A Royal Pair
On arrival, the locos were test run and a certain amount of bush whacking carried out on the layout to improve clearances for these diminutive creatures. Suspect that some more will be required now that they will be running more frequently. A sanguine reminder to be more careful with how I make the trackside appear overgrown next time.
Whilst I like the look of the Bachmann NG7 chopper couplings, without them being available to fit the remainder of my fleet, I instead replaced the couplers on the Hunslets to match the Bachmann OO couplings I use. A job made very simple by the fitting of NEM pockets. The cranked coupler ref 36-027 being perfect for aligning with my couplings to the standard height for OO.
Whilst we often think of Quarry Hunslets operating in Welsh quarries, two of the earlier Quarry Hunslets, ‘E. Jago’ works number 219 and ‘John Allen’ works number 220 were delivered to Cornwall in 1879 for the Delabole Slate Quarry.
This was only two years behind ‘Louisa’ 195 of 1877, the forerunner of the Alice class and seven years ahead of the doyen of the Alice class, ‘Velinheli’ 409 of 1886. Also, ahead of both Penrhyn and Pen-yr-Orsedd by some years.
‘Faerie Queen’ is a Penrhyn style ‘Margaret’ loco and was my first choice as being the closest in condition to the Delabole locos.
‘King of the Pixies’ was an impulse follow up order for a ‘Britomart’ style loco when I realised that the loco profile suited my Corris carriages.
The choice of the blue version, rather than a green cabbed version was driven in part by my daughter having a penchant for blue steam locos and also the fact that my limited experience of small Hunslet locos includes an enjoyable day on a blue ‘Holy War’ at Bala back in 2009.
Getting to grips with the locos, I pulled out the book of Hunslet works photos and drawings that Statfold produced and immersed myself in Hunslets. The tea in my Charles Hunslet mug making it a fully Hunslet-ised work bench and I set to work.
My first impressions of the models were that the overall proportions looked good, with exquisite paintwork and lining and some good details such as the lubricators and pipework.
The motion looked very bright to my eyes and required toning down. The motion has received some criticism for not being as fine as some would like, but have seen how this can be disguised with suitable painting. Plus, whilst this area stands out in photos, my principle of judging my rolling stock at arm’s length on the layout makes it less noticeable.
My first task was to decide which details to add or remove. Both locos had their preservation era anti de-railing bars removed and the blue one had the vacuum brake pipes removed. Being plastic castings, these jobs took about five minutes.
Comparing the open cabbed version to the drawings, there are some operating valves and a pipe missing. I contemplated adding them, but given the tiny size (about 2mm piece of brass for the ‘T’ handles) and potential vulnerability I decided to leave well alone and just weather what was there. With a driver added, the right impression is given by the whistle, safety valve, pressure gauge and some pipe work so I’m happy with my decision.
In my bits box, I had a pair of Wrightlines cast white metal Quarry Hunslet sand pots. These were cleaned up and painted black for fitting to the cabless one, although I chickened out of adding the lining.
Then it was on to painting and weathering. Whilst the rtr model has the benefit of some lovely crisp lining and paint finish, the compromise is that there isn’t as much variety in colour that occurs on the real things, especially in the black areas. Adding that variety of different shades and hues is quite straight forward for us modellers to do and all part of the fun.
Observation of the prototype is key when weathering. Whilst I have the advantage of working on full sized narrow gauge steam locos and so have up close knowledge of where the dirt and grime lingers, not everyone is so lucky. Whilst most preserved quarry Hunslets are polished to within an inch of their lives, the owners of ‘Britomart’ like to keep their loco in a more unkempt quarry condition.
Though if you can’t get to see a real one running, there are plenty of photos on the web to help the modeller with sites like Flickr being a mine of information. Plus there are now several books containing colour photos of Quarry Hunslets when they were still working in the quarries.
Whilst some people achieve marvellous results from using an air brush, I’m more comfortable using a dry brushing technique. Although it feels wasteful at first to wipe off most of the paint before applying it to the model, dry brushing is a process I quite enjoy and like the resulting finish it gives. I shall describe the process that I go through, with the caveat that it works for me, but others may well disagree. It is a technique that I have developed over several years, giving my models a harmonious appearance when together on a layout.
It is also a process that I have recently transferred from using enamel to acrylic paints. The odour from enamel paints being the driving force, but the different properties and the speedier drying times of the acrylic paints has taken a little while to get used to. My advice to anyone is to give it a go and try to be as light handed with the paint as you can be. One bonus of using acrylics is that if you’re unhappy with the finish you’ve just applied, a wipe with a water sodden cotton bud will soon take it off again.
First step was to separate the loco bodies from the chassis. Easily achieved by undoing the four screws underneath and sliding the chassis unit out.
Before commencing dry brushing, I fully painted any areas where I wanted to change the colour completely. Footplates were painted matt black and the smoke boxes were painted weathered black.
On the ‘Britomart’ model, the cab roof was painted roof dirt, whilst the reddish brown of the chassis and blue footplate balance were toned down with more matt black.
No primer needed to be applied, and two coats of acrylic paint gave a good covering. I mostly use Lifecolor paints because I read an article in the model press about using them when I was first considering the switch to acrylic paints, but I have no connection to the company and other makes are available).
For the chassis, I painted the firebox sides (that are visible through the chassis openings) in burnt rust, with a lighter rust colour and more matt black dry brushed on after.
To tone down the coupling and connecting rods, I first unscrewed the crank pin screws on the rear cranks (making sure to keep the screws and spacers somewhere safe) to get better access to the rods, cross heads and slide bars. These were painted weathered steel and cast iron, followed by some dry brushing with oily black, toning them down nicely.
The springs on the chassis and the outside frames, attached to the body, were dry brushed with frame dirt, track dirt and brake dust colours. With the brake blocks getting some further treatment from the brake dust.
On to the bodies. The first job is the areas where feet and hands wear the paint away. Such as footplates, running plates, hand rails, any valve or handle that is operated by hand, foot steps, tank filler lids and not forgetting the tanks where the tank filler lids are placed whilst watering takes place. These were dry brushed with weathered steel paint.
The smoke boxes, smoke box doors and the bottom of coal bunkers tends to be the first places that succumb to rust. These were all treated with dry brushing from the various shades of rust paint, I have four from the Lifecolor range to choose from. A little rust was also dry brushed in places on the footplate where I’d previously dry brushed the weathered steel where the paint would have been chipped away. This exposed steel will go rusty on a wet day unless attended to with a cleaning rag.
One of the benefits of dry brushing is to highlight raised detail, thus drawing the eye to its existence. On the bodies I did this dry brushing using frame dirt paint, before applying roof dirt and matt black dry brushed on the upwards facing surfaces to depict the soot covering that any steam loco gets in use unless a cleaning cloth is being constantly applied. Finally, I use matt black, again, to bring everything together and tone down the brightness of the brass pipework and detail.
Reassembled, it was time to add the finishing touches. Both locos needed drivers, I tend to buy suitable figures as I see them, from a range of manufacturers that live in a pot which I dip into to find the most suitable for each project I build.
The driver in the cabbed loco is a ModelU 3D printed driver, simply super glued in. The cabless loco has a white metal figure from S&D Models, with a piece of wire inserted into each leg and through two holes in the cab floor making sure he stays put. The extra weight causing the loco no problems.
On the cabless loco, I added the fire irons and shovel from the detailing pack, both dry brushed with weathered steel and the shovel handle in sleeper grime to denote its wooden handle.
The ‘Britomart’ model comes with a tool box, to ring the changes I placed this on the footplate of the cabless version, in a place where I’ve seen some of the preserved locos carrying them. This was dry brushed with paints from Lifecolor’s weathered wood set and finally, some real coal was glued onto the bunker as it was quite obvious.
So there we have my royal pair, ‘Faerie Queen’ and ‘King of the Pixies’ all set for entering service on ‘Wheal Ponder’. Detailing and personalising rtr models has been a feature of OO modelling for many years, as an NG7 modeller, it’s great to be able to do the same.
Once again I find my modelling bench clear and wondering what to build next. Having added four locos to the ‘Wheal Ponder’ roster in recent months, although there are others I could build, I think a break from loco building is in order as I enjoy running the recent additions.
A return to layout building is therefore on the cards. There are two options, firstly a narrow gauge extension to ‘Wheal Ponder’, there is the Lionheart L&B stuff that needs somewhere to run and could possibly include provision for that. Alternatively, a return to my Melyn Valley project and give my standard gauge models somewhere to run at last. Decisions, decisions…
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