This post covers something a bit different to the previous wagons - not a kit, but an upgrade of the RTR Iron Mink by Minerva.

 

 

In many ways, the model is very good as it comes. The detailing is crisp and fine, and overall it captures the feel of the prototype. There are a few weaknesses:

1. the roof on the prototype is sheet metal, so the edge of the overhang is very thin - just the thickness of the metal. The model has the roof moulded in plastic of course, so the roof is much thicker. The designers have done what they can, tapering the moulding underneath the edge, so from above you get a nice, crisp profile, but looking horizontally, especially at the end of the wagon, the trick is quite visible.
2. The modelling of the doors is not quite right. The doors (panel and frames) are too far forward of the van side, which means the strip above the doors, which should overhang slightly, does not.
3. The lettering is nicely printed, but the shapes of the large 'GW' letters are not quite right - the curves of the 'G' especially. Having said that, looking at prototype photos shows the letter forms did vary somewhat, so you can't say definitively they are wrong. What is definitely incorrect is the slight serifs on the top corners of the 'W', where the letter is adjacent to the t-irons.
4. The buffers are held in place with a rather weak, rubbery glue. One of mine was slightly loose on delivery.
5. The bump-stops for the springs are absent - there should be a small strip folded into an upside-down top-hat shape above the centre of each spring, to limit the upwards travel of the axlebox and spring.
6. The axleboxes themselves, and the w-irons, are not quite right. The relationship between the w-irons and the solebar is slightly off, somehow, and the axleboxes are a little flat - overall, the effect is one of the w-irons and axleboxes being a bit two-dimensional.

 

I am sure most, if not all, of these issues are down to the need to manufacture the model at a cost people are willing to pay. I also don't want to overstate them - they are subtleties that many people either won't notice or won't be very bothered by, especially on a working 'layout' wagon.

 

I decided that, for numbers 1 to 3, the difficulty of fixing the issues would be disproportional to the benefit. The point, after all, of getting an RTR model is a lot of the work is done for you. Items 4-6, I decided to address. The matter of the buffers was easy - I pulled all the buffers out, removed the remains of the rubbery glue, and re-fixed with epoxy.

 

Initially, my only other plans were to touch up the paint around the buffers, and make a few changes to fit the Mink to my 1908 period - trim the bottom of the brake shoes to make them the non-reversible type, change the brake safety loops to the earlier stirrup type, change the brake lever guard to the earlier type, and add the missing spring bump stops.

 

However, the more I looked at it - sitting on a piece of track at the back of the workbench, where 'in progress' stock resides - the more I was dissatisfied with the axleboxes and w-irons. It was now or never - if I did the other work, weathered it and mentally said 'this is ready for service', I knew I wouldn't every come back to it. I realised I had a set of Slaters GWR compensated axleguards in stock, which confirmed the decision...

 

I started by dismantling the chassis from the body - a couple of screws and some clips. I popped out the wheels, and removed the brake gear:

 

 

Then came the somewhat brutal work of cutting away the axleguards, and filing the bottom of the solebars smooth. The Slaters etched units are designed to go on a flat surface - the bottom of the wagon floor - whereas Minerva's floor moulding has a vestigial representation of the underframing. I used a fretsaw with a fine blade to cut out the sections of floor where the axleguards needed to go. The body has its own floor, so by reuniting the chassis and body, I could glue some plastikard to that, to pack up the Slater's suspension units to the right height:

 

 

The suspension units could then be glued in place:

 

 

 

The springs and their bump stops are attached to the solebars:

 

 

The wagon comes with brake gear on one side, and a second set to fit to the other side if you want the later either-side independent gear. For my period, single-sided is correct, so I was able to fit the second set, rather than trying to reuse the now rather battered originals:

 

 

I didn't use the slightly crude moulded lever guard. My plan was to replace it with the very accurate Ambis ones, etched in phosphor bronze, but I find these very hard to make up without them coming apart where the metal has to fold in half at either end of the ratchet. Instead, I used just the ratchet and a strip of nickel silver bent to shape - less accurate, as the ratchet shouldn't have a back to it (it is flat, not a t-section), but stronger:

 

 

The safety stirrups are bent up from nickel silver strip, as usual:

 

 

The new parts were painted with Precision GWR grey - a good match with the Minerva colour - and the Iron Mink was ready for final paint touch-ups and weathering:

 

 

For my 1908 period, the paintwork on this wagon can be no more than 4 years old (the large GW livery began in 1904), so I decided to keep this one fairly clean - a bit of light dirt on the roof, chassis and in the t-iron detail, done with weathering powers applied both dry and as washes with IPA.

 

The Minerva model isn't perfect, but it's good, and justifies the effort to upgrade the axleguards and boxes, in my view. So here it is, ready for traffic:

 

 

 

Nick.