Mark's Workbench: back in the village again!

[2996 Victor]

As if I haven't enough part-built wagons on my bench, while my better half was at the theatre this evening I embarked on another of each of Slater's Midland Railway D299 and D305 and a Cambrian Railways 2-plank dropside, ably hindered by the small and fluffy monster whose portrait appears just a few posts above.

 

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"There's something wrong with those axleguards, Dad!"

 

I got as far as separating the sides and ends from their sprues and adding headstock extensions to the D305 before said fluff-monster managed to install herself in the crook of my arm, preventing further progress! Ho hum!

 

Incidentally, the Cam Rys 2-plank, which is a Cambrian Model Rail kit, plus another of the same and a 4-plank, all have rather bad sink marks on the insides of the ends. Most disappointing.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

Edited February 14, 2020 by 2996 Victor
Feline interloper

[Mikkel]

That's annoying with the sink marks, are they from a recent batch do you think?

[2996 Victor]

8 hours ago, Mikkel said:

That's annoying with the sink marks, are they from a recent batch do you think?

 

Yes, I think so - the "current" 2-plank and the 4-plank were bought at the RailEx Taunton show last October, and the packaging is yellow/white, but the other 2-plank is a bit older and the packaging is all yellow.

 

Both the 4-plank just finished and the one in progress are absolutely fine, so I think I might drop Cambrian Model Rail a quick email. It's a shame as they're good kits otherwise with nice interior detail.

[2996 Victor]

This weekend has seen only a little progress - what progress there has been has been slow in coming to fruition. Apologies for the poor photographs.

 

I started another Slater's MR D305 3-plank dropside - I had thought that this would become an M&SWJR wagon as per Mikkel's excellent build here M&SWJR 3-plank, but it will now be a MR example. Sides and ends have been assembled, and a new floor made using 40thou thickness Evergreen 2.5mm v-groove, which is a bit of a cheat as its not exactly accurate, but it is pretty darn close! Having hopefully correctly read the Derby drawing available from the Midland Railway Study Centre, the edges of the floor are bounded by a longitudinal strips which I've represented with 40thou square strip each side:

 

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I've also started my remaining D299 kit, which will also be finished in MR condition (hopefully to Stephen @Compound2632's satisfaction - Stephen, if I make any foul-ups please put me right!). As the MR D299s had drop doors in the floors, I've spent most of today making three floors. Yep, its taken most of the day! In this case, the entire floor is scribed with my Olfa scribing tool, and the drop-door washer plates are from a strip of Evergreen 5thou cut to 40thou width. The floors of these wagons are edged all around, and again the Midland Railway Study Centre downloadable drawing Drawing 550 gives the details (although the door layout is clearer on Drawing 790) and again I've used 40thou square strip along the sides. Once the sides/ends are assembled, I'll trim the floor to length and add the edging strip then.

 

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I've painted the D299 floors in my favoured undercoat - Tamiya AS IJN Grey-Green. I've got a couple of spares so I can hopefully have several unloaded ones in due course.....

 

On both the D299 and D305 wagons, I'm planning on full interior detail, which with Slater's kits means extra work as they are pretty basic inside. So, the sides/ends of both wagon kits have been sanded smooth, the ejector pin marks filled and sanded, and planks scribed in, which are hopefully visible on the photo of the D305. Next job will be to add the interior washer plates for their ironwork.

 

So there we go!

 

Cheers for now,

 

Mark

Edited February 17, 2020 by 2996 Victor
Better (hopefully!) photographs.....

[Compound2632]

@2996 Victor, you're a better man than I where interiors are concerned. I note that you've replicated the angled headstock ends of the 1880s-built dropside wagons - Drg. 213 - so I'm interested how you did that. Don't start looking too closely or you'll be worrying about the rounded tops to the end pillars.

 

The longitudinal strip to the floor is of course the top of the side rail, a piece of timber wide enough to overlap the top of the solebar, thereby transferring the weight of the sides to the frames, with the help of some beefy bolts, the heads of which are absent from the Slaters molding...

 

 

 

 

[2996 Victor]

15 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

@2996 Victor, you're a better man than I where interiors are concerned. I note that you've replicated the angled headstock ends of the 1880s-built dropside wagons - Drg. 213 - so I'm interested how you did that. Don't start looking too closely or you'll be worrying about the rounded tops to the end pillars.

 

The longitudinal strip to the floor is of course the top of the side rail, a piece of timber wide enough to overlap the top of the solebar, thereby transferring the weight of the sides to the frames, with the help of some beefy bolts, the heads of which are absent from the Slaters molding...

 

Thank you, Stephen, but I'm really not sure thats quite true - your wagons always look excellent!

 

The angled headstocks are just short lengths of styrene strip 40thou x 80thou glued to the kit ends with MEK, the 80thou "face" of the strip being to the wagon side, so-to-speak. I cut them over-length to give me a handle to hold, and made sure one end was square. When I glued them on, I ensured that one 40thou "face" was flush with the headstock while at the same time the squared end lined up with the top of the headstock. When thoroughly dry, the excess length was cut off and the excess width pared back to match the kit headstocks. The angle was carefully filed to shape, and the face of the headstock lightly sanded to hopefully disguise the joint.

 

All a bit wordy, I'm afraid - a sketch would have been better, perhaps, but I don't have access to a scanner at the mo!

 

Best regards,

 

Mark

[Compound2632]

7 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said:

your wagons always look excellent!

 

 

That's the impression I strive to give!

[2996 Victor]

A close-up of the D305 headstock extension:

 

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Such a cruel enlargement does show how good the Slater's mouldings actually are. I need to do something about the corner joint, though..... It also serves to show the rounded tops of the end stanchions, as Stephen @Compound2632 so rightly points out. A slight cheat to make them a little less obvious is to pass a file over them at a shallow angle, just a couple of light passes and taking care not to lose the top nut! Here's one of my S&DJR versions to show what I mean, (although a slightly shallower angle would have been better):

 

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Anyway, lunchtime approacheth, and I've got some more grey paints to try out for my burgeoning wagon fleet.

 

Cheers for now!

 

Mark

Edited February 17, 2020 by 2996 Victor
typo

[2996 Victor]

15 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

That's the impression I strive to give!

 

I'd say you succeed!

[2996 Victor]

In between moments, I've been working on my second Cambrian Railways 4-plank high-sided open.

 

This one is being finished in the post-1899 light grey livery with the "CAM"(feathers)"RYS" insignia as one of the Oswestry-built examples.

 

The paintwork has been finished, and transfers applied. These are of the waterslide type and come from the Welsh Railways Research Circle, of which I'm a member, and are printed by Fox Transfers.

 

While the transfers are commendably thin, getting them to settle down on the wagon side has been something of an ordeal, not helped by the size of the lettering and the diagonal strapping. I employed generous amounts of MicroSol, which has helped, but also seemed cause the carrier film to stretch and wrinkle, although this settles down once dry.

 

To get a better definition where the transfer crosses the diagonal strapping, after it had dried I ran a new scalpel blade along the strapping and applied more MicroSol, which has improved the sharpness of the finish. I think I might do the same along the planking.

 

Although the WRRC transfers are not the easiest to use,  they certainly look nice once in place. My only real criticism is that, on the numbers/loads sheet, there are some impossible tare weights, eg 5-17-4, which I've brought to the WRRC's attention.

 

Photos to follow when I've truly finished this one!

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[Compound2632]

Whatever sort of transfer I'm using, I always try to get it to bed right into the planking grooves - don't want the lettering to look like it's been cut out of a large sheet of paper! (Though one does sometimes see that, in staged publicity photos.)

[2996 Victor]

Hi Stephen,

 

yes, I absolutely agree - there's little that makes a model more unconvincing that large letters crossing planks and not bedding into the grooves!

 

This morning (work could wait half an hour!), I've gently sliced through the transfers on my CamRys 4-plank, and applied more MicroSol, but the first pass doesn't seem to be making that much difference. Perhaps the adhesive on the transfers has washed off. I'll give it another couple of goes and see what happens, and I might try a little gentle pressure with a soft paintbrush to try and persuade the transfers into the grooves.

 

Regards,

 

Mark

[57xx]

On 13/02/2020 at 23:13, 2996 Victor said:

Incidentally, the Cam Rys 2-plank, which is a Cambrian Model Rail kit, plus another of the same and a 4-plank, all have rather bad sink marks on the insides of the ends. Most disappointing.

 

 

I've noticed the quality of the mouldings has gone downhill since the change in ownership. I bought a large batch (~10) of kits a while back and 90% of them had warped components in there, ranging from mild to severe, and all the van roofs had sink marks on.  I'd never had any issues like that on the dozens of previous kits I'd bought.

[57xx]

1 hour ago, 2996 Victor said:

This morning (work could wait half an hour!), I've gently sliced through the transfers on my CamRys 4-plank, and applied more MicroSol, but the first pass doesn't seem to be making that much difference. Perhaps the adhesive on the transfers has washed off. I'll give it another couple of goes and see what happens, and I might try a little gentle pressure with a soft paintbrush to try and persuade the transfers into the grooves.

 

I used to use the tip of a cocktail stick when persuading pressfix into plank grooves, but after ripping a couple, I moved on to pressing down with a cotton bud. Something firm but soft is required for the pressfix as they are quite thick, but never tried one on waterslides yet. If  you find the brush isn't doing the trick, give a bud a go.

[Compound2632]

I've found pressing down into the grove with the edge of the knife blade held at 45 deg to the surface works well with Pressfix. The trick is to press, not drag.

[57xx]

Yup, definitely do not drag! Tried that once...

[2996 Victor]

1 hour ago, 57xx said:

 

I've noticed the quality of the mouldings has gone downhill since the change in ownership. I bought a large batch (~10) of kits a while back and 90% of them had warped components in there, ranging from mild to severe, and all the van roofs had sink marks on.  I'd never had any issues like that on the dozens of previous kits I'd bought.

 

Its a great shame, although generally speaking the exteriors of the wagon sides and ends are very good. I contacted Graham at Cambrian Model Rail, and he was extremely helpful and offered to exchange the mouldings in question. He also explained that its a problem that occurs more where there is a greater body of plastic, such as behind the end stanchions, which is understandable, although one wonders whether the type of plastic used isn't also a contributory factor. I don't tend to use the underframes, although perhaps I should on account of the moulded-in works plates!

[2996 Victor]

1 hour ago, 57xx said:

 

I used to use the tip of a cocktail stick when persuading pressfix into plank grooves, but after ripping a couple, I moved on to pressing down with a cotton bud. Something firm but soft is required for the pressfix as they are quite thick, but never tried one on waterslides yet. If  you find the brush isn't doing the trick, give a bud a go.

 

49 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

I've found pressing down into the grove with the edge of the knife blade held at 45 deg to the surface works well with Pressfix. The trick is to press, not drag.

 

3 minutes ago, 57xx said:

Yup, definitely do not drag! Tried that once...

 

A cotton bud is a very good trick - I've tried it in the past withboth waterslide and Pressfix, having dampened the cotton first, and it's worked pretty well. I should have thought ahead a bought a packet last time I was in Tesco! Having said that, the brush seems to have worked alright, and when there's a dry five minutes I'll dust on a sealing coat of matt lacquer.

 

While not wishing to put anyone off the WRRC transfers, as they are nice and thin and have a good opacity, I did find them quite fiddly to get into position. I mucked up a couple of "RYS" (why just those, I don't know), tearing one and somehow getting the other into a right tangle! Time and patience are definitely needed, although not too much time as of course the glue dissolves.....

 

Incidentally, when I'm using Pressfix transfers, once I've got them into roughly the right position and not "pressed down hard", I've found that very slightly dampening the backing paper makes it translucent so that its easier to be sure they're in absolutely the right place - they can still be adjusted if needs be. Anyone else use this trick?

[2996 Victor]

So, here is a misadventure.....

 

A little earlier, I sprayed a coat of matt lacquer onto the Cambrian 4-plank open, and this was the result:

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Now, as we know, I was having some trouble getting the transfers to sit down on the surface of the wagon, but had succeeded at length in achieving a good result. The wagon had had a coat of gloss lacquer prior to the transfers being applied, and the carrier film was quite well concealed, not entirely invisible, but difficult to make out. With a sealing coat of matt lacquer, the whole shebang has wrinkled again, and the carrier film has taken on a slightly yellowy tinge. Maybe I lacquered it too soon and should have left if alone for a few days.....***

 

All-in-all, this wagon was looking rather resplendent in its Cambrian livery, and I was pleased with how it was progressing. So to say I'm disappointed is a bit of an understatement.

 

I'll leave it for a day or two now, to see if it recovers, but failing that, I shall have to try and remove the offending transfers and try again.

 

*** EDIT

.....which is exactly what it says in the instructions! 

Edited February 20, 2020 by 2996 Victor
ALWAYS READ THE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST

[2996 Victor]

Having been in touch with Richard Evans at CamKits4U who was extremely helpful, it seems quite likely that applying acrylic lacquer over the transfers may be the problem. So the solution is to scrape off the offending transfers and have another go. Good job I've got a few spare sets.....

[Nile]

8 hours ago, 2996 Victor said:

Anyone else use this trick?

Yes, found quite by accident.

Btw, what lacquer are you using?

[57xx]

On 19/11/2019 at 10:51, 2996 Victor said:

yes, agreed! The wagons so treated thus far are the Midland D299 5-planks, which as I understand it were real multi-purpose vehicles that carried coal, minerals or merchandise as necessary. SImilarly, the Cambrian 4-plank. The Midland D305 3-plank dropsides were, I think, more merchandise, which is why I tried to bow them outward slightly less - perhaps they're still a little "over-cooked" though! One of my bugbears is wagons whose sides bow inward in a most unprototypical manner, which does seem to be a bit of a problem with kits generally and in particular at the corners, which probably leads to a be of over-compensation on my part!

 

 

Delving back to one of your older posts, this is best cured at build time. I've found it is mostly down to the floor being the too narrow so when you glue the sides on the end bow inwards at the middle whilst being held out wider by the ends. I usually fix this with thin strips of microstrip on the edges of the floor to  get them to the correct width. I guess you could also file the chamfers on the ends to narrow them slightly but I'd never get them straight and find dealing with the floor easier.

[2996 Victor]

14 hours ago, Nile said:

Yes, found quite by accident.

Btw, what lacquer are you using?

 

Hi Neil,

 

it was Tamiya Acrylic Flat Clear. I generally use Tamiya acrylics, aerosols for the base colours and brush for the ironwork and planking, so it seemed logical to use the same brand, plus I've never had an issue with it before, either on waterslide or Pressfix.

 

Richard at CamKits advised me he had had the same issue with Humbrol acrylic on a batch of his wagons, and had switched to their enamel lacquer, which seems to work fine. He also uses Humbrol Decalfix rather than MicroSol as a setting solution, so I'm going to give those a try.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

Edited February 21, 2020 by 2996 Victor

[2996 Victor]

11 hours ago, 57xx said:

 

Delving back to one of your older posts, this is best cured at build time. I've found it is mostly down to the floor being the too narrow so when you glue the sides on the end bow inwards at the middle whilst being held out wider by the ends. I usually fix this with thin strips of microstrip on the edges of the floor to  get them to the correct width. I guess you could also file the chamfers on the ends to narrow them slightly but I'd never get them straight and find dealing with the floor easier.

 

Hi Ric,

 

agree completely - I more often than not make my own floors now, usually having "tack" assembled the sides and ends first so that I can measure the correct internal dimensions. I did use a kit floor recently for some reason, and that proved about 20thou too narrow. My solution was to assemble it "one-sided" and add a fillet of microstrip to fill the gap.

 

As an alternative to the hot water treatment, on a wagon that's going to run loaded with coal/mineral or be sheeted I'd be inclined to insert bracing pieces across the wagon at a level about one plank's width down from the top. Made a fraction wider than the floor, they'll hold the sides in a slightly bowed-out position and be invisible.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[Nile]

I'm not sure, but I think I used Revell enamel varnish on my Cambrian wagons.