Nile's Mostly Freelance Bodging Bench - Pre-Grouping Locos

[Nile]

I painted the roofs light grey (Humbrol 64) only to then remember I wanted to fit rainstrips, using 10x20th. microstrip. So I had to sand the paint off and start again. This shows the difference with and without the strips.

 

The vacuum pipes are universal ones from Wizard. They are mounted into holes drilled in the ends, with the end of the pipe bent around the buffer beam. They will be painted before gluing into the hole.

The buffer heads have been painted with Metalcote gunmetal. It gives them a dark metallic look when buffed up a bit.

[BWsTrains]

Neil,

 

This is all inspirational stuff for me as I set out on the early steps of kit bashing. Thanks for laying it all out step by step so clearly,

 

Colin

[Jack P]

Fantastic as usual! 

[Nile]

A few more bits added to the roofs, some more painting and then weathering, they are now done.

[Corbs]

Lovely. Is race weekend coming up in the West Mids?

[Gibbo675]

11 hours ago, Nile said:

A few more bits added to the roofs, some more painting and then weathering, they are now done.

Hi Niel,

 

I'm very sorry but I can't resist an extremely poor pun so here goes, "That weathering looks absolute horse sh1t, especially the streaks around the drop doors."

 

I shall now shut up and stop trying to be funny.

 

Gibbo.

[autocoach]

I was going to inquire if these vans were designed for quarter-horses?

 

Might be a bit difficult to fit a pair of belgians.

[Nile]

On 04/12/2019 at 23:24, Corbs said:

Lovely. Is race weekend coming up in the West Mids?

Off to the races.

[Mikkel]

Excellent. Like real prototypes, they look the same at first - but when you take a closer look...

 

You'll be needing some blue horses though.

[Nile]

Having now built a GWR Beetle kit as it was meant to be I can post some comparison shot of it with the results of my bodging butchery.

[LNWR18901910]

Gosh, they're all impressive vans. Aren't there any more locos in the works?

[BWsTrains]

The GWR Beetle is very good.

 

Is that a Parkside Kit and if so which one? I've built one but yours seems to have considerably more "kit" attached. Any chance of a half side-on shot to better reveal the detailing of the end / under gear?

 

Colin

 

 

[Nile]

There are more pics in my other workbench topic:

It's the Parkside PC67 kit.

 

Nothing else in the works right now, I'm busy with narrow gauge stuff. Work will resume here eventually.

Edited January 20, 2020 by Nile

[LNWR18901910]

On 14/12/2014 at 10:59, Nile said:

Onto the smokebox. I could have left the handrails as they were, but thought the earlier style single handrail would look better. This is a lot more work, the knobs need to be moved, holes filled and a new handrail bent to shape.

First, new holes drilled and old holes filled.

 

Bending the handrail. Take some 0.4mm brass rod and bend it around a AA battery.

 

Lay it on the front of the smokebox and adjust until it looks right.

 

Bend the side parts round so they line up with the knobs. This is the tricky part.

I've re-used the original knobs here, even though they are a bit long, because they line up with the holes in the front of the tanks.

 

One of the leftover knobs was used on the front of the smokebox.

 

Putting it all together.

I'm doing the same project, too! Only I  haven't been doing much on it aside from the smokebox door.

[Nile]

Repainting and Detailing the Hornby LSWR Brakevan

 

In case you hadn't noticed Hornby painted its new LSWR brakevans the wrong shade of brown, more like milk chocolate when it should be dark. The red ends complicate matters so I went for a complete strip down. The outer ends and roof still needed masking but it made things easier. While I was at it I repainted and weathered the inside.

 

Looking at the chassis I found that the tie-bars between the axleguards were anything but straight (see comparison further down). I replaced them with some 0.4mm brass fitted into holes drilled into the axleguards. I removed the brake shoes to drill holes in them for the cross shafts.

 

I think that's enough detailing for the chassis, the footboards make it hard to see anything under there anyway.

 

After masking off the red ends and roof the body was sprayed with RailMatch SR goods brown. The duckets were brush painted as they are a separate clear part. On this side I applied Methfix transfers over the original markings (they were just visible) until I got to the small numbers bottom left. There I carefully scraped away the new paint to reveal the numbers. As this worked well I used this method on all the markings on the other side and the chassis. Here is the fully re-assembled model showing the Methfix side.

 

Comparison photos. This is the other side, note the R is slightly different (and also prototypical).

I don't like white roofs so I painted it light grey.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Nile

[Nile]

I've started on the second one. Dismantling should be easy, by removing the four screws underneath. But some parts have been glued in and take some effort to separate.

[autocoach]

Question, not a challenge. When  did the LSWR start to use  the orange paint to to signify stove equipped brake vans?

 

Both of my versions remain on Temporary reverse Lend Lease and probably will remain there for a while. 

 

I believe I was using Vallejo Model Color (colour) Dark German Brown when I was building Cambrian Diagram 1410 vans to replicate SR Service Brown.  I like the Railmatch  SR/LSWR  dark brown color but I need a brushable color as I have given up the airbrush along with a lot of other things....I have to make do with what I can find in Tamiya rattle cans or brush it. 

 

Thanks for the inspiration, I may proceed to repaint my pair although they will be SR 1947 practice with a small SR. 

 

Edited June 13, 2020 by autocoach

[Nile]

No idea about the orange paint.

 

Masked......(with Tamiya and cheapo tape)

 

...and unmasked....

...without breaking any lamp irons, amazing.

 

Scraping the paint away over the original markings.

 

After touching up the dark brown paint, roof still to be repainted.

[Nile]

After a week of slow progress I can now update this rebuild to its finish.

These are the interior parts before reuniting with the body.

 

On the LSWR van I replaced the wheels with spoked ones from Gibson. On the SR one these would have been replaced with disc wheels. I can't see any evidence of holes in them in photos so I've made some solid disc wheels from Gibson 3-hole wheels, filling the holes with slices of plastic rod. They won't be noticeable after painting black.

 

And now for the finished models.

[Nile]

A few years ago I bought three old TT tank wagons, this was one of them.

Two of them have since become narrow gauge wagons (on my NG workbench), the last one is to become an old standard gauge one.

This will need a new chassis, I happen to have a Slater's kit of a Gloucester PO underframe. I assembled the chassis parts using the floor as a guide, but without gluing them to it. I added the inner parts of the chassis using Evergreen strip. I based the design on info in 'Oil on the Rails'.

 

And this is what it looks like with the tank plonked on top.

Lots more to do, but you get the idea.

[Nile]

This photo shows the work done to the tank, removing the markings and bits on the ends.

 

Rather than try to reuse the headstocks from the TT wagon I made new ones from Evergreen strip.

 

The tank is a snug fit between these.

[Nile]

Some diagonal bracing added, made from brass rod. Because the wagon is quite short they cross over before reaching the sole bar. They are only glued to the sole bars, allowing the headstocks some movement.

 

The brake gear from the chassis kit was modified to fit, as there was no floor to attach it to. The rod going across in the middle, and between the Vs, is meant to be the discharge pipe.

 

The tank now sits on a cradle made from more Evergreen strip.

[chuffinghell]

Superb!

[Nile]

I could have just painted it all black, but that would be boring. The tank ended up Purple Red via red oxide. This will be for carrying unspecified mysterious chemicals.

[Nile]

Decals

For the markings I've revisited a theme from an earlier tank wagon (see the new improved index on page 1), the mysterious F.Roth chemical company of Oxford. The decals come from a Microscale sheet of Union Pacific letters.

 

So far so good, but then I remembered the ladder.

Not quite what I wanted, so I hatched a cunning plan.

I could simply have omitted the ladder completely, many older tank wagons didn't have one, but I quite like it. I went for a compromise and removed it from one side.

 

I hadn't yet put any decals on the other side, so I was able to keep the ladder and work around it.