I really don't know why I'm titling my blog in French with vague culinary references but it has to stop soon – I'm running out of ideas and the drift is getting wider.
You may notice from the picture below that there has been a change of workshop location. I'm afraid the 'Goodwill to all modelling men using the bookcase as a workshop' season is over and I have resorted to bringing everything into the office. But onwards the march.
Over Christmas I have been trying to steal a few moments
A small update on the tools I've used. The wheel bearings required opening out – the cast holes being undersize to suit a variety of options of wheel bearing – so I made a purchase of a small set of drill bits. I already had the pin vice.
My largest small size drill bit was 1.5mm and my smallest standard sized bit is 4mm so this set fill some of that gap. A reasonable price of £7 for the set of seven drills from my local independent DIY shop. By coincidence, Heywoods wheel bearings fit quite
I had to refer back to my opening post recently to remind myself what and why I'm doing this due to an 'issue' with the kit.
If any of you reading this have bought an ABS kit you will be aware that they come with drawing pins for buffers. No, I'm not kidding. You bang them into a brass tube sleeve and then through some frustrating trickery with spring wire, secure them at the back behind the headstock. I now understand why everybody that I know who has built ABS kits replace the buffers and
With only an hour to spare before bed I put myself to work on the body details.
Firstly, the door frames were glued on. Being cast, they were not totally straight and flush with the body so some gentle persuasion was required. Easy enough as long as it is gentle. I'll glue the door panels on at the same time as the roof. Also, as these wagons will not be gunpowder vans I added the end vents. Gunpowder vans were not ventilated, just in case an errant spark from the loco happened to find
Last night I started cleaning up the castings of two Iron Mink bodies. According to the newspaper padding in the boxes these are both kits of circa August 1980 vintage, but are still full of their original detail if slightly blemished. Cleaning up and test fitting took about an hour per van body – gluing took about 20 seconds each, ensuring all corners were square.
Originally introduced at the end of the 19thC with lever brakes on one side, some were upgraded during repairs to more mode
This is a small blog serving a couple purposes. Firstly, to document building these wagons for my personal use, and secondly to test out the Blog feature while remaining fairly anonymous.
I have a few ABS wagons to build for my future layout – mostly BR period LMS and LNER opens, plus a few BR brake vans. I bought a small collection of pre-war GWR wagons quite cheaply so thought I could test out a few means and methods of construction before I start on my 'layout' wagons.
I never seem to
