We have never had much look painting the red bufferbeams by brush, with it often requiring many coats to acheive a solid colour. So instead, the locos are first fully masked so that the bufferbeams can be sprayed in Humbrol #19. After 24 hours to fully dry, the bufferebams are then masked off, so that the main body colour can be sprayed (using either Humbrol or Tamiya paints).

The exception to this method has been Dulas, which due to the proximity of the vacuum brake pipes, has had the bufferbeam brush painted. However, since the base livery is an 'off red', this does at least help the colour apply evenly.

After this, it's on to the other colours, typically starting with the smokebox in Humbrol matt black (33). As you can see here, the models are supported on the end of an old paintbrush with blu-tack whilst spraying. It also helps to hold the model for painting some details too.

The colour coming up is the most tricky - satin black (Humbrol 85) which needs applying pretty much throughout the entire model, across the frames, unde the frames, inside the cab, under the saddle or tanks. Finally, brass and copper parts are picked out with a fine brush.

Hopefully we shall have more updates on these models soon, but in the meantime, has anyone beaten us to it in painting up their own kits first?...