For my 1908 GWR setting, I can't have too many 4-plank opens - they were around 40% of the revenue-earning fleet. My planned rosta of 20 GWR wagons therefore includes eight 4-plankers, and it is another one of these that is the subject of this post. It differs from the last one in being made from the ABS whitemetal kit (remaining stocks still available from DJ Parkins). It also has a load of straw under a sheet - inspired by Mikkel's similar creation in 4mm scale.
The kit comprises four main castings, and then the running gear, brakes, buffers, and so on:
The body was soldered together with low-melt solder:
The interior is nicely detailed. I soldered up the inside corners, as I knew the inside wouldn't be visible with the straw load. I think it would be hard to do this cleanly, so if I wanted the inside to be seen, I would spot-solder underneath for strength, then put some epoxy resin into the gap inside the corner and clean it up when half hard.
The axleguards and wheels were added:
The floor provided is a piece of planked plastikard. It is a bit flimsy, and as I didn't need the plank detail, I replaced it with 40 thou plastikard to provide a solid foundation for the brake gear below and the former for the straw above.
Next was the brake gear. The main casting is nicely detailed, so I used it, together with the vee-hanger that is integral to the side castings. For my period, the brake gear should be single-sided. The cross-shaft was made from 1mm internal diameter brass tube, with a piece of 1mm brass wire running through it. This method means I have a cross-shaft that is the right diameter (the real things were quite chunky, and often modelled too small in 7mm scale), but with the holes in the vee-hanger, brake lever and other parts needing to be only 1mm diameter. This is much easier than trying to drill 1.6mm or so holes, which leaves very little metal around the hole.
On the prototype, the brake gear had a single support strut for the cross-shaft on the inside end, so this was made from a bit of scrap etch.
The view from the front - the brake shoes and hangers, which are the earlier type made from a simple piece of flat metal, are very nicely modelled in the ABS casting:
The supplied brake lever and lever guard are a bit crude - an inevitable consequence of being cast in whitemetal. I replaced them with parts from Ambis:
With brake safety loops from nickel silver strip, a door banger plate from plastikard, buffers and couplings, the wagon is physically complete. The CRT Kits sprung buffer heads were fitted to the ABS cast guides after drilling them out accordingly. They are seen here with the couplings on the wagon just for show - they weren't permanently fitted until after painting:
The wagon was painted with Halford's red oxide primer, and then the sides and ends were varnished with Vallejo acrylic gloss, ready for lettering. My preference was not to varnish, as the matt primer finish is a very good basis for the fairly heavy weathering I was planning to apply, and I was going to use Pressfix transfers, which don't need a gloss surface. However, I have run out of small "G.W.R" texts on my Pressfix sheet, so the lettering had to be done with waterslide transfers:
The numbers are from those supplied by PECO with their 4-plank kit - they come as a complete number rather than separate numerals, which makes life easier and guarantees the numerals are straight. However, they are a bluer white than the Slater's transfers which I used for the other lettering. I also struggled to prevent silvering, despite using both Microset and Microsol, and having varnished previously, so I probably won't use them again.
The basis of the hay load was a former made of layers of corrugated cardboard, and covered with cut up plumber's hemp:
This former was made some time ago, originally for the PECO 4-plank wagon I described in another post, before I decided that would remain empty. I based the former on the pictures of hay and straw bales being loaded in Russell's GWR Wagons Appendix. I later discovered that for my period (1908) hay and straw came in hand-made 'trusses' which were loaded differently and tended to make a less rectangular shape. I kept the former, thinking I could pack additional hemp around it to create a more rounded shape, but as we will see I was only partly successful.
Weathering was applied with a mix of washes and dry-brushing in greys, browns and pinks (for the slightly faded paint areas). The former was glued in:
Extra hemp was pushed in to fill the slight space between the wagon sides and the former - I kept the hemp over-long at this stage, for trimming later:
The sheet was made from paper and aluminium foil using the methods described previously. One change was the cords - rather than using EZ Line, I used 0.25mm rigging thread (used by ship modellers). I realised that I would not be able to glue the sheet to the former in the way I had previously, and the cords would have to do some real work pulling the sheet into position. The EZ Line is elastic, but quite weak, and would not be able to apply enough force.
I put some extra hemp over the former before applying the sheet. The plan was this would create the straw coming out under the ends of the sheet, and I would stuff extra hemp under the sides once it was roped into position.
To keep everything in place while I roped the sheet on, I held the sheet and the wagon together on a wooden block with a couple of large elastic bands:
I used a miniature brass clamp to hold the end of each cord, so I could keep it under tension with the weight of the clamp while I had both hands free to turn the cord around the hooks under the curb rail:
The cord was glued in position with a drop of thin CA, applied on the end of a piece of wire. The ABS kit comes with a representation of the hooks cast into the sides and ends. These are neater than the wire hooks I have made on other wagons, which are a bit over-scale, but the ABS casting is not actually a hook shape, just a piece of metal sticking down. The cord tends to slip off, and if I was doing it again I would probably replace the cast protrusions with wire hooks to make attaching the cords easier.
I started with the three side cords, doing one side then the other, making sure the sheet was tight over the top of the former when doing the second side. I then did the ends, leaving the corners to last:
The corners are folded in and tied, using tweezers to push and prod the material into something like the folds the real thing takes up. Extra hemp was pushed up under the sides using a wooden stirrer - the round end preventing damage to the sheet. Looking at photos of wagons with hay and straw loads, it is clear the sheets have a degree of stretch to them - they form over the rounded load in a curving shape without a lot of loose material. The combination of my too-rectangular former and non-stretchy sheet meant I had an excess of material at the ends, which formed into folds that are not prototypical. As far as possible, I got the hemp to look as if it was supporting these folds as some sort of justification, but this aspect could definitely be improved.
Next, I trimmed the hemp back with small, sharp scissors, trying to get the uneven look of the straw sticking out seen in pictures. Finally, I added the ropes from 0.5mm rigging cord. The real ropes were 75 feet long, or 525mm in 7mm scale, so I cut two pieces that length.
The GWR General Appendix to the Rule Book shows how straw and hay should be roped - different methods for the two types of load. Straw is roped with ropes going across the wagon in three places, while for hay the ropes go across twice, and diagonally twice. Unfortunately it doesn't give details of how exactly the ropes should be tied, and none of the pictures I had were clear enough to show this, so I used a certain amount of guesswork. Each of the two ropes starts at a left-hand buffer (looking at the wagon from the side), goes to a hook a quarter of the way along the wagon, over the load, along to the centre, over again, and is tied off onto itself. I ended up with a few scale feet of rope left over, which I cut off, not knowing how the excess would have been dealt with in reality - I imagine if an actual railwayman had done that, he would have been dismissed for damaging company property!
With all the handling, the sheet needed some touching up, as did the wagon, but with that, the job was done. With hindsight, I wish I had made a new former to give a slightly more rounded effect - the load is rather flat on top compared to photos, especially along the length of the wagon. That would also have given me the opportunity to create slight 'valleys' where the ropes press into the sheet. As it is, while they aren't loose, they don't especially give the sense of being under tension. Nevertheless, I am pleased with the overall effect.
Loads like this are quite a lot of work, but they add interest - and the horses of Netherport will now have something comfortable to lie on.
Nick.
Edited by magmouse
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