Adventures in superstrip

A long time since my last post and not much has happened in the way of modelling.  This seems to be a common way to start a lot of my posts.  Modelling is firmly on the back burner, following a house move (again).  Pottington Quay has headed back into storage and for the time being there is little opportunity to play trains or do much modelling, with the air brush also put away.  A lot of work and travel in the next few months means there is little chance of any modelling.  I am hoping to be able to pick up modelling again later in summer/autumn.

Paint brush finish on the Walrus, the overall thickness of paint is too thick.  

Before we moved I placed some of my first attempts at painting into a bath of superstrip.  A salmon wagon, lamprey wagon and walrus wagon were some of my first attempts at painting, using brushes, rather than an air brush.  The paint finish on all of these wagons was far too thick and I decided that it was high time to give these wagon builds a better paint job.  The walrus wagon was a real pig to do, with a lot of detail hidden away in the build.  Getting all of the pain out meant a lot of the plastic detail snapped and this wagon ended up in the bin.  So two of the next builds will be walrus wagons, to replace this lost one and provide a further example for a three wagon rake along with the Bachmann sealion wagons.  The lamprey wagon and salmon wagon were much easier to clean up and are ready for a blast of primer when I get the air brush up and running.

My first attempt at a locomotive repaint - on my old Pottington Quay micro layout

Another model to be added to the superstrip was my first attempt at repainting a full locomotive; a Bachmann class 25.  This first attempt I was happy with at the time, although the weathering job was very heavy handed.  However, as I have got more experienced in painting I have been meaning to replace this model.  So this is currently being tidied up on the odd evening I have some free time for modelling.  Some of the paint was not removed by the superstrip, so some careful tidying up is being undertaken with files and sand papers.  I am not sure why the odd blob of paint has hung on to the body so well, whilst the rest has been removed.  Anyhow, this will be one the of first jobs in the paint shop when everything is up and running again.....

The same locomotive now in the process of paint stripping.