The Design

The Greenly Starter is a locomotive produced by Mr. D. Viewing sponsored by and created for the Gauge 1 Model Railway Association. Its basis is a starter locomotive designed for Gauge 2 by Henry Greenly and published in the winter 1910 issues of Model Railways:

The model “kit” supplied by Mr. D. Viewing and the G1MRA consists of a resin-printed body shell and nylon SLS produced chassis, wheels and gearbox – and associated motor, electronics and fixings.

The chassis

The motor and remote control equipment are robust, commodity items and assemble into a running mechanism with no trouble whatsoever. A running chassis was quickly achieved following the detailed instructions.

My only changes from construction were the use of 3mm ground rod instead of 1/8″ (3.1mm) ground rod that was specified, which necessitated that those shafts in the gearbox were retained with a flexible superglue.

The body

The locomotive body was undercoated in spray putty to take out the most egregious surface finish marks, and then painted in dark GNR green.

After the dark green had hardened for a couple of days, a combination of 2mm and 3mm masking tape of both standard and flexible types was obtained and used to mask the panel borders.

After the masking was complete, a coat of the GNR Stirling Green was applied:

Once dry, the masking tape was removed and the scalloped corners of the panels hand-painted. The footplate and smokebox were painted black, as were the rims of the beading, and chocolate was applied to the edge of the footplate and buffers:

With the rest of the black beading painted and the smokebox, buffers and couplings fitted, the model is starting to look a lot more like a locomotive!

I was debating on whether to line the locomotive myself, or purchase a set of transfers, and although I have an easi-liner, I decided to give it a go with a Pentel Extra-Fine Paint pen:

The locomotive lacks numbers and lettering, in due course!