Customise your Class 26 - Part Three

George Dent completes the weathering of Model Rail’s exclusive Class 26, adding a crew and some simple extra details to the cab interior.

With a crumpled newspaper and roughly folded high-vis vest atop the interior consoles – plus a suitably weathered finish – the Heljan ‘26’ has really come to life.

As chronicled in part one and two, I’ve been customising a Heljan ‘OO’ gauge Class 26 with a weathered finish, which has been built up over a few separate layers. In part two I explained the use of enamel-based weathering washes, which brought greater definition to the bodyshell detail, depositing pigment within recessed areas and subtly highlighting raised fittings and beading.

The washes also began to take away the pristine finish on the paintwork, adding some discreet streaking effects and exaggerating the depth of certain details, especially the roof vents. After this stage, the bodyshell and cab interiors looked pretty convincing as they were, but the finely dispersed pigments do not show up too well on black surfaces, so the underframe required a different approach.

Two shades of RailMatch enamel paint were enough to produce a variety of generic weathering tones, applied in fine mist coats from an airbrush. It’s vital to stir and thin the paint properly before attempting to spray it, using RailMatch’s enamel thinners to create a liquid of a similar viscosity to milk (just ever-so thicker than water). A good way of testing the thickness is to see if the mixed paint will drip from the end of a metal stirrer in small self-contained blobs. If it runs off in streaks, the paint’s still too thick and requires a few more drops of thinner.

I used the Iwata HP-C Plus airbrush reviewed in part two, which was a real joy to operate and so easy to clean afterwards. The air pressure was set to around 18psi, tweaking it until the paint flowed out of the airbrush in a fine, controllable mist, while testing on a sheet of paper. Whenever I teach modellers how to use an airbrush, one of the things I try to stress is the importance of building up paint in fine, misted coats, especially when weathering. It’s always easier to apply another coat, if necessary, rather than spray too much too soon and be faced with a mess.

Accordingly, the bodyshell received only an ultra-light mist along the lower edges, with a little more work concentrated on the roof area. A look at prototype images will show that bodysides and cab ends were generally cleaned far more regularly than rooftops were, so there’d inevitably be a greater concentration of dust and diesel exhaust staining up top.

As for the underframe, these areas were only really cleaned during maintenance work, so the airbrush was used to build up a greater depth of paint on these areas, albeit still maintaining that fine mist, repeating the coverage a few times. The slow-and-steady approach allows the paint to be targeted in and around all the complex detail to ensure even coverage, without causing pooling or runs of excess paint.

It’s that old chestnut of ‘practice makes perfect’, which couldn’t be more true of airbrushing. If you fancy having a go, take the time to practice the control and build-up of paint on pieces of card, paper or scrap models in order to hone your technique.

Back to the ‘26’, and I’m very pleased with the finished model. Heljan’s all-new tooling really looks the business, and the weathering job has brought out much more of the superb detail, especially the underframe and bogies. Adding some simple interior detail – from scrunched up pieces of paper to a crew – help bring the locomotive to life, and I can’t wait to see 26043 chugging around my layout with a rake of ballast wagons. Talking of which, I really need to finish customising a rake of Dapol ‘Turbots’ I started last year…

What George used

◆ RailMatch enamels 402 Frame Dirt, 412 Weathered Black, enamel thinners, Deluxe Materials Glue ‘n’ Glaze adhesive, Track Magic cleaning fluid

◆ Availability: Model shops or Gaugemaster www.gaugemasterretail.com

◆ 10232-076 Late BR Class 25 crew pack

◆ Availability: Modelu www.modelu3d-co.uk

TOOLS

◆ Tweezers, craft knife and spare blades, paintbrushes, cotton swabs, airbrush and equipment

STEP BY STEP

1 Heljan supplies a set of plastic three-piece snowploughs with the Class 26, which are easily fixed in place. Beforehand, I painted the rear faces, mounting brackets and the moulded supports with matt black acrylic.

2 The weathering process continued, working on the chassis first. RailMatch enamel Frame Dirt was thinned and sprayed in a fine mist from an airbrush (set to between 15-20psi). The paint was directed around the frames.

3 With the same Frame Dirt shade, the lower edges of the bodyshell were treated to a fine mist, from the airbrush, with the nozzle aimed at a light angle to mimic the spray pattern of dust being thrown up from the tracks.

4 I blended RailMatch Weathered Black with the Frame Dirt and targeted this darker shade into key areas of the underframe to add tonal variety and suggest concentrated deposits of oil around the axleboxes and fuel tanks.

5 This dark shade was also misted over the locomotive’s roof, following panel lines and recesses. All the while, I was spraying just a fine mist and, where a greater concentration was required, I layered multiple coats.

6 When the airbrushed paints had dried, I added the crew. This pair of figures are from the Modelu range and required painting before fixing into the seats. I used Glue ‘n’ Glaze adhesive for a strong, flexible bond.

7 Scraps of paper were cut into small rectangles, scrunched up and flattened, then painted to mimic high-vis bibs and newspapers. They were then carefully glued to the top of the interior console.

8 Before reuniting the body and chassis, I took the time to thoroughly clean the wheels and power collectors using cotton swabs soaked in Track Magic fluid, which softens and removes paint and grime quickly.

Keeping pace