The current project to grace the workbench is a short rake of cattle wagons, the first 3 wagons will be a pair of Coopercraft W5s and an Airfix kit converted into a W12

The first Coopercraft was built while working away from home a few years ago, in the meantime it has suffered some damage. This was repaired with Evergreen strip, along with replacement wire bars. The latter were fitted by melting into the side with a soldering iron. With the repairs done, the roof could finally be glued into place.

Next up was the W12, again this was started back when I was living in Chester, The sides were converted to the GW patten, while the working door was removed from one side. The other side has been built with the chunky open doors in place, the logic being that it might make for a good photo pose (given I generally only finish one side of a wagon this one can be rotated round for photos only). It will now need to be fitted with etched suspension units before entering the paint shop for a coat of whitewash on the inside before fitting the roof.

I didn’t make much progress on the next one, another Coopercraft kit, which is on the bench ready for building tonight.

Eventually I have another W12 to build along with a W3, both to be converted form the Airfix kit, but that can wait as I have a lot more easy projects to do first.

I have a couple more wagon project to hit the bench soon, finishing off a fruit C, adding handrails to a Bachmann toad, and adding buffers to another batch of wagons