CREATE YOUR OWN GBRF ‘50’

Dave Lowery talks us through his approach to giving the Class 50 a new livery.

Once again, GBRF has come up trumps by repainting two Class 50s into its house livery. The two ‘ Hoovers’ will be used for stock moves but at least these classic machines will be kept on the main line for everyone to enjoy. Judging from the artwork I received from GBRF, the slab-sided ‘ 50s’ suit their new livery very well. When painting a model, I look at the colours used and how I will apply them to the shape. That means that I take into account cut- off points for masking. A nice, neat, straight line is always preferable. The fewer lumps and bumps that might hamper you achieving that perfect, straight line the better. The biggest problem is where one colour creeps under the masking and interferes with

the colour underneath. You can touch this up after all the paint has been applied but it’s a messy and difficult job, unless you completely respray the whole colour. It’s also standard practice to start with the lightest colour, mask it off and then move onto the next darkest colour. But on the ‘ 50’ model, I’ve deviated away from the norm. The block of blue on the body sides ends just short of the inner handrails. There’s the tiniest strip of orange between the blue and the handrail. It would be hard to mask over the handrails and get a perfect straight line between the orange and blue. Any dark colour, if over-sprayed with a lighter colour will create a shadow through the lighter colour once dry. Therefore, I applied white before the orange. Normally, I would remove all the glazing before spraying, but because the cab units and glazing on Hornby’s model are one unit – and because it has opening cab doors – I decided to mask off all the windows with masking tape and Humbrol Maskol.