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Adam's EM Workbench: Farewell for now


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Having dug around the box of half-complete projects, this Hornby hopper has evolved using leftover parts from a Dave Bradwell hopper chassis etch based on detail from this picture, taken at Shilbottle colliery. Rap plates, new hopper door catch levers and the usual cat's cradle of wire for the handrails at the end. It's quicker than the alternative options (Parkside, Airfix/Bradwell) but is it as much fun? You decide.

 

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Adam

 

 

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Adam, great job with the weathering, the Slope Side Mineral wagon and Strip Coil in particular. Nice detailing job with the Shunter's Truck, I actually have one of the Cambrian kits for these to build. Looking forward to seeing the finished 21T Hopper. 

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A set of three civil engineers' hoppers, painted an weathered. All from Cambrian kits of varying vintages depicted c. 1967/8.

 

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A quick interior shot:

 

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Adam

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks all. Here's the last Coil J for a bit:

 

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The transfers are from Railtec and this particular wagon is based on this one (thanks, as ever, to Paul Bartlett for making his pictures available to us):

 

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brcoilj/h3ff3ae8f#h3ff3ae8f

 

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The cradle is tacked in with a spot of PVA. I think the completion of this one means that I have about 10. That's probably enough for my purposes, but you never know, it's such a simple and satisfying conversion I might yet make another.

 

Adam

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  • 1 month later...

Not a lot of modelling going on just lately, but, following a chance acquisition from the vast collection of bits and bobs picked up by a recently deceased club member, to whit, three RCH minerals, two 7 planks from Slaters and an 8 plank without end doors from a very early Cambrian kit. As befits wagons acquired from a former union rep, these will be finished as part of my NCB internal user fleet.

 

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Both kits are, in fact, excellent and flawed in different ways: the Cambrian kit includes all the details, inside and out and goes together very well. Age, unfortunately, had not been kind to the plastic and the underframe was far too brittle to use or even to remove from the sprue. The Slaters versions didn't have that problem, but lacked any internal detail above floor level. Sorting underframes is much easier...

 

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All those boltheads are worth the effort. They are worth the effort. They are worth the effort (repeat until convinced/the solvent addles your brain).

 

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Adam

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All those boltheads are worth the effort. They are worth the effort. They are worth the effort (repeat until convinced/the solvent addles your brain).

 

They are indeed, you done a great job with them. Having said that I'm still traumatised from doing the bolts on my LMS D1839 wagon  :D

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Thanks all - the effort is useful, but three wagons at a go is probably more than is sensible! They're all done now, thank goodness. The fiddly bits aren't at an end, however...

 

Adam

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And here's the result of most of the fiddly bits, barring the bottom door catches. Both the Slater's vehicles are at identical stages while the Cambrian one lags for want of suitably brakegear - I'm out of ABS 9' brakes but I think I have some etched ones, somewhere..

 

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The brake levers and guides, by the by, are from CraigWelsh, via the Scalefour Society public e-shop. They yield a nice end result, but, being Nickel Silver are prone to failure during assembly. You do get spare lever guides, however, but my view is that they would be better in brass...

 

Adam

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And here are the Slater's pair, finished. If you want to play sport the differences (and there are some, very minor), feel free. Both are now in primer and will harden off for a bit.

 

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Adam

 

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The only things I can spot are the capping strips and 3 hole wheels on the right. Maybe a different shape door spring?

 

All correct - well, not the doorspring, not deliberately anyway. The other things are the catches for the bottom doors. These are fully represented on the left and vestigially on the right. Both are meant to be internal users and the bottom door facilty was often removed and with it, the working bits of the catches for them. You can see this, just beneath the solebars in these Paul Bartlett pictures:

 

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/cadebycolliery/h129cc526#h1869f91b

 

http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/cadebycolliery/h129cc526#h1dbf937d

 

Pretty inconsequetial, but fun to do, I think. The process looks a bit like this (mocked-up). If you imagine the scribed line as the rear of the solebar, the three 0.5mm holes are drilled thus. Two triangles of 10 thou' (probably 100% overscale, but there you are) flank the pair of holes as shown.

 

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Next, twist a length of 5A fuse wire or similar around a drill or cocktail stick to form a representation of chain and locate in the rear hole, a length of 0.3mm wire goes in the front to form the handle and both are secured with a drop of cyano'. It takes moments really, but is a total pain to photograph.

 

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Adam

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And so to the paintshop. These are finished in my usual internal user paint scheme of Humbrol matt wine (#78) and will be hand lettered as and when I find myself in the mood.

 

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This is how they appear now. The two Slater's vehicles will be relatively tidy in terms of paint and finish while the Cambrian version will be really very scruffy. Most colliery systems displayed this sort of contrast. The white crosses, by the way, were applied using a mapping pen and white (permanent) ink.

 

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Adam

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Here's the tatty one after a second pass of weathering. The first was a coat of overall grime, based on the gunmetal/light grey/matt leather combo that I used on the interior. I think this left the wagon looking a bit flat.

 

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Here it is after varying the density of the red and reinstating it on the corner plates. The same matt wine was used with a smidge of light grey to suggest fading. Note the spring on the left appears to have been squashed - this is a cock up which will become a feature. A chalk mark pointing out the broken spring will be added per this Gordon Edgar shot: https://www.flickr.com/photos/12a_kingmoor_klickr/5783756730/in/album-72157626724121567/

 

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Next, lettering.

 

Adam

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And here's the finished wagon - lettered with a very small brush - the examiner can't find his chalk (chinagraph pencil) so the broken spring isn't noted yet but the overall effect is precisely what I was after; a wagon just about holding together.

 

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Adam

 

 

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The finished trio - I revisited 6908 in order to add some more three-dimensional hinges, but otherwise, it was a simple weathering exercise and the three vehicles are now complete.

 

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Adam

 

 

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Hi Colin,

 

Thank you. The crosses indicate that these are internal users. There were various means used to indicate this, but crosses of various kinds were the most common. As an aside, I should probably have eradicated evidence of the bottom doors - most colliery operations would have had no use for them and refloored them accordingly.

 

Adam

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Hopefully a quickie project, from the same estate collection as the RCH minerals, is equipping an old Mainline (or was it Airfix?) fruit van. A lovely looking moulding, it is, in fact, a bit long and a bit wide, but frankly, this bothers me not one jot. The chassis mouldings come from a scrap Ratio van and a spare Parkside floor. Some previous owner had attempted to improve the original chassis with ABS brakegear and buffers and I will reuse both - I've already fitted the brakes. The tiebars are my usual lengths of brass angle.

 

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Adam

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Mainline originally.  

 

As these are so common/cheaply obtainable I have wondered if the width issue could be addressed by using just the sides with some more suitable ends - Ratio?  Never got further than wondering though!

 

 

Hopefully a quickie project, from the same estate collection as the RCH minerals, is equipping an old Mainline (or was it Airfix?) fruit van. A lovely looking moulding, it is, in fact, a bit long and a bit wide, but frankly, this bothers me not one jot. The chassis mouldings come from a scrap Ratio van and a spare Parkside floor. Some previous owner had attempted to improve the original chassis with ABS brakegear and buffers and I will reuse both - I've already fitted the brakes. The tiebars are my usual lengths of brass angle.

 

attachicon.gifGW_Fruit.gif

 

Adam

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