martin580120

Not quite as exciting as the locos being shown off (maybe later in the year...) but after spending a day manning the stand at Model Rail Scotland, I've made some more progress with my Caledonian wagon fleet. I finished painting, transferring, weathering and loading my two diagram 22 wagons and I've built two 7ton "bogie" wagons. The latter haven't gone entirely to plan, things not quite square for the most part, but everything is a learning experience (or so I tell myself...) Hopefully once they've had some liquid greenstuff treatment, painted, weathered and loaded it won't be too obvious...

Could very well have been in the instructions and incredibly clear Jim. I've an awful habit of misreading them or reading them, thinking I understand them, carrying them out then going "that doesn't look right..." only to go back and see I should have done something differently. A bit of a nuisance in modelling, a bit of a liability when I was an explosives chemist...

I have some 10 thou plastikard I was planning to use to make compartments, it's all just 200 miles further North than I am currently. I also wanted to wait till I've sorted the underframe before putting anything particularly melty into the frame. I do have some of the seating strip from the Association, and some cheap N scale figures from eBay. I was thinking about seats and passengers, Might not be 100% accurate but from a normal viewing distance it will hopefully be effective.

Having managed to make some time over the last few days in between the festivities, I've continued my forray into modelling thr Caley. First up, a couple of Diagram 22 8 Tonne mineral wagons - made from Jim's etches. These are the first fully etched kits I've completed. Quite fun to put together and excellent instructions. I've got some cast axle boxes to add, but they're at home and I'm occupying a corner of the Mother in Law's kitchen, 200 miles away. There's a couple of bits I'm not quite happy with, but I suspect it'll get better with practice. Second is 45' Third Compartment Coach from Worsley Works. I've got another couple of these to work on. I'm waiting on the coach book from the CRA dropping through the door before thinking about the internals and underframes/bogies - I have a cunning plan but need to see some drawings with a scale. (If anyone else has had similar and had their own cunning plans, I'd love to learn from others experience/mistakes etc.)

That's my first Caley Diagram 67 covered van finished. I'm on much more familiar ground with painting, weathering and using transfers having been a wargamer for over 20 years through a few genres (see the Waterloo French Line infantry slightly out of focus behind the wagon). This one's not perfect, I've spotted a few things I've not got quite right, but for a first attempt I'm happy(ish). I've quite enjoyed the process, it's something very new for me, so I think a few more vans might be forthcoming. I'm due to collect some etches from Jim at next weekend's Forth and Clyde Area Group, so I think that means I'm committing to the Caledonian as a project. I suppose that means I'm going to have to start thinking about a locomotive to haul them and a railway to run it all on...

Hello all, this is my first post here. It's not quite as impressive as some of the works I've seen on this thread over the last wee while I've been lurking and watching the forum. I've spent part of the weekend attempting to make a Caledonian Railway Diagram 67 externally framed goods van with a generic etched chassis (2-329 from the Association) plastikard and strut. The below is the fifth or sixth iteration and I'm quite happy how it's turned out (eventually). It's not perfect, but I think an appointment with some liquid green stuff (a secret weapon in a lot of my modelling) and a coat or two of paint will hide most of the sins. It's also my first attempt at scratch building a wagon in any scale - I've made about two dozen BR mineral wagons and a couple of brake vans from Association parts, and have a large collection of Parkside kits in OO, but decided to dip my toe into the pre-grouping era in 2mm. Hopefully this is the first of many CR wagons on a wee project I've got in mind.