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halfwit's Wondrous Wagons!

A blog by halfwit in RMweb Blogs

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On building up an odd collection of EM wagons...

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RT Models Hudson Tipper - part 8 painted.

I've finally finished painting and lettering these two. I couldn't decide on livery, red oxide and black seem to be the most common (or indeed the only) liveries carried so I painted one black and left the other in primer! The red oxide is simply Hycote car aerosol primer, used on both models, and the black Humbrol acrylic 21 'Dirty Black'. I prefer Phoenix Precision 'Dirty Black' but couldn't get any at the time. Before painting I blackened them with Birchwood Casey Super Blue the

April 28, 2013

3

RT Models Hudson Tipper - part 7.

These two wagons have now had the last few parts attached and are ready for the paint shop. Above the brake centre pivot can be seen the lever which unlocks the body and allows it to tip, and on the solebar just left of the centre rib can be seen the catch which can be used to hold the body in the tipped position (click on the pic. for a bigger image); Spares are included for a lot of the smaller parts, including the catches. I used the buffers supplied with the kit, these were

March 19, 2013

0

RT Models Hudson Tipper - part 6.

Both wagons now have their brakes fitted. The first job was to fold up the two cross beams, different length beams are provided for either OO or EM/P4. The instructions tell you to assemble these together with the shoes then solder the completed assembly to the chassis, I chose to solder them directly to the underside of the sole bars, lines are half-etched on the bottom of the solebars to aid placement. It took a few attempts to get them central and square, I tacked one side and kept adjust

March 9, 2013

6

RT Models Hudson Tipper - part 5.

I've been busy fitting the end details on these two wagons. First the angled strengthening brackets were fitted, there are four of these per end; I held the chassis lightly in the rubber jaws of my vice when soldering. There are tabs on the brackets which locate into slots on the end plates, however care is still needed to make sure everything sits square. This is where soldering comes into its own as the bracket can be tacked, checked, repositioned, checked, and so on until you're

March 2, 2013

3

Ratio 'Harvey's Bristol Cream' Van.

Another one of my more lighthearted models. As I have the Ratio Huntsman's Ales and Badger Beer vans I decided to add the Harvey's Bristol Cream van to my collection. I found an unbuilt kit on Ebay just before Christmas, which is now built and sitting in my display cabinet. Unlike the other two, which are based on a GWR van, this one is based on Ratio's LMS ventilated van. The quality of printing is very good, better that the two beer vans; I'm not convinced by the shell vents on th

February 27, 2013

4

RT Models Hudson Tipper - part 4.

The chassis' now have bufferbeams, solebars and axleboxes. The bufferbeams are built up from 3 main parts, as well as seperate drawplates and coupling hooks. The first job was to bend up the main part of the 'beam, after punching out no less than 22 rivets; Note that there are two sets of locating slots, to suit either the OO or EM/P4 frames. At this stage I fitted the drawplates and coupling hooks whilst I could still access the inside of the 'beam for soldering the coupling hooks

February 17, 2013

5

RT Models Hudson Tipper - part 3.

Onto the chassis. Since starting this kit I've bought a second one, picked up from Robert himself at the recent Stafford exhibition. Having a second kit proved to be very usefull, as we shall see. The kit comes with two chassis, one spaced for OO and the other for EM/P4. The instructions suggest practising on the unwanted chassis, in my case the OO one as I model in EM, very good advice as some of the folds can be a little tricky. The first job with the chassis is to form the angled tiebars

February 14, 2013

2

RT Models Hudson Tipper - part 2.

The tipper body is now complete and ready for a coat of primer. To get it this far I've punched out 244 rivets and soldered no less than 24 seperate etched detail parts onto the body. All this results in a highly detailed body, the bar has been set high for any future RT Models etched wagon kits! Here's a few images of the build; In the pic. above you can see that the lower bodyside 'u' channel has been folded and soldered in place, followed by the base of the 'T' channel above it,

February 10, 2013

5

RT Models Hudson Tipper - part 1.

This is an etched kit for a Hudson side tipping wagon, of a type used extensively in the mining and quarrying industries for conveying spoil. The kit is etched nickel silver and comes with whitemetal buffers and turned brass bearings, wheels can be supplied at extra cost. Instructions cover 6 sides of A4. Before I go any further I should mention Adam's excellent thread on this kit. I'm going to go into my usual level of detail about this build, unless anyone seriously objects! I enjoy writing u

January 29, 2013

7

Chilton Iron Works Lambton Chaldron - part 2.

This one is almost ready for cleaning and painting now. The only part left to add is the hopper floor, which is simply a rectangle of planked plasticard. The brake is made from two parts, a whitemetal casting to represent the crude wooden brake block and an etched nickel silver lever (blackened); The guide is .33mm brass wire. On the non-brake side there is a small etched plate to affix to the solebar, to which is attached the door catches, all very small and difficult to spot;

August 1, 2012

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Chilton Iron Works Lambton Chaldron - part 1.

Chilton Iron Works made a very interesting range of wagon kits which have been unavailable for a long time. The range included 4 types of Chaldron. This one is kit C4, a 4T Lambton design. Some might think it a waste of time describing the build of a kit which is no longer produced but I hope that some of you may find it interesting. The kit consists of 6 whitemetal castings, a small piece of planked plasticard and a nickel silver etch; Here's the chassis, on the left is the etched

July 22, 2012

2

Ratio 'Huntsman's Ales' Van

Regular followers of this blog might remember the Ratio 'Badger Beer' van that I built last year. Since finishing it I've been searching for an unbuilt 'Huntsman's Ales' van to accompany it. Well, its taken over a year to find one, and here it is built up; Like the Badger Beer van its based on Ratio's GWR 12t vent van. Underframe was built first, sprayed with Phoenix Precision 'Dirty Black', body ends then sides added, then the roof sprayed with Revel 'Dark Grey' before being attached.

July 8, 2012

3

Roxey Summers Iron Ore Hopper part 14 - Primered and ready to go.

The wagon has now been given a couple of coats of primer and is ready to be posted to its owner. The main body has been sprayed with Phoenix Precision etch primer, which was given a couple of days to thoroughly dry then sprayed with Hycote acrylic car primer. The owner will finish painting it himself. Its been an enjoyable project, rather tricky in places, but I think that it builds up into a nice model of an iconic wagon. I should say that its not the most straightforward

May 2, 2012

6

Roxey Summers Iron Ore Hopper part 13 Bogies 2.

The bogies are almost finished now. The owner supplied some tension lock couplings to be fitted. I used a strip of 5mm x .5mm brass strip as the mounting bracket, bent to shape and soldered to the underside of the etched bogie frame; I drilled 1.3mm dia. holes in the couplings so they could be attached using 12BA nuts and bolts. The mounting bars have 2 holes drilled in them, the outer hole position is based on the coupling position on my Bachmann JNA (untouched - bought becaus

April 30, 2012

1

Roxey Summers Iron Ore Hopper part 12.

The vacuum pipes are now fitted in place, sitting on little stanchions made from scrap etch, along with the end bracing struts. The end struts are made up from 2 pieces soldered together in a 'T' shape. A couple of pics; Stanchion positions were found by studying photos of the prototype. End struts soldered together using 188 then tinned with 145 and attached using my RSU. The brake wheels are also fitted now. To make them up I drilled some holes in a piece of MDF for the handl

April 17, 2012

5

Roxey Summers Iron Ore Hopper part 11 - brace plates and vacuum pipes.

The end brace plates are made up from 3 parts, two ribs and the main plate. A simple folding and soldering job, 179 cream to attach the ribs before tinning with 145 and using the RSU to attach the assembly to the wagon, complicated by having to mark out drill the holes for the vacuum pipe. I used a pair of dividers to transfer the hole position from the side ribs to the plate. A pic; The piece of black plasticard in the foreground is a little jig to ensure that the plates are not only a

April 9, 2012

10

Roxey Summers Iron Ore Hopper part 10.

Work continues on this wagon, somewhat slowly at the moment but I try and put in an hour or two a day. The small end bracing plates have been soldered up and fitted; I'm not going to say much about them apart from to assemble them I used my RSU and 179 solder cream and I swore rather a lot... To attach them to the chassis I tinned them with 145 and again used the RSU to solder them in place. I've been looking at the clearance, or lack of, for the wheels. With the bogies set to t

April 6, 2012

3

Roxey Summers Iron Ore Hopper part 9 - Hopper 5.

The rest of the strengthening ribs have been added together with the half etched rivet strips and the corner strips. For the corner strips and the rivet strips I used 179 degree solder cream and my RSU. Everything went together nicely although the end rivet strips and ribs needed trimming to suit the hopper angle; The instructions ask you to drill holes in the hopper floor and chassis, bolt them together, solder, then remove the bolts and fill the holes. I decided on a different course

March 28, 2012

7

Roxey Summers Iron Ore Hopper part 8 - Hopper 4.

The internal hopper divider is made from 2 parts, the lower part needs folding to shape. You're asked to scribe a fold line to help form the top, for this I used an engineers scriber followed by a 'scrawker', which can be seen in the photo below; As the angle would be less than 90 degrees I deliberately scribed the fold line so that its on the outside of the bend. The lower part is a sloppy fit in the hopper, resulting in gaps; Better this side; Not my neatest

March 15, 2012

3

Roxey Summers Iron Ore Hopper part 7 - Hopper 3.

Today I had a few hours to myself free from distraction, so I soldered up the hopper body. The hopper floor is too wide by approx 1mm, so I scribed a line 1mm from the edge, and cut just inside the waste thereby leaving a little material to be removed with a file after the ends are tacked in place. I used a pair of snips, in this case Draper Expert Jewellery Snips, which can just be seen in the second photo. These are very reasonably priced (about Â£9) and are well suited to brass work. In

March 13, 2012

6

Roxey Summers Iron Ore Hopper part 6 - Hopper 2.

After forming the sides to suit the ends I double checked the angle against a side rib, then tweaked the hopper to suit; Rechecking against the ends resulted in a gap; So again the sides were tweaked to get rid of the gap; Which means that the angle of the ribs are out; I spoke to Roxey Mouldings about the problem - on the test build he kept the hopper body in one piece, which resulted in gaps aound the bottom of the ends due to the base being too wide but the

March 10, 2012

5

Roxey Summers Iron Ore Hopper part 5 - Hopper 1.

The hopper body is etched in one piece; There is a problem and it is that the base is too wide. The solution is to cut the etch into four pieces leaving the base attached to one side; I used a piercing saw, which followed the half etched fold lines beautifully. This is all in the instructions. The instructions also suggest punching out the rivets before folding, however I did this after folding figuring that the folded panels would be stronger and less likely to deform on b

March 4, 2012

5

Roxey Summers Iron Ore Hopper part 4 - Chassis 2.

More work on the chassis, and a good deal of swearing... The underframe bottom plate needs to have the bufferbeams removed. This particular operation needs a lot of care as the ends are quite delicate. I tried to 'score and snap' along the half etched bend line but this resulted in deforming the etch, not too badly that it coudn't be tweaked back. I managed it in the end but its probably better to use a piercing saw... Before soldering the plate in place I drilled two holes either side of the

February 29, 2012

4

Roxey Summers Iron Ore Hopper part 3 - Chassis 1.

The first stage in putting the chassis together is to bend up the stiffening ribs and bufferbeams on the top chassis plate. Then another pair of stiffening ribs can be cut from the etch, ends folded over, and soldered in place (the outermost ribs). Before the solebars can be fitted to the chassis there are half-etched overlays to be sweated in place, I left the solebars on the etch whilst I did this and used my RSU and 188 degree solder paint. The completed solebars could then be trimmed to leng

February 23, 2012

3

Roxey Summers Iron Ore Hopper part 2 - Bogies 1.

The bogies consist of an etched frame with whitemetal sideframes. All very straightforward really but there are a couple of points to watch for. When folding up the frames there are some inner striffening ribs to fold down after the sides are folded down. (I used a 2" Hold & Fold for the sides and a pair of square ended pliers for the ribs). If the ribs are just folded as they are they will splay the sides out so a file has to be taken to the edge of the rib that will butt up against the

February 21, 2012

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