I'm sorry this blog hasn't been updated for so long, but work on the house has taken priority, so the only modelling done recently have been a couple of Ratio Vans. 1 is an LMS ventilated van the other an SR 28ton bogie 'B' luggage van and a Parkside Dundas 'vanwide' kit.

The two small vans were a doddle and a pleasure to build, the SR 'B' van was a bit of a pig with lots of fiddly bits making up the bogies and I'm not happy that I've got them right even now.

Another thing I wasn't happy about was the ride height, the buffers were much too high, I finally found I had read the instructions wrong and perched the side frames on top of the solebars instead of dropping them over the solebars to rest on the bottom web, so I had to cut the body free and re-fix it properly, fortunately the glue parted fairly easily so no great damage has been done.

Well on to the Mink G, If you read blog 3 you'll find that I was contemplating a brass chassis for this van, well ,I obtained one from Brian Morgan Design who specialises in GWR, it arrived shortly before a friend arrived from the UK so no time to do anything but have a brief shoofty, it all looked terribly complicated especially as this was my first excursion into brass kit building apart from some brass bogies on a 51L wagon, oh that's another one I've done recently, all these are awaiting the paint shop.

After returning from a trip to the UK I finally got stuck into it and my first problem was that the instructions were on DVD ALL 72 PAGES OF THEM!!! In PDF format which was fine except that good ol' windows 8 didn't want me to print them off, anyway to cut a long story short I managed it on a windows 7 computer but as the info contained therein is general for all 27 models I had to determine which sheets I required.

All due respects to Brian Morgan his designs are brilliant but so, so intricate, especially for a first timer named Quassiemodo, (yours truly) I ended up hurling the instructions across the room and figuring it out myself. The compensation didn't happen! mainly because the bit that the guitar string springing was set into wasn't square with the axle line although the box that it was mounted in was, one of the brake rods didn't seem to fit anywhere so I made my own adaptation with 0.5mm brass wire, (rivet counters?- tuff get over it)! I managed to adapt it to fit afterwards but it's not true to prototype.

After all this gassing you're expecting some photos, well I took some but they're all out of focus for some reason however they'll give you some idea. The chassis is in the paint shop, painted, as I speak so no chance of re-taking them I'm afraid. The body was first given a coat of Halfords' red oxide primer, followed by a top coat of grey enamel that hopefully resembles GWR grey, so when the lettering is all finished I'll post some final pictures

here's the progress to date.

This is the base together with the sliding bearing retainers that ended up being soldered in place

This is the guitar string springs in their holder

The finished chassis ready for priming with an etch primer

Finally the painted body, in GWR freight grey?

I'd welcome any comment/criticism on the shade of grey as appropriate to GWR freight grey