Rob's 7mm Rolling Stock Workbench

[Boris]

I must admit I hadn't planned to post any build pictures, but I suppose I could stretch to a few when I have finished, and paint a fitted wagon in unfitted grey. There is precedent for it as there is at least one photo on Paul Bartletts fine site of a 21 tonner which has had a vac cylinder retrofitted and as it has been relatively recently painted it appears that nobody has bothered repainting it bauxite, not surprising when it would appear that the life of the paint work was measured in months at most!

 

If you want photos of an LNER hopper that isn't well rotted I can get you a few (well a BR build to the LNER design). Also if you feel really brave and want to tackle a brass kit Piercys one is truly superb, I think there are some photos of mine on here somewhere.

[Rob Pulham]

I must admit I keep forgetting the Piercy ones. I was talking to Charlie King at Doncaster and he showed me one of the EMKDE representations that he had built. It looked a good model but he wasn't very complimentary about the quality of the kit.

[Rob Pulham]

Next off the Slaters production line is a MR/LMS 6 Wheeled Brake Van.

 

I started this last Friday while up at the cottage and finished it during the last couple of days in between preparing my garage for having French doors fitted (I managed to fill yet another skip - where does it all come from?).

 

I upgraded the basic kit (a cheap eBay buy) with sprung W irons, a stove for the interior and a cast brake standard. I have also added one of Slaters LMS lamps that I had in stock.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Boris]

I've seen that kit a couple of times and have been wondering how I could make it fit onto a blue era layout...

 

That looks very nice indeed, you'll have needed those sprung W irons with this being a 6 wheeler, sometimes the centre wheelset seem to develop a mind of their own. I've got a Port Wynnstay 6 wheel NB goods van and I had to do some serious tinkering to get the middle wheels to want to stay on the rails around pointwork, it was worth it though.

[Rob Pulham]

I've got a Port Wynnstay 6 wheel NB goods van

 

 

Thanks Boris, I hadn't realised Port Wynnstay did standard gauge stuff before having a look at his site following your post. It looks like further investigation is needed in that direction.

 

I just won a Slaters MR/LMS 6 wheeled Slatted Milk Truck which says it has a cleminson truck on the box but I haven't looked further in to it. They lasted into the 60's apparently.

[Phil Traxson]

Thanks Boris, I hadn't realised Port Wynnstay did standard gauge stuff before having a look at his site following your post. It looks like further investigation is needed in that direction.

 

 

Guess I'd better order some more Buffers and Axlebox/'W' iron units and build up my stocks of standard gauge kits a little.

 

Phil T.

Port Wynnstay Models

[Rob Pulham]

That sounds like a plan Phil.

 

Am I correct in that your kit's are resin bodied? If so what are the Axlebox/'W' iron units made of?

Thanks.

[Phil Traxson]

That sounds like a plan Phil.

 

Am I correct in that your kit's are resin bodied? If so what are the Axlebox/'W' iron units made of?

Thanks.

 

Rob

Yes the kits are resin bodied

Most of the Axlebox/'W' irons are whitemetal sourced from 'JPL Models' or 'Haywood'. Some of them, that I couldn't source from elsewhere, are cast in resin. I was very wary of this at first but they seem to stand up in use, I suppose they should really they are not that much different to plastic and Slaters and Parkside use that.

 

Phil T.

[ozzyo]

Hello Rob,

I did one of the Slater's 6wheeled M.R. brake vans some time back a nice kit. Built it at first with ridge axleboxes ran like a dog with three legs, rebuilt it with the sprung axleboxes ran like a dream, just sailed through point work, it didn't seem to 'drop' on the point Vees the same as ridged stock or stock with 3 point compensation.

 

OzzyO.

[Rob Pulham]

I have embarked upon another 6 wheeled van again from the Slaters stable. This one one of the LMS slatted Fish or Milk trucks something I have long liked the look of but couln't really justify the £60+ for the kit when other things beckoned however this one was a nice ebay bargain.

 

It is a really nice kit that I nearly made a right botch of through not reading the instructions properly (or not taking in what I was seeing). In that I had assembled the sides and floor not realising that I had the two halves of the floor the wrong way round. I also had to replace the two outer most door stops with some made from brass as I broke one of them of while cutting the side from the sprue. They also seemed to fit on the wrong end, they are shaped and I had added them according to the shape and it wasn't until viewing a photo in the Midland coaches book by Jenkinson and Essery that I realised that they were at the wrong end so I had to cut them off and refit them at the other end.

 

 

 

 

 

It wasn't until I came to add the cleminson unit and the V hangers/vacuum cylinder with its cut out around the screws holding the cleminson unit in place that I had my Oops moment. It was too late to take it all apart, so I ground off the raised collars around the holes in the floor fitted the W irons and then measured and re-drilled the floor for the mounting screws for the cleminson unit.

 

 

 

 

 

I then added all the other detail. And you can see clearly where I removed the door stop to move it to the other end

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have since primed and sprayed the van in LMS crimson (Halfords Rover Damask Red) and I now need to fasten the wheels on and add the brakes before going on and finishing of the painting.

[jazz]

Nice wagons, Rob. I too, really enjoyed building the Slater's tank wagon. Really worth the effort as it makes a lovely model. (PS If you haven't do so yet, good luck with the transfers, they are a challenge!)

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks Ken,

I haven't got to painting it yet. My son bought me it for Christmas and I built it as a class A not realising until later that the transfers that he got with it were for a class B. I still need to order some different transfers but I have a cunning plan to scratch build a class B to use up the transfers. I have most of the brass section etc in hand now, I just need to get on with it.

 

What I have been doing over the last few days is catching up on quite a bit of the painting of the wagons featured in this thread and I have almost finished Severn - I just need to tidy up some of the detail painting and reassemble before it's debut on here. sadly it has put work on the A3 firmly in the back seat but you can't have it all.

[Rob Pulham]

Quite a bit of progress on the painting front with several of the wagons on this thread in various states of paint.

 

This one is well on it's way to completion. I did have a battle with the Meth fix transfers though (it was my first go with them) but I am pleased with the end end result.

 

 

 

 

 

[Rob Pulham]

Next past the finish post is the LMS Slatted Milk Van.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once again I have used the Haff pen for the lining out.

[Rob Pulham]

On the plastic kit front I have put together a Parkside LMS 10 ton van and the upperworks of both a sSlaters salt wagon and a rectangular tart tank wagon (both needing underframes completing).

 

 

 

 

 

 

My good lady has also weathered the fruit van but I need some better daylight pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[georgeT]

Hello Rob, like the wagons a lot, very good, the paint jobs are superb.......

[jwealleans]

rectangular tart tank

 

Any pictures of the contents, Rob? No wonder 7mm is so popular... and they all have to wear glasses....

[Rob Pulham]

Any pictures of the contents, Rob? No wonder 7mm is so popular... and they all have to wear glasses....

 

 

This really made me chuckle on a day when I needed it. Well spotted Jonathan!!

[Rob Pulham]

The next one to roll off the wagon bench is a Parkside LNER Plate wagon. It looks like I am going to have a big painting session once I get my spray booth set up.

 

 

 

[Rob Pulham]

I haven't been idle despite not making many postings in the last two or three months, on my own projects at least.

 

I have started and almost completed a Parkside LMS Meat van, I am well on with a Slaters 43' Midland all 3rd Coach and a posting on another forum of a Parkside GWR horsebox prompted that to be my next plastic kit build - and sadly at the moment I haven't a picture of any of them.

 

Starting the horse box and sticking to Jonathan Wealleans maxim of "a man cannot have too many horse boxes" last night I bid on and won a Midland Horse box kit by MSE, spurred on by this I also started a Fourtrack models (actually designed by Derrick Mundy and etches labelled MSE) kit for an S&D Horse box.

 

This is where I got to last night. Not bad for a couple of hours of thorough enjoyment (the instructions/drawings took a little working out but hey!!).

 

None of it is soldered yet just all folded with the steps just pushed into place.

 

 

Does anyone have any livery information or running numbers for an S&D 18' horse box built in 1904 as running in LMS days? Admittedly S&D Ultramarine Blue is quite tempting but I and not sure of a source for S&D transfers.

[jwealleans]

Larry would be your man, Rob, but I'd have thought coaching stock livery, fully lined in the earlier days, certainly gold lettering.

[Rob Pulham]

Larry would be your man, Rob, but I'd have thought coaching stock livery, fully lined in the earlier days, certainly gold lettering.

 

Thanks Jonathan, that was my thought too, the difficult bit is running numbers. I put a post on prototype questions with no luck so far, but perhaps the modelling questions would be a better place to ask.

 

As I mentioned earlier, I have just won and had delivered yesterday, a Midland Horse box and that describes the livery early in LMS days as fully panelled and lined. It also has the option of building the plainer LMS built box but as I am a sucker for the panelling and lining I will be going for the Midland built version.

[Rob Pulham]

A good day was had yesterday working on the body of the horse box. Just a couple of handrails left to do on each side and the roof to attach. Next up is the chassis.

 

 

 

 

 

I also took a few photo's of the midland coach too.

 

The brake standard wasn't included in the kit so I scratch built it from some tube, washers, and a hand rail knob.

 

 

 

 

[Rob Pulham]

The thread that started me on this that I mentioned previously about the PSD kit had reached the point where the author was trying to decide on when/how to put the partition and seat in - before or after painting.

 

I had a similar but bigger dilemma with this kit in that there are no partitons or seats provided. The instructions suggest that the builder creates an inner floor and partition/seat from plasticard. While I am quite happy to do this with plastic based kit's I prefer to work in brass where I can so I made a couple of partitions from brass sheet, scribing the visible one to represent planking to match the outside. I also folded up a brass seat.

 

These not surprisingly have made the body much more rigid and this along with a false floor also in brass has added to the weight quite considerably.

 

To get around the issue of fitting before or after painting I have made the seat removable but held in place by the screws that hold the body to the chassis.

 

the photo's should do a better job than my description.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up is to add the underframe details. It's just resting on the W Irons in the photo's.

[Rob Pulham]

A little more done on the horse box I have soldered the W Iron assemblies on making one end rigid using some scrap etch as packing and the other rocking. I had to pack the tabs for this as the slots were etched a bit big.

 

My good lady upholstered my seat with an an off cut of real leather also taking the time to tools the seams and although it doesn't show that well in the photo she also tooled representations of sunken buttons like you get on old leather seats.