airnimal

I presume that Limonene stick nickel or brass components to plasticard. I have never tried it and was wondering if it is long lasting ?

Going through the Caledonian wagon book I think the buffers I have are from Caledonian Railway wagons. At least the two outside ones are, I am not so sure on the ones in the middle. I have been through my parts supply and now I have misplaced my etch W-irons to go with the buffers. I have had a right ear bashing from my better half for not putting them away safely. I spend hours looking for stuff that I have put away but can never find again. Perhaps the carpet monster has grown bigger and swallowed larger items. So looking in the same book I like the look of a furniture van truck in plate 12.1 that could be a contender for a model. But there isn't a drawing only a description which states that the early ones had 3' 6" Mansell wheels. The photograph of wagon No 27 clearly has spoke wheels but are they the same size or normal 3' 1" wheels ? I have the buffers I could use and the axleboxes look normal enough but would have to guess at the brake gear. This wagon could come south of the border with a nice carriage on it. The headstocks seem very thin and tall and the solebars are in shadow so not making it very clear regarding the iron work. Failure to find out about this wagons I could model a couple of wagons in the NSR wagon book that I have made before. The ones I like are unpainted dumb buffer wagons with a narrow boat load. Now if I can source a model narrow boat as a load it might be a runner. I know Skytrex do a couple but could I adapt on as a load ?

Jim, thank you but I have the book here in front of me and I dont think that anyone of the three matches exactly the photographs or drawings. It could be that the pattern makers haven't got it completely right or there isn't a good enough photograph that that show the buffers from all sides. It is a bit late now so I will check all the photographs in the the book tomorrow.

I have being doing work around the house to get it ready to be put up for sale including laying a new floor tiles in the bathroom after we had trouble with a perished bath seal. I want to move house after being here for over half my life, but I think it is going to be stressful after so long in the same place. We went to view a house today that was in the perfect location but it had not been touch for many years and would have required about 50K spending on it. Anyway I have being looking at doing a few more wagons but I am running out of parts. Or more precisely the parts I require for the wagons I wish to build. I still have lots of parts from various places acquired long ago but they don't neccessarily match up together. I have found 3 sets of white metal buffers that claim to be Caledonian Railway but which one is the correct shape. They all have a web down one side, but the shape on the other side are all different. Perhaps someone north of the border will know ? I have Cambrain buffers but no axleboxes. I have lots of other buffers that I don't know they origins but without W-irons. I think I could do with a clear out and restock on parts that I require. I really wanted to start some baseboards for a layout or diorama but it not worth it until I know the amount of space I will have when we finally do move house.

Somebody's is going to be very pleased when you deliver this delightful model. Richard you are a true artist. Wonderful more please.

A little bit of a change from the usual. My friend Peter asked me to lightly tone down the paint on his brewery tanker. This is to go on his layout which has a brewery on it which I scratch built for him about 10 years ago.

I have decided not to build any new wagons for a while. So I am revisiting some of my previous wagons to upgrade them on things like wheels and couplings to see if I can improve them. This pair of bolsters wagons was made about 18 months ago when I didn't always trim the surplus webbing between the spokes on the wheels. So I have done one wagon to show the difference before and after. I do think it does make a difference because I think it makes the wheels or tyres seem smaller or more worn. The couplings are still the old Peco ones and should be changed but I don't have many loose steel links left. I think the ones I had been using came from Ron Chapman at Sheffield whom I believe has retired. I don't know if anyone else sells them ?

Compound 2632, I just used a number as close to the wagon in the official photograph. I have no evidence that it is real or not. I was given a set of Slaters etched W-irons for these wagons and just looked for a wagon that they would fit. I modified the W-irons by removing one side and soldiering a piece of brass L section on and tapping them with 12 BA screws so I could change the wheels without completely destroying previous work. I never understood why 7mm wagon bearings are so long that make fold etch W-irons hard work to make.

I hope you don't mind if I interrupt and post my S7 scratch built M.R refrigerator van on your thread. I don't have it anymore because it was converted to fine scale and sold to a London collector.

I can't believe it ! I have finished the ********** At long last I have arrived at the end. There are one or two things I could have done better particularly the windows but I only had a few slide cover glasses and once I broke those I went back to plastic. I will be having a break from the workbench to do some jobs around the house so we can put it on the market and hopefully move. Sorry if this has been a saga but thanks to everyone who has stayed to the end, I hope it was worth it.

Just a couple of things to do now. I have to paint the brake blocks and put the glass in and then to tone down the the paintwork. I am pleased with the coupling hook and links. This has been a long job which I estimate to be about 200 hours including the false start. I know this is silly when you think I dont have any NSR locos only 4 other NSR wagons. I would love a class D 0-6-0 tank loco. I did have a kit of one once but sold it on a couple of years ago. With any luck I will put the glass in tomorrow and tidy up any loose ends. Then I better do a few jobs to keep the boss happy.

I have stripped all the paint off the W-irons and made new springs. I only had springs as a complete unit , so I had go cut off the axleboxes because the they were of the wrong type. I find it difficult to fit all these new parts after the paintwork has been completely finished on the body. I like to get everything built and then painted together so that I don't mess up or scratch the new paint.

Dave, you are to kind, I'm embarrassed because I think there are far better people doing this sort of modelling than me. Just when you think the winning line is in sight......... I had painted the axleboxes and springs and because the springs are brass I left them on the radiator for the paint to go hard. I left the room to go and finish the last item, the brake standard. My wife came in my workshop to tell me that disaster had happened ! She had knocked off the castings from the radiator and sucked them up the vacuum cleaner. She managed to retrieve them but they were bent like bananas. So now I have to try and straighten them out and clean them up and solder new straps on. But first I have to remove the paint and the chemical black coating because solder will not take over the coating.

My usual one step forward and two steps back always seem to accompany me on my models. I have applied the tranfers on the other side including the tare weight but I increased the size of the large numbers because when I looked at the photographs they didn't seem large enough. I remove and replaced the same number on the first side so I thought I was winning. Then I cleaned the springs ready to paint them and broke one on the strengthening straps off. I also broke the brake handle and one of the soldered joints on the handrails. But I did varnish over the tranfers and the roof, and paint the brake shoes so a little closer to the finish line.

I have managed to find enough transfers to my brake van. I just have to fix all the lamp brackets and the axle boxes before I matt varnish it. Then it will will be toned down but not to dirty. The NSR letters are correct and not in the centre of the plank. That is how it is on the photograph.

Graham, thank you for your comments, it is appreciated. I have managed to get some paint on the underframe this morning before the rain came. There is still a lot to do. But at least it is on its wheels and getting closer to the finishing line. I have not trimmed the Slaters wheels as I usually do on open wagons because I don't think brake vans would be allowed to let there wheels wear down as much for safety reasons.

I have played around with the canvas roof and tried to reproduce a dirty work stained offering. I am not so sure if I have achieved the look I am after but I think it is better than a plain grey painted roof. I tried to smooth out all the wrinkles when the tissue was first applied but for some reason it wasn't going to adhere to what I wanted. I think it will be necessary to finish the van and weather the rest of the body and when its complete judge if I have got it right.

Thanks Chris, I am trying hard. I have started on all the rest with the roof having a tissue paper coating by applying one ply thin tissue brushed over with Limonene. This I will probably leave overnight to dry before turning it over and folding it back on its self. Here are all the rejects from the lamp brackets fiasco that nearly turned me into a stamp collector. Even my wife is on tenderhooks when I have been building this van. I still have to paint all the rest as well as cutting glass for the windows. There is still time for me to notice I have done something wrong. Pessimist or optimist, glass half full ? Well I am a Gemini.

Paint at last. This wasn't as straightforward as planned because after I had washed the van and let it dry with the help from a hairdryer, I put on first coat of paint only for water to seep out from under one of the frame panels. Strong words were spoken before rubbing it down and going over the blemishes. I also missed a couple of bolts off one of brackets which I managed to replace before giving it a quick blast over again. It has been a long job but providing I dont do something silly hopefully I can complete it. I am awaiting some more Birchwood Metal Black to do all the metal bits before i paint them black. But at least I can see some progress.

I am getting close to finishing this brake van now. I decided that I would have to make the effort to do these lamp brackets out of strip material . So I have folded 10 thou brass to the required shape with vast amounts of rejects. But finally I have got as close as I can to what I am after but it will not be my finest moment.

Graham, there really only 2 photographs to work from along with the drawings in the NSR wagon book which I assume has been drawn from the works drawings which I dont have. The drawing of No 60 appears to have the top of framing drawn in full but the drawing of No 459 appears to have this drawn a lot thinner. Also the angle of the photograph makes judgment difficult. I can only do my best with the information I have to hand. I have replaced the ironwork on the lower body side and put back on the long handrails. I have added a couple of 4mm handrail knobs in the middle. I can't really see how the handrails were joined to the body but these will give greater strength when handling the model. They may not be quite right but I dont think I have much option.

Just when I thought I everything was going well ........... Putting the long side handrails on something didn't look right. Go back to the book and study again. I followed the drawing with regarding the ironwork on the lower body side but this shows the ironwork reaching up to the second plank but the photograph clearly show that they only came up just over the first plank. I think the error is with mistaking the sloping part on top of the lower framing as another plank. I will have to remove all the lower body ironwork tomorrow and replace them with the right size. I think sometimes I look to hard and miss the obvious. Better to find out now rather than when its painted. It is only by building that things like this show up. I have marked with a pencil line where the ironwork should come up to.

The handrails on the side have now been put on and the upright and the long side rail soldered together. I placed a thin piece of Tufnol underneath while I soldered them together so I didn't melt the plastic body with the heat from the iron.

I have started on the handrails made from steel wire as I find it stronger than brass or nickel. I am drilling the holes for these only halfway through the framing rather than go all the way. This prevents the handrails being pushed through when the model is handled. A couple of Masterclub bolts at both ends help them look right. I can't quite make out how the handrails in the middle of the side of the body are fixed. The fixing at the ends are straightforward enough but in the middle the photograph is unclear. There is a bracket of some variety but how it holds the handrails may involve some guesswork.

I have decided to add the spring tension spacers and bolts to the spring castings. Not the easiest job I've ever had and they look a bit undernourished but I don't have any of bigger Scalehardware bolts in stock. This did test my soldering skills to the limit. Was it worth it in the end ?