petesworkshop

Resplendant in Halfords’ "Acid 8" etch primer, this Highland Railway Pasenger Brake Van is from a Lochgorm "etches only" kit, or maybe it’s sold as an "aid to scratchbuilding"; whatever it’s called, the main thing is that it’s accurate and fits together nicely; the result is a basic model that needs detailing. I thickened the window openings and added an inner skin as well so that the glazing slides into the gap betwen the inner and outer skin; I think this treatment gives an old wooden vehicle a real solid feel. I fabricated patterns for the vacuum pipe, the horsehooks and the lamp-tops on the roof, from which I made silicone rubber moulds so I could cast as many as I needed, both for this model and with future projects in mind.   

I made this Caley Horsebox some time ago and I decide it was high time that I painted it; in fact it’s high time I addressed a backlog of unpainted models, shunted into "Forlorn Sidings", gathering dust. When I was in Halfords a few days ago I bought a tin of their "Acid 8" spray etch-primer which I’d heard about and wanted to try for myself. I cleaned the model thoroughly outside the workshop in the garden using cellulose thinners, then dried it and sprayed on a couple of coats of "Acid 8". There was no mention of a critical curing temperature on the side of the tin; neverthess I put the model in my lightbox (just a cardboard box with a light bulb inside), and let the etch primer cure at about 30 degrees C for the rest of the afternoon before I took it upstairs to the studio. After 24 hours the primer was hard and, I’m pleased to relate, resisted my thumbnail when I tried to scratch it off the underside of the model. I’ll certainly use "Acid 8" on future modelling projects, it was a good buy; well worth just over a tenner.    

The corners of the tank flares were made using a formula I found on Nick Baines’ website…  Using this I produced a shape which slotted, with a bit of fiddling, into the gap I’d left at the corners, much preferable I thought to the brass fingers with solder infill method There’s a good deal of tidying up to do still, and a lot of detail to add but I feel I’ve managed to "tame" the tender now; so, as the loco’s still fighting back I’m moving on to work on that now.