This post continues the story of the sheeted 5-plank GWR diagram O4 wagon.

The sheet was made of normal printer paper, with the lettering printed on with a laser printer, and backed with a self adhesive aluminium foil.

The first stage was to use the artwork provided by forum member Ian Smith for the sheet lettering:

Note that this is the 1903 design - Ian has also done the earlier design, around 1900, should you need it:

Ian's artwork provides a full set of digits, so you can give each sheet its own number. You also need to put the date the sheet was issued for use at the middle of each long edge. The date is indicated by a number for the month over a number for the year, so 10/09 is November 1909. This is actually too late for my 1908 period, but at the time I made this sheet, I misunderstood the dating system. Later sheets also carried a 'best before' date, by which it should be returned for repair and re-finishing, and I mistakenly thought sheets with only one date carried the 'best before' date, not the issue date.

Having worked in an image editing software to copy and paste the necessary numbers into the right places on the sheet, I printed it out, scaled to be 147mm long in 7mm scale (wagon sheets were a standard 21’0” by 14’4”).

The aluminium tape is a type intended for sealing the joints between sheets of the foam insulation used in buildings, and can be obtained online. Mine is 50mm wide, so three strips are needed to cover the back of the printed sheet. I stuck it on before cutting the sheet out, making sure the three strips went down without gaps or overlaps. After cutting out, I painted black the back of the sheet where it might be visible when fitted and folded, and I carefully ran the brush along the edge to blacken the paper and foil edges.

I made the ties with EZ Line - a fine, elastic cord. The prototype has 16 points around the edge of the sheet where the ties can be attached - one at each corner, and 3 intermediate points on each side, equally spaced between the corners. I made small holes at each point, and fed a length of EZ line through, attaching it on the back with thin CA glue:

As you can see in the first picture above, I had done a trial fitting on the wagon, starting to identify where the folds and creases would end up. The biggest challenge with modelling sheets is getting something that is light and relatively stiff to look like it is very flexible and hangs under it's own weight. To help with this, I spent some time working the sheet between my fingers, building up small creases to stop the sheet looking like a sheet of stiff paper. This needs care - it is easy to over-work one place and get a single, heavy crease, rather than lots of small ones.

Part of getting the model sheet to hang correctly is making it look like it is under tension in the right places, pulled by the ties. Holding the sheet in place on the wagon and comparing with photos showed a subtle effect on the prototype - along the edge of the sheet, where it hangs over the side of the wagon, the ties pull downwards and slightly bow the edge of the sheet. I made a template from a piece of brass (a spare piece of an etch), filing one edge to a gentle curve between two points spaced at the distance of the ties along the long edge of the sheet. I used the template to trim the sheet to give a very slightly scalloped edge to simulate the effect of the sheet under tension:

At this point, I felt I wasn't happy with the finish of the paper and laser print. Modern papers have optical whiteners to give a bright white look - the result is a bluer, brighter white than the white lead paint of the period would give. I started over-painting the lettering with matt white enamel paint and a fine brush. Although fiddly, this isn't too bad as it isn't necessary to get the edges absolutely accurate - the printer has done that. I filled the bulk of the letter form, getting as close to the edge as I dared, working under a magnifier in good light.

Painting the letters revealed that the black print from the laser printer had a texture of, well, print. I felt I now needed to paint in the black. My aim was to model a sheet in 'fresh from the shop' condition, as seen in period photos. When newly treated, sheets were a quite shiny black, so I used a satin black enamel paint to go over the black areas. Working the brush in different directions meant the slight brush-marks created a fine texture without an overall direction, which I felt worked well. The sheen once dry seemed right as a scale 'gloss'.

The sheet was now ready to attach to the wagon. I started gluing the centre line to the sheet supporter with thick CA glue, folding the sheet over and holding it in position as the glue set. The next step was to glue the sheet to the curved plastikard former, creating the sense it was hanging under its own weight. Then the sheet was glued to each side, ensuring a crisp fold along the top edge of the wagon body. The sheet should hang down vertically, close to the wagon side - where it tended to bulge out, I introduced extra glue between the sheet and the wagon side with a cocktail stick, and held the sheet in place until the glue set.

I next folded the corners, aiming for the effect of the ties pulling the corners towards the bottom centre of the wagon end, where the ties are fastened. Examination of photos helped get this right. Again, glue was introduced into the folds to ensure the parts that should be straight and flat were.

Careful manipulation of the sheet will get everything sitting as it should be - there should be no convex curves, except where the sheet hangs over the curving ends of the sheet supporter rail.

Once I was satisfied with the shape and folds of the sheet, I attached the EZ Line ties to the hooks previously fitted to the wagon curb rail (see part 1). The EZ Line was turned around the appropriate hook a couple of times, and held in place with a small drop of runny CA glue, applied with a cocktail stick. The end of the tie was then trimmed off.

I found the printer ink had a slight tendency to flake off, especially with the handling required to attach the sheet, so some retouching of the black paint was required. The last steps were fitting the buffers and couplings, and some final detail weathering.

So there it is - a brand new sheet on a slightly scruffy wagon. It's not perfect, and I have since made some refinements to the process of making and fitting the sheet which I will describe in future posts about later wagons. But for now, I think it captures something of the prototype wagons shown in the period photos that inspired the model.

Nick.