Author

Webmaster

Date

18th April 2020

Reading Time

3 minutes

Guest blogger Steve been working on and off on his five carriage Cambridge Buffet Express set. Four of the coaches are quite a way into their construction but the 61’6″ ex-GN Composite still needs to be designed. For those who haven’t seen them elsewhere, here are some photos of progress so far.

The middle carriage in the header is a Dapol Third which is a temporary standing for the missing Composite. The other carriages consist of two 58’6″ Brake Thirds, a 58’6″ Buffet (converted from a GN TO) and a 52’6″ Third, all of which are ex-GNR stock.

All of the above consist of 3D printed bodies and interiors/sole bars along with 2mm Association bogies (fitted with N Gauge wheels), battery boxes, etc. The teak effect was achieved using oil paints, as Steve describes:

To create the teak effect, the oils I use are Windsor and Newton Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre and White over a base coat of Tamiya acrylic Desert Yellow (or similar). Using a fine point brush, I put tiny amounts of the colours onto a panel and blend in – white is used very rarely and sparingly. Alternatively, I sometimes thinly paint in a block of one colour (usually Burnt Umber) before blending. The aim is to lightly blend the various shades, but not to completely mix them and by varying the amounts of each colour per panel, the different shades found on the real things can be replicated. Excess paint can be wiped off the brush onto some tissue paper to prevent too thick a layer from building up.

For the outer edges, I mixed up the burnt umber/sienna and yellow ochre in roughly equal amounts and apply sparingly. Once one side is done, I leave it to dry for 24-48 hours before sealing it using acrylic gloss varnish – I use my old bottle of Klear for this. A spirit-based varnish will simply strip the oil paints from the model. I can then line and pick out details on the model safely using enamel paints before applying decals and sealing with another coat of gloss varnish and finally matt it down using Revell acrylic matt varnish.

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