I See Red, I See Red, I See Red...

Hi, All!

Looking rather fine... It's amazing how a coat of paint brings a model together.

Just thought I'd jump on the old Portable Difference Engine and give you all a quick update:

Machine details catch plenty of red paint - not a worry at this stage! I find trying to be neat and tidy really slows me down!

The boiler is nearing completion now, and I'm into the painting of it. I've been meddling with modelling since I was a wee nipper, yet it never ceases to amaze me how much of a difference a coat of paint can change a model. All of the odd little bits and bobs suddenly look like they belong together.

These tubes and joints will be black eventually, giving a nice contrast.

I've gone for big, bold red for the engine, with green and gold details. I feel this is sufficiently Victorian in style, while being somewhat flamoyant - in keeping with the outrageous machine it will be part of. Black and copper will add a contrast for various machine parts and as you've seen with the Core-Room over the last few weeks, it will all stand out very nicely against light blue-grey walls and bare wooden floors.

A pointy bit. Because.

I started with the red, painting pretty much the whole model. This took three coats to give a good coverage, followed by a thin brown ink wash and a rich orange highlight. I think the final effect is great - it's nice and solid, with a dirty machine feel to it. As you can see, I have now moved on to the green, which will be highlighted a lighter shade, then followed by the other details.

Sixteen of these discs required six rivets each... That's ninety-six just for these bits. Painted the same as the rest of the boiler, they really look like they belong.

Of course, before any of this could occur, I had to add a few more rivets... 249 of them, to be exact. So today's Rivet Count:

The boiler is up to 1167, bringing the total for the whole project to 2097 !

The back of the smokestack. Rivets were added on all of the banding, which will be green when done.

Anyway, time for me to get on with stuff!

The boiler so far... Looking rather grand, I think!

All the Best!