Paint job on BEMO's 99 651 (Saxon, Sächsische VI K)

Introduction

I chanced upon a friend and colleague who was about to retire anytime soon. I asked him what he planned to do with all the leisure time ahead. I kind of joked "building locomotive models" and much to my surprise he took it for serious. "I already did that"

The model

His model was built from a BEMO kit quite some years ago. After finishing the main structure he asked a friend of his to paint it. Frankly the job was not very successful. The black paint was rough and had apparently dried in flight before sticking to the loco. Being unable to paint the loco himself my saddened friend stored the loco where it spent ten dark years. Now I had this casual conversation with him he mentioned the loco's fate. I asked him to take it with him. A short inspection a few days later showed no serious problems. Okay, the loco had been glued with CA, which is sensitive to thinner, so I'll have to make short work of stripping the old paint and also count on some reconstruction work of loose parts. I decided to have a go.

Short history

This 0-10-0 type was built between 1918 and 1927, the class eventually numbered 62 members. The first batch of these 750 mm narrow gauge engines was originally designed for deployment in the war effort but the end of WWI made them superfluous even before they came to work. They were diverted to the Saxon narrow network and with good result as the Deutsche Reichsbahn kept re-ordering more in several batches. They led a useful but not overly conspicuous life on their network. The last one was taken out of service in 1975. Four of them have been preserved (nos 651, 713, 715, 716)