Warren Branch

[chuffinghell]

Having cut apart what I’d already done I’ve managed to reassemble the chassis for the crane and give it a coat of dark grey

 

I couldn’t rescue the buffers so I drilled holes and used the buffers from a donor Bachaman wagon....which look better anyway

To get a closer coupling I’ve cut down an NEM pocket and drilled a hole through to use a styrene bar as a dowel

 

 

Ive built up the match truck chassis, I spent more time sanding and filing this time to get the corners to go together properly but I  had to build up one of the corners with plasticard because of the damage I caused when I cut it apart

 

Getting the coupling heights to match was challenging

 

But managed in the end

 

I know I should use 3 link couplings between the crane and the match truck but I haven’t

 

I’ve also managed to reassemble the crane jib although I’ve had to use quite a bit of filler particularly where the two halves join together and file the slots out

 

 

I wish I’d taken photos before I cut it apart so I could illustrate how badly it fit together the first time

 

Progress will now slow to a crawl as I will be returning to work tomorrow after a two month furlough period

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by chuffinghell

[Stubby47]

That looks perfect to me - dunno what you were worried about

[Rowsley17D]

Looks as though work is going to get in the way of modelling! 

[chuffinghell]

5 minutes ago, Rowsley17D said:

Looks as though work is going to get in the way of modelling! 

Yes unfortunately 

 

At least I’ve had a taste of retirement, I’ve now got to wait 23 years for the real thing

 

Hopefully I’ll still get some modelling done before then though

[chuffinghell]

14 minutes ago, Stubby47 said:

That looks perfect to me - dunno what you were worried about

Thanks Stu

 

Originally the jib didn’t fit together very well but I’m relieved that I’ve managed to recuse  it with the help of a shed load of filler and lots of sanding

[chuffinghell]

I’m going to use a scrap wagon to practice weathering but in the meantime I’ve already given the wheels a coat of frame dirt....I assumed it would be easier to do the wheels out of the chassis

 

 

I’m only going to give it a light going over with the frame dirt as I imagine it wouldn’t get very dirty just used up and down through the goods yard

 

Although it can be moved I’ll probably leave it unused and ‘on call’ in one of the sidings as a stationary display

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by chuffinghell

[chuffinghell]

If there is one thing this ordeal has taught me is to leave wagon kits to those with more skills and patience than myself

 

I always try to finish what I start so I will attempt to do so but I don’t think I will be in a hurry to build any more wagon kits in the near future....or at least not Cambrian ones

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by chuffinghell

[MAP66]

On 30/05/2020 at 11:12, chuffinghell said:

The best flux is a flux capacitor

 

 

The only problem is it requires 1.21 gigawatts 

Great Scott!!

[chuffinghell]

Since starting back at work this week it has interfered with my modelling hence the lack of progress

 

As it’s POETS day today I managed to get a little painting done this afternoon

 

Instead of mixing a colour for the match truck’s wood planks I just used sleeper grime

 

I did have a moment to build one of the tool boxes in the week so I painted that too, I just need to make up the other tool box

 

[Alister_G]

Looking very good so far, colour choice is spot on.

 

Al.

[chuffinghell]

2 hours ago, Alister_G said:

Looking very good so far, colour choice is spot on.

 

Al.

Thanks Al

 

I bought a few different greys

 

All from the Vallejo Air range

USAF Dark Grey

Panza Dark Grey

Medium Gunship Grey

 

After comparing the colours with a non-weathered Bachmann MOGO wagon I used the USAF dark grey although the Panza dark grey would have been okay too

 

I pinched the idea of using sleeper grime for the wood from an @AY Mod’s video on weathering a wagon

 

 

 

Edited June 5, 2020 by chuffinghell

[MrWolf]

I've been following this wagon project and dug out of the doomsday box of kits, an unbuilt Cambrian GWR crane and match truck. I'll learn by your experience and build the crane jib first. That looks like the make or break element of the job!

[chuffinghell]

34 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

I've been following this wagon project and dug out of the doomsday box of kits, an unbuilt Cambrian GWR crane and match truck. I'll learn by your experience and build the crane jib first. That looks like the make or break element of the job!

It might be more my inability to build it properly rather than the kit being at fault

 

Edited June 5, 2020 by chuffinghell

[MrWolf]

1 hour ago, chuffinghell said:

It might be more my inability to build it properly rather than the kit being at fault

 

 

Somehow I doubt that. Wagon kits can be fiddly.

Crane kits put the F in fiddly.

[chuffinghell]

10 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

 

Somehow I doubt that. Wagon kits can be fiddly.

Crane kits put the F in fiddly.

I nearly put the fiddly crane in the F bin

[Alister_G]

1 minute ago, chuffinghell said:

I nearly put the fiddly crane in the F bin

 

Then there'd be no F in crane at all...

 

Al.

[MrWolf]

The man who has never made a mistake has never made anything.

[MAP66]

Chris, you are doing a stirling job with the Cambrian kit, the photos are evidence of that. You may have been unlucky and ended up with your kit produced on POETS day, hence the quality issues.

Like Mr Wolf, I also have one of these kits which I purchased ages ago, still unopened and lurking in a drawer somewhere. We are all behind you and willing you on to get the crane completed.

 

Don't consider the F bin, unless it stands for Finished bin which is where you proudly place your finished models ready for us all to see and marvel at.

 

All the best

Mark

[chuffinghell]

20 hours ago, MrWolf said:

I've been following this wagon project and dug out of the doomsday box of kits, an unbuilt Cambrian GWR crane and match truck. I'll learn by your experience and build the crane jib first. That looks like the make or break element of the job!

 

7 hours ago, MAP66 said:

Like Mr Wolf, I also have one of these kits which I purchased ages ago, still unopened and lurking in a drawer somewhere. We are all behind you and willing you on to get the crane completed.

 

The main error I made was to assume all the parts would fit nicely together like say a Wills or Peco kit which are the only kits I have experience with thus far....unless you count the Airfix airplanes I use make a mess of as a child 

 

One thing I’ve learned is to dry fit the parts several times before committing yourself to glue, I mistakenly took some of the flashing as part of the item itself because in some cases it appeared to be a rebate or step for adjoining parts to fit into.

[MrWolf]

A lot of the moulds used in making many of the kits we build are ancient, some, like the ratio GWR wagons and coaches date back to the 60s. Although they have probably been built up and re-machined several times, you will get some flash. Others are basically produced on antiquated machinery in someone's garage using moulds inherited from other companies. So some cleaning up is inevitable. The alternative is that we lose these valuable resources forever and have to put up with open the box and put it on the layout modelling. Whilst that may be fine for some people, like collecting say new die cast model lorries in every livery possible and just admiring them, I would pack up model railways altogether as I was bored with out of the box toy trains by about the age of 10. Roughly when I built my first Airfix mineral wagon and sat painting all the insulators on their telegraph poles set a dirty white. Life would be boring if we didn't have to put effort, imagination and a little bit of frustration into achievement.

 

Things might get so bad I might have to take up golf, about ten minutes before shooting myself no doubt...

[simonmcp]

I always marvel at your attention to detail and workmanship. I once spent over half an hour trying to file a Ratio Southern platelayers hut roof to fit, I think there are only six items in the whole kit and it took hours to get it to look right. The worst kit I've ever tried to rescue was one of GWR Ratio signals where the two Half's of the mould were out by over 1.5mm, not good when that included the round signal post. So well done on the crane kit. Simon

[chuffinghell]

I’ve attempted to add a bit of life to the match truck
 

Before

 

After

 

 

‘WARREN’ and ‘MATCH TRUCK’ are @railtec-models Transfers and the others are Modelmasters

 

I know the number isn’t prototypical and the Tare weight is probably wrong but I don’t care, Warren is a fictional place and only loosely based on a GWR branchline

The worst thing is that I’ve still got to do the other side and I’ve only got one shot at it as I’ve only got one set of transfers left ( I messed up one of the ‘MATCH TRUCK’ transfers)

 

Although If it all goes Pete Tong it doesn’t really matter because this is the only side visible on the layout

 

 

Edited June 12, 2020 by chuffinghell

[chuffinghell]

33 minutes ago, simonmcp said:

I always marvel at your attention to detail and workmanship..............So well done on the crane kit. Simon

Thanks Simon

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, chuffinghell said:

Although If it all goes Pete Tong it doesn’t really matter because this is the only side visible on the layout

Quite so.

[chuffinghell]

14 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Quite so.

 

Luckily I successfully managed to apply the transfers to the opposite side and applied a coat of gloss all over in an attempt to further disguise the carrier film, mostly for the Modelmasters transfers

 

The gloss was applied last night before going to bed so I won't know the results until I get home from work this evening

 

Fingers crossed it looks okay, if so I can finish the match truck assembly, if not I will cry