More Pre-Grouping Wagons in 4mm - the D299 appreciation thread.

[Andy Hayter]

Fine coal was used as an agent in making moulds for cast iron objects, which is why moulding sand is black coloured.

 

I think the use of fine or pulverised coal for energy generation post dates the picture, but I have a feeling (but cannot find reference) that fine coal was used in calcining limestone to make cement powder.

[Compound2632]

Sandy, yes, that's a Slater's D299. I've remarked before on the strange economics of buying these on ebay, given that the basic kit can be had from POWSides for £6.50. In this case, anything over that is the price you're paying for the Pressfix transfers (desirable) and in this case the Maygib P4 wheelset. It'll be interesting to see what it goes for!

 

I see it went for £14.40 + £2.99 P&P; compare POWSides £6.50 + £3.50 P&P (but who'd buy one off?). Equivalent wheels would be £3.00 from Alan Gibson - admittedly without bearings. So that's £4.39 for the Pressfix transfers. The equivalent HMRS sheet is £6.50 + P&P (not checked) and will do many more wagons. (Scope for trading with M&C loving MR hating fellow modellers?) However, it doesn't have the solebar numberplates or tare weights and also in my view the R of the 12" M R is better than on the HMRS sheet - not that the 12" letters are relevant to a D299. The Slaters transfer sheet would do one open wagon with large lettering and one covered goods wagon with 12" lettering, along with numberplates for another four. And there are the LMS insignia too. 

 

So, perhaps I've been a little harsh on the ebay price?

[sharris]

Certainly a more realistic price than the Slaters GWR toplights on eBay at the end of April - discussed with much mirth in the Coopercraft thread.

[Guy Rixon]

I see it went for £14.40 + £2.99 P&P; compare POWSides £6.50 + £3.50 P&P (but who'd buy one off?). Equivalent wheels would be £3.00 from Alan Gibson - admittedly without bearings. So that's £4.39 for the Pressfix transfers. The equivalent HMRS sheet is £6.50 + P&P (not checked) and will do many more wagons. (Scope for trading with M&C loving MR hating fellow modellers?) However, it doesn't have the solebar numberplates or tare weights and also in my view the R of the 12" M R is better than on the HMRS sheet - not that the 12" letters are relevant to a D299. The Slaters transfer sheet would do one open wagon with large lettering and one covered goods wagon with 12" lettering, along with numberplates for another four. And there are the LMS insignia too. 

 

So, perhaps I've been a little harsh on the ebay price?

For the large MR, there is a sheet from Fox transfers that has just those characters. Vastly cheaper than the alternatives if one only want the large M and R and has many wagons to letter.

[Compound2632]

For the large MR, there is a sheet from Fox transfers that has just those characters. Vastly cheaper than the alternatives if one only want the large M and R and has many wagons to letter.

 

The Fox transfers are nothing like. Back to the drawing board for someone.

Edited November 3, 2018 by Compound2632

[Penlan]

The Fox transfers are nothing like. Back to the drawing board fore someone.

Agreed.

[Lecorbusier]

here's another more general question loosely related to the D299 .....

 

I am aware that the ubiquitous D299 predominated across the Midland system. I am also aware that many collieries carried their own PO wagon stock. However, looking at sorting sidings in historic photos the D299s often predominate in coal traffic with POs interspersed? This suggests that Collieries used a mix of their own wagons and the Midland's own? Was there any logic to this ... such as - perhaps the railway's stock tended to be used for immediate loading and shipping whilst the collieries stock tended to be used to smooth out demand in relation to production allowing un-interrupted  extraction - so for storage alongside transport? Photos such as this one from Claycross might substantiate such a reading.

 

 

Also of interest is this photo of Rowsley which clearly shows how loading for limestone was dealt with ... the D299 was clearly used and it would appear that the depth of load is governed by the plank height ... in this case 3 - 3.5 planks high?

 

Edited November 4, 2018 by Lecorbusier

[billbedford]

I am aware that the ubiquitous D299 predominated across the Midland system. I am also aware that many collieries carried their own PO wagon stock. However, looking at sorting sidings in historic photos the D299s often predominate in coal traffic with POs interspersed? This suggests that Collieries used a mix of their own wagons and the Midland's own? Was there any logic to this ... such as - perhaps the railway's stock tended to be used for immediate loading and shipping whilst the collieries stock tended to be used to smooth out demand in relation to production allowing un-interrupted  extraction - so for storage alongside transport? Photos such as this one from Claycross might substantiate such a reading.

 

 

It is just as likely that the collieries had a standing order for so many empty wagons per day and if there weren't enough wagons from that particular colliery then numbers were made up by supplying railway wagons. Since demurrage was charged on railway wagons there was some incentive to return them fairly quickly but I don't think it would mean that long strings of wagons would have been shunted just to extract the railway ones.

[John_Miles]

I have done a bit of research and some pondering on Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire PO wagons which may have been seen passing through Monsal in 1902. The list is my no means complete but I have checked and POWSides do all these companies :-

 

Collieries :-  Oxcroft, Newstead, Pinxton, Sherwood, Shirebrook, Linby, Manners, Babbington Gedling, Hucknall, Stanton plus those in my original post.There are other collieries such as Blidworth which were further east and I believe were not open in 1902 and a huge number of smaller collieries. I have some doubts about whether those collieries in the very north of Derbyshire such as J&G Wells would have wagons on this route as by this time, IIRC, the Hope Valley line would be opened. There were though trains from Avenue sidings, just south of Chesterfield, via Ambergate to Rowsley.

 

POWSides do a wagon for Markhams of Chesterfield. They were a manufacture of such things as mining equipment. I am not clear whether they used their wagons for coal or for sending out their products.

 

An obvious one is the lime companies such as Derbyshire Stone (Matlock) and the Buxton are companies. Lime has always been important in the Peak District.

 

Finally milk - There was an Express Dairy depot at Rowsley in my youth but I think this is outside your time period and it sent its output south but there would have been milk from elsewhere which is a chance to build  on or two of those lovely Midland milk vans.

[Compound2632]

I expect that the Midland wagons were more intensively used - the hirer, whether colliery company, coal factor, or customer would want to avoid demurrage charges, whereas their own wagons (if not standing on railway company sidings) would be incurring no additional costs and could be used as, effectively, storage bins. 

 

Given that the Midland bought up and scrapped 66,000 old PO wagons in the 1880s-90s* and built 62,000 D299 wagons, it probably took a decade or so for the number of 1887 RCH spec PO wagons on the Midland system to approach the previous total**, so for a while the D299 wagons probably did outnumber PO wagons, even if only 50% of them were being used for coal traffic.

 

Also, it's possible that the Midland's official photographer deliberately chose views where the company's wagons predominated!

 

*At 31 December 1894, 21,260 ex-PO wagons were still on the books. By this date, 47,000 D299 wagons had been built (or at least ordered - Lot 343 for 5,000 wagons was ordered on 13 July 1894 so may not have been completed by the year end) and there were another 12,000+ pre-Lot book high sided goods wagons still in service.

 

**The coal industry continued to expand, so the total number of wagons used for coal traffic must have been substantially greater by the early years of the 20th century than in the mid-1880s. 

 

EDIT: crossed with Bill's post making the same point. Here's an example of Midland wagons - not all high-sided - being pressed into service alongside the customer's wagons and those of a couple of coal factors - Stephenson Clarke and Bowater. (1890s not c. 1920.) This provides a nice link into the post I'm writing to put up later...

Edited November 4, 2018 by Compound2632

[Lecorbusier]

Bill Hudson in his PO intro book argues that PO wagons were vital for the smoothing out of supply. His position is that keeping the regular flow of extraction is paramount to the working of the Colliery. At the same time supply and demand varies greatly with both slack times and times of very high demand. He states that stock piling for high demand was commercially imperative and so was the need not to interrupt the flow of extraction during slack periods. He then argues that double handling of the coal would have been costly ... it being much better to load straight to the wagons. Using railway stock to hold coal supplies would have been expensive hence extensive sidings and large PO wagon fleets.

[Lecorbusier]

I have done a bit of research and some pondering on Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire PO wagons which may have been seen passing through Monsal in 1902. The list is my no means complete but I have checked and POWSides do all these companies :-

 

Collieries :-  Oxcroft, Newstead, Pinxton, Sherwood, Shirebrook, Linby, Manners, Babbington Gedling, Hucknall, Stanton plus those in my original post.There are other collieries such as Blidworth which were further east and I believe were not open in 1902 and a huge number of smaller collieries. I have some doubts about whether those collieries in the very north of Derbyshire such as J&G Wells would have wagons on this route as by this time, IIRC, the Hope Valley line would be opened. There were though trains from Avenue sidings, just south of Chesterfield, via Ambergate to Rowsley.

 

POWSides do a wagon for Markhams of Chesterfield. They were a manufacture of such things as mining equipment. I am not clear whether they used their wagons for coal or for sending out their products.

 

An obvious one is the lime companies such as Derbyshire Stone (Matlock) and the Buxton are companies. Lime has always been important in the Peak District.

 

Finally milk - There was an Express Dairy depot at Rowsley in my youth but I think this is outside your time period and it sent its output south but there would have been milk from elsewhere which is a chance to build  on or two of those lovely Midland milk vans.

Snap .... these were my musings

 

MonsalDale itself Circa 1903 ish.

 

Small Goods wharf and lie by ... Local domestic coal .. the odd Frank Lomas wagon in for individual farmers to unload plus the odd wagon unloaded and carted by Lomas around the locality for sale (both deliveries verbally recorded in Bill Hudsons' book)

 

Putty Hill Mine ... between 1 and 2 thousand tons of calcite taken out yearly ... ie 2-4 wagons weekly (info from PDMHS) .. assume that no quarried limestone is being exported at this time as anticipation of this would appear to have been the reason for the additional siding request of 1914 followed by the raising of the wharf.

 

Coal in for the mine - general plus the steam pumping engine - 3 coal wagons in the 1911 photo picked out by Hudson as Butterley.

 

Some local goods in and out but very minor.

 

Milk collection and return via the platforms.

 

I am assuming that the main coal deliveries and Supplies in and out for Cressbrook Mill by this time utilise the Monsal Dale siding at Hassop.

 

There is a daily pick up goods in both directions.

 

--------------------------------

 

The rest will be through traffic some of which makes use of the lie by.

 

Alongside coal deliveries to Monsal Dale there are local supplies to Millersdale/Buxton/Peak forest and Chapel-en-le-Frith by local agents with their own PO wagons all bringing supplies on the down line ... Frank Lomas/Tom Wright/Kirkland and Pirkin/Sidney Farrow - Bill Hudson has drawings and detail on the livery.

 

There was considerable Coal supplied and empties returned to and from the various Gas works and to the Buxton area lime kilns. These tended to be Colliery supplied but not exclusively - from .... Butterley / Staveley / Pinxton / Claycross / J.C.Abbot / Ekington / Grassmoor / Nunnery / Swanwick / Bolsover / Sherwood / Stanton / New Hucknall / Manton Wood / Gedling / Wellbeck / Taylor Frith & Co / Babbington. All of these are recorded by Hudson as being active pre first world war with the names recurring up and down the line.

 

These would tie with the working timetables which have minerals out on the downline and empties returned on the up line (none appear to run through Monsal Dale the other way ... from/to Mansfield/Staveley/Kirkby Sidings/Rowsley Sidings/Tibshelf Junction/Blackwell Sidings / Dunston & Barlow.

 

There appears to have been some crossover with the lime/limestone traffic and coal where coal came in and limestone out.

 

In the Buxton area by this time we have the Buxton Limestone Firms group (BLF) but a fair degree of the wagon fleet will have carried their old PO liveries alongside those repainted in the BLF liveries. So we also would have T Bewick/Hill Head quaries/Dow Low lime/Ashwood Dale/East Buxton Lime Co/Buxton Central Lime & Stone (Richard Briggs supplied north so not relevant to Monsaldale?). We then also have Taylor Frith independently.

 

Other goods would seem to be ....

 

Cattle - particularly Bakewell .. then Millersdale and Hassop.

 

Building stone/Millstone/fine dressed stone/Tar Macadam from Matlock/Darley Dale.

 

Matlock Stone co / Thomas Shaw / T C Drabble / George Boden / Darley Dale Stone / Deeley Stone / Stancliff Quarries / Thomas Beck

.... Not sure which will have had PO Wagons and which used Midland Stock yet.

 

And Greatorex Macadam PO Wagons

 

Then there was lumber in and sawn/worked timber out from John Gregory (Darley Dale) - who supplied the wagon builders and George Drabble (Matlock). Rutland Saw Mills (Bakewell)

 

In addition we have Cotton Bales to the various Mills.

Grain consignments into Hassop from Manchester/Liverpool

suppliers alongside MR were

Bolsover/ Whitewell / Saxby / Plumtree / Bidworth / Grimston / Radford / Farnsfield.

 

If this overview gets somewhere near the mark, then it should be interesting putting together some of the through trains. Any thoughts on the type of mix that might have been likely between PO wagons and MR would be helpful.

 

There are also timetabled express goods which I assume may have been passing along the line linking more distant locations.

[Lecorbusier]

I couldn't resist this .... for those who haven't seen it 

 

[Compound2632]

Lethal. I think we see there the prototype diesel shunter built on the frames of 1377 Class 0-6-0T No. 1831.

[Compound2632]

The covered goods wagons are in the paintshop. Meanwhile, I’ve started on some more 3-plank dropside wagons. With 63,000 built by 1902, the D299 high sided goods and mineral wagons accounted for a little over half the Midland’s wagon stock. The next most common type of wagon was what the official records call low sided goods wagons – not as low as the 1-plank wagons used since time immemorial by companies such as the LNWR but 3-plank dropside wagons – a type ultimately perpetuated by the LMS up to the 1940s.

 

It’s my belief that this type of wagon was the primordial Midland goods wagon. Carriage & Wagon Committee minute 3073 of 14 March 1895 reports the numbers of wagons on the books at 31 December 1894 [R. Essery, Midland Wagons, Vol. 1 (OPC, 1980)]. Of the grand total of 112,604 wagons, 63,175 can be identified as wagons built since the Litchurch Lane Works lot book was opened, whilst a further 21,260 were ex-PO wagons purchased under the Midland’s buy and scrap scheme. Of the remaining 28,169 pre-lot book wagons – i.e. dating from before April 1877 – 12,436 were high-sided goods wagons – the fore-runners of D299 [vide Midland Wagons Plate 34] – while 15,249 were low-sided goods wagons. These pre-lot book wagons may in 1894 have still included wagons such as those illustrated in Midland Wagons Plates 32 and 33, built by the Gloucester Carriage & Wagon Co.  in the mid-1860s. These wagons have three plank dropsides but two plank fixed ends. The latter are secured to the frame by internal iron knees rather than external wooden end pillars. The same arrangement of planking is depicted in a drawing, by G.N.I. Ibbott, of an 1874 low sided goods wagon, reproduced as Fig. 31 in Midland Wagons. The source for this drawing isn’t given, but with conventional end pillars and large wooden brake blocks, it looks very like the wagons seen in use as Engineer’s Department ballast wagons in a photo of St Albans engine shed, possibly dating from the 1890s, certainly pre-1907 [Midland Wagons Plate 83, also in C. Hawkins & G. Reeve, LMS Engine Sheds Vol. 2 (WSP, 1981)]. Unfortunately it’s not quite possible to be sure these wagons have two-plank ends. Mousa Models has produced a 3-D printed resin kit for this type of wagon, ref. BWK 1711; as far as I can tell the Ibbott drawing is the source for this. Here’s the printed body, with buffer guides attached, in a first coat of Halfords primer:

 

 

The printing is much crisper than on the D299 wagons, especially the axleboxes and springs, which I’m planning to hide behind a representation of the canvas flaps worn by ballast wagons. There is some diagonal ridge-and-furrow on the sides which I will gently sand flat.

 

In the decade following the opening of Litchurch Lane works in 1877, a further 5,250 very similar wagons were built to Drawing 213; these had three planks at the ends as well as sides and were the first wagons built with the standard 9ft wheelbase, 14’11” over headstocks underframe that was standard up to the end of the 19^th century. The lot list does record Lot 66 of 1881 as being “with new type brakes” so it’s possible that the first 2,000 were built with wooden brake blocks. (Essery records Lot 23 of 1878 as built to Drawing 216 but I’m pretty sure this is either a scribal error in the lot book or in the copy of the lot list he reproduces [Midland Wagons Vol. 2] as according to the Midland Railway Study Centre catalogue, Drawing 216 is “Wagon Wheel and Axle Standard inc 216A Wheel Centre & 216B Forged Axle” and recorded as “destroyed”.)

 

Mousa Models has also produced a 3D printed resin kit for this type of wagon, ref. BWK1707. Here’s the body of one that’s got as far as a first coat of Precision LMS Freight Wagon Grey:

 

 

I’m following what has become my standard procedure with Mousa kits, of completing the body, including painting, to the point at which I can add the sprung buffers and only then installing the etched brass axleguard/suspension unit. With the latter in place, there’s no room to bend over the tail of the buffer shank to lock it in place.

Mousa’s print has the 8A axleboxes which were standard in the 1880s and, I think, survived into the 20^th century. One curiosity is that these wagons were originally rated to carry 6 tons but the 1894 list records only 276 6 ton low sided wagons, the rest being the usual 8 tons.

One deviation from the standard underframe on these wagons, as on the pre-lot book examples, is the way the headstocks are extended and angled at the ends to act as door stops for the drop sides. When, after a ten year gap, production of low sided wagons resumed with Lot 394, this feature was discontinued, though apparently not without some debate. These wagons were built to Drawing 1143. The Midland Railway Study Centre’s copy of this shows the angled headstocks drawn but then erased and the overall dimension changed from 7’ something (probably 11”) to 7’6”:

 

 

This piece of standardisation left the dropside with nothing to rest against when lowered, so a wooden block 12” tall by 4½” wide was added to the side, profiled to be the mirror-image of the former headstock end. A wagon with this feature, built from the Slater’s kit, featured in one of my earliest posts. (Looking at that wagon now, I see I made the stop-block too tall – it should not go down to the level of the floor.) Here’s how I’ve made these recently, using 60 thou square Microstrip:

 

 

Raw block on the left; carved to shape on the right. Here’s the assembled wagon, just lacking brakes:

 

 

I now prefer to batch-build the brakes and spray them black before fitting – less fiddly than brush-painting in situ.

 

Just 1,500 of these wagons were built in 1897-8, so at my c. 1902 modelling date, they were the least common variant of low-sided goods wagon. A further 3,600 were built in 1905-7, then another 4,000 to a new drawing, 3208, in 1909-1915. The lot book describes these as “similar to drawing 1143 except brakes” – from the photos in Midland Wagons I deduce this to mean both-side brakes with long brake levers. These wagons had oil axleboxes from new, whereas at least the 19^th century lots to Drawing 1143 had Ellis 10A axleboxes, per the Slater’s kit.

 

Wagons of this type were all classified as D305 in the diagram book. What I don’t know is the date when the diagram book (or the edition used by Essery) was issued, or how many of the earlier wagons were included in the diagram – particularly the pre-lot book wagons.

 

A final 550 low-sided wagons were built in 1915-16. These were 16’0” over headstocks and had the then-fashionable 9’6” wheelbase. They were given D818 and are the subject of an etched brass kit by Mousa Models. I’ve not tried tis, being out of my period, but Mark Forrest has a good description of a build.

 

On another thread, I speculated about the Midland and LMS cycle of building 3-plank and 5-plank wagons: the Midland built 3-plank wagons from the dawn of recorded history up to 1887, then the 62,000 D299 5-plank wagons from 1882 to 1902. The early 20^th century saw a reversion to 3-plank wagons in quantity; these might be considered renewals of the earlier wagons as they reached 30 years of age or more. Then in the 20s, as the D299 wagons reached thirty, the LMS built 66,000 D1666 5-plank wagons and finally in the 1930s-40s large numbers of D1927 3-plank wagons.

 

 

 

Edited November 4, 2018 by Compound2632

[Lecorbusier]

Yes it does look like it – dumb buffered too. Presumably it's 'United' of the Swansea Valley and therefore an anthracite wagon heading home...

Picking up on this comment relating to the PO wagon 2nd to the rear of the train on the photo I posted last year ... I note that Rothervale Collieries became the United steel Co. ... Might it be this as they were known to run on the Peak line? It would place the photo post 1918. I don't have access to the relevant Turton Volumes to see if the livery matches at all. KT3/99, KT7/144 & KT14/83

 

[Compound2632]

When we discussed this photo before, my recollection (though I can't find the exact post) is that we'd dated it by the work being done to renew the arches - was it 1905? In any case the locomotive is in pre-1907 condition (possibly a year or two after if it's carrying it's post-1907 number in brass numerals. It's certainly not after 1918, as by that date with pooling one would not expect to see such uniformity in all the non-PO wagons being Midland. Further, if the United wagon is dumb-buffered (I'm not convinced), the date would have to be before 1913.

[Compound2632]

While rummaging around looking for something else, I came across this long-dormant project:

 

 

It’s the underfame for a Slater’s long cattle wagon (D298, Drawing 2242) – Slater’s used to supply this and the 9ft wheelbase underframe as separate items, with the headstock/buffer guide as an extra moulding. Now, what other Midland wagons were 19’1” over headstocks and 11ft wheelbase?

 

[Lecorbusier]

When we discussed this photo before, my recollection (though I can't find the exact post) is that we'd dated it by the work being done to renew the arches - was it 1905? In any case the locomotive is in pre-1907 condition (possibly a year or two after if it's carrying it's post-1907 number in brass numerals. It's certainly not after 1918, as by that date with pooling one would not expect to see such uniformity in all the non-PO wagons being Midland. Further, if the United wagon is dumb-buffered (I'm not convinced), the date would have to be before 1913.

Looking at the MR estate agents plans register at the study centre there is a drawing for remedial shoring dated 11 June 1907 .... so definitely too early. Why is the loco pre-1907 condition? I thought depending on the loco they could remain small boilered into the 20s?

[Compound2632]

1907 then. Although the image is blurred, one can see quite clearly that the locomotive has its number in brass numerals on the side of the cab side-sheet and M R on the tender. It's less clear but I think the black-lined-yellow panels on the tender side can be made out - the locomotive is in the fully-lined red livery; the tender panels ceased to be applied in 1904, in favour of lining out the tender panel beading. The simplified livery style - boiler bands not lined out etc. and number in 18" digits on the tender side - started with the last batches of Belpaires in 1905 and didn't really spread to goods engines until after the 1907 renumbering. So I think this locomotive was last repainted no later than 1903.

 

A further tell-tale is the smokebox handrail. Again it's difficult to be certain but it looks to me as if it's continuous, looping over the smokebox door. This indicates the original Johnson-style smokebox door rather than the Deeley style. The latter seems to have been applied pretty quickly as a general modification in Deeley's time.

[57xx]

While rummaging around looking for something else, I came across this long-dormant project:

 

Midland D298 etc undeframe.JPG

 

It’s the underfame for a Slater’s long cattle wagon (D298, Drawing 2242) – Slater’s used to supply this and the 9ft wheelbase underframe as separate items, with the headstock/buffer guide as an extra moulding. Now, what other Midland wagons were 19’1” over headstocks and 11ft wheelbase?

 

I hope these resurface from Slaters. My Midland cattle wagon kit from CC was mis-packed and had one 11ft sole bar and one 9ft solebar in it. I've long given up hope of getting a replacement 11ft solebar from CCdespite many attempts.

[Compound2632]

I hope these resurface from Slaters. My Midland cattle wagon kit from CC was mis-packed and had one 11ft sole bar and one 9ft solebar in it. I've long given up hope of getting a replacement 11ft solebar from CCdespite many attempts.

 

Well, the best consolation I can offer there is that the D293 and D294 medium cattle wagons had 10ft wheelbase...

 

Unfortunately the Slater's kit was for the post-1906 version with a single top plank and two rails, whereas the medium wagons were to the same pattern as the earlier version of the long wagon, with two top planks and one rail. That would make the sides a very advanced bash. The ends are the same, though. I've put a pound down with Bill Bedford (Mousa) on the various types he's listing - maybe one day they'll get enough subscribers to be viable.

 

Looking through Midland Wagons Vol. 2, it's evident that the design features of Midland cattle wagons were pretty much unchanged from wagons built by the Gloucester Wagon Co. in 1875 through to 1917. Only the very last cattle wagons of 1921/22 were visually different, setting the style for LMS-built wagons.

Edited November 5, 2018 by Compound2632

[Brassey]

Here's my take on the Midland 3 planker.  I built this Slaters kit back in the 80's and have only just got round to finishing the paint job.  It is completely devoid of any interior detail.

 

I know the number plate and tare are in the wrong place but I did not know that when I first put it together so long ago.  I had originally painted the lower black parts but the upper paint (don't laugh) is Poundland grey primer!  I must have bought a tin of Precision Midland Light Grey way back when I bought the kit and intended to use that as the top coat but as widely acknowledged, when I tried i out it is greenish.  So I left the primer and think overall it works.

 

Any opinions please:

 

[Compound2632]

The angle you've taken the photograph from emphasises a defect of the kit (apart from the bare interior) - the too-rounded tops of the end pillars. These should be square, per the extract from the drawing posted above. Mousa's 3-plankers are better in that respect, as is the Slater's D299. It's to draw the eye away from such defects that I put the doorstops on!

[wagonbasher]

The angle you've taken the photograph from emphasises a defect of the kit (apart from the bare interior) - the too-rounded tops of the end pillars. These should be square, per the extract from the drawing posted above. Mousa's 3-plankers are better in that respect, as is the Slater's D299. It's to draw the eye away from such defects that I put the doorstops on!

Nothing a tarpaulin cant sort..

 

 

Andy