Bluemonkey presents....

Thank you but I will keep the crew as is. You only get a brief glimpse as the locomotive travels past negating any static poses, on shed is a different point altogether. The tanks are accurate and correct to my knowledge for a 39xx.

Just for you my friend, a cheeky close up, its the large bottle of black. I bought this to replace my original black from Humbrol and this has proved a decent match for the Halfords spray I use of large jobs. Regarding the pre-printed sides I think it very much depends on the sizing of the wagon and the amount of detail for the wagon liveries. I have pictured each one individually from a very similar distance, angle and light. The Nationally Colliery and Arthur Day are Slaters pre-printed and the rest are from Powsides. The two larger wagons, Dunkerton and Ricketts, are Parkside and have a small amount of inner detailing. Having touched up the odd weld mark and areas where the pre-colouring has missed almost ready for service. I do need to add couplings and decide what to do about the interior and/or loads. I specially chose the Powsides kits as I have pictorial evidence of each of the wagons (number may be different for the further afield ones) on my layout location so in my eyes a must have. I give you a load of pre-prints for your consideration;

Been a strange week; Whilst waiting for the tie bars and vac pipes to arrive I got amongst a stash of pre-printed open wagon kits. The kits a mix of Slaters and Parkside but all via Powsides already printed. Really enjoyable builds a little frustrating that not must inner detail and some have only been painted one side meaning plenty of potential risk to run the finish when painting the inside. Had hoped to have these as empties but will probably have to load up due to the lack of detail features. All of a sudden my workbench looks like a result of a small explosion in a model shop! You may spot that the tie bars and vac pipes have arrived. The pipes are fantastic casts as are the etches for the tie bars. Unfortunately the tie bars are much too long for the wagons and I know the next size down are far too short so I need another cunning plan. In the meantime I have some more preprint wagon kits to play with.

Agreed if it needed shifting then it got shifted

My understanding (which is not really worth much) is that Great Western drivers are no the right hand side of the loco looking forward. The reversing lever is usually positioned closure to the cab wall but I guess Dapol decided to place it there show it may be more visible when on a layout? The lever is not very visible in the attached, which may be the reasoning for the inner position but is sited near the cab door.

Those are very nice transfers Chris and your finishing is superb. great job all round.

All door bangs, retaining bars etc are now fixed. A couple a day keeps insanity away! Whilst thinking about what to use to replace the tie bars, as I thought the brass wire would not only be a waste but also a little tricky to attached securely, I remembered @chuffinghell showing me some etched replacement tie bars from Cambrian . Unfortunately it appears the cattle wagons are 11ft wheelbase so these are not a product made but ordered some 12ft ones and if required I can take 0.5mm from each end.......................right?!!!! Also the vac pipes for the nine with vacs need new pipes as the ones supplied in the kits are a bit crude and over scaled, in my opinion. This is the only downside to these kits that I can see. Quick scan of Lanarkshire Model Supplies (no connection just a very happy returning customer) range found some very suitable and also some lower pipes for coaching over over hanging load stock, ideal for potential future plans, snaffle some of those whilst there. So whilst the orders are delivered and the plastic weld hardens off I may have another go at those fiddly chains on the warflats or I may just sit back and have a full afternoon of rugby now the season has final resumed sadly poor light for the cricket on the radio at the moment, still F1 qualifying instead.......................oh what to do?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! And Moto GP qualifying and and and and did someone say something about a kid in a sweet shop?

Hi Nick, Thank you, as I have yours. I appreciate your kind comments. Love your seated coach passengers, some fine painting.

Pictures as promised, taken from GWR Goods Wagons Atkins, Beard and Tourret pp424-25; Just the diagonal iron causing an issue, darn!

Thank you. Yes you are right better to spend the time now than have to later. I think if I had removed the bars and drill out shallow locating holes before fixing the ends it would have been a lot easier. @Mikkel there were 'special cattle' wagons dia04 I think that are very very similar in appearance but have louvers filling the entire gap at the top and with planked sliding louver covers at the wagon base. that could be a useful dodge for at least one wagon. I did note that one is specifically for my chosen layout location as well. More specialist transfer required there then! I'll dig a picture out.

Warning! Don't try this at home. My inspired stiffening fix for the retaining bar across the cattle sides is not a great idea and makes more work and takes a very long time to complete one wagon. Result; Appearance is nice and finer than the original plastic or a replacement plastic rod. Not sure how much more robust it will prove but it does take some time and the feeling of not achieving anything is great. Considering plastic rod for the tie bars though, especially with plastic weld on the ties.

I forgot to mention that each pack of the transfers will renumber one wagon. There are five accurate running numbers alongside the correctly associated tare as researched. Meanwhile it has been far too busy to complete the cattle wagons. I have managed one more warflat though. This completes the two already loaded, so I can now finish the unloaded wagons without risking the delicate chains. I have for comparison the original kit and the more recently purchased kit from a different supplier. The differences are subtle but can be viewed more so in picture than the naked eye. Both sides of the individual wagons also differ correct to prototype rather than mirror images as most wagons. This proved a little strange at times but you have to be careful.

Nice job they look really good.

You may also find this inspirational; Great Western Wagons Plan Book, JH Russell. Be careful though I your hand and with your skills it could very very dangerous!

Saturday turned out to be a pile of pants! One good thing that come out of it was these; I have been working with Simon from Old Time Workshop on the transfers for the warflats. Each pack contains enough for one wagon and all 5 numbers are genuine running numbers I found pictured from various sources. These are excellent quality and Simon was able to scale them to a perfect fit for the wagons I have built and to accurately represent how the wagons were liveried. If you want to build some wagons or just renumber your Bachmann ones then pop Simon a line for some, I am sure he'll have a couple left. He has a wide range of transfers and if you cannot find what you need email Simon and chat as I did, you may also come up with something fabulous. You can find him here; http://www.oldtimeworkshop.co.uk (Disclaimer: I have no links just a very happy customer). I will apply these later this week and show off the finished wagons. In the meantime I need to get those little detail parts on the cattle wagons ready for priming.

Finished the basics. Decided on 4 W1 and 9 W5. My understanding of the basic difference is the fact W1 are older and non-vacuumed where as the W5 are W1 converts and fitted with vacs. Happy and please do, to be corrected. Had a couple of the top irons to fix and missing one weight but in general a successful batch build. Now to let the cement harden off before messing them about any further. Hopefully the flats transfers will arrive tomorrow and that can be completed.

We have seen some constructive progress today, seems to be something about my modelling and hiding from the sun! About half way on the rake but do still require finer details and the brass wire replacements as previously mentioned. After some more picture looking I notice that the retaining bar is actually attached to the out edge of both the wagon end and door stay so that should make life a little easier.

I have a plan for those delicate tie bars and the bar running through the open side of the wagon to keep the cattle in. If possible this will be replaced with 0.45 brass wire but secured flush behind the axle guards, this should replicate what already exists exactly and the central side bar inserted into the wagon end and door stays to ensure a constructed fit rather than just attached. More fiddle but in the long run should be much stronger against my clumsy ham fisted efforts when running. Fingers crossed! Will update with pictures to visualise my babble.

Chris, sorry I am a dirty rotten liar! The D hooks are made from 15amp fuse wire but loosely shaped/bent around a piece of .45 or .5 brass wire to form the loop and cut with long tails to allow cutting to length as required. It was not until I start making a few more that I realised I had sent you a pup. I am only making more because I cannot count either

There is a re-livery project for a tank wagon associated with the WW11 stuff but I have never attempted removing factory transfers and reapplying new ones so it keeps being put on the 'to do' side of the bench.

Wow sore fingers from filing and scalpel use but all wagons ready to be thrown together now. Any further clean up will happen during build as required. Just got an order in for the required wheels of a future project loosely related to the flats but you'll have to wait and see as I have those cattle wagons to build and the flats transfers are on the way. A teaser is; there are 40 axles required! Not to mention the loco coal wagons I built a while ago but finished the bearings off the other day - N13s if I remember but I have a couple for another prototype just cant quite remember what that is. It will ping no doubt, probably about 3am , hmmmmm maybe N10s?

Thanks, I have read up a little and there is a line of thought that the lime markings would be visible from prior use until a repaint, that's my excuse any Should be able to get away with that.

Thank you. I am pleased with the resulting models although originally the casts received were disappointing. D shackles on the wagons are made from some old 15 amp fuse wire bent around a cocktail stick, cut to length and the ones on the tanks are part of the kits. Tensioners and hooks are from Ambis Engineering; http://www.ambisengineering.co.uk/ (no connection just very happy) as recommended by @Castle fiddly little devils but worth it unless you are running at distance.

It certainly is the Dart Castings etch. The build is mainly the Ratio Iron Mink which fits together very nicely indeed. The etches are very fine and as long as you ensure you have the right distancing and alignment between the wagon ends you are fine. It is a lovely thing to build. I was commissioned to build five in the GWR red which led me to make this one for myself. I might even have another one in stock to build, will have to check.

Found some old pictures of a couple of previous cattle wagon builds as well, interior very poor in comparison and I need to remove the cattle