Rob's 7mm Rolling Stock Workbench

[jazz]

Some really lovely models in this thread Rob. Puts my motley collection of rolling stock to shame forcing me to relook them.

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks Ken,

 

I must admit that building rolling stock is my favourite pastime. Although I enjoy locos and coaches, wagons come top in my book.

[Rob Pulham]

Alongside progressing the Kirk twinset (all three bogies are now to the same stage) I have also put together and painted/weathered an ex LMS Steel bodied Ventilated van. 

 

It still needs couplings and some further work before I will have achieved my aim but I am pleased with progress so far.

 

[georgeT]

Love the rust effect Rob, great stuff....

[Rob Pulham]

For those who notice such things,  I have managed to correct the brakes being the wrong way around in the photos in my last post. 

 

Plus while  working on the Kirk twin art set I have been slowly assembling a Parkside NBR Jubilee Mineral wagon. Not the best mouldings that I have seen from the Parkside stable but I think it will be fine once painted and weathered.

 

 

I made the loops that allow the end door to open on the original from 0.6mm styrene rod which I wound around a 0.5mm drill bit in a PIN vice,  I then poured boiling water over it and then quenched it in cold water which retained the coil. It was then an easy matter to trim and fit the loops. I used a couple of the off cuts to make the rings for the horse hooks. I would have normally used brass wire for these but I didn't have any to hand the correct size so I decide to see what I could do with styrene.

 

 

 

The more observant will note that the brake levers are in different positions in the photos. This is done because I find it a real pain masking them off while painting so I decided to make them move.

 

To achieve this I drilled the back of the lever and glued in a short section of 1.5mm styrene rod. I drilled through the mounting block under the sole bar and then cut a short length of 1.5mm inside diameter styrene tube to fit over the rod once it passed through the mounting block to create a locking washer which retains the lever but allows movement.

 

 

 

Before it hits the paint shop, I still need to solder the coupling links closed and add the pins and chain to the brake levers.

[Rob Pulham]

I had a really busy weekend this weekend and one the things that I made much progress on was the SR Brake van that I started earlier in the thread.

 

After work today I gave it blast of primer and here it is.

 

 

Now I have a bit of a dilemma, I plan to sell it once it's finished (I bought it specifically to build and sell on as I neither model BR or the Southern) and I have seen examples with both screw and 3 link coupling and I am unsure which to add - If I add screw couplings it will add another £5 to the price. 

 

Similarly with a stove, if I add a cast stove it will again add another £5 to the cost. without my adding anything for the assembly etc. of them.

 

If you were a buyer would you prefer screw couplings and a stove or to get the van £10 cheaper? 

[N15class]

It's always a problem when building to sell where the H do you stop. It's like working to two standards. I decided some years ago not to add crew, coal, or couplings unless it was a commission. Due to finding them very time consuming and on occasion seeing it all discarded.

[Rob Pulham]

During last week I took a little time out on a couple of evenings to get the top coat of paint on ready for transfers.

 

 

 

 

I then blackened the buffers and added a decent set of 3 link couplings.

 

 

 

[Rob Pulham]

Fast forward to the weekend and I am almost there, just the duckets to glaze now and fasten the body to the underframe.

 

 

Finally just a last one to show the underframe with the linkages corrected.

 

[jazz]

That's a lovely looking brake van Rob.  As to whether to fit screw couplings to sell it, personally I would fit three link and leave the buyer to change them if required.

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks Ken,

 

That was my thought in the end, plus I found out that the ones with screw couplings were vac fitted which this one isn't.

[The Bigbee Line]

Very nice.  I like the representation of felt on the roof.  Cheeky question, does the roof look better in real life or in the pictures.  I ask as I sometimes think pictures look worse than the real thing...

[Rob Pulham]

Very nice.  I like the representation of felt on the roof.  Cheeky question, does the roof look better in real life or in the pictures.  I ask as I sometimes think pictures look worse than the real thing...

 

Hi Ernie,

 

Yes the whole thing looks better to me, sadly it was chucking it down when I took the photos so I couldn't get any decent daylight shots.

 

The canvas on the roof is made from spectacle lens cleaning tissues dried out after use and stuck on with pva. I now use them on all van and coach roofs. I find it simulates canvas most convincingly and I have even made tarpaulin sheets from it.

Edited August 14, 2018 by Rob Pulham

[Barnaby]

Furiously scavenging in my bin next to my PC desk to find the lens cleaning tissues I just chucked in it ..….  I've previously use a single piece of the 3 ply man sized tissue [unused of course] so I'll do a texture comparison.

I even induced a few wrinkles into the top surface.

 

I must say though Rob that your model is spotlessly dust free.  How do you achieve that, just a hoover, dust with a brush or do you use a dust grab sheet to wipe it all over.

 

Best

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks Barnaby,

 

The honest answer is I haven't done anything after doing the weathering by hand I gave it an all over squirt with the airbrush to blend the weathering in and then taking the photo's soon after. Perhaps the airbrush blew off any dust.

[Rob Pulham]

The brake van is finally finished and I managed to grab some shots of it in natural light before the heavens opened this evening.

 

It's now in various small adds

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rob Pulham]

This year as in the last few years I entered some of my wagons in the Rolling Stock section of the Modelling Competition at Guildex.

 

 

 

The steel hopper has featured on the forum before but I deliberately didn't share the NBR open before entering it.

 

Sadly on the day I rather stupidly shut the end door so one of it's best features was lost... Having said that, there was no way it would have won so to do anything it would have only displaced one of my other entries. A full breakdown train quite rightly took first place.

 

 

 

 

The Highly Commended trophy (third) was taken by my Leaky Roofed Van which has now been added to various small adds because it's in BR livery so too late for my modelling period..

 

 

Last but not least, the Runner Up trophy was taken by my ex Midland Goods train.

 

 

This is comprised of 3 box vans and a short brake. All built from old Slaters kits which were modified to represent examples found in Essery's Midland Wagons (volume II I think). Two of them had roof doors added and the brake van was also modified by boarding up the end window of the open platform end.

 

Having had a peep at the other entries earlier in the day I was convinced that I hadn't done anything and it came as quite a shock when mid demo Nick Baines came to ask me to attend the Competition Stand to collect what I believed at that point to be my trophy for the Leaky Roofed van. I was even more surprised to be awarded Runner Up too.

Edited September 5, 2018 by Rob Pulham

[Rob Pulham]

A few more shots of the Leaky Roofed Van

 

 

 

 

 

[jazz]

Great work Rob.  Regarding Guidex, try as I did you were so busy I could not get to see you. Congrats on your well deserved awards.

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks Ken,

 

I was certainly kept busy. It did have a positive effect in that I didn't overspend as I normally do so that was another unexpected bonus.

[Rob Pulham]

While in the North East on a weekend recently I have been doing a bit of wagon building on the workbench all by coincidence from Slaters are three LMS Cattle wagons, a couple of  BR vans and an NER 20 ton hopper. The cattle wagons are to be finished as Ale wagons and much progress was made on them this weekend.

 

Gogin from this:

 

 

 

To this.

 

 

 

 

I also managed to get all the roofs canvassed and a coat of primer

 

Just before posting this I also got them primed.

[Rob Pulham]

Cattle wagons primed and ready for the top coat - I need to find out from Bob what colour he wants the inside first though.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Having spent all my Christmas break building things for other people I decided to take a day out to build something for me. I had a look in my kit stash and came up with a Gladiator kit for a GCR 10 ton Open Wagon which Chris bought me from Geoff Stratford just before he sold Gladiator To David and Trisha Hill.

 

 

 

So far it has been excellent to build with all parts fitting as they should and the only bits of fettling were to remove some off the ends of the sole bars to enable them to fit under the lip of the bottom of the buffer plank.

 

 

 

Due to the sides being made up of a couple of layers of reasonable thickness brass the wagon even at this stage has a satisfying weight to it.

[jazz]

Hi Rob. You definitely have a way with wagons. I wish I had some of your running on Trenruth.

[Rob Pulham]

Cheers Ken,

 

If I am honest with myself, despite building lots of locos and thoroughly enjoying it I get most pleasure from building wagons. That pleasure is doubled when you get a nice kit to work on where everything fits as it should.

 

I am pretty sure that this is one of the former Majestic Models range and I have built quite a few of George's kits from either older kits under his banner or from the likes of Gladiator, Dragon and Connoisseur who took over parts of the range when he retired and I am happy to say that for all of them the quality of kit has been just as good as they were when under the Majestic Models  brand.