Not quite a silk purse - rebuilding an old Airfix brake van

[Captain Kernow]

First of all, this is the sow's ear, an old Airfix BR standard brake van, that I acquired already-built (and starting to fall to pieces) many years ago. I can't even remember where I got it from now, but it had been sitting for years in a box containing various wagon kits, waiting to be built for my P4 layout 'Callow Lane'.

 

It had an indifferent paint job and various bits had fallen off, although it seemed to have come with a replacement set of footboards (from a different kit).

 

I know that this project would have been easier, had I elected to build one of the unmake Airfix kits in the 'stash', but the whole point of this was to recycle the old, knackered model and use as much of what was already there as I could.

 

After removing and discarding the old Airfix wheelsets, the first job was to make a rolling P4 chassis.

 

Using a rotary tool, I removed plastic from the inside of the axle guards and drilled them for brass bearings, which were secured with just a slight touch of the soldering iron to gently melt them in (but not very far, in this case).

 

 

 

I used a set of Gibson wheels for the trial fitting, although I would use some Exactoscale ones for the final fitment.

 

 

As can be seen above, at least one brake shoe was missing, so the spares box would have to be scoured for a replacement. What I didn't want to have to do, was to raid one of the unmade Airfix kits.

 

The replacement footboards (which were not from one of my unmade kits, but had languished with the brake van for all those years) were fitted and the Exactoscale wheels installed. I now had a rolling chassis. Please note, however, that there is no compensation or springing. I'm quite happy to build rigid wagons in P4 these days, provided the wheelbase isn't much longer than this brake van, there is plenty of weight in the vehicle and it sits four-square on a sheet of glass, with no rocking.

 

 

As can be seen above, the Airfix vacuum cylinder moulding was removed, as this was still going to be an unfitted brake van.

 

More to follow.

 

Edited January 23, 2023 by Captain Kernow

[Captain Kernow]

This is the third Airfix brake van that I've attempted to enhance, although the first two were build from unmade kits. The first was done in OO about 40 years ago and featured compensation (just an experiment), wire handrails and other additional details. The second one was about 20 years ago to a similar specification, although in P4.

 

The next job on the sow's ear was to cut off the moulded handrails and replace them with 0.33 nickel silver wire:

 

The veranda and end hand rails are now in place, as are some Lanarkshire buffers and 3-link couplings:

 

The next job was the somewhat tricky one of attaching the horizontal handrail that runs along the lower edge of the body, connected at either end to the inner veranda handrails.

 

Some n/s wire was cut exactly to length and temporarily held in place by the sophisticated high-tec clamps you can see in the next photo:

 

The piece of card was to protect the plastic body from the tip of the soldering iron!

 

The two handrail supports either side of the guard's lookout ducket would also be fitted, by drilling small holes directly beneath the horizontal handrail (which was gently deflected, once soldered at both ends). Short lengths of 0.33 wire were then fed into the holes from the outside and secured at the right length with epoxy, applied from the inside. The horizontal handrail was then carefully soldered to these short 'sticky-outy' pieces of wire, again with thin card protecting the plastic body.

 

[Captain Kernow]

One of the details that I like to put on the Airfix brake van is a representation of the guard's safety rails, that can be put up across the veranda openings at either side, to stop someone falling off the vehicle.

 

Previously, I'd represented these by simple bits of wire, glued into the body and (most of them) arranged in a lowered position. The real things are a bit more complicated, though, with a kind of loop affair at one end, which hangs off a corresponding metal fitting on the body, allowing it to be easily swung up and into position.

 

I took some brass 0.45mm wire and soldered some small loops of very thin copper armature wire onto the end:

 

These were then cut to length and after painting white, were hung on small small loops, glued into the appropriate locations on the bodyside (a task that is best left until almost the end of the project, to stop them swinging wildly and annoying you when you're working on the rest of the vehicle).

 

Lamp irons for the veranda stanchions were then made up from thin brass strip, with a 0.33 spigot soldered on, which would be glued into a corresponding hole on the body:

 

After a few hours of wearing this particular hair shirt, this is what the side of the brake van looked like. One of the loops to hold the guard's safety rails can be seen.

 

I also had to replace the lamp bracket at one end, as the original model came with a gert big (**) plastic lamp attached, which had to be removed:

 

** Technical term

 

 

 

[Captain Kernow]

The underside of the chassis was also detailed:

 

After that, the model was sprayed with Railmatch BR wagon grey (from a rattle can) and when that was dry, the body was masked off and the chassis sprayed with Halfords Matt Black.

 

When dry, I applied transfers and sealed them in with a light coat of Johnson's Klear, followed by a wafting of Humbrol Matt Acrylic Varnish.

 

When all applications of paint and varnish were done, I cut out individual pieces of flush glazing for the ends, the doors and the guard's lookout duckets. I got out one of my unmade kits (with bright red plastic!) and used the individual components in this to measure the glazing pieces, which were cut from 15 thou clear plasticard. Most of them are simply press-fitted in place, except the guard's lookout, where they were cut overlength and one end of each glued in place with a big dollop (**) of epoxy.

 

This was then the state of play so far:

 

** Another technical term

 

For the first two Airfix brake vans, I'd used the roof supplied with the kit, but it is rather overscale. I had a pre-formed piece of black 15thou plasticard, that I had formed for another project some time ago, but didn't use and fortunately it was just about the right size for this project, with just a little trimming. Some strengthening pieces were also glued on the inside, as per the photo above.

 

 

Once the roof was glued in place, I fitted rainstrips, a chimney for the guard's stove (brass tube) and then fitted a couple of 247 Developments torpedo vents. This is the van prior to weathering, posing with the 20 year old one:

 

The roof was then sprayed with Railmatch Roof Dirt and the whole brake van given some light weathering with powders:

 

 

[Yan]

Very nice work. I've learnt much from these posts which I hope to use on some of my own brake vans especially when I get around to building the Grizer Train...😁

[Enfys_Rainbow]

Very nice work. I've done a couple of these myself and they scrub up really well with a bit of effort.

[jwealleans]

Lovely job, Tim.

[Stubby47]

Now you've glued the roof on, how do you add the weight inside ?

[Captain Kernow]

2 hours ago, Stubby47 said:

Now you've glued the roof on, how do you add the weight inside ?

Weights were glued inside before the roof was fixed in place!

 

[Grovenor]

Looks good, and you have the stove position correct on the new one.