Been a long while since I posted on here as I've not done any railway modelling since early 2020. However, the A3 was left with Warren Haywood late in 2019 and was returned to me some time ago. Unfortunately I'd lost my mojo and it's been in bits since then, albeit very nicely painted bits.
The wheels and boiler backplate were not given to Warren so I've had to paint them myself. To paint the wheels I masked off the treads and flanges and screwed them to a piece of plywood before priming and top coating from rattle cans. The crank pins were mazked using silicone tube.
Here they are ready for fitting. The counter sunk centres were kept clear of paint by the screws so did not require any paint to be cleaned off.
The backplate was primed with cellulose primer from a rattle can and then brush painted with Tamiya acrylics. To represent the gauge glasses I used aluminium tape, embossed by rolling a 6BA screw over the tape under a piece of wood, then painting black and rubbing off the tops of the valleys with fine emery after the paint was dry. With hindsight I should have scribed a vertical line down middle to represent the water level, so I'll give that a try when I get to the F7 A4, that Waŕren has also painted. The dials are by CPL if my memory serves me correctly.
Here's the tender chassis after refitting the wheels.
And the reassemble tender. Apologies for the dust, I should have given it a brush before taking the photos.
And the loco chassis.
Here it is after completing the reassembly.
These images don't do justice to Warren's painting which is first class!
I'm quite pleased with the gauge glasses. The foil wraps around the sides so the chevrons are visible through the windows as well.
Now I have to do a similar job on my F7 A4.
Cheers,
Pete