Like many I find coach lining a challenge. But I don't want it to stop me modelling the pre-grouping period, so for years I have simply been running my Edwardian GWR coaches without lining, as seen above.
I still consider that a legitimate compromise. In my view, the visual importance of lining on models is sometimes exaggerated, especially in a layout context where coaches become part of a wider picture.
But some liveries do look a bit austere without lining. The above Slater’s C10 is in GWR 1908-12 all-brown. It should be lined but isn’t. I could live with that, but lining would be nice. So in recent years I have tried out various pragmatic approaches to coach lining.
It took a little getting used to. I’m making a classic mistake here, the ruler should be lifted from the surface…
… otherwise, capillary action will draw paint under the ruler and make a messy line, as seen above.
Grip tape for badminton rackets helped, raising the ruler and protecting the surface. Thanks to Mike Adlen for that and many other tips.
Eventually I was able to use the Easi-liner almost like a regular pen, freely and with a good paint flow.
Yet despite much practice, I couldn’t get the lines thin enough. The above example was done with the 0.25 tip, but the resulting line is 0.66. Perhaps just my lack of experience at the time, I may pick it up again some day.
So I turned to the Rotring pen, inspired again by Mike Adlen's extraordinary results, as seen on RMweb. Above is a test piece with the 0.2 nib on gloss, satin, matt and unvarnished brown. The former two worked best for me.
For the paint I initially copied Mike’s recipe, mixing Windsor & Newton “Yellow Ochre” (right) with Rotring’s own white ink (left). As he has shown, the latter is an important ingredient as it helped ensure even flow and good coverage.
With the Rotring I gradually got better results, but still struggled. One problem was that the nib kept digging into the paint and picking up particles that blocked the flow.
In hindsight, I hadn't prepared my test pieces well. “Just a quick blow or two with the spray-can”, says I, “they’re only test pieces after all”. Right! The result was a rather rough surface which did nothing good for the Rotring. To make matters worse, I kept recycling the pieces with fresh coats of paint. 🙄
I also struggled to achieve GWR gold lining. I felt that the Windsor & Newton “Yellow Ochre” was too yellow, so tried various gold inks including this one. But gold inks tend to have large particles which clogged up the pen, even when mixed with that magical white Rotring ink.
While pondering these challenges I had a go with Sakura Pigma Micron Fineliners. These are excellent pens for fine drawing, though unfortunately there is no gold available.
There is however a yellow, but that is 05 and thus a bit wide. I found, though, that by gently inserting a sharp blade I could replace the yellow 05 nib with an 005 nib from another Micron pen.
The initial results were promising. The photo above shows a first quick attempt on the waist and below - with a few Rotring 0.2 lines at the top for comparison. But alas, the yellow Micron is very opaque on dark backgrounds and only visible under direct desk light, as here. Under any other lighting it is virtually invisible!
I did try adding my own ink mixes to the 005 Micron pens. I bled out the inner foam cartridges and refilled them with gold and ochre inks. But the foreign inks dried up inside the pens and clogged the nibs.
Just for good measure, I also tried gold markers and gel pens – like many before me no doubt. The best I found was the Pilot Super Color Extra Fine (shown at bottom) which promises that the “1.0mm tip gives a 0.5mm line”.
Well maybe, but 0.5 mms was still too wide. The Pilot Super Fine is seen here top right. The wide line in the middle is a Posca pen – far too wide and hard to control.
I also experimented with transfers. The center panel here was done with HMRS lining as supplied, while the panel on the left has it thinned by cutting down the middle. But it’s not particularly neat, and eight sections are needed for each panel (4 corners and 4 sides). That’s easily 100+ separate lines per coach.
DIY transfers seemed a better option. I had been admiring Dave John’s ingenious approach, over on RMweb, whereby lining and panels are applied as composite transfers. I drew up the lining and panels on an E37 drawing in Inkscape, then adjusted the dimensions to match my kitbuilt E37.
Above, the E37 panels are shown for different GWR periods. Class lettering and insignia can also be included, killing multiple birds with one stone. Dave uses the method for his beautiful Caledonian coaches with cream panels, and it is very convincing.
However, I eventually realized that the method might be less practical for GWR 1908-22 single-colour liveries. Some quite precise colour-matching would be needed between the transfers and the rest of the coach, and in practice the lining around droplights and door-vents would have to be done by hand anyway. So I've paused this method for now, but I will return to it for my two-colour choc and cream coaches.
At this point I took a deep breath of whiskey and considered the options. I felt that the Rotring had got me close, so returned to that and had three "aha"-moments.
Firstly, I experimented with a gold ink from Liquitex that is very smooth and watery. On its own it was too runny for the Rotring, but when mixed with the white Rotring ink I got a decent flow and a reasonable representation of gold.
Secondly, I put the ruler away, using just the edges around panels as a guide for the Rotring. Not exactly best practice and it does require neat edges of a certain depth to guide the pen – but without the ruler in the way I felt much more in control.
Thirdly, I realized that errors can be repaired - even big ones. This mess on my Slaters E37 is the result of general clumsiness and too much coffee. It’s amazing how much the latter can affect hand stability (domestic rows too!).
Here is the same area after repairs and transfers. Certainly not perfect, but progress.
For the repair work, I used a dark brown Micron 05 pen which more or less matched my coach brown. It leaves a shine but that disappears when the varnish goes on. For larger errors, I used a very fine brush with thin paint.
As usual my magnifier lamp was invaluable. A newspaper proved handy for rotating the coach without handling it. Another newspaper served to off-load the small drop that forms at the tip of the Rotring after shaking (helps keep the paint flowing). All very high-tech.
I experimented with how bold the lining should be. This is the lining done just once. A bit weak.
Here is the lining applied three times. Bolder and more even. It didn’t take long to do the lining itself three times, but there were more repairs! Perhaps with practice I can get a good clear line in the first go.
I managed to squeeze HMRS lettering in between the lining - just. The E37 is still a Tri-Compo, so it must be before October 1910.
The C10 All Third with two final layers of satin varnish. I’m in two minds about the shade, some will say it should be redder. For a discussion of the 1908-12 livery, see this thread.
The E37 compo and C10 together.
The final results are by no means perfect, and the finish is affected by all the experiments. Also, it needs dusting already.
But zooming out, I am happy with the lining for now. It certainly can’t match RTR lining, or the exquisite results achieved by some on here. But some basic lessons have been learnt, and I am motivated to move on with further practice.
Meanwhile, this duo needs a companion or two, I think? Thanks to everyone who shared hints and tips so far, it’s been a great help.