Braking With Convention

Entry posted by westernviscount in Wagon Building December 14, 2020

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I have posted bits and bobs of this project elsewhere but it has been a while since I have blogged anything and I wanted record the progress with a "lockdown" project.

Back in January I was given two Dapol LMS brake vans by my Dad. They were missing bits but he thought I might want to do something with them.

Both were missing roofs and one missing an inner door panel. The plan was to revive at least one which I did, replacing handrails and scratch building a roof.

The second van sat in a draw for much of the year but I felt it could be revived. I decided to have a go at an LMS Stanier reverse version. This came after reading a blogpost by @46444 where after improving the new Hornby LMS Brake, he mentioned the potential for making a stanier reverse.

This would require some more heavy duty work involving the removal of the rail moulding below the roof line and the "swapping" of the the veranda sides.

The verand sides were carefully cut out with a scalpel as I wanted to use them in the opposing corners.

Here is one side tacked in place.

New ends where scratched up from styrene with individual planks laminated on top.

Thanks to the knowledge of folk on RMWEB i realised the duckets for the later version are too big so new ones were scratched from styrene.

Also scratch built is the cabin door panel. Rivets were added and handrails made from .33mm wire. Lamp irons were made from the rungs of an MSE ladder I had spare!

Due to the fact I cannot seem to orientate some of the pictures I shall skip to near completion.

The footboards needed rearranging to match the new positions of the veranda openings. The barackets were carved away and new ones made fro styrene. Part of the sole bar braces needed to be scraped away also.

A roof was made from styrene and a stove pipe made from brass tube. Small brackets above teh veranda openings are added as per the prototype. Transfers are a mixture of modelmaster and railtec, the latter being superb!

End details are added from Lanarkshire Model Supplies icluding buffers, coupling hooks and vac pipes.The veranda were glazed using Humbrol Clearfix.

Here is a comparison between the two vehicles. Painting involved the priming of the entire vehicle with halfords red primer then humbrol enamel browns and reds. Left to dry, a coat of tamiya Nato brown is painted over the top, left to touch dry then soaked in enamel thinners and wiped with a cotton bud.