Since the last episode the ZIMO sound decoder has had its software updated to the latest version and a more appropriate sound file loaded. With the wires tidied, the decoder and keep alive mounted it was on to the rolling road and a link to DecoderPro for programming. The speaker is just lodged on a blob of blue tack for now and will be mounted properly once the body goes on to the chassis. I use DecoderPro to set the decoders up because it presents the information in a useable way and keeps a record of what I am doing.
The setup is the loco sits on the rolling road which is connected to my NCE PowerCab DCC set. On the NCE bus is a DCC/USB interface and a USB lead goes to my laptop which has DecoderPro on it. The video is of the chassis running whilst its being programmed.
Now it’s time to finish the painting. First job is to add some tones to the chassis whilst it’s still separate. This was done with a matt white and a brown called brake dust applied via the airbrush with it on a low air pressure.
On the loco some rust and dirt were applied to the body around the smokebox to represent the rust that heat causes and the mess that handling smokebox ash leaves. I used weathering pigment powders for this. This was done before the smokebox door was added to maintain a contrast between it and the smokebox. The first layers of some dirt were added to the loco at this time too. Having painted it all in acrylic the muck was added using MIG oil brushers and then drawn out with a brush that had thinners on it. The brush is nearly dried on tissue to limit the thinners applied to the model.
Things slow down a bit at this point because whilst acrylics dry very quickly the oil based colours need to be left a lot longer before you can do the next bit. Some metallic black was added to the cab floor. This is a black with a metallic pigment in it that once dry polishes to give a used steel sort of look.
I have done some more jobs with the parts all separate. Nameplates have been blacked, polished and sprayed with an acrylic gloss varnish. This now needs to harden. Some more weathering has been done to the body and that will need time to harden now. At the moment some of it looks a bit garish but the final stages will tone this down.
I’ve been working on this and other things at really odd times of the day and night as I try to catch up with things. It seems a side effect of having the leg strapped up for fifteen weeks and then, just as I was escaping that, having a reaction to my Covid booster there have been two casualties. Firstly, my body clock seems to have died. I can be wide awake and working on models at four in the morning as there is no point lying in bed wide awake staring at the ceiling. The second things is endurance or lack of it. I am like a knackered rechargeable battery. Sat on the charger its green lights and raring to go, twenty minutes later flat as a pancake and needing another hour in the charger.
Whatever time it is now that’s it for this episode. The next one should see the model complete and ready to go to its new home.
