Previous paint has been cellulose but this is no longer available in cans so it has to be acrylic. It does give a lovely finish but for me, it is untested with regard to heat. The main problem with colour coats is that they leave an orange peel effect. If I'd been using a spray gun I would have added more thinners. The advantage of using these cans is that the next coat can be applied minutes after the previous one so that the layers fuse together rather than dry as seperate layers. To get rid of the orange peel, I cut back with the finest wire wool on the last colour coat. It is very quick and much less messy than using wet or dry paper. I was surprised how quickly after spraying that this can be done, even quite thick areas where you might have a run. The lacquer doesn't seem to have this problem. It does advise on the can that cutting back should be left for three weeks to harden! Any pressure from fingers will certainly leave a print before 24 hours are up.

The cheapest paint was the etching primer which was about £5 for a litre. I used 5 cans of grey primer, 5 cans of top coat and 2 large cans of lacquer. Definitely not a cheap way of painting. The other problem was the temperature. To get over this, I placed pieces to be sprayed in front of the electric blower heater also doing the same with the spray can. I then took them into the garage where I spray and where it is unheated. This only takes a few minutes and then back in the workshop to dry. This keeps the fumes to a minimum. I have found that this method produces far fewer fumes and overspray than using a spraygun.

When it comes to lining I stick to an old system I've used before. It takes a while to do all the masking for the black line and the tape needs to be pressed down firmly to stop creep. I spray a couple of coats of acrylic black and when dry remove the tape. This time the paint made the adhesive 'wander' and had to be removed before lining - not always successfully. For lining I use artists water based acrylic paint and applied with old fashioned ruling pen and compasses. The consistancy needs to be just right or either it won't flow or it floods out. One problem is it dries very quickly and if starting is slow it will have dried at the tip, it also dries on the pen as you're working and the line becomes narrower so that it has to be cleaned and restarted. One good thing is that it can be stopped and started again without it showing - after a bit of practice! Any mistakes are easily corrected by wiping away with a damp cloth before it has a chance to dry.

While the paint dried/hardened, I carried on with the rest of the work. Before the covers could go over the cylinder blocks, the steam inlet pipes had to be connected. These pass through the smokebox and as the picture shows, I joined up with a standard 10mm plumbing straight connector. I was going to fit oil inlets at the same time; one into each pipe. However I've decided to have only one inlet and that is via the wet header. It does mean I'll have to make another single sight glass. The feeds to the clack valves have to pass through the foot plates and as there isn't much room, the points to pass through are behind the sidetanks, so these have to be done before the tanks are fitted. This first photo of the paintwork makes the green look on the light side. It is much closer to the green in the top corner where a sidetank end can be seen.

19 November 2008

That's it; it's finished, although there are one or two extras that I can fit. The full size had a piece of track bolted across the front as a de-railing bar which I might well add. I haven't made the piece of roof which covers the viewing hole since I won't really need it. Likewise, there is no rear spectacle plate.

I did make another single lubricator mainly because of the problem of getting the pipe to the right hand front clack, which is now a dummy. This also avoided cutting into the steam pipes in the smokebox to let in the oil. It now enters via the wet header. I don't really see the need for a snifter valve as I don't have superheaters. I made the grate in two parts which go in via the firehole. I had to make a special tool with a hooked end so that I can lift it into place and out again. It remains to be seen whether this is viable after the fire has been dumped. Piping up takes a great deal of time as all kinds of connectors have to be made for the various sizes of tubes. I fitted two injectors as well as the axle pumps. These are a two pinter for the side tanks and a three pinter for the driving truck tank. If necessary, I'll be able to get water into the boiler very rapidly. Because of a very short cab, the pipes are very close together and the cab looks very crowded. The rear sandboxes could be made to work but as yet, I haven't fitted the down pipes, although there is the facility to fit them.

Thought this photo shows up the inside of the cab quite well, while I had the roof off to do my own hydraulic pressure test to make sure all the fittings didn't leak. I'm never happy if I have to keep pumping to maintain pressure during the test. The next thing will be the boiler test. This probably won't happen until the end of March when the running season begins. I'll not be adding any more to this website until then, but I will be busy building a new driving truck. I shall also be making sure that all the drawings are up to date and complete; all 70 of them.

8 January 2009

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