CnaBa YkpaïHi - Glory to Ukraine

GB Railfreight flies the flag for Ukraine by painting No. 66708 in a special livery. Rail Express Modeller does the same by replicating the livery in ‘OO’ scale using transfers from Railtec and a Hornby Class 66 model.

IN a move to show support for Ukraine, GB Railfreight revealed No. 66708 adorned with Ukrainian flag motifs and colours on April 6, following overhaul at Eastleigh (see Headline News p9). It worked to Immingham in the formation of the 6E15 Eastleigh East Yard-Scunthorpe service shortly afterwards to be allocated to the Immingham-Ratcliffe on Soar power station circuit before moving to intermodal workings from Felixstowe.

The locomotive has blue-backed nameplates with the legend:

Glory to Ukraine. The phrase is a commonly used greeting in Ukraine following the Ukrainian 2014 revolution and is regarded as a symbol of freedom and democracy. It is an official greeting of the Ukrainian armed forces and national police too.

Special transfers

A fund-raising project for the Ukrainian humanitarian appeal was initiated by Railtec Transfers through the design and sale of waterslide transfers for modelling GB Railfreight No. 66708, including printed nameplates. They were launched shortly after the locomotive was revealed to the press, allowing this modelling project to be completed in time for this issue.

When it comes down to the actual painting work, GB Railfreight blue and orange livery colours are readily available as enamel paints whilst warning panel yellow is a standard colour. More challenging are the Ukrainian flag colours: sky blue and sunflower yellow. Some flags have pale versions of the colours which seem to have been adopted by GB Railfreight on No. 66708, while others are darker in colour. In the end, colour matching revealed that BR road vehicle yellow is very close to the yellow shade and British Steel blue tinted with a spot of GB Railfreight blue translates into a suitable sky blue shade.

Base model

A Hornby Class 66 was chosen for the project simply because there was one to hand in the office. It is not as accurate as the Bachmann or Hattons models, but careful modelling can make it very presentable.

The model’s single drive bogie has two powered axles which rely on tyres for traction. It retains some legacy features arising from its Lima origins, yet has some useful features including NEM coupling pockets and a DCC interface socket. The buffers are fine as is the exhaust silencer detail. A DCC socket is installed, but no lighting.

It is tempting to do a quickie using a GB Railfreight model by simply adding the livery embellishments. However, Hornby’s shade of GB Railfreight blue is too light in colour, making a part strip down and full repaint desirable. For that reason and the number of colours involved in the livery, this project cannot constitute a weekend re-livery project as illustrated in the past.

Upgrading the bodyshell

After removing the glazing, front hand rail and exhaust mouldings from the bodyshell, it was checked against photographs of the real GB Railfreight No. 66708. The following jobs were completed before priming and painting.

1. The exhaust silencer is set too low in the roof and was raised by 2mm using blocks of styrene card to support it. At the same time, the exhaust port is drilled out of the solid moulding.

2. The cab to shore radio antennae pod is removed from the No. 1 end and the top panel recessed by about 1mm between the pod and exhaust bay. A plate of 10-thou styrene is fitted to the top panel at the cab end of the newly cut recess.

3. The top roof panel between the engine room doors and roof hatches is also reduced in height by 1mm and a roof seam line scored in place.

4. Headlight clusters are pared back and the revised box type with large headlights fitted using squares of 40-thou styrene strip. The holes for light lenses and LEDs are drilled out and the raised grommets added using round shavings taken from the end of Evergreen styrene tube.

5. All cab side windows are reshaped to the latest double-glazed design with angular rather than rounded quarter light corners. The framing is added to the glazing using fine styrene strip at the assembly stage of the project.

6. Cab door hand rails are moulded on the model and could be replaced with 0.45mm brass wire if desired.

7. Lighting will be fitted to the model as a separate project, requiring the top cab marker light moulding to be drilled out ready for LEDs in addition to the running light boxes.

Underframe and bogies

Improvements can be made to the underframe too, which lifts the model quite dramatically when completed. Retaining the tension lock couplings makes it difficult to model the bufferbeams properly. Hornby supplies the lower bufferbeam sections as attachments to the bogies along with NEM coupling pockets if tension lock couplings are required.

1. It is worth modelling the complete bufferbeam at one end with screw coupling and air brake pipe detail, even if a tension lock coupling is retained at the other. A piece of 30-thou styrene cut to 8mm by 30mm and with the corners rounded off at the bottom will complete the lower bufferbeam section nicely. The locomotive lifting loops are added alongside the aforementioned details.

2. Bogie side frames are too short, missing a short piece from the inner ends of the frame. It is both curved downwards and inwards in a particular manner which is the very devil to model correctly. It was built up with strips of 40-thou styrene and filed to shape, being finished with wet and dry paper.

3. A small legacy detail is present on the underframe at one end which relates to the fitting of the old Lima ’Ringfield’ motor bogie. It is easily cut away, improving the side-on appearance of the underframe. A piece of 40-thou styrene measuring 20mm by 29mm is fitted into the underframe moulding above this cut-out to retain its rigidity.

4. Sanding gear pipes can be shaped from 0.64mm plastic rod by Evergreen. It is soft enough to be bent to shape at the ends.

5. One-size-fits-all bogies are fitted to the model, with the middle axle being slightly out of alignment with the moulded axle journal detail. The centre axle of both bogies is easily moved by opening out the axle slot and packing with strips of styrene card until the desired position is achieved.

6. Reference photographs can be used to locate and add load bearing details to the top of the bogie side frames if desired.

7. Using the bodyshell as a guide, move the cab mouldings forward after trimming the front of the moulding to position them correctly.

Painting

Having completed the desired modifications to the bodyshell, the painting stage of the project is reached – very exciting! Six main colours together with primer are involved, with masking stages between each spraying bout being required. Allowing a full day for the paint to properly set means that it takes a week to complete the principle painting.

1. Following a clean in warm water to degrease and clean the stripped bodyshell, it is left to dry where dust won’t reach it before a coat of grey primer is applied. The primer will reveal rough edges from the detailing stage alongside marks in the plastic which might need attention before painting is started.

2. The first coat is GB Railfreight orange to the cabs and along the body sides where lines are located along the top and bottom of the vertical sides.

3. Masking is completed for the small warning panel yellow area on the cab front, with care taken to mask off the orange correctly around the running light boxes.

4. Because the side panels adorned with the Ukrainian flag colours are sufficiently remote from the cab ends,

they, too, are masked and painted with the chosen shade of yellow in the same spraying bout to save time.

5. Once the paint has hardened properly, the sky blue shade of the flag is applied to the body side panels. Careful masking is needed to retain the orange stripes and to ensure that the yellow and blue bands are exactly the same depth. The join between the two colours is along one of the body side ribs on both sides, which is a helpful reference point.

6. GB Railfreight blue body colour is next, being applied to the roof first to simplify masking and to take further care to preserve the orange applied to the sides of the bodyshell.

7. Having completed the roof, the remaining side panels to be painted GB Railfreight blue are masked off and the colour applied. Note that the side grilles are black, requiring a further painting session before finishing work can commence.

8. Detail painting includes black on the inside of the cab front window frames and some rust and exhaust colour to the silencer moulding.

Transfers and finishing

Avoid the use of decal setting solutions with Railtec transfers: just work details such as the number sets in to the panel ribs carefully with a soft clean paintbrush to avoid tearing them. A spare for each livery item is supplied on the sheet should a mistake be made.

The 3D-printed nameplates are also applied as transfers which are effective, having a raised frame and lettering in the same manner as fullsize cast nameplates. Complete one side of the model at a time, leaving it on its side until the transfers have set in place. It is not unknown for waterslide transfers to drift very slightly out of alignment if the bodyshell is done in a rush and left upright. Once all livery work is concluded, the bodyshell was coated in Phoenix Precision satin varnish.

Final assembly

Re-assembly of the bodyshell is straightforward, involving the front hand rail mouldings and the cab windscreen glazing and its windscreen wipers. The cab side windows are replaced with clear glazing material secured with gloss varnish ready for new aluminium-coloured framing, added using very fine Evergreen styrene strip, applied painstakingly with clear varnish or matte medium. The exhausts are weathered and rusted a little before being fitted in their new raised position in the roof well.

The underframe and bogies are painted black with no embellishments other than a narrow band of GB Railfreight orange across the top section of the buffer-beams. Air pipes are added, painted with Tamiya ‘tyre black’. Weathering is minimal, restricted to the exhaust and some seam lines in the bodyshell representing the locomotive as it would be after a short time back in traffic on coal trains.

Closing thoughts

The special GB Railfreight livery has created an interesting modelling project with a serious objective: to highlight the plight of the Ukrainian nation. GB Railfreight No. 66708 is not the only locomotive decorated to raise awareness of Ukraine. The hashtag #WeStandWithUkraine and flag have been applied to DB Cargo UK No. 66099 which was revealed the day after No. 66708 (see Headline News p9).

DB Cargo has applied similar legends to one of its Siemens ‘Vectron’ locomotives, No. 193 394, Schienenbrücke Ukraine, promoting rail borne aid to Ukraine. Both DB Cargo locomotives have been involved in hauling trains of aid to Ukraine.

The best thing we can all do is support the initiative by Railtec Transfers by buying the special transfers and having a go at this project in either ‘N’ or ‘OO’ gauge, even if it does not fit your modelling timescale. Alternatively, there are many appeals still working hard to raise cash for anything from providing body armour for Ukrainian troops fighting at the front lines to animal welfare.

In the next issue of Rail Express Modeller, a project to convert this model to ‘EM’ gauge is described, along with wheel options and techniques. It’s not an easy one to complete!

← The too-light blue shade applied to the model means a strip down and repaint is the best option. The bodyshell is updated by modifying the top roof panel and removing the roof pod (A); repositioning the exhaust silencer to sit higher in its bay (B); changing the running light clusters and removing the front foot steps (C) and remodelling the cab side windows (D). The bogie frames can be lengthened too (E).

 A Hornby Class 66 was the base model for creating a close replica of GB Railfreight No. 66708 Glory to Ukraine.

↑ The exhaust silencer box is about 2mm too low in its bay. Otherwise, it is fine for the locomotive.

The Accurascale models of HYA wagon family arrived in time for the No. 66708 project.

↑ Styrene blocks added to the exhaust bay to raise it by about 2mm.

↑ The model is primed after modifications are completed. Note the new running light boxes on the cab front and modified roof panels. Some minor tweaks to the bodyshell and some remedial work was required, highlighted by the grey coat of primer.

↑ The painting stage has been reached and some colour checking was completed first to see that the chosen livery colours would work with the transfers.

↑ Another view of the misaligned centre axle (A) on the motor bogie together with legacy moulding relating to the use of a ‘Ringfield’ motor bogie when the model was produced by Lima (B).

↑ The middle axles are correctly positioned in each bogie. This picture shows how far back the cab moulding is placed – it needs moving forward when running lights are fitted.

 Principle painting is completed and the model has emerged from its last cocoon of masking tape and paper. Not a bad job, only requiring minimal touching-in before the final details are applied.

 GB Railfreight blue was applied in two spraying bouts. The roof was completed first, followed by the side panels. Masking tape is always desensitised on a clean surface such as glass before being applied to paintwork to prevent it from sticking too hard and stripping paint from the model.

 The project now moves on to the long masking and painting process. At this stage, GB Railfreight orange was hidden under masking so the sunflower yellow and sky blue of the Ukrainian flag can be applied, along with warning panel yellow to the cab fronts.

 Slowly, the livery comes together. A coat of gloss varnish makes the ideal surface for bedding in waterslide transfers on an irregular surface such as the body side ribs.

↑ A final coat of satin varnish sealed in the transfers and evened out the various paint finishes. The underframe and bogies were finished in unweathered black.

↑ New cab window detailing representing the revised doubleglazed units now being fitted to Class 66s during overhaul were modelled with Evergreen styrene strip and painted with a ‘Sharpie’ paint pen.

↑ Seam lines were filled with traces of dark grey paint to add a little contrast to the livery. The exhaust received a dusting of rust colour and matt grey/black as exhaust staining.