Wagon works for Templefield

[westernviscount]

Hi folks, 

 

I thought I would start a blog over here as opposed to the usual blog area. I enjoy kit building and bashing, weathering and general model making. I have a small layout, Templefield which is based around 1970 in West London Area on western metals. 

 

Having posted in the wrong forum, i have moved a blog about an LMS brake van over to modifying RTR. 

 

Here I will detail some actual kits i have built!! 

 

 

Edited February 16, 2020 by westernviscount
submitted by accident

[westernviscount]

One for Beatles fans!!

 

I AM THE WALRUS! Made a start on this last night and promptly gave up without cutting a sprue! Far too complex for a late evening.

 

After a good night sleep, the instructions still make as much sense to me as the Beatles song and the "i'm crying, I'm crying" part is very apt. 

I am very much struggling to follow the instructions, finding it hard to fathom why they are not laid out in a sequential fashion. Still, with a couple of prototype photos, i am hopeful this will start to COME TOGETHER...but not RIGHT NOW;-)

[westernviscount]

A couple of other projects on going...

[westernviscount]

A couple of things have been happening on the work bench recently...

Firstly, I battled through the Walrus build which was a rather difficult process. The instructions do not seem to be laid out in a sensible order and the order seems rather random. It begins with a job i would suggest should be done nearer the end and also the instruction is to 10 pieces of wire 24mm long, however the kit comes with a length not much longer than 15mm! however, this didnt cause a problem as i substituted the supplied .5mm with my own .33mm for the handrails. 

And here she is ready for spraying humbrol matt 33. the Walrus is accompanied by a dogfish i previously sprayed and ran out!!

It's a nice looking kit by Cambrian, and despite the hard going instructions i am pleased with the outcome. Railtec decals next!

I applied modelmaster decals to the dogfish. I understood that applying the matt surface would lead to some silvering but this wagon will heavily weathered to the same level as the distant catfish. 

 

 

In more straight forward areas, i finished a lovely parkside LNER plywood van. 

I use Humbrol 133 brown for the bauxite colour as  prefer the coverage of humbrol enamel over the genuine rail colour paints. They also smell less offensive and i have had real problems with jamming lids on railmatch paints!!!!

 

I added a .8mm brass wire upright vac pipe with markits steam heat brass pipes. i now need to add silver paint to the buffers. 

 

Now, in preparation for building my favourite kit, the Dapol 20t brakevan i thought i would try my hand at some CAD drawings to replace the inner doors of the kit which are a little thick and difficult to glaze convincingly. i am aware there is an etch but i thought i'd give some 3d drawing a go. 

 

I used microsoft 3d builder which is free and installed with windows 10 on most PCs. This is a very absorbing process. 

I am very lucky to have access to a basic 3d printer at work and knocked this out today. This shows the print in its raw form removed from the raft. some tidying will make it look pretty acceptable. 

 

Thant's it for now folks!

 

Dave

[westernviscount]

Covid "lockdown" has given ample opportunity to crack on with a few bits and bobs. Here is an update of some of the engineers wagons i have been finishing. 

 

First is the GWR Starfish wagon. Decals were from the general engineers sheet by modelmaster then a wash of humbrol smoke powder and carrs rust tones diluted in decalfix. once dry, a light coat of matt varnish to dull things back a bit.

 

The same process followed with the dogfish.

 

The ballast chute was weathered with talc and some rust powders. loads for both vehicles are ballast. weight was put in the hopper, a plastikard rectangle fitted on top to save filling the whole hopper. I happy to have permanent loads for these vehicles so the ballast is poured in what i think would be a prototypical way, the hopper masked roughly around the edge, sprayed with "wet water" (water andwashing up liquid) the diluted pva droppered on using a pippette. 

[Unit basher]

Those wagons look ace. I've a pile of cambrian wagons I was donated to build at some point. Having built some before I know exactly what you mean about the instructions. 

Paul Bartletts excellent photo page is great to find details etc on the wagons & overcome the bad instructions.

[Clagsniffer]

Well done for finishing the walrus! Could I hell get my head around my attempt, what a confusing mess. It got shoved in a box in a fit of rage, probably never to see the light of day. I’ve got a whale kit by Cambrian too but haven’t dared open the packet!

[westernviscount]

On 20/04/2020 at 20:42, Unit basher said:

Those wagons look ace. I've a pile of cambrian wagons I was donated to build at some point. Having built some before I know exactly what you mean about the instructions. 

Paul Bartletts excellent photo page is great to find details etc on the wagons & overcome the bad instructions.

 

Thanks Basher!  So far i have completed a catfish, dogfish, starfish, mermaid, shark, pillbox brake and walrus and all have been a challenge. However, they look really good when completed. I failed miserably in my attempt to get the catfish chassis square!

 

On 21/04/2020 at 14:23, Clagsniffer said:

Well done for finishing the walrus! Could I hell get my head around my attempt, what a confusing mess. It got shoved in a box in a fit of rage, probably never to see the light of day. I’ve got a whale kit by Cambrian too but haven’t dared open the packet!

 

Thanks also clagsniffer! on first look at the instructions i truly thought i had lost my ability to problem solve!!! i just could not do it. Ultimately it is a great kit and apparently this is the simpler version!!! At least the bogies come in one molded piece piece. But i have no idea what went wrong with the instructions but in the case of the Walrus they were promptly put to one side and as Unit basher said, paul bartlett was duly used!!

 

[westernviscount]

So i found myself spontaneously pulling the roof and doors off my Dapol kitmaster meat van.

So the issues with the kit are the gap at the top of the doors, the hinges that are designed to have the doors open, the thickness of the roof and on reflection the decals are not the best.

So before i knew it i pulled the doors out, breaking them in the process!!

So i scratched together a set of doors which rectify the gap problem. 

I've also added lanarkshire hose and hook and have also scratched a roof but am yet yo take a photo. 

 

Cheers for now

[westernviscount]

Thought I would add some pics of the latest workbench stuff. I have had a big move over the summer and featured here are a couple of projects that have been a long time in the making for such a modest project. 

 

A parkside LNER extra long cct and a parkside SR BY. 

 

The BY was tweaked with Lanarkshire roof vents, upright vac pipes and buffers. Also added were .3mm handrails including door furniture. It sports heavily weathered green paint. I am still learning the airbrush and results remain a bit hit and miss. 

The extra long cct finished in maroon (ford maroon to be precise) and again heavily weathered. Steps, like the BY have been made with brass so they are more robust. I added handrails again and also replaced the rainstrips as the moulded ones are a bit slight. The vents are phoenix precision which are not quite as refined as Lanarkshire but better than the kit supplied ones. 

 

I found I wasnt able to focus when doing the glaxing for the BY and regret not making a better attempt at flush glaze. Next time maybe. 

 

I love these kits. Very much why I love the hobby. 

Edited November 23, 2022 by westernviscount