Kamome’s Adventures in HO

[ED75-775]

On 8/2/2023 at 7:32 PM, Kamome said:

Here are some references of just how shabby these formerly shiny locos now look. 

Did somebody mention dirty EF510s?

 

 

Snapped from the roof terrace of the Kyoto Railway Museum, 24/06/23.

 

Alastair

[Martijn Meerts]

It's called patina 😉

 

[Kamome]

So thought it time to update the thread as I’ve been working on some subtle improvements to the plastic looking Kato Kiha 58 series. I’m hugely impressed with these models. The price point is very attractive and there is a good amount of variety between the 28,58, 65 and Kiro 28. 

 

I was never enamoured with the grey plastic despite Kato putting a good level of detail into the moulded parts. Time for a revamp.

 

First job was to take all the coaches apart to enable the painting of all parts. Kato trains are usually a snap fit and apart from the odd screw holding the bogies on, plus one holding the interior together, everything separated quite easily. 

 

 

It was then a case of organising all 4 coaches parts in to colour groups for the base coating. Grey parts and black parts
 

 

 

 

Once the base coat was applied and dry, I set about adding painted details to some of the grills and tanks on the underside of each chassis. Also painted some UK railmatch brake dust to the brake pads.  I found a wealth of images online to help for reference. I used Vallejo acrylic and finished with a matt varnish just to try to avoid chips in the future.

 

 

The engine parts are separate details so were very easy to paint and weather with a mixture of thinned burnt umber acrylic and panel wash to replicate rust, heat scorches and general grime. Interestingly, most images showed a well kept underside, especially around the diesel engine. I assume they got constantly maintained and wiped down. 

 

 

Wheels also got a spray of metal thinner and some nato brown sprayed over them. This gives a good colour for grime and slight rust on working wheels. 

 

 

The prep work required to avoid too much overspray affecting the conductivity of the wheels is definitely worth it. I think it was 2mm masking tape but may have been 1mm. 

 

I really couldn’t get a clean edge for the interior seating with paint so I used washi tape in a mottled blue colour. It replicated the texture of fabric pretty well which was more of a happy accident.

 

 

Bogies painted in a matt black had some highlights added to spring details with a slightly lighter grey.

 

Once all the detail work was completed, I started weathering using the airbrush. I initially added brake dust and subtle grime to the black bogie fascias separate from the bogie assembly and wheels.As the wheels were fully painted in a rusty brown, the minor difference of colour between the wheel and brake pads added some interest. I also aimed the airbrush from the position of the bogies to the under frame while the bogies were off. As mentioned, a lot of the images had minimal crud on the underside and a well kept looking engine in most cases. I added some wheel kick up to some of the tanks and boxes closest to the wheels but kept the rest only lightly dusted.

 

 

I noticed the air filters on the intakes looked a little dusty in many photos so I used some dusty enamel wash from Mig to add a little dirt. 

 

My consist has a 58 on one end and a 65 on the other. As the 58 has no snowplough, I added a fair bit of dirt on the front whereas the 65 had more around the underside and jumpers. I had a slight issue with chipping from the Kato boxes so I had to reapply in some areas, clear coat and use some packing sponge material to protect the paintwork.

 

 

 

 

The final job was to add some diesel soot to the roof. I actually butted 2 of the kiha bodies together in order of the consist so that the exhaust and surrounding dirt of each marries up with the previous and next coach in the consist.

 

 

Once the top of the roof was complete, I added some to the leading edges.

 

 

Here’s the 65 on the trailing end and the 58 on the front on the rental layout in Kokura. 

 

 

 

Edited March 1 by disturbman
formatting issues with pictures. Added line jumps

[Kamome]

This week I decided to tackle adding the paper kit air conditioner ducts from Kofu model to my Kato EF65-2000. 

 

The kit is relatively inexpensive at ¥600 although consists only of a small thin sheet of card and a thick piece. The kit provides 3 different duct types for use across the JRF 1000 and 2000 variations.
 

 

 

It’s relatively simple although due to the size, a little fiddly. The vents are pre cut grooves into thick card. The mounting plates are thinner but still rigid enough to keep their shape. Essentially glue the vent onto the mounting plate within the laser cut lines. I used a card glue which wasn’t hugely fast at setting to allow some alignment adjustments.
 

 

 

I test fitted the plates and they are suitably sized to fit straight in to the recess of the cab window on the Kato model.

 

I painted with Vallejo medium grey acrylic to seal the card. I always dilute acrylic paint well and have a wet palette to help get a good consistency. I was conscious that I might over do it and berd the card but it was rigid enough to receive 3 thin coats. There’s a ridged seal on the top of the real thing, this is modelled using a cut line and mixed some black to darken the grey to simulate this.(The IJN Grey bottle from Tamiya was used just as a painting surface)

 

 

 

I glued the parts using Tamiya Multipurpose cement Clear which I use for all photo-etched plates. It’s a non permanent adhesive which doesn’t eat into the plastic so I can remove in the future if I so wish. It also dries clear and overspill can be removed without leaving marks or frosting glass. As the part is fixed to the glazing part of the model, this was a the ideal option.

 

 

Here is the finished article. On scrutiny of the paper kit, you can see from the close up image that the cuts for the vents are not exact. This is clearly seen in the photo although at general viewing, it really isn’t noticeable due to the small scale. I might decide to go down the root of 3D printed parts in future but this is a happy compromise for the time being. 

Edited March 2 by Kamome
formatting issues with pictures. Added line jumps before

[Kamome]

Another weathering procrastination project. With the almost full completion of a Nichinan formation (coaches 1 and 2 need detailing and actually still missing a Naha 10) I wanted to update my “warm region” EF58. The Kato model is a smooth runner but looks way too blue to match any of the images of these things back in JNR era. 

 

Putting off other hobby projects, 3x unfinished RC cars, painting some Marvel Crisis Protocol minis I was gifted, and still not having enough confidence/expertise to complete the EF510 roof and side dirt, I decided to try a simpler weathering project. 

 

Like with all Kato locos, the model came apart reasonably easily once you worked out what need to be removed first. The body was removed and I removed all interior parts and glazing so I could give the whole body a dull coat. Kato models usually have a semi gloss finish which is way too pristine and as the side is express blue, not that interesting. 

 

The bogies can be removed but you need to remove the light board and headlight housings before you can access the top cap of the worm gear  that stops the bogies from falling out. There is a separately fitted brake rigging piece that is removed on the underside of the bogie before you can access the base keeper plate or remove the bogie sidewalls. It’s a little different to other Kato locos due to its unusual wheel arrangement. There is also a spring connecting the bogies to keep alignment which can also be removed once the brake rigging is off. The copper pickups are a single copper piece that runs to all three main wheels. Once the base keeper plate is removed, 3 lugs each side, the front bogie armature can be removed.  

 

The metal driving wheels are push fit on to standard Kato plastic gear axles so can be easily pulled apart to paint. The pony truck wheels are also push fit on to a metal axle. Wheels were sprayed with Mr Hobby Metal Primer before painting. Rims and pick up axles were masked with tape before priming and painting.

 

With all of the parts removed it allowed for much easier painting.

 

I rebuilt the bogies without the wheels to aid weathering so that there were no anomalies in painting once reassembled. Side air tanks were removed from the chassis weight and weathered separately. 

Colours

 

-Bogies and wheels - Tamiya Nato Brown XF-68. This gives a good grime/rust look and to my eye is a good match to the general filth seen on the underside of modern trains here in Kyushu. Wheels sprayed a flat colour with bogies being sprayed from underneath. 

 

Body front and sides

To simulate some of the kick up, I continued with XF-68. My airbrush has a paint flow limiter screw which is good to avoid an unexpected finger spasm and a big brown blob appearing on your loco. I started the paint flow off the model and then lightly brought it over the body where crud gets thrown up. I took this higher around the vents as well as used a thinned wash of the same colour to paint the vents by hand. 

 

Roof

The roof needed a bit of artistic license. Images show quite a light sandy colour on some of these locos. I’m not clear whether that is the old photo colouration or it actually looked like that. 

 

I first started with a light covering of Tamiya Flat Black,  XF-1 to give a sense of general grime. Then I mixed some Nato Brown and black together to lift the colour. I used XF-68 Nato Brown again to simulate the rust found around the pantographs and other panels.

 

The final stage was to use Tamiya XF -52 Flat Earth to lighten the areas less rusty around the cab and loco middle and walkways leaving the pantograph areas. The eagle eyed modellers will notice the tiny chain I added to the air hose on the crewed end. I actually replaced the coupler to a Kadee No. 5 on the rear  as i’ve had some coupler mishaps on rental layouts with the smaller 158s.  

Final step was to bring back some of the detail with some diluted enamel black pin wash.

Edited May 2 by Kamome