Garden Railway Forum

Just ordered a Roundhouse Katie kit, will keep you updated with progress.

Good choice, it's a lovely little loco and a great kit to build, it took me 12 days to make and paint mine.
The bodywork is especially easy to assemble as most of it is pre-formed with only 4 joints to solder.

I shall be very interested in progress as I hope to build a Katie myself, sooner or later.

Post lots of pictures. I enjoy watching these locomotives go together.

I am confident in my ability to put it together mechanically, it's the painting that I am less confident about.

What sort of paint do people use?

I used Acid 8 etch primer and car spray paint both from Halfords
The colour is VW Paras Blue as it's very close to LNER Garter Blue.

Etch Primer and good car paint. I am using Simoniz Black on Ol' Bill at the moment and it is covering well.
Try a high temp paint on the smokebox if you want a nice matt, slightly rough finish.

Look on Chris Bird's "Summerland Chuffer" website. He does an article on painting. I followed his advice when I painted my "Billy" cab, and it was a much easier process than when I painted the boiler jacket and tender before reading his advice.

Putting the painted pieces in the oven on a low setting for half an hour makes a big difference. Car paint can take many days to harden fully, if you pop the painted piece in the oven after you spray it, you can touch the piece on the same day.

Also do not use washing-up liquid to clean the brass prior to painting. You must use acetone or some other degreaser. Washing-up liquid has hand-cream type stuff in it that will not rinse off well.

I despise painting, but follow Chris Bird's advice and you will find it easy and not too terrible.

Thanks for that.

Shameless plug:

I offer a painting service for kit-built locos, and I have a Lady Anne here now for precisely that treatment. The usual practice with kit locos is for the loose parts to be sent to me for painting but the Lady Anne has been built by its owner and I will be dismantling, priming, painting, reassembling and testing it before it goes back to him. Please drop me a line if this is of interest to you.

More details here: http://www.rhoshelyg.me.uk/Painting.html

A Katie kit is high on my wish list. I fear even the kit will remain a pipe dream unless I hit the lottery. The exchange rate is still not the best for us here in the states. I swear I live in the wrong country. Everything I love steam is UK, from the real ones to models! Can't wait to see your progress pics. Mike

TonyW:115806 wrote:Shameless plug:

I offer a painting service for kit-built locos, and I have a Lady Anne here now for precisely that treatment. The usual practice with kit locos is for the loose parts to be sent to me for painting but the Lady Anne has been built by its owner and I will be dismantling, priming, painting, reassembling and testing it before it goes back to him. Please drop me a line if this is of interest to you.

More details here: http://www.rhoshelyg.me.uk/Painting.html

I have thought in this direction, I will definitely be doing the frames myself, so as can get on with the build.

And it has arrived.

I picked up a 2nd hand kit built Katie late last year. Only the chassis frames & buffer beam had been painted, but no primer used so some of it was slowly peeling off.


This was one of the 'For Sale' images

I agree that Chris Bird's painting articles are very good, and confirm that baking the pieces in the oven really helps.


This is that loco now, having repainted the buffer beam, and degreased & painted the smokebox, chimney & front footplate

I used acid etch primer followed by plasti-kote Projekt Paint BBQ (for the black).

I would recommend painting the wheels before fitting.

One thing to watch out for when doing the body kit (as seen on my Katie & some others viewed online) is to ensure that you get the solder to flow onto the outside of the Saddle Tank Front, and the saddle tank to cab front joint (as mentioned in Pages 12 - 14 of HBK17 manual). I've had to redo these joints, and will need to redo the cab side one as well.

Chris Cairns

I bought a rather sad Katie a few years ago, had to be totally stripped down, repainted and re built. Almost not worth the saving for the time spent but learnt a lot and it's my best running loco, love it. Sprayed in coronation blue

Chris Cairns:115900 wrote:I would recommend painting the wheels...

So would I.

I have started exploring the kit; the build quality is everything that you would expect.

I do, however strongly dislike the cheap nasty RC plane type fork end on the reversing rod, that will have to go. Something a little more steam-engineering like will have to be made.

OK pictures:

It has been too cold to paint in the garage for a while, but this week I made a start.


This is my spray booth, it a vacuum cleaner box I nicked from school. (The box not the vacuum.) At the bottom left you can see the wife's hair dryer which is used to pre warm the box the component being painted and the air inside. On the other side a vacuum cleaner (Nicked from another school, well retrieved from the skip and fixed.) is plumbed in to extract the fumes. It's not quite up to the task but makes a big difference. The Vacuum is outside the door, (in the rain at the mo).



Here you can just see the frames being given their outside coat of Halfords satin black.




After spraying the box is shut and the vacuum switched off and the hair drier on. In the shots above you can make out a meat thermometer stuck into the booth, which shows me I am getting a temp of 55 degrees, hot enough for the paint to be touch dry in five minutes. Then the parts are brought in and further cure on top of the radiator.

Don't buy one of these handle thingies to help you with the spraying they are a waste of money.




You live and learn.

Hello!

I love the home-made spray booth! I don't have a garage but could possibly spray outdoors on a cold but dry day using the box/hairdryer/meat thermometer technique... Thanks for the idea!

Andrew.