Blog- Barry Ten's GWR/WR Blog - GWR Gunpower vans

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Before the Parkside kit was announced, I fancied a pair of gunpowder vans via the established route of elderly Ratio Iron Mink kit plus Shirescenes etched brass sides. Unfortunately I cocked up the painting of the first van so it sat in a cupboard gathering dust, until I needed to get the Modelstrip out for another project. Having stripped and resprayed one van, I thought that was as good an incentive as any to do the second one, so another evening was spent with the Ratio and Shirescenes parts. I assembled both vans as per the instructions, except that I also filled in and removed the ventilator from each end of the wagon. Somewhere along the way I'd also managed to lose the etched door locking gear from one of the van sides, so a fair approximation was then botched together from wire and plastic. Incidentally I seem to remember that there are some dimensional issues with the Ratio Mink, but since I'll only be operating this pair of vehicles, they'll at least be consistent with each other. I imagine if the Parkside one is substantially more accurate, it might look a bit odd in the same setting.

 

The transfers were from Fox, and there are enough on the sheet to do three vans. I've yet to add the "GPV" letters to the ends, and it's a good job there are enough for three as I ruined a few of the letters before getting into my stride. I have just enough GPVs to finish them off. In typical Barry Ten fashion, too, I managed to misplace my copy of Beard et al so couldn't track down any prototype lettering info beyond what was available on the internet. From what I can gather, the placement of the GPV's and GWs varied considerably, and some of these wagons also had "gunpowder van" in white lettering. However, in the end I found a photo of a 3mm Iron Mink which was the basis for my lettering for both vehicles. I know it's not really the done thing to model a model, but the 3mm model looks plausible to me.

 

Still a few things to be done, and roofs painted, but nearly there, and I'm pleased with the "different but still GWR" look of them. Now I need to find how these vehicles were marshalled into trains.

 

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