Making a canopy for my Wilesco traction engine, part 3.

In two previous posts I discussed designing a canopy for my toy traction engine and committing the design to metal. In this post I show the final stages - painting and adding decals.



After filing away excess solder and sanding down all the brass parts I started painting by giving the entire canopy a couple of coats of etching primer from a spray can. To support the canopy during painting I re-used my support strut jig, opening up two of the holes to take M4 screws.

I forgot to take any photos during the rest of the painting. I used Humbrol enamels, thinned with white spirit. I found it quite difficult to get a satisfactory matt finish on the upper surface of the roof ("dark slate grey", no 224) but after enough coats and a gentle buff with a rag I think the result's not too bad.



I drew some lettering for the sides of the roof using the LibreOffice "oodraw" program, and then printed the result on an A4 sheet of water slide decal paper. (I also did some lettering for a simple trailer kit I've built.)



After attaching the decals there were a few bits of white showing around the edges. I touched these up with more paint after the decals had dried.





These two pictures show the canopy in place on the traction engine. I think it looks pretty good overall. The video below shows how easy it is to remove and replace, thanks to the magnets at the bottom of the support struts.