S7 scratch building

[EasternO]

I love this thread. Have you have any problems with running because of lack of mass because of the plasticard construction?

[airnimal]

EasternO,

without tempting fate I haven't had any problems up to now. I don't have much of a test track at home 

( still waiting to move house to build that layout )  but when I have taken stuff to run elsewhere they have preformed to my satisfaction. Some of my wagons have weight added but I find that the wheels are free running is very important to how they perform.  I have handled some models by other people and been amazed that the wheels haven't been smooth in that department.  Over the past couple of years I have run them at several S7 meetings including the AGM at Warley club rooms where I ran some on Ellerton road without any problems. 

 

I have modified the buffers to look more like the drawing and photographs by trimming back the web. 

I did wonder whether they were packed in the wrong packaging and they are from another railway company. 

 

[ian@stenochs]

Mike,

To my eyes your original buffer guides look very similar to those used on some Caledonian railway wagons.  I know from experience that it is all to easy to make mistakes packing and labeling small components. However your modifications to the original have done the trick.

Ian.

[airnimal]

Ian,  I agree that the buffers do look like Caledonian wagon ones because I do have a set of them. I am not sure what wagon they will be used on or when they will get used. 

 

I have more or less finished this pair of bolster wagons with used the axleboxes and springs to fit after painting.  I tried allsorts of ways of connecting the safety chains that link the wagons together including looping them through the pins, but trying to assemble them was a nightmare.  In the end I just soldered them to the connecting bars which is very unsightly and poor workmanship, but I was getting desperate. 

When mixing plastic and metal on a model I find that the plastic gets very grubby and dirty and will a good clean before I start painting.  

[airnimal]

I started to paint on Saturday with disastrous results because the weather was to cold to paint outside and I don't have a spray booth in my workshop.  Perhaps it is something I should consider for the future but like so many things I am waiting until we move house to see what sort of workshop I am going to have. 

It has all gone quite on the house selling front. Anyway I removed the poor paintwork and started again today with better results.  Unfortunately I am out of the paint that I usually do the interior woodwork with as well as other things like making fluid. I am going into town tomorrow to pick up my new glasses so I may be able to get some then.

 

[Johnson044]

Your workmanship, as ever, is just so meticulous. Really lovely job.

[airnimal]

Thank you for the endorsements,  it's very gratifying to receive such praise.  

I have told this tale before about when I was started modelling to something like proper standards. 

I joined the newly formed model club in my home town and the gentleman who was instrumental in the of the formation of the club was scratch building in 7mm. He was making LNWR rolling stock from plasticard. His painting and lining was fabulous but he didn't remove the burrs off the side of wagons after he had scribed them. He just painted over them and all the burrs showed through and ruined there appearance. 

I was just a junior and wasn't going to criticise someone who had more experience than myself,  but it made such an impression on me that I never forgot that preparation was the key to finishing a model. 

So some enlargements from my current build which show up any blemishes really well.  You can see when I trim the backs of the wheels to give a better scale look I have missed some small bits which will need trimming back. You can't really see them when viewing at normal distance but the camera never likes. 

[Caley Jim]

The scribing of the floor to represent worn timber is just superb. 

 

Jim 

[airnimal]

Thanks Jim, I have now painted the floor to to try and bring out the worn timber look. I am not sure I will ever get this right to my satisfaction. It's either to dark or the wrong colour and if I am going to c*ck it up it will be at this stage.   The first photograph is stage one and the second one is after I have toned it down a little. The jury is out on it at present. 

Edited November 14, 2023 by airnimal

[Dave Hunt]

36 minutes ago, airnimal said:

Thanks Jim, I have now painted the floor to to try and bring out the worn timber look. I am not sure I will ever get this right to my satisfaction. It's either to dark or the wrong colour and if I am going to c*ck it up it will be at this stage.   The first photograph is stage one and the second one is after I have toned it down a little. The jury is out on it at present. 

 

This jury member thinks that it is spot on.

 

Dave

[Caley Jim]

2 hours ago, Dave Hunt said:

This jury member thinks that it is spot on.

Seconded! 👍

 

Jim

[airnimal]

II have stained the other wagon planks with a thin wash of black ink to match the first one. The runners for the bolsters were given a small amount of rust to give it a weathered look. There is still lots to do but I can see some progress. 

 

I will have to go back to the opticians because my new glasses are not quite correct.  I wasn't convinced when I tried them on yesterday but the optician said to try them because they may take awhile to get use to. Trying to read in them or modelling was not easy because I kept having to refocus all the time. 

[airnimal]

I had a good day yesterday because I managed to get the tranfers on reasonable straight.  I thought I didn't have enough but then I remembered that my good friend Peter gave me all his stock because he was having a clear out. I don't know why he had a sheet of pre-grouping tranfers when he models the BR period, but I was happy to accept this kind offering.  I said I was unsure about the weathering on the planks, but I now think it's not to bad after all. I need to modify the axleboxes to fit the W-irons and paint the brake handle and dirty the bodywork to match the interior. 

[airnimal]

I have now come to the hard part as far as I am concerned.  The axleboxes and springs which are probably 40 years old or even older than that, and really not up to days standards.  Because I use my own slotted  W-irons the axleboxes also need the backs slotting to to the 7mm bearings. In the past I have filed off the cast W-irons and slotted the boxes . But I have also accidentally drilled through the face of the box rendering them uselessess. So I have decided to just use the front face of the box by cutting them off with a razor saw. I then hopefully will then  glue this face to a Slaters Midland plastic box suitable modified.  

This is a lot of messing about that could probably be overcome by someone with a 3D printer, but as I have stated many times I am a Luddite. 

Edited November 17, 2023 by airnimal

[airnimal]

I had a day out on Saturday to the Lake District to a friends new house and see the progress on the installation of his new as yet unfinished layout.  The train journey was very comfortable and on time which was a pleasant surprise.  

 

I took with me several wagons to show him, but we couldn't run anything because the layout isn't wired up yet. But I was able to veiw all his latest loco and coaches that he is batch building.  If i don't my act together and start my own layout i have been invited to run my stock on his layout, which is very kind of him. 

 

I have finished the axleboxes now on these wagons but I need a warm day to spray them. 

The brake handles have been blackened so we are on the home straight now. 

[SteamAle]

Pity you didn't make it to Workington, as it was their model railway exhibiton weekend and a great time was had by all. Unfortunately no S7 as I'm not aware of any layouts within a reasnable distance that could be invite, apart from MarcD who had a finescale 7mm layout present, unless of course you do.

Philip

[Schooner]

6' x 2' (scenic) can give a pleasant and interesting shunting scenario with ease. You don't really need a door on your workshop...

 

:)

[airnimal]

I only noticed that the Workington exhibition was on after I had arrived home. If I had known in advance I could have probably have gone because I was half way there already.  That is a shame because by all accounts it was a good show. 

 

As for a small shunting plank to be going on with, I have thought about one. My problem is I dislike the idea of flat baseboards. I much prefer open top ones to give a bit more contours to the scene which would entail custom made ones. I don't really want to start something I know I would be disappointed with because it would only be a waste of money that could be used for better things. 

 

I have nearly finished now with just the numberplates to do and a bit more weathering. Unfortunately it's not easy to see in the photographs because the black paint doesn't show up well and I don't have any better lights to illuminate the underframes. I am struggling with small parts nowadays because of old age and arthritis so it may be a blessing that my poor glueing doesn't show to much. I am sure if the photographs were better I would be horrified at the quality of my efforts. 

 

 

[MarcD]

If you start with a flat baseboard and add foam to the top you get all the benefits of an open topped board and all the benefits of a flat board without any of the disadvantages.

It's what I did when I built Scratchy Bottom standard off the shelf baseboards with 25mm of high density closed cell foam board on top. Then carved to look like an embankment. If you wanted higher embankments just used thicker foam. 

Marc

 

[airnimal]

I finally finished this pair of bolster wagons now with the numberplates attached.  These are from a sheet made many years ago by Barry Lane of the L&Y society.  I have altered the plates to give a unknown number so hopefully this will not unset anyone but the purists. 

 

I have been given a pass out tomorrow to go to Warley. Hopefully it will be quieter than today.

I don't have much on my shopping list so I will not need much pocket money. 

[airnimal]

I went to Warley on Sunday and enjoyed the experience. The journey on the train was fine going, coming back was the usual overcrowded nightmare. I talked to the S7 clan next to Ellerton road layout and discussed pattern making. I have only done complete wagon bodies and not ones that breakdown into individual components. I am not sure how and where the joins would go so as to make them impossible not to see when glued together. I am pondering on whether this is a runner or not. 

 

Anyway after finishing the bolster wagons I have looked around to what to do next. I looked at building a LNWR sign box for when I do get around to building that layout.  But in the end I got out one of my favourite books, coal trade wagons by Len Tavender. On page 40 is a reconstructed wagon belonging to Arniston from Scotland. I don't know anything about Scottish wagons so I may fall on my face with this one but the end door is something different for me, so modellers licence is being used as to why it is down my way.

 

A start was made with the basic underframe made from 60 thou floor and Evergreen milled strip. I had already made up the Slaters W-irons beforehand which I mounted onto a seperate sub floor that fit neatly between the solebar's.   I also had Slaters brass sprung buffers in stock bought many years ago from the executive stand at the GOG show at Telford. The top of the floor has been rubbed with coarse glass paper to make a weathered look. The headstock and solebar's haven't been treated to the same because the drawing states that this reconstructed wagon has had replacement timbers when it was rebuilt.  So these parts will only be lightly rubbed down before painting. 

[Caley Jim]

Looking forward to seeing this one develop.  Does it have the heavy-framed end door, using the top cross member as the hinge, and cupboard doors, typical of central Scottish mineral wagons? 

 

I've tried to upload a photo of an earlier 'Arniston' wagon which is a dumb-buffered outside framed 'NB-style' 'bogie', but there seems to be a problem uploading images at the moment.  ☹️

 

Jim

 

 

[SteamAle]

What sort of wagon bodies were you thinking of making? What material were you looking at for finished product?

Philip

[airnimal]

Jim, yes it does have the heavy framing on the end door but not the cupboard doors on the side.   I need technical advice on this one. Although I have the Caledonian wagon book by Mike William's I don't quite know how the end door hoops work. I can see on the drawings that the hoops are welded to the ironwork on the door but where does the hoop go when the door is raised ?  And what does the door pivot on and what is on the door inside ?  I don't think I have ever seen a close up photograph of this feature or read about the way this works. 

 

Philip, I was talking to fellow member of the S7 society and he wanted to use cast resin to make some ex private owner Midland wagons that were bought by them at the turn of the century.  He has cast some small parts at home and was wondering about doing the same but with wagon bodies.  I don't think he wanted to farm them out to a manufacturer but to produce them at home. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Compound2632]

18 minutes ago, airnimal said:

I need technical advice on this one. Although I have the Caledonian wagon book by Mike William's I don't quite know how the end door hoops work. I can see on the drawings that the hoops are welded to the ironwork on the door but where does the hoop go when the door is raised ?  And what does the door pivot on and what is on the door inside ?  I don't think I have ever seen a close up photograph of this feature or read about the way this works. 

 

You are not alone in not understanding how these Scottish end doors work - certainly one major manufacturer has made a pig's ear of it. Neither of the books I have on North British wagons have a good photo of the inside of the door or even the top from above - they're illustrated with official photos take with the camera about 4 ft above rail level. I'll leave it to the Scottish experts to explain...