For those of you that don't follow the UK Standard Gauge Industrial Railways sub-forum I thought that posting some details from this week's kit-build might be of wider interest. The subject is RT Models's new kit for the standard gauge Hudson spoil tipper whose purpose, like its narrow gauge cousins, was to take spoil - usual colliery over-burden or other waste - from point A to the tip, or elsewhere for disposal and/or reuse. Some collieries used them in some numbers, Betteshanger in Kent for example, ran rakes of the things. Just like the narrow gauge versions, various other manufacturers built something similar and more details of both this, and the construction (trouble-free) can be found in the original thread.

A shot to give an idea of the size of the completed vehicle. It is really very small: appreciably shorter than a Bachmann sixteen-tonner, the kind of wagon most modellers think of as petite. The wheels are only in place temporarily: dad is very kindly turning the ends off a set of pinpoint axles for me. The alternative - a 'Cosmonaut's Pencil' solution this - is to simply take the ends off with a cutting disk/piercing saw/large file according to preference. The bends and dents in the bodywork are wholly deliberate: these wagons were worked hard and patched up up until they fell apart. A 'tidy' version would be brand new and if modelled like that would look wrong, at least to my eye.

Lastly, an end view, note the blu-tack holding the tipper body level! A smear of epoxy will do the job for final assembly I think since the two bits are probably best weathered before that stage. In the meantime, all the bits are in a coat of red oxide primer waiting on the axles to turn up.

I suppose I should add a 'review type' sign off. All in all this is a fine kit which goes together nicely, and can be done in the course of a long evening if you wish. There is a scope for a little more detail should the mood take you and any number of prototype variations which, if you can find good, clear pictures, to introduce variations. The ultimate question with kits such as this is 'Would I build another?'. It should be clear from the above that the answer is yes.

Adam

Source: Hudson Tipper in EM