John Cockcroft All pictures by the author

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This isn’t a review but if you want that, with all the cut-away photos and comments on the guts of the thing, there are plenty in the mainstream magazines and the internet. The 48XX auto-fitted 0-4-2T and 58XX non-auto-fitted version are a bit out of my normal 1920s time period but there’s no point in becoming a slave to yourself when something really nice comes along at a really reasonable price is there? When I saw this version of the 58XX advertised by Hattons at around £170 I went babbling and slavering to the computer and ordered one. What a wicked and reckless old man I have become! However, the fact is it’s a really good model of an attractive prototype and runs as smooth as silk and is quiet. That’s the review bit over.

I never intended it to remain as I bought it, because I do think that most of these Chinese-manufactured ready-torun models are a bit smooth and slippery looking and don’t really reflect the dirt and wear of a real engine on the real railway of the steam era and this was no exception. I didn’t like the green they used and though they may have researched a prototype for the condition they represent, it is in a rather weird combination of liveries. The model is in GWR green with the mid 1930s button style emblem, which is a bit of a nonentity really; but besides that it had a British Railways smokebox number plate and a shed plate from the 1950s. From the war time until nationalisation the button totem was replaced by the initials GWR on unlined secondary locos and indeed some examples of that lasted well into the 1950s and did have BR smokebox plates.

Its original state was not for me so I got rid of the smokebox number plate and gently rubbed away the button totem with a glass fibre polishing brush. While I was at it, I removed the bunker steps and handrail on the lefthand bunker and cab sides, to backdate the model to the 1930s. After a frightening experience when dismantling another ready-to-run model, I decided that if it ain’t broke don’t fix it and will face all the little screws and other surprises when it conks out. So I used masking tape to cover the hole under the footplate area and then carefully masked off the front footplate and smokebox, part of the tank tops and the bunker top. The cab roof is ingeniously held in place with small magnets. I removed it and carefully masked off the cab interior. I masked the front spectacle windows inside and out but managed to get the glazing out of the rear cab windows, which are behind bars. The cab doors open and close so I decided to have them closed.

My preferred GWR loco green is Phoenix Precision Paints GWR loco green (1906 – 28) as it is darker and more olive than the later version. I sprayed the exposed areas using an airbrush and found it covered well in one coat. When I removed the masking I tidied up with Humbrol No 85 (coal black satin) and the odd green areas including those in the cab interior with the loco green I also used Humbrol 85 to paint in the coupling rods, the wheel rims and any part of the chassis that looked a bit bland and like plastic. I forgot to mask off the number plate but found that with a coat of black and a careful rubbing with a glass fibre polishing brush it came up a treat and is a very good representation, which saved me around £20 or more for etched plates.

Like the GWR, I had to carefully fit the Great Western transfers (sourced from HMRS) in the space available between the number and the tank fronts. I also repainted the buffer beams and used HMRS number transfers on them.

When all this was done I masked off the chassis area again and sprayed the whole of the upper part of the model with a mix of Ronseal gloss varnish let down with a blob of Phoenix Precision Paints matting agent to give a silk finish. I don’t ever feel relaxed about weathering a model especially if it looks nice as a clean and perfect 'objet d’art', but after leaving the model for about three days for the varnish to harden I set about making the engine sit in its environment, as the prototype would have done. I generally only use four colours for all weathering and I mix them in an artist’s pallets with six shallow rounded recesses. I got mine from Hobbycraft. I use Humbrol No 33 (matt black) and No 119 (light earth matt) or 118 (US tan matt) mixed variously to create any shade from almost black to pale buff. I also use No 62 (leather matt) for areas that have actual rust such as brake blocks, ashpan sides and for the odd extremity such as guard irons and cylinder fronts as required. Finally I use Humbrol No 10 (service brown gloss) to represent oil, again mixed variously with the other three.

To apply these I mix a few variants of No 33 and No 119 in the little dishes and then use a medium sized brush to apply them into corners and onto surfaces that often get mucky, such as footplate and tank tops and under the footplate. I blob them around a localised area and then use one of those big stiff bristle artist’s brushes (they have cream coloured coarse bristles) to vigorously scrub the blobs of paint over a wider area. The main object is to avoid any tendency for the paint to look like it has been painted rather that it has been rubbed or sprayed onto the engine. Depending on the level of weathering I want to achieve, I put most of the paint in corners and bottom areas on tank and tender sides and spread it around with the coarse brush. After that I pretend to be a rather poor engine cleaner and try to rub off much of the paint with a tissue or cotton bud, sparingly dipped into thinners or turps to get cleaner looking, or just rubbed when dry to look less clean. I avoid all sharp or sudden edges to the dirt and keep going back to the coarse brush to apply paint, then remove it, until I am happy with the result. Look at the prototype to see where muck collects. Freshly applied, the paint is slightly darker than when completely dry so leave the model for a day or so and look at the effect achieved. If it is a bit crude and shouts at me, I wash it over with a thinned mix of No 33 let down with some 119. I use the rust colour No 62 much more sparingly and often mix it with the above black and buff and soften edges or sudden blobs. If you model the rather depressing era when steam was being run down, or the wartime era, you may find you need a lot more No 62 and maybe other colours of decay and neglect but in my private model railway world such miserable times are in the future and my engines are cared about even if they are a bit grubby.

The same sparing use applies to the dark brown oil look that I get with No 10 again let it down with the base mix and gently soften the edges. I reserve that colour for valve gear and bearings also light applications on lubricators and Westinghouse pumps etc.

One thing to remember to achieve an oily look is that one of the best ways to represent oil – is with oil! I usually generously oil valve gear and motion and find it adds a convincing sheen.

After a tense hour or two on the edge of my seat blobbing and scrubbing, I was reasonably happy with the look of the 58XX. I put a thin layer of real coal over the top of the unconvincing representation on the model and I should put some fire irons and maybe a bucket on the racks and hooks on the bunker rear but haven’t done so yet. I think the outcome is far more convincing than an out-of-thebox model but this does not detract from this really fine model that is available to anyone at a really competitive price, which both looks the part and runs like a dream.