BMR Workbench

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Part 4

 

In the last installment, the loco build was pretty much done....

Now the tricky part... fitting the body to the chassis... now its been lust resting on the chassis.. and not fully attached with screws. One fixing position was pretty simple.. between the 2 cylinders, in the original position as the old fixing screw... all it needed was countersinking, as it lined up perfectly with the hole in the underside of the smokebox.... and no I did not plan that... pure luck!

 

Generally I want 2 screws holding the body on the chassis one at the front, and one at the back....

The back was very tight and very compact...

 

I had to some how... put a screw in to fix it to the body, thus avoiding the swing of the trailing wheel, and also some how to add the draw bar for the tender....

After some trial and error... I came up with a solution.

 

I had to modify the trailing wheel set casting again... to increase room for the screw head, and draw bar, as well as increase the swing as well as making sure it didn't hit the screw above... after cutting, sanding and filing.... a solution was found...

 

Using some spare / scrap brass etch... i made a sort of bracket... drilled 2 holes one end to attach it to the main chassis... and another hole at the other end thus giving something to support the body and also have something to attach it too.

 

Looking at the old Hogwards castle body and bits i had ripped off it i found, the old brass housing that the screw would go in to, to attach the body to the chassis... i removed this and filed the outside down making it smooth. This would give me a nice column for the draw bar to swing on.

 

 

The draw bar was made up again from spare brass, and 4.5mm hole was made, to fit the plastic column in the tender... and finally the 2 were together... this solution may only be temporary... seeing as they couldn't be disconnected this way...

 

 

Painting

 

The messy bit... all be sometimes enjoyable.

learning from past mistakes... and other builds.. I went over this build before priming, filling holes sanding down any marks imperfections ect... making sure it was OK for the start of painting. As I say to people... I usually paint my locos with a brush... people have been asking why don't i use an air brush? well when doing one loco at a time... theres really no point... as theres alot of cleaning, setting up ect... to do before you start.

To be honest you won't get a good result unless the surface your painting on has been prepared properly... as someone once said to me... 99% prep.... 1%brush. And he was absolutely right.

 

The first job after spot checking, and filling any holes... was a light coat of primer... after that had dried another check... and more filling sanding, This process would repeat 2 - 3 times more... until i was reasonably happy. The primer I use is Halfords Grey primer as a base.

This is how it looks after 4 - 5 light coats.

 

 

After a final check... I was on to painting... time to put some colour or lack of it on to the loco.

 

The livery which I was told will be on the loco when it is complete and enters service will be BR livery Early crest, so I'm working to that.

Firstly, I now usually use Acrylic paints... faster drying and for me a bit easier to work with. Seeing as this loco is all Black... no point in hand painting this one, so I purchased a can spray from Humbrol, Satin Black. The loco was given 4 - 5 thin coats of this. The advantage of this paint it drys very quickley... so you can apply coats in the space of an hour... and its pretty much dry / touch dry in an hour.

 

The parts that require a lighter colour, the Buffer beams were covered to avoid getting much paint on them, when they get round to being painted.

 

 

Sometimes, you only see things when the paint is on, any imperfections in the surface as the primer doesn't have a shine to it so can't see any problems too clearly. On the tender there was a slight problem on the right side, which was easy to sort out by just using wet and dry sand paper and sanding away the high spots and then building the layers up again.

 

The Lining

 

You would of thought after the SECR P-Class... lining and making transfers for it... that I would of gone for something with less lining....

But I didn't, again for this loco, will be using HMRS Pressfix lining (BR mixed Traffic or LNWR loco Lining) Sheet 22, for the BR logo / crest I'm using Pressfix again, Sheet 14 (BR Steam era loco and coach Insignia).

 

What I decided to do as I have had issues with choosing the right size numbers and the position of them in the past, so to help, i made a small template to guage the positioning of the numbers and lining. I choose to to do the number first on the cab. I took the original pint a photo I took a couple of pages back and measured the model cab, and made the shape on photo studio, and cut around the print of the H2 and transfered it on to the area i had measured, and printed it out to size. This gave me something to work from.

I started on the cab numbers using my custom printed guide. I did about 3 numbers... and stopped, as before I went on I wanted to make sure I had not put on the wrong sized numbers... checking with the other types on the pressfix sheet... these were a tad larger than the ones on the print out but all the others were way too small.

 

 

After a mail to Tom92240 you can see his O gauge works on his thread (http://www.newrailwaymodellers.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=39536) to ask Tom's opinion if they were correct or looked about right, which he kindly confirmed they were, so I carried on... and also adding the lining round the outside...

 

 

After this is was on to the main lining splashers, boiler running plate.... I basically did a side a day, and did the tender last, as it had to line up with the lining on the cab, so thats why the loco was done first. Heres a series of shots of the finished lining....

 

 

Next stage will be just adding paint to the bufferbeams... a bit more painting and then fit the nameplate, smoke box number and shed plate... and also electrical components in the tender... then it should be ready.

[Castle]

Hi Matt,

 

That is absolutely ace - well done! This really is top quality use of RTR mechanisms and an older kit to get the very best model possible. It should run really well and looks the absolute business too! Hopefully, one day, the full size No. 2999 (in Atlantic mode) and No. 32424 can get together some day for a 4-4-2 fest!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[N15class]

Matt

A very good rendition of a lovely loco. Well done it just goes to show the disbelievers you do not need state of the art kits. Just a state of the art mind and determination.

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Thank you guys for all the comments, really appreciate them as always, I don't get many so thankful for the ones I do get, Im glad that you guys are enjoying my insane project.... I do wonder sometimes how I come up with these....

 

Part 5

 

Its been just over a 2 month project, The loco has been finished... earlier this morning at about 2am, and had a little run today.

So the buffer beam was the first thing to be tackled, painting this with Humbrol Satin Red 174, this was then varnished along with the who of the loco, was given 3 light satin coats... and a very light Matt varnish after to take the shine off.

 

 

The next part after this was a spot of more painting. The loco was done in Satin black, but leaving the whole loco this colour was a bit boring and lazy... A modeller frien Graham Muz a great southern modeller, uses Matt Back on smokeboxes, and various other parts of the loco like cylinders. You can view his blog here : http://grahammuz.com/

Prior to this, I also order the various name-plates, Smokebox plate and also shed plate, which was 75A. The smokebox plate and name plates came from Modelmaster...and were delivered very quickley, The shed plate was purchased from Fox Transfers. All plates were secured in to place using a dab of superglue gel.

The pipe which goes from the Cab, to the smokebox was also fitted, which was painted matt black, and also has a 1mm washer around where it goes in to the boiler. the pipe believe to be the blower pipe is made from 1mm brass rod.

 

 

Tender

It was always the plan to give the loco tender pickups to help it over point work ect... Some bits were sourced from DCC supplies, Copper strip board (9 x 25) and a 2 pin micro plug, to connect loco to tender. I used some Bronze wire from the board to pickup on the back of the wheels. The board was fixed in place with 2 screws with x2 plastic washers to stop any shorts.

 

 

Some more parts added to the bufferbeam, were the sprung buffers, I have never come across these before and never have i seen the way they are secured used before. They were purchased from Ace models / products, and have the smallest springs I have ever seen, as well as the smallest shaft to put them on / over as well you may need a maginifying glass for this one. This next bit is a bit tricky.. the end of the shaft... unlike markits is not threaded for a nut... this one you have to bend... carefully.. and getting the 2 buffers correct length is a bit troublesome... but got there in the end...

 

 

I mentioned way back in the post about the front bogie and some modifications that had been done, its a bit late but I'll post it here, The main bogie is off a Clan loco, this has the correct spacing, required for the build, the normal wheels were taken off and 14mm ones fitted. Where the swing arm fixes to the bogie, the base was filed down to give a bit more room for the bogie to move up and down, as its quite close to the chassis once the screw and washer are on top of the arm.

The Arm itself is the original one from the Castle, this was bent to allow the max swing, and also shorten how far the bogie sits away from the mounting point.

 

 

The loco cab was painted with a cream colour... god knows if thats right probably not... the glazing (clear plastic) for the windows was fixed in place and then Backhead glued in to position... all be I still need to add the reverser at some point... All that needs to be done is to add Coal which was done after the photos I took of it on the layout.... but heres some photos of the finished artical... there is a video of it complete working on the rolling road... but not put that together yet.

 

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Just a few final shots of the project... been using it for some photos and bits and pieces.... Coal and crewed, just need the route discs adding.... but heres some final shots of this interesting project...

 

Coal and Crew added:

 

And a couple on the layout complete as well as a small video:

 

 

http://youtu.be/xWvVGG5t84o

 

Edited November 10, 2012 by Bluebell Model Railway

[Earlswood Nob]

Mornin' all

A lovely loco and great use of chassis.

When I saw the original nearly sixty years ago, I thought it was in black livery, but my slightly older friends said it must have been green like the King Arthurs.

Was it in black livery at the end of it's service?

Oh, those youthful days of trainspotting. Saturdays were great, saturday morning pictures at the local cinema, then up to the station to see the sat only Birkenhead which usually had a Spam Can (WC/BoB), It seems like only yesterday.....

Well done

Earlswood Nob

Edited November 10, 2012 by Earlswood Nob

[Castle]

Hi Matt,

 

Don't worry about the amount of comments you get - your modelling is appreciated by many of us out here and the quality of what you do is great as well so don't stop posting up your epic kit and RTR bashing sessions! Very inspirational stuff.

 

Your efforts with little No.32424 has produced an ace loco! What's next for us to look forward to?

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[DLT]

Smashing job Matt, lovely piece of work. And an inspired bit of lateral thinking to adapt the chassis like that. I would never have thought of it.

 

Interested to se that you used Humbrol spraycans for the black, how doid you get on with these? I've always used good-old Halfords, also acrylic.

 

All the best,

Dave.T

 

PS Whats next?

[S.A.C Martin]

Who needs a full kit when can have something clearly very reliable in its running and very good looking to boot.

 

Well done Matt, top stuff.

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Thank you for all the comments everyone.

 

Dave and Castle, whats next.... good question, I'm not sure of that myself... as I have most of the Bluebell collect... some of which are not even finished aka H2. They have also in build / conversion Standard 2, I suppose I could look at that in the future at some point. All be I believe this has been done before... but shall look in to it next year... as a few models will be coming out soon so got to save some money for those...

 

Dave in regards to sprays, The main black was Satin Acrylic black from Humbrol, Spray can, the can isn't very large and can probably get a loco like this and a small one out of it. generally spraying was good, nice equal level finish.. quite controlable...

I have used Halfords also... I don't do many all black locos... so I only required a smaller can to do one. All be Halfords is probably better value as you get more in one of their cans even if you brought 2 humbrol sprays. Ive started to use the Acrylics more... as their quite fast drying...and quite easy to work with me... as I have an Art back ground... (knew it would come in use for something!)

 

Indeed Simon that was the aim... as mentioned I don't have the equipment to build a etched brass chassis... neith the knowledge to go with the equipment. So had to go with a reasonable alternative... plus its more fun this way... a bit ridiculas... but always a good bit of fun to see if it works.

 

cheers

matt

Edited November 11, 2012 by Bluebell Model Railway

[Castle]

Hi Matt,

 

On to the rolling stock then... A bundle of wagon kits perhaps? Having had a look through the list, there are plenty that are available through the likes of Parkside and Cambrian. Not too expensive, nice and relatively quick projects so they are going to be very satisfying in that respect. Just a thought...

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Indeed Castle... i was looking at some earlier on this year... sadly money is a bit tight, being that time of year... unexpected early arrival of the C-Class apparently... and a Hornby coach... isn't helping matters. I was ready to buy a few kits, vans and wagons, as i brought the transfers to do a few... but sadly i made other things.

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Updates...
A little while ago the H2 was completed, with my layout being out of action due to winter and remodelling various other parts, The H2 was taken to the High Wycombe and District model railway society, for a test run. It first went through running in, which seemed ok, and ran pretty well.
I then undertook a loaded test run, the test track has gradients built in... the loco started with 5 coaches but was apparent it was struggling up the gradient, it seemed happier at 4 coaches and ran with those 4 consistantly, which you can see in a video below.

[media]http://youtu.be/MiJBF-CbBCU[media/]
H2, Features 8 mins in to the video.

I had lined up a number of tweeks to be done to the H2, the kit ran with no weight added, relying on just the weight of the body. So more weight was added to the boiler across the 2 driving wheels. More pickups would be added fitting a new front bogie from a Hornby L1. As the Hornby Castle is quite an old model the flanges of the wheels were pretty large compared to models which are on the market today. So I decided to change the main driving wheels to a set of new ones from the New Hornby castle.



Sadly this didn't go to well as the wheels were overall 1mm bigger than the older spec... and the wheels touched as the sat in their housing in the chassis.
Instead the old wheels were turned... by putting them in a drill and running the flange up agains a file to bring the side of thee flang down... this work very nicely, and also has no problem with modern / finescale track work.


Along with this the wheel spacing was double checked to make sure all were 14.5mm appart.
The loco is now around twice the weight it was before.
 

Some of the wiring to was also tidied up, unded the footpate where the 2 pin plug goes under and out the back to connect the tender.


.........................................................................................................

H-Class - SE Finecast

I took the decision again to update this kit, this kit I have had for a few years now, and have not done to much to it appart from change the number to 263.
From previous work on the P-Class the SECR livery was now possible for me to do on this kit.
So last week, I drew up from measurements taken from the kit the livery on photoshop and done a number of tests, to get as close as possible to the colour and size needed. I made some of the shapes around the cab and top of the bunker and splashers by taking photos of the kit and and re-sizing them and creating a template to make the transfer.



Last night I started applying the transfers to the loco, as can be seen there is a colour difference between the kit and the transfer.... if i was to add varnish the transfer would appear even lighter so to stop this from happening, I use a diluted amount of SECR paint from Pheonix and applied it around the loco so it would all blend together as you will never get printer ink or toner to match the paint colour.



...............................................................................................
Another project which I will start towards the middle of the month is a BR Standard 2MT, which in a way will be a conversion from a Bachmann Ivatt 2mt. Picked this up for around £28... with the parts costing £30.



Not much has been done so far as I am waiting the parts from Markits to start this project.

Edited February 18, 2013 by Bluebell Model Railway

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Updates: SECR H-Class

 

The loco has been progressing slowly, due to the number of bits I have ordered to complete the kit.

After the transfers for the main SECR livery were applied and blended in with its surround paint work, the main SECR lettering and logo went on to the tanks of the loco, these came from Fox transfers. The black outline of the tanks was re-done using Enamel Satin black from humbrol, these were then lined in Red with HMRS lining transfers.

 

 

The boiler bands were also lined out as well as the cab, again using HMRS transfers, Yellow and Red, 2 yellow in the middle on the lighter green, and 1 red line eitherside on the darker green.

Upon inspection of the body I noticed an area around the underside of the smokebox which seems to of gone walk abouts or gone adrift... the area was where the screw from the chassis attached to the body, and this area was empty... I then decided to rebuild this with plasticard, and replace the missing Nut, not quite sure how the chassis and the body stayed together but some how they did.

Also spotted was a difference in height between the front of the loco and the rear of the loco with the body on. I later measured it and found the rear to be 1mm lower than the front.. another part missing? Well what ever this was proped up with plasticard.

 

 

The chassis also had a review as a number of parts had falled off... for example the Brake hangers from the trailing driving wheel, these were not well secured when I purchased the kit, so I brought some etched brass ones from Mainly trains and fitted them together to replace the missing set, and painted them in SECR brown, the front driving wheels hangers are part of the body.

The whole loco chassis recieved a repaint to the correct SECR Brown, as the previous owner had just painted it brown.

 

 

The loco after one month of work has been completed tonight, and ready to be tested and then a debut next week at the model railway club in High Wycombe to see how it runs, this will be taken with several locos for further testing like the H2 for example.

 

 

 

 

Ivatt Class 2 Coversion to BR 2MT.

 

I purchased a Ivatt Class 2 shown above in the previous post after reading that the Class 2 Ivatt and the 2MT were virtually the same loco, with one being slightly heavier, and of course having small differences, in regards to the running plate, and valves, and pipe work round the cab as well as some other small differences.

This Bachmann Ivatt tank is ideal i feel for this, nice and heavy, reasonable level of detail, and not to much work to do to it to make it what i would like.

 

 

I purchased the Ivatt for £28 which was a good price, After looking what I would need, I put in an order to Markits in Watford, the total price of the parts was around £30.

I ordered the following:

- BR / SR / ER Clack Valves (Mclack BR)

- BR Smokebox handle (M4SBD1)

- BR Hex ross pop Safety Valves (M4SftyV09

- Horizontal BR Whistle (M4 WhistBRH)

- BR Loco steps (M4StepsBRset)

 

 

These are the parts upon arrival and before work starts on the body.

While i was waiting about 7 days for the parts to arrive i took the loco appart and started painting the cab and the back head... as its quite an early model so decoration and painting in the cab was some what lacking.

 

 

I used some Filler on the inside of the body under where the enclosed clack valves were on the body, this was so when the top part was removed there would be no hole there due to the filled being in void where the mould was.

 

 

The rest of the metal parts - Safety valves and whistle were taken off the loco, ready to start work on fitting the new ones.

 

 

 

First new parts to add were the clack valves, these are quite fiddly to make up, but once together they look very good, the Clack Valves came with the copper wire for the pipe work and would come in handy later to do the rest of the pipe work around the cab.

 

 

The smokebox door, again being an older model it had the door handle moulded to the door which isn't great these days, so i removed the handle by filing it off carefully, and also using a knife to scrap any remaining plastic off. It was then replaced by a nice brass replacement by Markits.

 

 

with those parts fitted this is how it looks at the end of a days work...

 

Edited December 18, 2012 by Bluebell Model Railway

[Castle]

Hi Matt,

 

That looks like another quality job good sir - I look forward to seeing some paint on it!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[DLT]

Lovely stuff Matt, and you've done a superb job on the H-Class. SECR must be THE most complicated of all the pre-grouping liveries.

All the best,

Dave.

[Markeg]

Hi Matt,

Fantastic job you have done on all the locos, particularly H2 Bright Atlantic Beachy Head. Having walked the Seven Sisters and Beachy Head its very fitting, reminds me of that time with our friends in Eastbourne last year and the Bluebell and seeing the boiler in the shed. Like the tender pickups and will have to improve the LNER C1 by adding the same system.Now that you have finished that, I would think you might see Bachmann release one? haha. Well done on the lining too.

 

Mark in OZ

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Thank you Castle, Dave and Mark... much appreciate the comments as always as it helps me to improve.. if i can..

 

Dave yes pain pre grouping, but now I have devised a method of how to go about doing the SECR livery then it can work for most of kits, which is handy.

 

Mark... would Bachmann do one... well I don't think its out of the question, out of the 2 main UK manufacturers who would be more likely to do one... you would have to say Bachmann.. as they are certainly going down the Pre-Grouping road, especially with the success of the C-Class being sold out now, certain says its quite popular... if they could do some SECR coaches I would be grateful haha.

 

 

Part 2

 

So after most of the new bits have been added, I turned the attention to the running plate which is slightly different around the front end, as the Ivatt has a gap between the upper and the lower running plate. Some modification was done by filing the original running plate away, to add the new sections in which would be made from plasticard.

This was all superglued in to place, and then painted satin black.

 

 

After this I then went about thinking about the smoke-box smokebox door number plate. For those who don't know the Bluebell s 2MT that they are converting started life as a BR Standard Class 2MT 2-6-0 tender locomotive. So there was never an 84030, so etched plates was off the list... instead i turned to my good friend the water-slide transfer... and made my own using crafty computer paper... and came out pretty well i feel.

 

 

With that done, attention was then turned to the lining and re-numbering of the cab, the lining application on this older type Bachmann tank engine is quite poor... and can easily be scratched off... or like me if you mask something off to not get paint on it, the tape will take the lining off too. So using the HMRS BR / LNWR loco lining transfers i repaired the parts that were taken off or damaged.

The numbers were rubbed off using some enamel thinners which came off very easily... this was then re-numbered 84030, using pressfix transfer from HMRS, sheet 14, BR Steam era.

 

 

I painted the Markits Machined BR steps which were quite pricey but are i believe worth it as they are brass and won't brake to easily like plastic ones, these were painted in to Satin black, and a small 1 mm hole drilled in to the body to glue the steps in place.

 

 

The loco was then given a satin varnish, and when dry the cab roof and smokebox were painted with Humbrol Matt Black paint.

After a plea on my Facebook group as to the idea of what shed code plate would the loco be fitted with when complete, at this time it is a new build as it were so really what ever I choose or the group... it could still be wrong...in the end thanks to another member on the forum, tom92240, we came to a shed plate code of 74B for Ramsgate.... who knows if this will be correct or not...

 

Anyway the plate was ordered from Fox Transfers and despite the time of year arrived the next day.

 

 

After being fitted the Model of a loco which is yet to exsist was complete... in model form... the loco was about 95% complete as more work is needed, putting the windows back in the cab, and adding more pipe work ect... but still it was in a runable state to be taken to High Wycombe Model railway societies fun run on Wednesday evening, were it did 3 hours of running on the test track.

 

 

Video of the loco running in, as well as the Atlantic... which amazing now works properly.... and pulls more than 4 coaches.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4_mp22t0iI

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Had a few Cambrian Kits to build over Christmas, good kits, easy to build taking about 2 days from start to finish... heres a few of them which I thought I would share.

 

 

Cambrian Wagon Kits
SECR, 2 Plank, Dropside, Ballast Wagon.

 

For Christmas just gone I got a few kits, from Cambrian,  first one I'll start off with is the SECR, 2 Plank, Dropside, Ballast Wagon (C77). These kits are all plastic, with a bit of metal wire for the brake blocks and various other bits, on the underframe.
The things you need for this kit, Wheels, couplings, and some etched Hooks and Chains, Paint, Transfers, and wheel bearings.

So this is the Kit:

Firstly the Wagon body is constructed, I used super glue as its a bit faster acting than Liquid Poly...

The wagon floor is then dropped in from the top and glued in to place...

On to the next part of the build, the underframes, the 2 Sides of the wagon, with axle boxes and sole bars.... where cut from the spru, and  the Brass Romford bearings glued in place..

These are then glued in position on the Floor of the wagon, there are locator tabs on the underside of the floor, and the 2 sides of the underframe glued in place, and wheels are added, to check for allignment and spacing.
The Brake leaver is added to one side of the underframe, and then the Brake hangers and blocks were glued in place on the located tabs on the wagon floor.

The wagon than began the painting process, The SECR wagons are usually a very dark grey, I used what  believe to be close to the colour that I have seen on the Bluebell. I use Acrylic paints, and found the 69 Granite Grey in the Revell Range fitted the bill... all the outside of the wagon and underframe is painted in this colour, and I used Revell paint, 381 Brown for the inside of the wagon.

Approx 3 coats were added to the wagon, when dry I used HMRS Pressfix transfers, A freight sheet, which had SECR, LBSC, LSWR, and Sr numbers and lettering on it, The P.W.D part of the wagon was made up from letters out of Gunpowder van, with small transfer dots between the letters from the same sheet.

After these transfers a Big Mug of tea was needed... so I found myself a big mug!

3 extra parts were added to the side of the wagon just under the dropside doors... in a slight recess...

To finish off on the buffer beams, I brought a couple of Etched coupling hooks from mainly trains (MT 356). I also picked up a few months ago some metal chain about the right size for OO, I got this from a high street shop called The Works, cost about £2.99, does the job and looks pretty good.

These were primed and painted and glued in position. The Couplings were added just under the buffer beam on a coupling block which is part of the kit.
The wagon is then Varnished with Acrylic Matt Varnish, and the wagon was ready, some weight will be added later, when approppraite type is found.

...............................................................................................................

 

Cambrian Kits:

C98, SECR, 10 Ton Ventilated Van

 

Next Kit I did is probably good for anyone who wants an easy start to kit building, again from Cambrian, this is a SECR 10 Ton Ventilated Goods Van, Again you will need Wheels, Couplings, Hooks and Chain, Paint, Transfers, and Varnish. As well as the brass wheel bearings.
So this is whats in the Kit:

First job add the bearings to the axle boxes, these are part of the sole bar moulding... you can glue these in place, or just push them in to the hole, as its tight enough to hold the bearing.

Once done these are fitted to the Van's floor There are small locater pins on the floor indicating where to fit the sole bars on the underside of the floor. Check alignment of whe bars before finally adding the glue.

http://i568.photobucket.com/albums/ss121/bluebell-railway/WIP/SECR%2010%20ton%20Ventilated%20Van/SAMconstructionIMG]

The constuction of the body then started after the rolling chassis was complete... The body again is very easy to build up, on the inside of the body there are small plastic points indicating where it to stick it locater the floor. The locator pins on the inside of the body panels sit just above the floor. The tricky part of the build is getting the body to sit square to the other panels, there for creating an equal flat surface to glue the roof on at the end... I suggest you check it as you go though constructing the body.

The edges of the body panels, have a chamfered edge and butt up to each other creating a nice neat join.

I started the underframe detailing, adding the brake blocks and brake handel to the side of the van and underneth. This is the same as the previous wagon built on the other page.

Once the body is complete, leave the roof off, to paint seperatly... The body was then painted in the same Revell Acrylic paint as before  (69) Granite Grey, the body and underframe are painted in this colour. The roof, was painted with Acrylic White spray paint by Humbrol.

And for some unknown reason I painted the inside of the van as well.... not quite sure why as this will be the last time you see it...

Then on to the the next task which was transfers.... fun stuff... Again using same sheet as before Sheet 13, HMRS, Pressfix, Using the bigger SECR lettering located at the bottom left of the sheet... and the normal numbers, found in the middle of the sheet, next to Ton's ect... this took about an hour, then the Van was finished with Matt Varnish to stop any transfers from moving around..

Final detailing parts were added, including the hook and chain coupling as well as the NEM couplings, to the coupling block under the the van floor.

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LBSC High Bar wagon, Cambrian kit  C33

 

The kit, again similar to the ones already covered on the last page, this is an open wagon, kit comes with parts to do the High Bar type and also parts to do a normal open wagon which they converted to later on in life. Again Wheels, bearings, and couplings needed, as well as paint and transfers, and glue.

Kit itself costs £6.35.

First part of this kit, starts on the Wagon floor, which the main body of the wagon is glued to. As mentioned there are different end panels for you to choose which type of this wagon you wish to build. I have gone for the High Bar type which is normally seen in the Bluebell's Freight set they usually have out on the odd special occasion.
The ends of each body panel are cut to an angle so they butt up to each other quite nicely.

Once the main body is constructed, I moved on to the underframe and sole bars, I will return to the body later to fit the bar.
Firstly the Bearings are fitted to the Axle boxes, before fitting them to the underside of the floor. They needed a bit of tidying up and filing to get these to fit. they have again locater tabs on the underside of the floor to position them and glue them.

I checked the underfame and to see if the axle bearings lined up with each other and free wheeled ok, which they did.

On to the underframe detail, First thing to add was the brake blocks, these may need a little bit of work to enable them to fit and not catch the wheel, so be prepared to file them of just scrape a bit off with a knife. Again theres a locater tab on the floor for these to support and glue them too. On this kit unlike the others you will require both sets of Brake blocks on this kit. Once glued in place, they are also supported by some wire which goes through the holes on the Brake block moulding. This also attaches to the Brake leaver which is on the side of the wagon which you will see later.

After the completion of the chassis, attention went back towards the body of the Wagon. The next part is quite fiddly, and hard to do. The high bar that goes the middle of the wagon which also moves side to side, which attaches itself to the ends of the wagon via an arm which comes off a central point. this was very difficault to glue on to the end of the body so decided to add strength to it by running some wire through the arm and drilling a small hole on the body to allow it to attach to some where... making it a stronger join as i feel it was probably going to get knocked being  quite fragile.
The piece of wire for the bar that goes across the top is proived by Cambrian, and give you measurements in the instructions.

So far I dont think I have shown the Buffer assembly which is a bit of a pain... as theres about 2 - 3 seperate parts, the Buffer head, the Shank, and the buffer housing. On this kit the buffer housing is part of the end of the wagon, so its just the buffer head and the shank that makes this one up.

Next was the good old Halfords Grey Primer, comparing it to photos, the grey of the primer was acceptable compared to the grey the real wagon is painted so decision was made to leave it as it was. The underframe on this wagon is painted matt black. Transfers were from the same sheet as previously shown, from the same Freight / goods HMRS pressfix transfers which has SECR, SR, LSWR, and LBSC.

The transfers and the wagon were given a light Matt varnish to seal the transfers in and to stop them moving.
Small details were added to the buffer beams, coupling hooks and chains were added,  as shown before.

NEM couplings were added to the coupling block, with a bit of plasticard added to bring it to the same height. The wagon was then ready all be awaiting the weights to put on to increase its rail holding ability.

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Thought I would add some additional images, as I finished another 2 kits... one i was going to write up in full but by the time i realized.. i was half way through building it haha.

Anyway I recieved the weights today which had a sticky back so they can be secured underneth. These weights are 5 grams each... seem quite good for one per wagon. These images are taken from another Cambrian kit build of another 7 plank SECR wagon.

On the other subject of kits I built a couple more... as mentioned another 7 Plank SECR wagon and a SECR Dance Hall BRake.

Edited January 21, 2013 by Bluebell Model Railway

[69843]

Matt

 

Fantastic work yet again (love the 2MT conversion). I can't wait to see what hits the workbench next.

[N15class]

The wagons look wonderful. You have a nice selection there.

 

Just one thing your 2 plank has the brakes the wrong way around if you moved the lever down the brakes would move away from the wheels.

[DLT]

Lovely work there Matt, keep it up!

Cheers, Dave.

[Earlswood Nob]

Morning all

An interesting thread. The use of balance weights (I think that's what they are) is a good tip.

Earlswood Nob

[Castle]

Hi Matt,

 

You have been busy haven't you? There is me fiddling with a coach kit and you knock out a whole freight train! It is nice to see some of the non GWR stuff from the Cambrian range. I had a slowing of modellers mojo a little while back and I found that doing the wagons was a simple, quick and easy way to get back into the hobby. They are the model railway equivalent of a quick snack! Keep up the good work - the results are looking really great!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Thanks chaps.

N15 Class, yes Ive actually changed that for what ever reason i put 2 sets of brakes on it... when really only has 1 set... must of been half asleep when i made that but i have removed them.

 

Hi Castle

A little busy, yes, these are quite easy compared to recent features im sure you would agree haha.

Always good to fiddle with things, I think the next thing im doing will be a bit more extreme, in the fact that there are no kits available in the condition im after... Metropolitan coaches... all 3 or 4 of them depending how you look at it..
Couldn't find any kits in the original 1900's condition so... looks like ime having to make my own. which should be entertaining.. as i hate all Cad programs. and dont get on with them.... but still give it a go i suppose...

Edited January 21, 2013 by Bluebell Model Railway