Alpha-loco: Building Finished (1/35)

Yesterday evening I finished building my 1:35 scale model Alpha E-10 loco. Most of the work involved fiddly little parts. Small brackets were made from scrap etched metal or plastic strip while bolt and rivet heads were made from sliced stretched sprue.

My interpretation of an Alpha E-10 loco from Frederikshavn Iron Foundy. Back in 1908 the constructors obviously weren't aiming to win a price for best design! While the loco may not be pretty or practical I find it very charming.

On the left side I installed oil tank and water funnel. The associated oil piping were made from thin electrical wires and bits of their insulation. I found a left over resin water tap and glued it to the bottom of the radiator's water tank. I suspect the tap was used to empty the tank when necessary.

A 'hat' over the radiator pipe (the loco's front chimney) was fabricated from a scrap part found in the spares box (I think it is from an old H0 lamp) and two pieces of brass wire. All very simple - at least a lot easier than if I had to make a 'hat' from thin brass.

The loco's right side complete with closed barn door and plenty of small brackets. One of the brackets on the rear wall looks perfectly ready to receive a model of a bucket in etched brass. It will add a little interest to the otherwise quite bare right side.

All locos from the manufacturer were most likely fitted with an upper body of galvanised steel plates. Some locos seems to have been painted a semi gloss silver/zinc while others were probably left in bare greyish galvanised steel. I am currently  trying to come up with a method of painting a 1:35 model in something that resembles galvanised steel (as I'm still not quite comfortable having a silver loco trundling back and forth on Nystrup Gravel). I have had the advice to use silver and dark grey with one of the colours roughly 'spattered' on through an air brush at low pressure. Glazing over this mix with several very thin coverings of light grey could probably resemble a galvanized surface. I'll test the method, but with paint applied with a teased out kitchen sponge. The sponge will (I speculate) give a random pattern of paint in a more controlled way. I'm testing several other options on scrap pieces of plastic card. Perhaps the Christmas holidays will provide enough time to allow the loco to be painted and equipped with DCC decoder?