4mm An EM Workbench: Mini-Signwriting (rough)

[28ten]

Quite so Ian, though there is a danger of ending up with trains full of specials! When even the Soda Ash version of the LNER steel high, Covhops and every design of SR-built brakevan can be had RTR you know you have to be careful in your choices, not that I'm complaining. That said, specialist types, like the various Coil conversions from the very late '60s which were relatively tightly confined, geographically, or anything built in penny numbers (most SR designs then...) is probably safe enough. I quite fancy a BR(S) Ferry open at some point and I can't see that anyone is likely to go as far as producing one of those, though I'd be delighted to be proven wrong. That, however, rather depends on being able to get the right buffers, I reckon I can do just about everything else!

Adam

Indeed, boring is the key to accurate modelling

 

[AJC]

Ok, so I did manage to do a little more - I had the paint out for something else. Now resplendent with the post '64 white blocks indicating a shock vehicle on the original bauxite livery (apparently correct) painted free-hand with a brush. You can see the witness mark where one was a touch over width. In a photo twice life-size this is an issue, after weathering, it won't be, even so, they would probably benefit from another coat. It's now hiding out in a box until I get round to half-finishing something else and feel like getting on with lettering it.



What you can't see is that I've taken the opportunity to paint the interior it's first coat of brownish mid-grey. That can wait for when I have the weathered wood paint selection out too.

Adam

 

[AJC]

Yes, these are wagons too just of a rubber-shod variety, although really, they're kitbashes rather than full scratchbuilds. You can blame Geoff Kent for these as well. Although MRJ 40 will always be remembered for Hursley, it was one of the other articles in it, by Geoff, on scratchbuilding 4mm scale road vehicles which really caught my imagination. That issue really changed what I thought a model railway could be. I suspect that this wasn't immediate - I was er, aged about 9 when MRJ 40 came out (I went to the MRJ show at Central Hall too!) but the long-term effect is a greater interest in what goes on around the railway.

Since I'm not Geoff Kent I've made use of Frank Waller [Road Transport Images] components rather than doing it all from plastic sheet, though the tipper bodies here are all my own work. I do like the way Frank (and Bob Fridd, who makes the masters) do business - professional, friendly and prompt - and I enjoy using the products. Some are better than others - though RTI do revisit stuff and improve it - but for the most part, the essential character of the vehicles they portray are there in the resin castings. As such, this is really about the detailing and the paint job rather than the modelling since the hard part, the cab, has been bought in. Well, not quite, the reason these two have emerged from their box is that I need to finish the glazing and the curved rear quarter lights mean digging out a Fererro Rocher box and setting about it with a razor saw...





Frank can supply transfers for several of the bigger fleets but I wanted to model a specific vehicle - the AEC featured here - found in a book on Somerset and Dorset hauliers and I decided that custom transfers weren't worth the hassle and expense for a single vehicle. Micro-signwriting is not good for your health especially if you do it as I do, using a size 000 brush. There's a local connection for me since I was brought up in Yeovil and Bird Brothers built the Concrete batching plant near Pen Mill Station in Yeovil, just out of shot to the left in this George Woods picture (but the image is just too nice not to include on so many levels. Even if you're totally unconcerned by 4mm scale lorries do take a look) which is still there, though not served by vehicles as elegant to look at as this AEC Mercury. They're probably better to drive though...



The Big Bedford tipper, greedy-boards and all, is a figment of my imagination however, intended for the South Wales landsale yard/opencast disposal point micro-project which I will get round to before too long. Don't ask how long 'too long' is!

Adam

 

[AJC]

Painfully slow, owing to lack of correct paint (you try finding 'Freight Brown' on the shelf in Southampton), but here is the Coil H after some attention from the paintbrush. It will need more, especially on the underframe since the photographs show no end of red oxide primer grinning through here and there. That and my tin of Matt Chocolate needs a better stir...



This end view hopefully shows the work that's gone into the hood. Overall, I think it's quite successful, though the quality of the light here doesn't show it to its best advantage. I'll have to have another go in proper sunlight. It'll be a while in this state since no one does any suitable lettering I shall have to get some custom transfers done and that can wait until I need a reasonable quantity (unless someone else needs some I can piggyback on, of course?)



Adam

 

[AJC]

Some more slightly scruffy (like the prototype on this occasion) micro-signwriting. The data panel should be sharper since on this vehicle it was stencilled and will be done as a transfer: if custom decals are the way to do the Coil H, then I may as well do a few extra elements such as these while I'm at it.



The weathering will hide to worst of the scruffiness (honest) as will viewing the thing at actual rather than 1.5 x actual size.

Adam

 

[BrushType4]

Adam, you can do better in 4mm than I could ever hope to do in 7mm. First class work, especially like the micro-signwriting.

 

[AJC]

Just a couple of record shots for the most recent vehicles leaving the paintshop. A couple of Bachmann 16 tonners, one based on this prototype shot, and the other titivated from one of Bachmann's interesting (and quite effective) 'rust-speckled' types. While nice, I couldn't quite manage to alter it to my liking without overpainting much of it... The Shoc High just needs a data panel and that can wait until I get hold of some suitable transfers.





I'm reasonably pleased with these. The minerals don't perhaps have the greatest finesse in terms of weathering, but as part of the scene, I reckon they'll do.

Adam

 

[28ten]

They look pretty good to me and they capture the feel of the original, cant ask for more than that

 

[Pennine MC]

I'm reasonably pleased with these

I think you have a right to be, matey; though I'd guess the 'reasonably' comes from being your own worst critic - I've seen far poorer attempts attracting effusive praise...

Although it's not something you can do on every wagon, it's the remedial work that adds to them as much as the 'raw' rustwork. Even before I noticed the link, I'd guessed the LH one was inspired by Ernie's Wern Tarw shot - it's one I fancy imitating myself.

 

[AJC]

Well, you know how it is Ian - you glance at the thing once you've completed it, think 'that's nice', and then take a picture and you spot the bits which lack the finesse you might wish for. My publications are like that as well...

Still, they're done now and clear bench space for some more half-finished wagons...

Adam

 

[28ten]

Well, you know how it is Ian - you glance at the thing once you've completed it, think 'that's nice', and then take a picture and you spot the bits which lack the finesse you might wish for. My publications are like that as well...

Still, they're done now and clear bench space for some more half-finished wagons...

Adam

Digital photography is a bad thing, we are seeing models hugely magnified and you end up nailing jelly to the ceiling......

 

[AJC]

Digital photography can certainly lead you a merry dance, but it does help, to a degree and, whatever misgivings I might have had about any of these wagons, the minerals are regarded as 'finished' and will be deposited in the rake of 30-odd empties (and that's just the plain 16 tonners) dad and I have assembled over the years. We've probably got 'enough' now to concentrate on the accompanying rake of hoppers... There are several other vehicles in those Wern Tarw shots that would be worthwhile, not to mention the Avonside. All in good time though.

Adam

 

[AJC]

A quick question - if anyone has a copy of David Larkin's 'Wagons of the Final Years of British Railways' and could find the illustrations of the Coil H (or better yet, the numbers for the 10 vehicles) and tell me what they are I would be very grateful. Guess who forgot to write these down and left the book in Southampton before thinking about the lettering in Somerset?

Merry Christmas, one and all.

Adam

EDIT - info' now found, lettering applied.

 

[AJC]

A small holiday update. Tanks to dad's transfer collection, my scratchbuilt Coil H is now more or less fully lettered. The lettering features items (almost all no longer available) from SMS, Woodhead and Cambrian via Modelmaster. The thing that's missing, of course, are the 'Empty to' brandings. In this instance, it should be '... SCOW Trostre and Velindre', but they can't be had. In fact, looking around the various, currently available, ranges - Fox, Cambridge Custom, HMRS, etc. - the 'Empty to' and 'Return to' can be had, but not, and this is baffling, any suitable destinations, rendering the first elements useless. CCT are an exception, but only to an extent, since thebrandings produced refer only to a relatively limited range of vehicles. All totally understandable, but nonetheless irritating.



By way of a comparison, here's an earlier conversion from a Parkside Iron Ore tippler that's just been in for a refit. The real thing was done at about the same time, for the same traffic, in the same region (South Wales), and shows what must have been a rapid change of thinking. The Coil J was crude, cheap and effective and ideal for short-haul workings from steel mill to docks. You have to wonder why they went to the trouble of the new sides and hood, etc., in the first place.



A couple of ex-works pictures too. First the scratchbuilt Shoc High:



Finally, an earlier build, a Shochood B (branding by HMRS - why the designer failed to stick a 'B' on the end rather than make the modeller line it up by eye I'll never know), all other lettering by Woodhead.



Happy 2013.

Adam

 

[Dave]

Some more slightly scruffy (like the prototype on this occasion) micro-signwriting. The data panel should be sharper since on this vehicle it was stencilled and will be done as a transfer: if custom decals are the way to do the Coil H, then I may as well do a few extra elements such as these while I'm at it.

View attachment 15505

The weathering will hide to worst of the scruffiness (honest) as will viewing the thing at actual rather than 1.5 x actual size.

Adam

Hi Adam,

Can you please give an explanation of the techniques used to apply such tiny signwriting?

 

[Phill Dyson]

Some really nice weathering on all these wagons Adam .............like them all, but the 16T 'ers are my favourites

Phill

 

[AJC]

Hi Adam,

Can you please give an explanation of the techniques used to apply such tiny signwriting?

Hi Dave

The most helpful advice can be found in John Hayes' 'The 4mm Scale Coal Wagon'. He too uses a brush and is better at it. Geoff Kent describes his approach in 'The 4mm Wagon part 3'. Both books are full of useful tips for wagon builders in any scale. I reckon that both Geoff and John Hayes routinely put more detail in than many (most?) O scale modellers. This probably isn't generally true on this forum but that's a self-selecting sample.

I don't claim this is easy, but I do agree with Geoff Kent, who is of the view that if you can make the model, you can hand letter the thing if required. He uses a Mapping Pen with paint which I haven't tried (yet), but must be easier than what I do which is, basically, to scale down the full size approach and use a 000 size brush and thinned Humbrol enamels (gloss or satin; matt won't work well). Acrylics dry far to quickly to be any good in this application. I always have to experiment with thinning the paint to get a consistency which will produce an even line and clean the brush regularly. I don't use any magnification beyond my glasses or contacts - I can get away with this at the moment - but good light is essential.

Guidance lines are drawn in top and bottom (and a centre line if required - those lorry cab doors, for example) using a sharp pencil and the verticals marked in according to the required letters. Marking out is important; you have to make sure you have space to get it all in.

I tend to put the verticals in first and for small lettering, I put in the horizontals as a continuous line removing the unnecessary bits afterwards. For the smallest lettering a simple line with breaks scribed in works better than making the lettering overscale. Letters like 'B' and 'S' are problematic, as is '8' because they have to be balanced. Oddly, the larger you go, these are probably the easiest because the brush wants to go for a walk.

You can actually get away with a fair bit so long as tops and bottoms are consistent and all verticals are actually vertical. If it's meant to be a right angle, it must be one. The interesting curly writing actually allows for more margin for error than square, even-sized letterforms. Drop shadows and the like hide a multitude of sins too. If it looks remotely neat, it's because I take great pains to tidy up both as I go along and afterwards. Sharpened cocktail sticks and a second, clean brush wetted with thinners are the tools of choice here. A scalpel blade can be handy too to tidy any errors once the lettering is dry. Touching in using the base colour helps too. Yes, it's cheating, but the effect is what's wanted and I'm not nearly good enough to do it perfectly first hit. Does any of this help?

This has to be easier in O.

Adam

 

[Pennine MC]

If it looks remotely neat, it's because I take great pains to tidy up both as I go along and afterwards. Sharpened cocktail sticks and a second, clean brush wetted with thinners are the tools of choice here. A scalpel blade can be handy too to tidy any errors once the lettering is dry. Touching in using the base colour helps too. Yes, it's cheating, but the effect is what's wanted and I'm not nearly good enough to do it perfectly first hit.

I dont think it's cheating, Adam. Scales aside, I apply much the same principle to decorating the house as I do to model painting, and it's just being pragmatic AFAIC. It's a point I make, perhaps not emphatically enough, in the weathering guidance on my blog (with regard to detail painting, but the principle is the same), that you dont have to get it spot on straight away, but you should be prepared to go back to it until you're happy you've done your best.

 

[AJC]

Perhaps 'cheating' is the wrong word Ian, though it does emphasise the important thing: the end result is the product of persistence and modification rather than innate skill. Sheer dumb luck plays its part too. Sometimes it goes right easily, sometimes it doesn't.

Adam

 

[Pennine MC]

... emphasise the important thing: the end result is the product of persistence and modification rather than innate skill.

Exactly. I used to be fond of quoting an old 'Model Railways' article by Harry Drummond, entitled 'Fighting Complacency'. In it, he suggests that perhaps the main difference between a good modeller and a bad one is that the latter gives up more easily.