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