ullypug

If you just swapped the wheels you’d probably get away with it. I wanted to fit waisted brass bearings though and didn’t have any flangeless ones, hence I had to reduce the W iron by the width of the bearing flange.

I used a scalpel with 10a blade and just kept cutting and pushing until the glue give way. It is quite well fixed but you could see the glue seal breaking.

I will probably paint and letter in SR livery

I have repainted mine. Full details on my blog. Click on this bit. Excuse the thumb!

Due to a senior moment, I forgot that I'd ordered one of these some time ago from Model Railways Direct. I duly ordered one from Kernow so imagine my surprise when two finally arrived. Hey ho. As has been documented elsewhere, the colour of these vans looks a little on the light side. As I never saw one in service prior to 1923, I'm not qualified to say whether the LSWR brown is the wrong shade. The general opinion is that it is. Having a second model meant that I was prepared to have a go at doing something about it. The chassis unscrews with 4 screws and drops away. The false floor then comes away without difficulty. I simply pushed it out by poking a small screwdriver through the veranda opening to tap it out. The tricky bit is the glazing. Despite my original assumptions, the door ends are not part of the glazing shell and can be removed carefully. The guards look out duckets are part of the glazing shell. Working carefully with a blade, the glue seal can be broken and the glazing can be prised inwards. I found it helpful to snap off the two retaining lugs fitted to the underside of the roof. All in all it took about half an hour to disassemble. The lettering was removed by gentle rubbing with a scratch brush, as my usual method of IPA and cotton buds didn't seem to want to work. I then brush painted the sides and removed duckets with Vallejo Acrylic Chocolate Brown 70.872 and was able to work around the existing handrails etc. I have no idea how accurate this is but it seems a fair representation. Refer to earlier point about qualifications. I did paint over the tare lettering on the lower plank. The body was then given a couple of coats of Klear before transfers were applied from an old PC Models set (sheet 13). A couple more coats of Klear to seal and it was time to reassemble. I cut away the nicely moulded stove and handrail from the cabin interior as you can't see it and I wanted to add some lead for additional weight. Taking it a step further, I fitted P4 wheels after first removing the brake gear (this pushes out after breaking the glue join) and cutting a small recess to allow it to go up against the thinned down W irons. These have to have about half a mil taken off for the axles to fit nicely in the new brass bearings. All reassembled, just waiting couplings.

Thanks for the comments folks. Much appreciated.

Hi Mikkel I must be lucky as I’ve only ever used a sharp scalpel to cut it. when I’ve cut the thicker stuff for baseboards I’ve used conventional saws.

I figured as it’s P4 nobody would notice anything unusual!

Morning all. After an interesting couple of weeks, I've started working on the station building again and moved on to the roof. The parts were cut when I had the rest of the building done and I can now start to assemble the parts. The distinctive ends are layers of mdf, row mark and perspex, sandwiched together and set with spray mount. The top edge is then glued into the roof slab, the underside of which I had rendered to match the diagonal planking. The colour will need lightening a bit from the rattle can I used. I also cut a layer of joists which increase the effective thickness. I should have a second layer of purlins, running horizontally along the roof line between the joists and the roof, but I wanted to make the roof as rigid as possible and I don't think anyone will notice. I can always add something cosmetically after (he says knowing full well he won't). Glad to say the roof has turned out well and fits nicely onto the station walls. Just a little bit of fettling to do to get it to sit without visible gaps. They I can turn my attention to the trussing. I've had to re-draw the clerestory roof as it consists of glazed panels, rather than solid as I first thought. They're on order from York Modelmaking, along with a miscellany of detailing parts; bargeboards, brackets, quoins, footbridge parts, including balustrades and the rather nice entrance gates. I've been informed they can all be cut from Rowmark so we'll see what turns up. Turns out the shed roof was clad with double Roman tiles rather than decorative flat tiles as per the annex buildings so that will make like easier. The walls have had the mortar courses filled with a ready mix filler and I need to add final stonework colouring, which will be a darker colour than at present. I've also made the former garage in the station forecourt that housed the motor buses used to connect to Burnham-on-Sea in the 1930's. I had to shorten it a bit as I wanted this building to be fixed down and it's duly been plonked onto the layout. The terraformed station forecourt area has worked well and I've trial fitted the platform surfaces from 1mm thick Palight and added a couple of Lanarkshire Model's GWR bufferstops in the up yard.

Thanks. The 15mm craft foam is from panel systems. A box goes a long way! Same source as the grey 5mm stuff.

After an enjoyable day at the EMGS AGM in Cardiff a couple of weeks ago, I felt suitably enthused about starting terraforming around the station building. It’s no where near finished yet but is at a state where I could form the socket it’s going to sit in. I’m using layers of 5mm craft foam (extruded polystyrene sheet) to work but the subtle changes I need. The slight compression I had to adopt in the yards makes things a little more interesting but nothing insurmountable. I’m really liking how it’s looking though there’s still a lot more to do. Couldn’t resist taking a few snaps. the building is coming on. The rear facing walls have had a layer of filler rubbed into the mortar courses and a few washes applied. Still need to dry brush some lighter colour back into the wall face though.

Jack I think it was Branchlines. Dave Holt sent me one of each from his spares box (Comet, Gibson and Branchlines) and I sent two back, but I can't remember which two! regards Andrew

So this is where I’ve got to. The main building carcass is assembled and skinned with embossed ABS. All of the plinths are in where I’m sure of the ground levels, with a couple to complete where the ground falls away and the plinths deepen accordingly. Mindful that I’m taking a couple of boards to the EM Gauge Society AGM and skills day in Cardiff on Saturday, I’ve built a transport box which the building will live in once it’s finished. I’ve built the gents WC which was located in the north west corner. I had to add a degree of internal detailing although it’ll never be visible to the public. if you fancy a good day out, I can recommend the skills day. Plenty of knowledgeable modellers (and me to average things out), 3 layouts and a good trade representation. Do come and say hello if you’re in the area.

That's nice, that is

I think the stores has jigs which measure that sort of thing...

What if you’re not a small member but an average sized one? Will you still be able to buy stuff?!!

Hi Mikkel it’ll be transported separately. Plan is to build a carrying box and keep it in a temperature controlled environment when not at exhibitions. the cutting mat is A2 size and you can see I had to extend it to accommodate the building!

And so the assembly begins. The main shed has been glued around the ring beam and the building annex supporting walls fixed in place. I’ll add the main building next, once I’ve glued the end walls in. The building ultimately rests on the baseboard so platforms still have to be built and the base of each wall has a thickening and string course of ashlar to add, hence the black plasticard strips in some of the photos.

The world needs more china clay layouts. Funnily enough this is a prototype I’ve been looking at in 4mm! Looking forward to seeing your progress

Thanks Tim. Didn’t know that. I’ll have a look through my photo collection and see what I can find. Cheddar got pretty tatty towards the end so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was last painted some considerable time before it closed. I’ve ordered some GWR no3 stone, just to make sure it’s something else!!

Due to the pressures of a new job and other distractions, modelling activity over the summer has slowed somewhat. Now the nights are drawing in, I have turned to the project for Cheddar, namely the station building. The component parts for this were cut by York Modelmaking from drawings I prepared on Coreldraw. Being over 2 feet long, it's going to be a big project but who's rushing? The basis is an pdf carcass, with layers of Rowmark and perspex for the window, door and glazing, over which lies a layer of embossed ABS from Green Stuff World. The ashlar window and door surrounds are mdf. All of this uses the same methodology I employed for the goods shed, except the window frame layers lie over the mdf carcass, to avoid being set too deep. You can't see the mid layers behind the white Rowmark but they are there! The photos show how the parts fit together, with progress limited to cutting out the window and door openings for the side walls (inside and out) and the end shed walls having some initial work done to thicken out the pillars. Not very exciting, but it's progress and now hardening under a coat of primer before I start to assemble complete wall units. In case you're wondering, the walls have a thickening/build out at the base, so I'll be adding that later. I'm having an internal debate about the colour of the window surrounds. Frames would be white and under GWR days the surrounds would be dark stone no 3. Wonder what they'd be post war in this part of Somerset?? Answers on a post card please.

Went up for the weekend and spent most of the time behind the member's sales stand. The 450 mile return trip from Somerset was worth the effort though. The show was busier than last year and there was a noticeable buzz. Yes, some things need tweaking for next year and I'm sure the organising committee will review all the comments on here as well as those made directly. I came away feeling I'd made some new friends and had a great time. The 'best gig/worst gig you've ever been to' conversation in the pub was very revealing... I'd like to thank everybody involved for a really enjoyable weekend. I even managed to look at the layouts!

That's just a lovely sight to behold. The Castle's especially nice.

Very interesting blog. I built Wheal Elizabeth a few years ago and based the dry and linhay on Great Wheal Prosper on the Wheal Rose branch from memory. I was struck by how little that dry changed, being served in the end by a 37 and a single tiger. I can’t remember how long I built the shed, 21” from memory. I can remember sticking the 10,000 plus tiles onto the roof individually though! The dry has been converted to holiday lets now. Quite fancy trying to stay there at some point. I’ve been drawing up plans for another China clay layout (as you do) and had intended to include more of the works than I did on Lizzy, though the length of trains is, was and will remain an inevitable compromise.

Thanks David I’ve got one of Gordon’s chassis for the w4 which I’ll do in P4 at some point. I’d like to see if Hornby have used the same slidebar arrangement on the b2 as that caused a bit of an issue for converting the w4, hence Gordon’s chassis. I quite fancy doing one in EM for a little inglenook style layout once the new rtr points are out!