All three are normally taken to exhibitions but in reality they don't see much use. In fact the blue, Wrenn-bodied class 20 sees the most use as it's in the best condition.
One of the three locos is deliberately fitted with the magnet reversed so that they can be run double-headed and nose-to-nose as they would in real life. However a good looking layout deserves good looking rolling stock, hence my attempts at home-made restorations, transfers and overlays.
The two original HD Bo-Bo's are looking tired and very scruffy. Time to try some DIY restoration. I'm not too worried about messing this up - there are plenty of these still available and they're not expensive so I had no issues or concerns with stripping the body off this Bo-Bo...
One screw is all that holds the body in place, it then lifts off. The handrails and ladder are also easily removed by bending the clips inside the body.
The green bodywork is fine. It looks as though the only paintwork is the grey of the base and roof, the green seems to be in the plastic injection moulding itself, and thus is in very good condition.
After light sanding, I used the same, pin-stripe vinyl masking tape as used on the Atholl project. This stuff is really easy to work with and is easy to peel off. The body was masked along the line of the handrail, this means that if my line isn't perfectly straight, the handrail, once refitted, will hide it!
With the edges masked, standard masking tape was used to mask off the rest of the green bodywork and front & rear buffers.
I'm using the same grey Halfords primer as used for the EMU coach roofs and wagon roofs. It is a different shade to the original but the Bo-Bo will most likely see use hauling the refurbished wagons, so the colour of all the roofs will be the same!
Two coats of primer applied in quick succession (these dried very quickly in the warm loft!)
I removed the masking while the paint was still drying, this seems to avoid damaging the paintwork. I then gave the whole body a dusting of matt lacquer. This really tidied up the finish of the green body...
The buffers are in reasonable condition so no point repainting them. The handrails were refitted once everything had dried.
Looking at the time stamps on these pictures, from the first picture to the last, this was achieved in less than an hour (apart from refitting the handrails) and makes a massive difference to the appearance of the loco.
Once the other Bo-Bo has had the same treatment I'll be more than happy to see these running around the layout nose-to-nose.
Total cost of restoration: NOTHING!
No comments:
Post a Comment