Slater's and Cambrian 4mm pre-group wagon kits.

[relaxinghobby]

 

Painting up a Slaters wagon for another pre-grouping mineral wagon, I'm quite proud of the black paint on the straps,

 

 

I got it straight this time because I masked them off with masking tape before I opened the tin of black paint.

 

 

The body colour is meant to be Chocolate Brown, whatever that is, I used Humbrol matt 160.

 

 

 

 

An old MAJ kit I think from when I was a teenager, lettering by hand. Needs some auto couplers added.

[relaxinghobby]

I was wrong the brown wagon is a Cambrian kit. Using some old Letraset transfers and current

Kemco waterslide decals, their private owner wagon lettering sheet P 996. And information from

an old Model Railway Constructor magazines, year ? pages 328 and 57. I've given the wagon an identity.

 

The grey Bosley wagon is as it comes, a Cambrian pre-printed kit, I don't think they do these any more.

 

 

 

 

T'other side, lettered for a different coal merchant

 

 

 

 

The large letters are from the Letraset transfer sheet, which is old and dried out, pity the rise of computers and home printers

put an end to this useful range. They are rub-on and the letters can often move during the rubbing process. The white ink pen is

made by Pentel and is useful for repairing slips and cracks by using it to drawn thicker tops to the letters slightly, bringing them into line with the others.

[relaxinghobby]

 

This is what us home constructor modellers have to match, Hornby's standard of lettering.

[relaxinghobby]

 

This is another Cambrian kit with old fashioned rounded ends, I used the gel pen to do the lettering.

It has a round nib which makes it impossible to make square corners on the letters, I have tried to hide this with some weathering.

[Scottish Modeller]

 

This is another Cambrian kit with old fashioned rounded ends, I used the gel pen to do the lettering.

It has a round nib which makes it impossible to make square corners on the letters, I have tried to hide this with some weathering.

Hi there,

 

Gel pens are great!

 

Yes - they have a problem because you can't make square ended letters.

 

I get round this by making the letter strokes longer then using a knife to score and scrape back the stroke ends to make them square.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Thanks

[relaxinghobby]

 

How cruel close-up photos can be. I was going to say how well I had tided up the paint job on this 2nd hand Slaters' wagon, then the close up

shows that the chassis sides are lower than the buffer beams when they should all be level at the bottom.

Never notice that in just looking at the model, even whilst painting it.

 

I burst it apart by gentle walloping it with a hammer, the glued joints are more brittle and usually weaker than the plastic parts, the floor broke up with this treatment

and is being glued back together.

 

Look it's got these strange needle axles and fine tubular brass bearings in the axle boxes.

Does any one recognise the make and era?

 

Filing of old glue and paint ready for re-gluing.

[flyingsignalman]

I think the wheels and bearings are those put in the kits by Slaters when they were first introduced.

[Colin parks]

 

This is another Cambrian kit with old fashioned rounded ends, I used the gel pen to do the lettering.

It has a round nib which makes it impossible to make square corners on the letters, I have tried to hide this with some weathering.

 

Hi relaxinghobby,

 

One little trick that might work for getting straight, horizontal lines on your lettering would be to use thin strips of masking tape above and below the area to be lettered. A friend of mine, who is a professional sign-writer, sometimes uses this method on 'full size' work.

 

t could help you too!

 

P.S. I thought that 'brown' wagon was a Cambrian one, I recognised the tooling - but that's another story...........

 

 

Colin Parks

[relaxinghobby]

Thanks for the tape tip, I'll try it during the next transfer session.

 

Yes the brown wagon is a Cambrian kit, there is no identification on the mouldings so once the packaging is separated from the finished kit it is hard to identify it.

 

The Cambrian pre-grouping kits are great for an old pre-group groupie like me.

[Colin parks]

Thanks for the tape tip, I'll try it during the next transfer session.

 

Yes the brown wagon is a Cambrian kit, there is no identification on the mouldings so once the packaging is separated from the finished kit it is hard to identify it.

 

The Cambrian pre-grouping kits are great for an old pre-group groupie like me.

 

Hi Relaxing hobby,

 

If it is the Cambrian wagon I think it is, you will a tiny daisy flower scribed into the under side of the floor moulding somewhere!

 

Colin parks

[relaxinghobby]

This is about the third attempt to reassemble this old 2^nd hand kit.

 

So to get the bottoms of the frame sides level with the bottoms of the buffer beams, this jig should hold everything until the glue sets.

 

[relaxinghobby]

h

[relaxinghobby]

 

Here it is lettered up, I seem to have lost the E from BRIDGE and the K of KEW started out as an R.

[relaxinghobby]

 

To continue my theme of a train from the Nottinghamshire coal fields, here is a PECO Pinxton wagon on the left and the Hucknall Collieries' wagon is a Hornby body on

someone's plastic kit chassis. The word HUCKNALL is put on using the last of my old Letraset transfers, all the small writing is left overs from POW sides.

[relaxinghobby]

 

 

At the Loughborough model railway show last weekend in a rummage box on a traders stall I found some old POW wagon transfers which would suit a wagon kit I had already made. The wagon is from the Cambrian Kits range and is their 4 plank, 15' pre-group era Wheeler & Gregory kit with round ends. I've added dumb buffers from some Evergreen 4 x 1.5 mm plastic strip, Gibson wheels and couplings on towers of scrap plastic card. Brakes on one side only. All ready painted grey.

 

These transfers had to be applied white layer first, then black shading layer, I've lost the white part of the numbers.

 

As a comparison I've shown the Hornby Evans and Bevan coal wagon, just to show what us kit builders have to match visually. Was Evans and Bevan an Anthracite colliery? If so who would order such high quality coal? This was a second hand purchase and a very dark grey nearly black colour finish so I've dry brushed it with a grey/white paint mix to tone it down. The Parry wagon was a red oxide ( Games Workshop Terracotta with a little of the grey/white mix to give it a faded look ) All the other colours where Tamiya of Games Workshop Acrylics )

 

The figure is a Preiser modern day factory worker, who will do for any era layout. I've got these two rolling well, hence the chock.

[relaxinghobby]

Yay! at last it's finished except for some weathering, this early LSWR van of 1885, built from cardboard by scanning into the computer a drawing and then copying it several times and then printing it onto a cardboard sheet and then cutting out the bits to make a DIY kit. This avoids my personal problem area of marking out exact shapes accurately onto materials, let the computer do the work.

 

The transfers are HMRS ones, the W irons are white metal castings from Dart Castings and the paint is Humbrol matt 100 Chocolate Brown.

the flash photo graph has shown up the brush marks in the varnish.

 

 

The van door is on the other side.

 

The one-plank wagon is a real bitsa, that's bitas' this and bitsa' that kit. The plank details are Parkside Dundas, the floor and W irons are 3H , remember them? The chassis sides or sole bares are Cambrian along with the brake gear. This gives a 16ft long 1 planker with a 9' wheelbase. All hidden under a coat of black paint. I think the buffers are separates from Slater?

 

[Poor Old Bruce]

The difference in levels of the solebars and headstocks was (is) a feature (fault) of several of the earlier Slater's 4mm kits, particularly the Midland wagons so need a bit of surgery to assemble correctly. The thin axle ends were also a Slater's feature in their early kits and were intended to reduce rolling friction, unfortunatelty they were prone to bending giving the wagon a somewhat lumpy ride. they were superseded by the now common pinpoint axles.

[relaxinghobby]

Here is the Cambrian kit of their London & South Western Rly 15 ton 8 plank Open goods wagon of 1904.

 

I've assembled it as a single brake lever version. I found the corners the hardest part.

 

 

[Poor Old Bruce]

Here is the Cambrian kit of their London & South Western Rly 15 ton 8 plank Open goods wagon of 1904.

 

I've assembled it as a single brake lever version. I found the corners the hardest part.

 

 

What is the van in the photo please? It looks like a 'must have' for a wagon fan.

[relaxinghobby]

See here for info about the van, which is a Parkside Dundas kit.

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/37375-converting-009-to-00/page__pid__509085#entry509085

[Poor Old Bruce]

Thanks. That explains the white stripes.