airnimal

Ian, thank you for your kind support. I wasn't confident because I haven't built many coaches before and then only 4 wheelers. The problem was the brake cylinders were soldered in after the centre wheels were installed and I was trying to figure out how to overcome this fact. Once I had removed the steel spring wires by sliding then out i was able to unscrew the out wheel carriers just leaving the centre wheels intact. So having made one of the new carriers and tried one in place I am now a lot more confident I can make this conversion. But I have made one slight modification by removing the top folding retaining strap and soldering a piece of brass tube across the gap. I then removed the centre section allowing me to remove the wheels for painting. Sorry for the dark photographs but the black underframes are not easy to photograph.

After nearly 2 weeks without being the workshop because of an influx of children / grandchildren, one lot has gone home and the others have gone to London for a couple of days to see friends. I keep looking at my LNWR coaches built by John Petcher with a view to converting the 2 finescale ones to S7. All the bogie coaches were easier to convert to S7 but the 2 built on Slaters 6 wheel underframes are going to be a bit more problematic because the centre wheels are trapped in. I can make new ones for the outer wheel carriers from new etches but the centre wheels I will have to cut / unsolder the retaining strap without damaging the paint work or at least limit the damage so that it can be touched up. With the beautiful paintwork being so good quality I'm not sure I am prepared to take the risk and ruin these perfectly good models with my clumsy workmanship. Thinking about it I may make up the outer wheel carriers with new wheels before deciding if I am up for the job of converting the middle wheels. If the outer wheel prove a success then I will attempt to modify the middle wheels on the 2 last remaining coaches.

I have found another mirror that works very well without any blurring. It came from Go outdoors and was cheap at £7.00 . It is a bar end mirror ment I think for flat bars but it does work with drop bars. It folds up for going through restricted openings that appear on most bike trails. I thought with so many joints it would end up becoming loose but up to now it has stayed tight. The only niggle I have with it is after about 500 miles it has started to rattle but it have remained cristal clear.

John, I keep trying to get out on my bike but the problem is I dont get out enough. When I was at work I commuted on my bike most of the time but since retiring I only ever go out on Sundays and that's not enough. Still I did 40 miles yesterday and my legs feel good. But with all the family coming over the next 3 weeks I will be required to be grandad and stay home. I have glued some of the Slaters moulded letters on some square plastic rod making it easier to press them down on the paper. They haven't come out as sharp as i would have liked but with a bit more practice it may work in the end.

I think I need a bit more work and practice before I get what I want. Maybe another type of ink or paint but this will have to wait because I am going out on my bike today.

Now I have the bug I will attempt more wagon sheets. I wonder if I can stencil numbers on them using Slaters moulded numbers and letters. I tapped this one down under a couple of pieces of card before spraying them. Not entirely successful because there is a bit of over spray but it does show promise.

I wasn't happy with the spacing of the first two letters so I removed them and tried again. The tissue paper gets very thin with repeated rubbing out so the replacement letters are not as crisp as the first lot. Hopefully the next one will be better now with a bit of knowledge. My good lady is back from shopping and has ordered more curtains. I think half our yearly mileage is on account of returns to John Lewis / Next / M&S with household commodities .

Well my good lady has gone out again to return the curtains because they didn't meet her high expectations. The bedding and cushions along with the curtains have had more returns than a ball at Wimbledon . So while she is out I have done a bit more on this tarpaulin adding the letters as best I could. Also adding the numberplates and tare weights.

Thank you to everyone for their suggestions regarding tarpaulins. I haven't tried silk but I am continuing with tissue paper and Resin-W. This is the latest attempt using this method. The jury's out at present so it still could be scrapped.

Bob, I have tried many different methods of trying to make wagon sheets usually without success. This last method has the potential but I need a smooth surface underneath and not the coarse form that I used last time. I have tried foil glued to black paper but it wouldn't fold very well around the moulded block. I will have another go after the family depart for the airport and before the next lot arrives.

I keep playing around with black tissue paper forming it over some foam packing material but I am not that happy with the results even though I haven't finished it properly. The other thing is all work which has been done underneath will be lost forever. Perhaps I should start with a wagon built especially without any details above the solebar's !

Waiting for the first of the family to arrive tomorrow I thought I had better not start something to taxing. So I have being toying with producing some tarpaulins from various types of paper with hand drawn graphics. I am not sure if this will lead to anything because I have been down this road before. As soon as I posted this I noticed that the ampersand is not right. Must try harder.

Nick, if you go back one page to July 7th posting you will find details of where the photograph is located. If you find the LNWR society at any exhibition you may be able to but back issues of the society's journals.

I have been trying to model the load of earthen ware pipes packed in straws per photograph I am working from. The pipes are small offcuts of Evergreen tube with the next size to make the collars. I struck them down to base of black plasticard before spraying them with red oxide from a rattle can. When this was dry I cut up lost of bits of hairy string into small lengths. I use two different strings that I had in my bits box for years. One was quite light but the other was better because it had obviously been used more than the pale one. I packed a mixture of both around the tubes pushing it into between the pipes before sealing it with a fine coat of matt varnish.

LNWR coal wagon. Scratch built in S7.

No matter how much I look at the photograph I still get it wrong. I noticed that the mark above the brake rack was slightly to the right of the large coach bolt but I had put further away. I have rubbed it out and have done it again. I wonder if Van Gogh got it wrong and painted someone nose in the wrong place. Anyway I am not going to cut off my ear for a simple wagon.

It's amazing what you can do when it's quite in the house. I went over the wagon with some weathering powders and lost the coal wagon lettering. But it turned out better for that because I noticed that the letter O in wagon was not central which I hoped I have corrected.

The good lady has gone out again shopping for curtains and more pillows and cushions. Did I want to go with her ! Words fail me. You would think that we are going to have royal visitors rather than our own children coming home for a couple of weeks. Still it keeps her happy. So I am attempting to do what I see in the photograph. I think I should have weathered the wagon before doing the lettering because I will probably obliterate the work already done. Still it's a start. Looking at a similar wagon that's had the paint work toned down I should have started with a finish like that.

I have painted the printed axleboxes and springs and now the fun begins. The photograph I am working from has the letters ( coal wagon ) on the second plank down. I found what I thought was perfect letters in my box of tranfers. Placing the letters on the wagon revealed that my tranfers were 3mm high but I need ones 4mm high to be correct. The dilemma is do I attempt to hand letter the correct size letters or do I do one of the other liveries. The letters in the photograph are very faded with lots of shunters calk marks on which does appeal to me.

John, yes the Lady was scratch built by the late Peter Everton. It is a beautiful model that works every bit as good as it looks. Well my good lady went shopping leaving me have the day in the workshop. All new bedding was purchased for the visitors when they arrive. I didn't say anything because it's more than my life is worth. I assembled the wagon after the paint had a couple of hours to dry but I will leave it until tomorrow before doing any more at it. The spring wire resting on top of the wheels need a bit more tweaking to achieve the right amount of pressure. I am not sure which of the liveries I am going to do so I must see if I can find any more photographs.

I took advantage of the early morning sunshine and gave the body a quick coat of Halfords grey primer. All the other parts hopefully will get done today because the planned outing to Cheshire Oaks retail park has been abandoned because my wife doesn't want to catch covid before the girls arrive. I will try hard to appear to be disappointed. Thanks Jim but it easier in 7mm than the tiny size that you model. I could never see the parts that you make never mind trying to hold and assemble them.

Up early again. The bottom door release handle has been made from a small etch and a bent pin. I don't have any idea of the etch origins other than I found it amongst my bits of etch parts that I never throw away.

I have been very busy lately with family and friends. There has not been a lot of time to get in the workshop but by getting up early has given some extra hours. This coal wagon has had a few changes since I last posted because I spent more time looking at photographs and the drawings. It is amazing how every long you look I still miss things in plain sight or presume that this item must be there because it is always on other similar wagons. The brake handle I made originally with a round boss when the drawings showed a square one. I did this because one photograph clearly has round boss but when I looked again at the one in the society journal that had the square one. So either would be right but I am building this as one in the journal I had to change it. It also showed a large round centre pin holding in place. Another difference was the coupling plate. I modelled it like the majority of other LNWR wagons using drawings from Vol 1 of the wagon book but looking again revealed that this wagon had a larger 4 bolt plate. There are still more details to add on the solebar's including the label clips and horse hooks. And then there is the painting ! In the photograph I am working from there are 4 wagons all the same but with 3 different liveries all carrying different loads. As there were over 3000 built I would expect there would be more variety's than Heinz soup. I would like to try and finish this wagon very soon because the Australian clan are coming shortly as well as the clan from Swindon. As the third daughter only lives fairly close and they haven't seen each other for awile, I can't expect to get into the workshop with all the merrymaking that will be going on.

My jigs are simple home produced by clamping 2 pieces of plasticard together and drilling them as one. The back to back of the wheels should surely be set before they are installed in the W-irons. Again a simple home produced jig from turned brass rod. Once installed the W-irons can be located with packing to keep them central without any end float.

Nothing new on my latest build because I have been out for the day to my friends layout. I was invited to go with a couple of far flung chums to go again because one of them left something behind last time we went there. So we had a very good lunch at a pleasant pub before going to see the layout. I took along a few models so I could photograph them In a fabulous setting instead of my living room table. But the highlight of the day for me was playing with some of the finest models of museum quality that I have seen.