Since my last blog entry I've been busy building more kits for departmental wagons, first up is a Cambrian catfish, I found this one to be slightly easier to build than the dogfish, probably due to the more simplistic nature of the prototype:

I did however manage to break the solebar whilst preparing for the whitemetal buffers, something that is surprisingly easy to do. As you can see its also received whitemetal axleboxes, this is mostly so that I can model the variations in axleboxes on the prototype, however it also helps with building a square chassis as can be seen here:

Extra brake rigging has been added between the shoes etc.

Next up are a couple of Parkside Grampus, the LMR received no vac-fitted Grampi (?) so they've been converted to unfitted using bits from a 12ft chassis kit. Whitemetal buffers, etched safety leavers and tiebars are also fitted to both wagons. The first was fitted with the solebars from a chassis kit which has split axleboxes:

The second uses the kit solebars, but whitemetal welded-type axleboxes as the kit ones are not suitable for unfiitted examples:

Due to the peculiarities of the Parkside sprue system, you actually get enough enough parts to convert two wagons if you use the kit solebars for a second one.

Lastly is the new(ish) Cambrian kit for the GWR type Herring:

Due to the one piece chassis, it producing a much better runner than the infamous Dog/Catfish, but in some ways it is a trickier model to build. Partly this is due to the method for fitting the hopper, which comes down to lining it up with the chassis detail and 'eyebaling' it. If you get it wrong (like me!) the end supports don't fit properly and will have noticeable gaps on the joint with the hopper. Squadron putty comes to the rescue, hopefully some weathering at a later date will hide any lasting flaws.

Handrails are really not my forte. The other complexity is provided by the incredibly convoluted GWR ratchet brakegear, Cambrian have actually done a very good job of rendering this and the 'destructions' go into the sort of detail that would previously have been left to the modelers own initiative. This shot shows the the brakegear and hopper supports fully assembled in a fairly crude manner by yours truly.:

I still need to add some more rigging originating from the cranks and ratchets at the end, this will be done once the wheels are added again.

These will all be finished in standard departmental black with straw lettering, the plan is to paint the next batch of wagons in Gulf Red, including another Catfish as I will be needed quite a few of them and from looking at photos roughly 50% seem to have been turned out in red.

DW