John Brenchley

Can I ask what size of ply you are using and the dimensions of the sandwich etc.  I'm interested in seeing how much lighter this might be than boards built with a solid pine frame.

Thanks

John

Western Australia also has a 3'6" gauge (1,067mm)

At 1:50 that works out at 21.34mm so depending how accurate you want to be, 20mm is reasonably close.

Same language (near enough!)

Best wishes

John

Perth, Western Australia

Thanks very much Mikkel.

I think most of the pictures were added before the style of the forum was revamped so I'm not sure if that caused problems with commenting on pictures.

The layout is not quite 50% complete so a long way to go.  At the moment I'm working on several buildings to complete the corner between the river and the 90 degree curve in the line as it heads towards Launceston.

Best wishes

John

Hi Richard

The word "ventilated" came from the Modelmaster N gauge sheet for LMS wagons.  As far as I can see, none of the other big 4 sheets have this word.

Unfortunately for you, the bad news is that I measure it at 5.5mm.

Best wishes

John

Thanks Mikkel

The trainshed appears in a couple of the pictures of Tavistock in my Gallery of photos

Best wishes

John 

That looks very neat and accurate  Chris

I was interested to read your comment about using the modified filmstrip tiebar as I thought perhaps I was the only 2mm scale modeller still using this method.

I'd be interesting to know what your modification might be please as its always useful to find out how others have found ways to improve on existing ideas.

Best wishes

John

Hi Ian

I think 1906 or earlier could be a bit of a problem for you with the 5 plank.  According to the GWR Goods Wagons bible, the first ones appeared in 1902 (O4) but did not have the extra depth top plank.  Even if you could file back the top of the wagon, the door fixings on the kit look to be on the wrong plank for an O4. The O3 appeared in 1904 and would probably be your best bet if you carefully cut away the T stanchion (in the blog above I incorrectly called it "L") to leave it as a flat strap.  On studying the book in more detail, I realise my comment in the blog about the kit not working for O9 is wrong.  There is a discrepancy in the book between the words and the pictures.  In the wording it states " On Diagrams O3/9 the end stanchions were parallel T-irons, and the side stanchions flat; on all the others both end and sides had tapered T-stanchions."  However, looking at the pictures it seems clear that O9 did actually have T stanchions so if you model a brand new O9 fitted wagon when it first came out in 1906 you could use the kit without alteration.  They did have sheet supports though which I think would be tricky to model in our scale.

Best wishes

John

All looking very good Julia

I have a vague recollection that many blogs ago you wrote about that yard crane.  If I am remembering correctly, it was an etch and there was some talk of whether it could be made available to others.

I am in need of a similar crane for Tavistock and am not looking forward to doing it from scratch so if an etch existed and could be sold to other modellers I'm sure it would be lapped up.

Best wishes

John

I've been following these blogs with interest  and am really impressed with the look of the weathered timber floors.  The delapidated look is coming along brilliantly

John

Thanks for your comments Mikkel, David and Ian

I agree about the outside framing - I enjoyed building the associations kit for the Midland outside framed van as well - their slightly smaller size makes them appealing too.

John

Thanks Mark

I've taken some photos of progress on the train shed so will post something on that in the near future

John

Excellant Richard. The weathering looks very realistic to my eyes.

John

Richard - as a PS to the above comment, in the pictures of the unweatherd wagons sitting on my cutting board, the inside is still the grey Tamiya primer (the colour may not have come out accurately in the picture though). It is only on the weather waqons that I have added the Humbrol matt number 72.

Richard - I have no reference to support my use of this colour (it was what I had to hand) and my intention was to create the look of unpainted wood that had faded a bit. The model is probably still a bit too clean inside and perhaps should be more grey than brown.

Ian - yes, Modelmaster do include GWR in their range and it includes all the letter sizes. If anything, the scale may be a fraction too large - not really noticeable for the "GWR" letters but I did find it apparent when trying to squeeze the tare weight and tonnage in between the vertical stantions of my mink C van (they should be next to each other but I had to put the tare weight below the tonnage) and also at the end of the Macaw B where the letters were a slightly tighter squeexe than they should have been..

Thanks Justin

I haven't tried Fox transfers. Are they better than the Modelmaster ones?

John

Thanks for your compliments Andy

Yes, the transfers are from the Modelmaster LMS sheet, apart from the number 16600 which is from the GWR sheet - rather thicker numbers than the LMS ones but it was easier to get the combination I needed from that sheet.

Richard - Humbrol brownish grey paint number 72, applied quite thinly so I think some of the grey undercoat is showing through as well.

John

Beautifully made kits and I endorse the comments about the excellent weathering.

One point that puzzles me is that the W5 seems to be one plank short in height - I know these were lower height vans but photographs (see GWRJ issue 62 or 63) seem to show 10 planks fully visible on the sides plus the top plank partly hidden by the roof. This model seems to have been etched with only 9 planks fully visible. Have WEP perhaps etched the planks slightly wider than they should be - this seems to be born out by comparing the point the diagonal strapping crosses the planks and the position of the top door hinges relative to the top planks .

John.

Hi Tom

I like the tree - nice open look to it.

Can I ask what method and type of glue you used to attach the flock to the polyfibre.

Thanks

John

The crane looks excellent.

I assume it is a 6 ton GWR crane. If so, is there any chance of me being able to buy an etch from you as I need this size crane for Tavistock and was struggling to work out how I was going to make it.

Best wishes

John

John Brenchley

Perth, Western Australia

Thanks for all your kind comments.

From looking at photographs, I think the corner framework is square section timber so on the finished model they should look the same thickness when viewed from either the side or the end. Therefore if the sides go between the ends, the framework on the sides should be thinner than that on the ends by the thickness of a layer of etch. Now that the kit is assembled its hard to measure but looking at my first photo on this blog entry, if anything the ends look thinner which would suggest the ends go between the sides.

I've just measured the finished model with a digital caliper - I come up with the following:-

Length - model approx 29.9mm - 30.0mm, prototype drawing says 14' 11"

Width - model approx 14.8mm - 14.9mm, prototype drawing says 7' 5"

If anything, the model is a touch too long but I'm happy enough with the compromise construction method I used. I think if I'd stuck with side between end for all four corners, the model would have been too long. Now I need to measure the roof that came as a separate piece of etch - my suspicion is that it may measure too small in both dimensions.

John

Thanks Don

I've just joined an LMS wagon group on Yahoo so hopefully they may be able to help with my queries.

John

I shall follow your progress on the chassis with interest as I have plans to built the one for a 48xx once the wheels are back in stock.

A key point for me will be how you get on with the motor and worm. It is a shame that the 2mm shop does not stock the shaft adaptors - for me being overseas it is a bit awkward having all the parts except one available from the Association but having to get the adaptors from elsewhere with added postage costs.

Best wishes for teh rest of the build.

John

Pete.That looks excellent.

In your description above you mention :-

"I am hoping to get back to the station soon and I have just received from Ian (Scanman) some of his self adhesive tiles (seen on the excellent Tavistock Blog) to complete the roofing."

One thing I have found, but have not got round to mentioning on the Tavistock blog, is that it I think it may be important to keep solvents such as MEK and perhaps enamel paint thinners well away from the self adhesive labels. I found on the station building roof that the slate layers had lifted in a couple of places (creating a bubble effect). Although I am not sure of the exact cause, I suspect it was because I used thinned enamel paints as a wash in the weathering process and this soaked through the slate layers and disolved the stickiness of the labels. When I get to the weathering of the train shed roof, I'm going to try water based washes and try not to get too much liquid soaking into the labels.

I look forward to hearing how you get on.

Best wishes

John

Regarding soldering on the overlays, I tend to use the method of taking the solder to the model on the tip of the iron and use a separate liquid flux (both flux and solder are from a company called DCC Concepts based here in Perth, Western Australia). The overlays had a thin layer of solder on the back and when adding them to the side of the van, I used the iron with virtually no solder on it.

Also, I have to confess that at each stage, before the pictures were taken, excess solder had been scraped off with the tip of an old scalpel blade and a fibreglass brush/pencil used as well.

Best wishes

John