Nile's kitbuilding bench - Midland 1377

[Nile]

The other van got the same treatment.

 

Built to the same diagram but with a few subtle differences.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Primed and ready for painting.

 

No buffers at this stage. The kits came with Romford coach buffers, I'll be using 3D printed ones designed by Guy Rixon.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Nile

[Guy Rixon]

Those oval ventilators: are they the ones that came with the kit? I've never seen ones that shape except where a railway was trying to squeeze tall stock into a low loading-gauge.

 

The vans look very nice and the way that you've sorted the shape of the axleguards is very pleasing. I shall have to do similar on my SER models.

[Nile]

The ventilators should really be round (they came off a coach). I'll replace them if I find the right type, and they don't look like blobs of whitemetal or plastic.

[Guy Rixon]

Branchlines will sell you round Laycock ventilators that are presumed correct for SER/SECR subjects as they came from the Branchlines kits. The last batch I bought were reasonable castings in whitemetal. They used to do them as brass castings.

[Nile]

Painted, lettered and weathered. This side has the later livery. The X indicates they are unsuitable for explosives. It's position must have raised a few eyebrows.

 

As is usual now for me the roofs are held on with magnets.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Guy's buffers arrived from Shapeways, they come neatly arranged like this. These were printed in Frosted Extreme Detail.

 

 

The holes in the buffer beam need to be opened slightly to 2mm.

 

 

Once painted these look as good as any cast buffers.

 

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Steel buffer heads and 3-link couplings were added to finish these off.

 

 

 

The other sides carry an earlier livery.

 

 

 

I shall return to that SER brake van next.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

The SER brake van is from a D&S kit that covers both Midland and SER 6 wheel types as originally built. I bought it as a bag of bits, partly built but with a few bits missing.

 

 

Looking at the chassis first, which wasn't fixed to the body. Most of the bits are there, one brake shoe has broken off and another is missing. The rocking w-iron unit is off scene.

 

One problem to fix was the V hanger assembly in the middle which fouled OO wheels, I've moved one side inwards.

 

 

The middle axle can be made to float in a tube. Far too much bother for OO so I've fitted bearings in the w-irons. I've kept the rocking unit on the right even though its effect will be limited. The missing brake shoe was replaced by a Comet coach one, not an exact match but it's hardly visible when finished.

 

 

Cross shafts fitted. I've used the kit parts at the ends where they might just be seen, plain rod for the rest will do.

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Body and chassis have been re-united and fixed with some solder.

 

About now I noticed a few problems. The body ends have been transposed (they are slightly different), meaning those projections at the top will have to be removed and replaced at the other end. The solebar overlays have been fitted upside down, meaning the triangular supports formed by the stays would be also be upside down. I removed the stays that hadn't already fallen off, I'll replace them later.

 

Footboards fitted, no missing parts or instructions here.

 

 

The whitemetal end piece was firmly glued onto the end of the chassis. The upper supports made from microstrip are mostly cosmetic.

 

 

The buffer beam at the other end was missing, I made a replacement from a strip of wood about the right size.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

The roof came as a pre-formed piece of plastic card long enough for the double verandah version. I cut it to the correct length and marked the body ends on the underside. Two pairs of 2mm magnets will hold it in place, with the aid of pieces of plastic glued inside the body.

 

Handrails and detail bits added. The axlebox spring units are replacements from 51L, LYR I think, close enough for me.

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Some more bits added. More of the printed buffers I used before, as they were missing. The missing angled stays on the solebars were replaced by bits of microstrip. The remaining bit of brass tube from the Chatham kit was used for the chimney.

 

 

It looks complete now, ready for painting.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Nile

[Jack P]

Looking excellent as usual Nile!

[Guy Rixon]

The van looks very nice. I shall have to get on and build my remaining kit for this type.

 

The axleboxes need a bit of thought. Your replacement castings are a close match for the ones on the Midland's own vans, but at least one of the preserved vans is wearing SECR no. 2 oil boxes...

 

 

 

...and I don't know when those were introduced. Also, nobody makes them as a 4mm-scale product that I know of, so perhaps I ought to do them myself?

Edited February 12, 2018 by Guy Rixon

[Nile]

I'm going to assume they fitted new axleboxes when the SECR added the second verandah. Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Nile]

It's now been through the paint and transfer process and is now finished, until I spot something I've missed.

 

 

 

 

This has ended up as a very mixed media model, it's now made of:

 

brass

whitemetal

nickel silver

steel

wood

polystyrene plastic

printed resin

neodymium magnets

acrylic paint

 

I think that's all.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Next is the first of two Chatham kits, a LCDR open wagon. This is what's in the box, etched brass and whitemetal.

 

 

The sides and ends were glued together around the brass floor. Looks simple enough, but I found that the floor was too long to fit between the headstocks. I decided the easiest option was to reduce the length of the floor to fit.

 

 

This meant that the marks on the underside for the axles were in the wrong places now. Not a problem as the solebars have enough details to work out where the axles should be.

 

Edited November 25, 2022 by Nile

[Guy Rixon]

My understanding of that kit (I have built two) is that the floor was meant to rest on top of the exposed part of the headstocks, but there is not quite enough space to fit it over the headstocks and under the side knees. I filed a bit of the side knees to get the clearance, but Nile's approach is better.

[Compound2632]

Those side knees are a bit on the chunky side (for once) but also somewhat otiose as it's a dropside wagon!

[Nile]

The w-iron units were folded up and glued to the underside, lining up with details on the solebars. This was when I discovered the axlebox-spring parts were missing. As I wanted to get on with it I made up replacements from the LYR ones I had, filing the boxes square like Chatham ones.

 

 

Buffers and brake gear fitted, just the one block and lever.

 

 

Do my knees look big in this? I assume they are meant to be wood on the sides.

Edited November 25, 2022 by Nile

[Compound2632]

Do my knees look big in this? I assume they are meant to be wood on the sides.

 

I suppose they could be strengthening timbers, but why no bolt heads? It seems strange as the insides of the ends have what looks like a reasonable representation of the ironwork one would expect to see there. But without knowledge of the prototype, I'm just going by what seems to have been usual practice. Odd. Hide it under a sheet...

[Guy Rixon]

Those axleboxes look like SECR "D" boxes rather than the axleboxes that were in the Chatham kits. No obvious reason why an ex-LCDR wagon couldn't have acquired D boxes late in its life.

 

I used MJT GNR-type to replace missing or broken LCDR axleboxes. They are quite a close visual match to the ones in the Chatham kits.

Edited February 24, 2018 by Guy Rixon

[Nile]

Moving things on a bit (time seems to have flown by):

Primed.

 

Painted, transfered and weathered.

 

While I was at it I added a few others.

[Nile]

Next , another Chatham kit.

Three layers per side plus lots of fiddly little bits to attach, yum!

[Guy Rixon]

Do you have an RSU? I did, when I built one of these, and it helped. It needed to be on its higher settings to deal with the mass of brass. Nowadays, I think I'd prefer to pre-tin and try flame soldering, or hotplate soldering, for the main layers and RSU for the outer ironwork.

 

There's also a tricky bit with this kit in the the layers built up into a kind of stepped mire at the corners and need to be aligned very carefully to get a neat joint. I didn't do this very well and had to do much filling. But you will have seen this with you LCDR brake-van.