Nile's kitbuilding bench - Midland 1377

[Nile]

It's still hot inside, so I'm going to be building plastic kits for a while. I've dug out some recent Cambrian models kits of Southern wagons, pre-grouping of course.

Here are the first three together.

 

 

Individually they are:

SECR 10ton van (D1426)

 

SECR 12ton 7 plank open (D1355)

 

LSWR 15ton 8 plank open.

 

The last one has the new one piece chassis.

 

 

No problems so far. While these go for painting there is another kit in the works.

Edited February 11, 2023 by Nile

[Spitfire2865]

The one piece chassis looks weird, theres no detail at all. Parkside and slaters both have frame detail. Cambrian seems to not care about such things. The big question though...does it sit on all 4 wheels?

Oh and you seem to be growing some moss in a couple of those axleboxes. The trio looks very nice. Especially the third.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Spitfire2865

[cctransuk]

The one piece chassis looks weird, theres no detail at all. Parkside and slaters both have frame detail. Cambrian seems to not care about such things. The big question though...does it sit on all 4 wheels?

Oh and you seem to be growing some moss in a couple of those axleboxes. The trio looks very nice. Especially the third.

 

I've never seen the point of detail between the solebars, (as opposed to below the solebars). Unless the wagon is derailed, who's any the wiser?

 

In fact, many modellers remove any between-solebar detail in order to fit equalising.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood.

[Nile]

There's not much to see on the chassis, I can make out a builders plate, but the springs lack detail.

It does sit on all 4 wheels. I think there is enough room in the axleboxes to adjust the bearings if that wasn't the case.

There were a few small holes in some axleboxes, and buffer heads, so some magic moss was applied.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Nile

[Nile]

This is the fourth Cambrian Southern wagon kit I'm currently building, a SECR brake van.

 

As per the instructions I've thinned the footboard supports and added a 1mm strip of plastic to the bottom of the body sides to make this an early version built by the SECR rather than the SR.

Finishing these models might be delayed as I've had to order a new sheet of transfers. The second hand sheets I have are missing some of the letters I need.

Edited February 11, 2023 by Nile

[Spitfire2865]

Ohh very nice. How was the underframe on that? That roof has one hell of a profile.

[Nile]

I've not had any problems with the underframes on these kits. That could be because they don't have separate W irons like the ones you've had trouble with.

The roof is quite a molding. Attaching it to the vertical end supports is going to be tricky, I wont be painting them until the roof is attached.

New transfers have arrived, so I can progress the other wagons as well.

Edited August 8, 2014 by Nile

[Nile]

This weekend I have been mostly applying Methfix transfers.

 

At least that's what it seems like. All rather time consuming, and I've not finished painting them yet.

Edited February 11, 2023 by Nile

[Spitfire2865]

Very nice. Though I foresee youll have fun painting the interiors of the opens. Haha.

I always have to appreciate the time spent in lettering. You could spend 30 minutes just on one side if theres enough to put on.

They turned out very nice.

[Nile]

I've now finished painting the wagons and given them a coat of matt varnish.

 

 

 

I painted the interiors of the open wagon light grey, followed by thin washes of brown and black. In 1920 these would be fairly new wagons, so they are only lightly weathered.

 

The brake van is taking longer. After gluing the roof on and fixing the upright supports in place, I noticed there is something not right about the ends.

 

Compared to photos of the prototypes there should be a valance under the end of the roof. I'll use some plastic strip to fix that.

Edited February 11, 2023 by Nile

[sean hpw]

Love this, some really smart work going on here Nile, you and a couple of other members ave convinced me the merit of pre-grouping now...

 

Sean

[Nile]

Glad to hear it Sean.

I added some plastic strip inside the end of the roof to form the missing valance.

 

 

After painting. Much better.

 

I nearly forgot the lamp irons.

 

All the photos I've found show the handrails painted white, so that's more fiddly painting to do.

Edited February 11, 2023 by Nile

[Spitfire2865]

If you need to paint the handrails, I suggest a soft tip white paint marker. Its how I did the handrails on my LMS brake van and it doesnt flake or chip off like paint. Just a quick piece of paper to protect the grey and a quick pass with the pen.

[Nile]

I used to have a white paint pen, but it dried out. So it was out with the paint brush for the handrails.

 

 

Here are the four wagons together.

 

 

And now with an appropriate loco forming a short train.

 

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Nile

[Nelson Jackson]

Very nice work,

[Nile]

The purchase of some transfers has prompted me to dig out a loco (kit) I bought last year.

Here is one I didn't make earlier (someone else did).

 

It's a Millholme Models kit of a LNER N5, aka a GCR 9F

 

This is the view without the body.

 

The motor has showed signs of life, but will need a good clean for it to run well.

Next I'll strip the chassis to start the refurbishment of this model. It will eventually emerge in Great Central livery.

Edited February 11, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

The chassis stripped down.

 

The screws needed cleaning to allow them to be fully screwed in. The bearings are a push fit into the holes in the chassis.

 

The motor didn't run well due to a dirty commutator. Here I've cleaned it up.

 

 

Reassembled and oiled it runs well now.

 

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

Before I rebuild the chassis I thought I'd find a way of securing it to the body. Here are the two together.

6

 

 

The rear end is ok, the cab floor fits into a slot in the chassis. At the front a screw through the spacer will connect with a nut glued to the body.

Here is the nut held in place with some superglue gel.

 

I'll add araldite around it to secure it in place.

 

The slots in the body for the chassis were a bit wide, so I added some 1mm plastic on either side to stop the chassis moving about.

 

 

This is the rear end. 

With these bits of plastic the chassis is now a tight fit into the body, the front screw acting as a backup.

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Nile

[James Harrison]

Looking forward to see what you do with this, Nile. 

 

I've got one in GCR livery; it arrived like that from Messer's E. Bay and Co and to be honest I quite like it.    

[Nile]

I refitted the wheels and motor to the chassis and gave it a test run. Lack of pick-ups required a croc-clip to one side of the motor.

 

 

To fit pick-ups I glued two bits of PCB sleeper strip to the underside of two of the spacers. I soldered some thin phosphor bronze wires to these and formed them into the pick-ups.

 

 

Wires from the PCB strips were run to the motor.

 

 

Back on the track it now runs as it should, success!

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

When I refitted the chassis to the body I noticed something odd about the splashers. They didn't quite line up with the wheels, they seemed to be too far forward and too far out. The  The wheel's flange was visible between the splasher and boiler. Clearly not right.

(I should have taken a photo of this!)

With a little bit of effort the splashers came off. After cleaning up the area an outline was visible showing where it should have gone.

 

 

Glued into the proper position, it's a perfect fit.

 

 

This shows the splasher sitting correctly above the wheel.

 

It also shows the brake gear.

I found some plastic brake gear that bore a resemblance to the real thing. I've glued it to the chassis with super glue gel, after removing some of the new paintwork (doh!).

 

 

Various bits of plastic rod were used for the brake linkage gubbins.  It may not be as strong as soldered brass but it won't be causing any shorts.

 

 

Now I need to repaint the chassis.

Edited February 11, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

Chassis now repainted.

 

With that out of the way I got on with detailing the body.

The safety valve needed to be backdated to an open Ramsbottom type. I cut off the old part, filed the base flat and drilled 3 holes into it.

 

 

Some plastic rod, square nickel silver rod and a very fine threaded screw went together to make this.

 

 

The handrail around the front needed some attention. All the knobs were the same length, resulting in the handrail bowing in around the boiler. I replaced the ones in the boiler with the Gibson shoulderless type, held in place with gel type superglue.

This shows the new knob being held in alignment by a brass rod, This was used to make a new handrail, as the old one was a bit wrinkly.

 

 

The same thing was done on the other side. Here is the finished result.

 

The front of the side tanks have had sone putty applied to fill holes. The rod was pushed into this putty to form an alignment hole.

 

Lamp irons, made from some thin brass strip, were added to the front

 

and rear.

 

Edited February 11, 2023 by Nile

[James Harrison]

Like it.  How did you get so neat a curve when bending the handrail?  It is something that always leaves me stymied.

[Nile]

I bend it around something round, a AA battery in this case I think, and then manipulate it until it matches the model. When the curved part is correct I bend the straight parts back at 90 degrees. It doesn't always come out perfect.

[James Harrison]

Thanks; I'll have to have a go at that on my next project.