Nile's kitbuilding bench - Midland 1377

[Spitfire2865]

I'll leave that question for a wagon expert (which I'm not) to answer. The photo from the box shows both levers on the same side, which didn't make sense to me.

Even if wrong, rule 1, and a made up railway on top of it. Maybe the LMWR's drawing office made an error no one cared to fix.

[LNWR lives on]

What does it say in the notes that come with the kit?

 

If you have LNWR wagons 2 I think it is, look at the D48 Timber wagon which was similar to the rail wagon, as the style of build will be similar

 

**Edit: LNWR Wagons 1, D13 Timber Wagon

Edited October 9, 2015 by LNWR lives on

[Nile]

The kit instructions are as per the photo, both brake levers on the same side. As Trevor says, this is my railway and I've built the wagons my way.

[LNWR lives on]

It is indeed your railway and I am not criticising your work, far from it, was just trying to find the answer to Trevor's question, I have learnt a lot from your thread regarding detailing etc.

[Nile]

For transfers I've used some from the kit and some from a HMRS sheet for SR wagons.

This is after a coat of matt varnish.

 

 

I've glued some bits of lead to the undersides to add a bit of weight.

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Spitfire2865]

Which decals came with the kit? Were they any good? I just realized with 8 wagons coming in the mail, and almost all of them being lettered for LMS, I dont actually have enough decals for them.

[Nile]

The 'E' and numbers were in the kit. The ex-LNWR coal wagons set comes with a full set for both LNWR and LMS, so you should be ok for decals. They are good quality waterslide type.

Edited October 11, 2015 by Nile

[Nile]

For the couplings I've used the hooks from the kit and added 3-links from Ambis. This needs the openings in the hooks enlarged slightly to allow the links to fit.

 

 

 

The bolster wagons, now with added bolsters. These are free to rotate.

 

 

The four finished wagons plus the previously featured brake van.

 

 

A short engineers train rolls through Wyndal.

 

 

I'm moving on to the LNWR coal wagons next.

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

These wagons have taken far longer than they should have, lots of things got in the way, including an exhibition. But they are now finished, hurrah!

This is the Ratio LNWR coal wagon set, which is very similar to the previous kit. Like that it went together well, apart from one problem I had with the 5 plank wagon. To get the sides to fit properly I had to remove a small amount from the bottom of one of the side pieces.

 

 

One side and ends glued to the floor.

 

Without the mod the other side won't fit flush against the ends.

The chassis are the same as before, so no problems there.

 

 

After much mucking about with paints and transfers this is the result.

 

 

The 4 planker is in an older livery and could do with some more weathering.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile
speeling

[Spitfire2865]

Very nice. The D4 could really use just a complete coating of grime.

Though youre lucky. It seems your kits didnt have any broken brake levers.

A few of mine were bent or broken. A bit of fault on Ratios behalf for putting the delicate bits on the outside of the sprue.

[LNWR lives on]

Another couple of beautifully made wagons I particularly like how you have split the liveries. Were your kits recently produced or older ones?

 

Regards the brake levers I have had this problem with quite a few so have resorted to mixing up the wagons to one brake lever each side one some and just the one on others as much the prototypes had changes

 

Why Old Man Webster put them on the outside we will now not find out but I am told that the machine he had early on was just big enough to inject the 50ft coach sides with no room to spare. Would not explain though the levers being outside as that sprue is smaller

[Nile]

These kits came in shiny new boxes, which should be enough to protect the parts. However one brake lever in the p-way kit was broken, not a problem in that case as there are more than needed.

[Nile]

Just for a change I've been building some of my own kits, sort of. These are 3D prints by Shapeways of my designs. I recently ordered some models to be printed in the higher quality material Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD) to see just what was possible with these designs.

These are HOn3 models (American 3 feet gauge prototype) and one reason I'm building them is that I'll be helping operate a HOn3 layout at the Warley show this year and I want to be able to run them on it. So I'd better get on with it.

First up is a Refrigerator car (reefer). This is what it looks like out of the box.

 

I forgot to include the roof hatches in the photo, they are separate parts in their own bags.

The roofwalk can be seen attached to the body, not so easy to see are some brake parts also attached. This is because some materials incure extra costs with separate parts.

 

With these parts removed here is the painted body.

 

Just visible behind the corner steps (stirups) is some support structure to protect them. They have been removed in the next photo showing the underside.

 

The airbrake has been fitted, there is also a vacuum brake diaphram included as an alternative.

For the truss rods I've used E Z Line, an elastic material, threaded through the holes in the floor.

 

 

Although I could have used my own truck design I wanted to see if Blackstone trucks would work.

 

I turns out they are a perfect fit, putting the couplers (Kadee 713) at the correct height.

 

The roof needs to be made from some plastic card, this is a better and cheaper option than trying to include a printed one with the model. Here I've used some Slaters planked sheet, scored down the centre line to form the correct shape. The roofwalk hides the score line. The parts aren't fixed in place yet, I'm working out where to put them.

 

These are the open roof hatches, closed ones are also included with the model.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Spitfire2865]

Very nice.

Though its a shame the ice hatches are printed. For future modification of this design, you may consider working HO scale ice hatches from RTR sources.

[garethashenden]

If you go with the open hatches, make sure you cut the holes in the roof. It just looks silly at the moment.

[Nile]

Very nice.

Though its a shame the ice hatches are printed. For future modification of this design, you may consider working HO scale ice hatches from RTR sources.

 

I've not seen working hatches in HO scale, could you point me in the direction of some.

 

Yes Gareth, I will.

[Spitfire2865]

I've not seen working hatches in HO scale, could you point me in the direction of some.

Well Atlas do them in their N scale rolling stock, so Im sure its possible in HO. Ive seen it in some older HO stock. Unfortunately I dont know of any specific examples.

[Nile]

On with the roof. Having decided where the hatches will go I cut holes in the roof using the closed hatches as a guide. I've put some 10x40 thou plastic strip around the holes for a frame.

 

 

 

A test fit of the hatches.

 

 

On the underside I've glued some bits of plastic card to represent the interior bulkheads.

 

They also block the view of the ballast weight, another bag of nuts.

 

This brings the overall weight up to 50g which matches that of my RTR reefers from Blackstone and Microtrains.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Spitfire2865]

Im guna call youll somehow need a nut that you glued into a wagon.

Exactly how are you going to position this? The ice hatches wouldnt be open unless loading, but thats a quite interesting structure in itself.

[garethashenden]

Im guna call youll somehow need a nut that you glued into a wagon.

Exactly how are you going to position this? The ice hatches wouldnt be open unless loading, but thats a quite interesting structure in itself.

They'd also be open if it was running as a ventilator rather than a refrigerator. For fruits and vegetables that can't freeze.

[Nile]

It may be slow but there has been some progress on this one. Spending the weekend at Tolworth Showtrain didn't help, and increased the size of the kit pile.

Here I've stuck the roof on and painted and weathered it. I've added some handrails from 0.4mm brass and the door lock/handle thing.

 

 

A reefer with plain sides looks wrong, this model needs transfers/decals. A look through my pile of transfers found nothing. Then I looked at my HOn3 kit collection and found a PSC kit of a C&S reefer that has decals for both its original C&S livery and its later RGS one. This provided enough 'spare' decals to my model. I cut the RGS up to make GSR, never mind it stands for.

 

 

When I sprayed the model with matt varnish I also sprayed the trucks (without their wheels). This made it easier to weather them with thin washes of black paint. I painted the faces of the wheels with railroad tie brown.

 

 

The final addition is the brake wheel (Cal Scale plastic) on a 0.4mm brass rod.

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

The next two models are very similar. They are both boxcars that have been modified for use by the MoW department (Maintenance of Way) for the use of track work crews. This mostly involved adding some windows to the sides, one car has had the sliding door replaced with a smaller door.

The raw prints as they come.

 

 

After the removal of the roofwalks and the addition of some paint.

 

 

Because the material is semi-translucent I'm painting the insides of all these models black.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Some more progress. If it seems a bit rapid it's because I started these while working on the reefer.

Because the material these were printed in can be a bit fragile I added some supports to the stirrups to protect them in transit. These can be seen on the model on the right, painted red. I carefully remove them after painting.

 

 

I suppose it was inevitable that I would drop one on the floor after removing the supports, this was the result.

 

 

I replaced it with some 0.7mm square nickle silver super glued in place.

 

 

This is the underside of the other car with the airbrake and trusses in place.

 

Holes for mounting the Kadee couplers will be drilled using the couplers as a guide.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

The paint scheme for these vehicles is pretty simple, overall reefer grey. The markings are fairly simple as well, using some Microscale decals. Here are the models after they've been sprayed with matt varnish.#

 

 

 

Glazing was then glued to the insides and more bags of nuts for ballast weight added, secured with some PVA.

 

 

The bags were painted black before the roofs were stuck on. I've used more planked Plastikard for these. The roofwalks were painted black before being stuck on to prevent any see through effects.

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile

[Nile]

Moving on at warp speed...

Before painting the roofs I fitted some vents, there are supposed to be stoves and other things inside for the work crews to use.

This is the result of my painting and weathering.#

 

 

 

This is the final new build model for this train.

 

It's a sort of half boxcar half gondola type thing, quite literally as that's how I created it.

Edited December 18, 2022 by Nile