2009-11-29: N6 horsebox added at end of this entry.
Progress on the Buffalo and Dean goods awaits a warm weekend suitable for painting in the garage. At least that's my current excuse In the meantime, I thought I would show some of the other items that have served to fill in gaps in locomotive construction over the past few months. You can blame Mikkel for this he has recently shown a selection of pre-grouping stock on his blog illustrating various approaches to kit building/bashing, etc. I mentioned that I had a W1, inspired by his on gwr.org, and had used some brass angle to replace the Ratio plastic footboards. Most of these are experiments in getting to know the materials and the parts and etches available from different suppliers. As you will see, painting is not one of my greatest skills but, hopefully it will improve when I summon up the courage to complete these.
W1 from Ratio T47 parts
As I said this was inspired by Mikkel's original write-up on gwr.org. I decided to replace the stepboards with 3x1.5mm brass angle as all of my old Ratio 4-wheelers, built nearly 30 years ago, had suffered here. Various other parts including Mainly Trains etches and ABS brake cylinder and buffers were used to finish it off underneath. The buffers have had their heads cut off and are drilled for fitting Gibson sprung units. The W-irons are Bill Bedford sprung units. The livery is not a previously unknown GWR variation, but one of my painting experiments. The idea was to paint the black first, then brown and finally fill in the panels with cream. Whether it works, only time will tell...
T20 from Ratio T47 parts
After the W1, I searched through Russell in the hope of finding something I could make from the remaining parts of the Ratio 4-Wheel T47 brake thirds. The best fit seemed to be a T20, a 4-wheel brake third with central luggage and guards compartment. The basic body has been built, though using Mainly Trains brass ends. Much work remains to be done here...
Parkside Dundas W7 Beetle
More recently, I've put together a Parkside Dundas W7 Beetle. As with the W1, I've replaced much of the underframe with brass parts and added sprung buffers and white metal piping. This time, the spring units and the couplings are Masokits. I really enjoyed putting these together and am very pleased with the results. The spring units work very well and I find them easier to get working properly than the Bill Bedford type. The springs stay in place without extra packing and there is no need to try to straighten short lengths of wire.
IKB U28
Not content with all these unfinished projects, I started another one this week This is an IKB kit of a U28 6-wheel clerestorey luggage composite. The etch says U16, but I think that may be a four wheel arc roof variety So far, I have rolled and folded one side and added all the brass detail. The photo shows this together with an untouched side and one of the ends that has also been rolled to get the tumblehome matching on side and end. Much more work to do here.
Sometime, I'll get around to posting some of my goods stock. I've made more progress with painting thse, and some even have transfers But, then, painting GWR goods stock is a little easier, as long as you don't make the mistake of thinking grey is always the same colour
51L N6 horse box
Here's one I forgot to include when taking the photos for this entry. It's an N6 horse box built from a 51L kit. This was my first attempt at a brass kit after gaining some experience with white metal wagons, etc. I built it last year as I thought I should get a bit of practice with brass kits before embarking on something like the Dean goods.
At present, it has been painted, although the roof needs toning down a bit, and is awaiting glazing, transfers and blackening the buffers and chains.
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