Stuart Firth
I hadn’t meant to progress so quickly but whilst in the garage applying a coat of Halfords red oxide primer I noticed I had a can of their satin black as well. I have used this successfully in the past so just went for it. After a couple of days the other colours were added, then the lettering, HMRS Pressfix in the ‘Crewe Straw’ style. Lacking sufficient smaller numbers I resorted to an older sheet that had a price tag of £2 ! This was from Karlgarin Models in Chelmsford, and I think the shop closed in the late ’80’s so I have had them a while, and no surprise they had no tack at all. In the end I resorted to soaking them off their backing paper then dipping them in Humbrol ‘clear’ matt varnish, before placing them onto the loco. Amazingly it worked. A week or so for everything to harden off and then it will have to suffer weathering – I am loathe to do it as I like the clean black look but it’s not very prototypical. Looking at the photo’s I realise that I haven’t yet added the smokebox handrail or the steam heat pipes.
