S7 scratch building

[airnimal]

Thanks for the information about 5 thou but I do have white in that thickness but not black. I am not sure if I would be able to use a bin bag but it is a thought. When I put the washers on I let them dry for a few hours and then rub them down with wet and dry so they are thinner but it has to be done carefully because they tend to disappear. 

I took advantage of the grand weather today to paint all the parts with rattle cans. I let them dry for a couple of hours before I put everything back together. I think I am on the home straight now with just the wood interior to do along with the diamonds and tare weight. When I have finished this pair I would like to do a couple of early G.W.R. wagons and a ex- private owner Midland dumb buffer one as well. But my heart tends to rule my head and I could be distracted by some obscure offering from anywhere.

[Krusty]

Quote

I punched out some washers from 5 thou black plasticard

 

Hi Airnimal

 

What sort of punch do you use? Being lazy, I've occasionally looked at various military modelling punches to save making my own, but they're horribly expensive in the smaller sizes.

[Western Star]

11 minutes ago, Krusty said:

What sort of punch do you use? Being lazy, I've occasionally looked at various military modelling punches to save making my own, but they're horribly expensive in the smaller sizes.

So true in regard to the price.  I have the model sold by Historex maybe ten years back, given to me by the late Paul Penn-Sayers.  The punch plate and punches does from 0.3mm to 2.5mm in ten steps.  I recollect that the set was circa £50 at that time.  Once you have started to use the set to solve one problem then you start to think about how to use the punches to solve other problems; for example, I wanted some 20th plastic washers, 2mm OD with a 1mm ID - I made a jig to hold 2mm plastic disks (punched out of course) and then used a guide tube (2mm OD with 1mm bore) to hold over the disks and then drilled through the original disk.  Result and repeatable.

 

regards, Graham

Edited April 15, 2020 by Western Star

[airnimal]

I have the same punch set acquired many years ago when they were not as much but still expensive.

Special tools are always going to be expensive with a limited market but we don't buy them very often and they do last along time. We are only here a short time so if I want something I need I forget the price and go for it.

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, Krusty said:

What sort of punch do you use? Being lazy, I've occasionally looked at various military modelling punches to save making my own, but they're horribly expensive in the smaller sizes.

Yes, not cheap:

http://rptoolz.unas.hu/en/spl/427615/Punch-and-die-sets

But as Mike says, quality tools used properly and carefully looked after produce quality results.

[airnimal]

Nearly there. Still all the loose ends to tie up. Couplings / tranfers / number plates / better weathering .

Got more than enough when these are finished but I still haven't made any Dia 2 or 4 which I will have to address sometime.

[airnimal]

I did think I wouldn't bother posting again because I am sure people will get fed up with seeing the same old wagons and my poor English skills. But the weather is so good and it it has lifted my mood some what. So I will continue for a little while longer. 

 

[Caley Jim]

1 hour ago, airnimal said:

I did think I wouldn't bother posting again because I am sure people will get fed up with seeing the same old wagons and my poor English skills. 

Whatever put that Idea into your head?  'Poor English Skills'?  Twaddle! No-one on here has ever suggested that, quite the opposite!

 

Fantastic modelling as always, Mike.  Wish I could get anywhere near that standard.

 

Jim W

[Coal Tank]

To be honest Mike I'm sure that quite a few of us feel the same way about our own postings. LookTruth be known we are all interested in what we are all doin if it wasn't for your work I wouldn't have started scratch building wagons. I've got a long way to go to get to your standard 

John 

Edited April 19, 2020 by Coal Tank

[MarcD]

Cheeky question where did you get the midland wagon drawing? I've seen a photo of one but I've never seen a drawing.

Marc

[airnimal]

Thank you gentlemen for the vote of confidence, sadly something lacking in myself. 

Marc, the drawing is in Railway Equipment Drawings by L. Tavender published by himself in 1985.

Both these books are essential for anybody modelling pre-grouping rolling stock. 

The V hanger I am going to use came from my spares box but was the wrong angle so I did the same as the brake handle and put a small saw cut in it and re-shaped it. A quick dab with the soldering iron it now looks like the drawing.

[airnimal]

I will not be able hide on this one because there is photos of both sides and the ends of this wagon in Vol 1 of Midland Wagons by Bob Essery. They are plates No 18 / 20 on page 30. 

I have redone the brake handle because when I put it on the model it didn't look right first time. 

This the first Midland wagon I have made in about ten years.

[airnimal]

It looks like this is going to take a long time looking at the photos in Midland wagons Vol 1. 

There is so much detail like the top corner plates with little cutouts on the corners and the hinges on the doors never mind a mixture of different bolt and rivets sizes all mixed in together at random.

I first did the brake handle with a round bar but looking again I see it has a square bar through it. So I replaced the rod with a square section turned down from .8mm brass. 

Both sides of the wagon are different with replacement planks on one side and the ends with a drawbar plate with extra holes in it. I would it imagine it has gone through a few rebuildings before the Midland got hold of it.

[Compound2632]

For the honour and reputation of the Midland, I must point out that this is not a Midland designed or built wagon, but one of the 66,000 sub-standard private owner wagons the Midland bought up in the 1880s to rid its lines of such liabilities. Such wagons did remain in traffic just long enough to be replaced by standard 5-plank wagons to D299 - presumably the very worst ones went most quickly. This was the origin of the large M R lettering, a style of wagon identification gradually taken up by other companies. The official photographer clearly took a fancy to this particular wagon, probably on the grounds of its mankiness - I wonder if it was to illustrate to the board just how essential it was to get rid of such things!

[airnimal]

Compound, I was aware it wasn't a Midland design but with 3 photos and a drawing it was to good not to model.

i will try an do it justice warts and all. 

I have been hacking one of my own brass castings taken from my brake van kit to produce the necessary brakes.

[ICH]

On 19/04/2020 at 15:51, airnimal said:

I did think I wouldn't bother posting again because I am sure people will get fed up with seeing the same old wagons and my poor English skills. But the weather is so good and it it has lifted my mood some what. So I will continue for a little while longer. 

 

 

airnimal please do not stop posting, you are the first i go to when I open RMWeb. Your modelling is inspirational, and I learn so much. 

[Compound2632]

41 minutes ago, airnimal said:

Compound, I was aware it wasn't a Midland design but with 3 photos and a drawing it was to good not to model.

i will try an do it justice warts and all. 

 

 

Mike,

 

I was confident you knew, I was just afraid the innocent might be led astray. I agree, it's oozing modelability!

 

[airnimal]

First of all I'm am not a Historian but a model maker so my knowledge of all things Midland are not great so I am going to ask for help from those people with more experience than myself.

Regarding the ironwork particular on the inside is puzzling me. I belive the line of bolts on the outside correspond with a strip of metal on the inside but on the end of the wagon there is a large bolt at the top of the wagon and a bolt along the top plank on the outside that I am unsure off and are they connected somehow ?

I think all the other bolts I can figure out.

[chris p bacon]

4 hours ago, airnimal said:

First of all I'm am not a Historian but a model maker

And a bloomin good one too.

 

I'm a recent visitor to this thread and have worked my way through it with my mouth open. Superb modelling 

[airnimal]

Chris, thank you for the comments, I hope people find something of intrest. 

I have completed the brake gear that looks something like the photos so just the nuts and bolts and a bit more ironwork.

My wife said will I finish this wagon today. My reply was it will not be this week.

[kitpw]

First rate - no question about it!

[airnimal]

No matter how many times I look at the photographs I keep getting little things wrong. I did the brake gear but when I looked later in the day somethings were not right. I showed my better half and she pointed out to me the right hand push rod was not long enough or at the correct angle. I may use her observational skills again.

I have started to add detail to the body like the drawbar plates which I think is a used old one lookin at the number of extra holes in it. 

I was hoping somebody would come up with a answer to my question about the large bolt on the end of the wagon and the relationship with the bolt on the top plank ? Perhaps no one has answers or theory's and I may have to guess.

[Dave Hunt]

Lovely work. Anytime you need a home for some of your wagons I'd be willing to take a few off your hands 

 

Dave

[Western Star]

28 minutes ago, airnimal said:

No matter how many times I look at the photographs I keep getting little things wrong.

You are not alone.  At the moment I am rebuilding a model of a road over rail bridge which I started at least eight years back,  The bridge is not finished as yet and the current work is the third re-build.

 

I have yet to obtain consistency in the width of the buttresses (made from layers of 5mm thick foamboard), and a believable profile to the top of the walls above road level (there are three slopes involved as the road is rising left to right across the bridge with a "level" central portion).

 

Two of the three "builds" are to be seen in our layout topic over there.

 

best wishes, Graham

[Western Star]

23 hours ago, airnimal said:

Regarding the ironwork particular on the inside is puzzling me. I belive the line of bolts on the outside correspond with a strip of metal on the inside but on the end of the wagon there is a large bolt at the top of the wagon and a bolt along the top plank on the outside that I am  unsure off and are they connected somehow?

 

39 minutes ago, airnimal said:

I was hoping somebody would come up with a answer to my question about the large bolt on the end of the wagon and the relationship with the bolt on the top plank ? Perhaps no one has answers or theory's and I may have to guess.

Mike, please excuse me if this message is off-beam...  I can see neither the bolt in the end nor the bolt in the top plank in either the drawing or the model.  Please post a fuller photo of the drawing.

 

regards, Graham