on 'em. The keg ones will need a bit of top surface weathering too as you can see between the cages.

[RedRich]

The keg liners make for interesting trains with 42's 47's and 22's carrying the cages up until the end. Kilkenny was always full of 22's behind the opposite platform from the station buildings.

Rich

 

[murphaph]

I've seen youtube clips of 42's with a 20' container and 2 keg cages. That makes for an interesting bit of variety too. 

[murphaph]

So, weathering fun put aside for a while as some Railtec transfers have arrived, allowing me to progress with 2x 111 resprays. These were paused for ages. Can't remember the last time I saw that red paint which I revealed from under the masking tape today!

I've glossed up the spots that are to receive transfers and I will let them dry for a day or so before proceeding.

Masking is very tricky as it runs through the marker lights.

 

[irishthump]

Those container flats look fantastic. Can I ask what techniques/materials you used?

[murphaph]

19 minutes ago, irishthump said:

Those container flats look fantastic. Can I ask what techniques/materials you used?

No it's a trade secret. Only joking 

Bogies:

The bogies are disassembled and resprayed after applying a primer but if you're not regauging thm you might get away with not disassembling them. Not sure. Respray a dirty colour as they got filthy really with no trace of the bauxite red being visible after a short while. Then apply dark grey washes to the bogies into all the crevices and clean off the excess when dry. Then a bit of dry brushing with titanium white oil paint, very sparingly applied. Don't forget to apply sleeper grime or frame dirt to the wheels (except the running surfaces) or it will look odd.

Wagon:

Matt varnish the wagon and apply washes into all the crevices (mostly dark browns and greys, bit of rust colour wash as well but not much). Then clean off the excess when dry. Then for the rustier ones I think I applied a "powder" effect wash from AK and rust colour powders and a rusty coloured paint mix I made up. Then blast the underframe and bogies with frame dirt acrylic from the airbrush. Bit of dry brushing with the white oil paint is optional here I think. Then seal the whole lot with matt varnish again. Buffers get a bit of gloss acrylic black on the faces and the shanks (sparingly so they don't seize!).

I think that was it.

[murphaph]

Coming together fairly nicely apart from the large NIR transfer not sitting down into the recesses. The surface is a lot more irregular than it looks. I only have microset and microsol so I think I'll try the recommended decalfix (these are Railtec transfers) and the Vallejo decal softener as a fallback. I also have some MIR transfers that I may try instead though I can't really imagine they will pull into the recesses better than the very thin Railtec ones.

@DJ Dangerous wants to recreate the 3 111's in their mid 90's guises, heavily weathered at the end. These are for him. Interestingly the running numbers were in different places in pictures I've used for reference. The tablet catcher plates are unfortunately not accurately modelled on the MM 071. They should be marginally higher. I've never noticed this discrepancy to be honest. It only occurred to me as I was looking for references to correctly position the running numbers. I've used a compromise location between the two references which I think looks best. 113 never had tablet catchers as she was ordered much later after they'd been retired, so the plates were removed and the holes filled before painting commenced back in early February I believe. The world was a different place back then!

[flange lubricator]

Looks super Phillip.