airnimal

I have done an hour tonight and started on the other panels. I am well on the way now getting the other side together before I start to chamfer the framing and putting on the ironwork. But I think I will have a bottle of Belgium beer and watch the snooker.

Only a small amount of work today. I have fitted the door on one side and I have been adding the small fillets of wood to drain water from the framing. This includes the longer pieces on the bottom of the frames. Another hour to add to the total.

Stunning. Nothing more than stunning.

There is a photograph in Locomotive Illustrated No 158 page 28 of a Altrincham private owner wagon. It was photographed behind a LNWR coal tank at Manchester's London Road station c1923-1924.

I have a postcard in my collection that might be of interest. There are no markings on the back so I do not know where it came from.

rocor, yes it may be possible to rub the plank lines with some sort of shaped metal tool but the problem comes from consistency and trying to keep them all the same. I have done another 3 hours today mainly on the outside framing. I have also done the non verandah end which will need trimming to size later. I nearly made another mistake because I didn't look at the photographs only the drawing which isn't very clear regarding the top of the framing. I was going to make it the same as the verandah end but it is different . Anyway I checked just in time before I glued the curved part on. Someone must be watching over me. The total time now is 28.5 hours but about 12 of those were wasted when I had to start again. I did say from the beginning it would be a long job.

Andy , yes a blade probably would be better ground as you say but I don't have the facility here. That is one of the thing I miss about work, having a fully equipped engineering workshop at my disposal. I have finally managed to find the off switch for the flash so hopefully I can get better photographs. I couldn't sleep last night so I can down and did 3 hours work and made a start on the side panels as well as the interior partition. I went looking for a bit of scrap plastic to make a floor insert and found a bit of old wagon already painted. So I cut a small portion that fitted perfectly that I will fit after I have painted the rest of the body. Why did I never think of that before ! The reason I needed a floor is because when I pulled the wagon apart the first time I rebuilt the new body the wrong way round and the planks I had scribed were at the other end. So something good has come from something bad. Instant karma.

After yesterday's disastrous attempt at building this NSR brake van I decided I would rescue the frame and make new sides and ends and have another go. This time I abandoned holding the Olfa cutter at 45 degrees and just cut the plank lines as normal. I have spent about 7 hours today building this to the stage you see here. I also helped with domestic duties to keep in the good books. The frames look heavy without the chamfer but there is a long way to go before I get to that stage. One benefit of yesterday's disastrous attempt was I looked very hard at the photographs and noticed a few things I hadn't being aware of. The panels on the door being one of them, the frames are not as heavy as the other frames. Sorry the photographs are not very good I have tried playing around with different setting but the flash is a bit harsh.

If at first start .............

Well that didn't take long. Having glued the body together, the penny dropped ! I have made a fundamental mistake in the fact that the none verandah end is also inset and I had made it flush. Plonker. Occasionally I start a wagon thats not going anywhere. I think this is like a British Leyland Friday afternoon car. O well as Peter Greene would say.

I have spent about 4 hours messing about deciding if I should start again but in the end I have made a new panel at the veranda end. All the body panel are fairly close match regarding the plank lines in consistency so I will continue. I was going to make the top part where the side windows are from one piece but I now think it would be better to make in individual parts, and yes I am making this up as I go along. Time taken so far 15.5 hours. It could still go in the bin.

Now I have come to the crossroads. Do I go forwards or start again ? The time taken so far has risen to 11.5 hours. But I have tried something new on this wagon. I have held the Olfa cutter that I scribe the plank lines at a 45 degree angle to give me a beveled edge. On all other wagons I just hold the blade at 90 degrees and cut the same number of cuts which is usually just twice. What I should of done was a test piece and then painted that and then compare with my normal method. So I have scribed a scrap bit of plastic and given it a quick spray of red oxide. This shows me that with the blade held at 45 degrees the test piece highlights any unevenness of the lines. Looking at the parts already cut out I can see a difference between the first pair of sides and the ends. My dear wife says I am being to critical of myself, but how does one get better if you are not ? The 2 end's certainly show a difference in the plank lines with one being deeper than the other. Consistency is the key and can I maintain it. Thinking about this I have gone back and had a look at my unpainted cattle wagon and I can see a rogue plank. Perhaps I should have just done my normal 90 degrees cut and not tried to be too clever.

Another 2 hours work and the basic underframe has been put together after making it to long. I had to take it apart and start again but I think I have now gotten it right. I have cut out one end and started on the windows. I have made it over wide to cut back when I come to assemble the body together. I know some people build up all the framing before glueing the body but I prefer to make the basic body and apply the framing afterwards. I have found a pre curved roof in my bits box to the right radius so I will use the same method as I used on the cattle wagon.

I have managed to get a coat of Matt varnish on the bolster wagon while the weather was bright and sunny. We also had a couple of miles walk to stretch our legs. I am surprised how long it takes me to make a wagon because I am logging the hours spent on this one. This will be quite a complex build with all that framing and brake gear. But it has taken me 4 hours to cut 2 sides and the floor out. Thinking how which way to build things takes time even when I have made hundreds of wagons. I have cut the window openings over size so when the top panel goes over the top there will be a rebate for the glass panels to sit in. ,

I just need to weather the small bolster wagon and find a suitable load for this pair. I don't have any NSR locos but that could change in the future. But having built 4 NSR wagons I am going to build a brake van to go with them. I have built 3 in the past from Meteor resin kits for various friends which I modified to upgrade them. I changed the white metal brake gear to hand made brass items to make them stronger. I would also like to model a couple of NSR cattle wagons as well. So I have started by cutting out the basic sides. This will be a model of No 459 with 2 windows in the sides and the unusual brake fixings. Instead of V hangers there is a bar bolted to between the W-irons which holds the brake tumbler. I think this is going to be a long job so I may count the hours on how long it takes me. I think this may be quite frightening.

I totally agree with the above comments. There isn't anything better than to see quality of this standard. More please.

I have tried to make a better job of the hand lettering. It will need to be weathered to take the shine from it.

My dear wife has let me borrow her Samsung I-pad to see if I can get better photographs now I cannot use my old Apple device. So here I hope are the start of better pics but the models will still be the same. Not sure if that is a good thing as you may see more faults and warts. Anyway I have made an attempt at some more tranfers and hand lettering. I think I will remove the NSR knott and hand lettering and try again.

I have tried to sort out my Apple I-pad without success. I even enlisted 2 of my 3 daughters ( the third is in Australia ) to help me with this and all 3 are far cleverer than me, but none could sort the problem out. So I will have continue with this camera until I can fix the Apple. I have painted this small bolster wagon that just needs the axleboxes and springs before adding the markings.

Added a bit more detail including the hoops made from .7mm wire and a couple of handrail knobs. I must admit I like these small wagons and they don't take a lot of time to make. I do miss using my Apple I-pad because it had a far better camera than the one I am using now. When RM web had an update my Apple would no longer allowed me to post on here. Not being a technical person I was unable to modify or alter it to accept my posting.

A sad day for the drinking classes when every pub in the land is closed. Even Hitler and the second world war never achieved that.

I have managed to get the bolster on with the curved runners and rectangle stanchions. The early dumb buffer one didn't have runners and has round stanchions. One of the benefits of scratch building is the ability to make each model as near correct as possible rather than what's available from the trade.

John, I wonder if a lot of Adrian's stuff that is appearing on e-bay claiming to be built by him was made by him. I can't go any further with the cattle wagon because I have run out of castings for the brake shoes so I have started another NSR bolster wagon to go with one I made last year. But this one has self contained sprung buffers in place of the dumb buffer on the early one.

I have just opened a small bottle of dark lager from a Latvian craft brewer Vaimiermuiza. The tasting notes say prune aroma, roasted caramel and hazelnuts with gently roasted bitterness. I get the tastes of the prunes but also dark coffee. It is very pleasant and not to strong at 5.3 %. I am drinking it from a new glass bought for me by my better half for Christmas along with a selection of other fine beers.

I have spent a fair amount of time trying to get a good join where the roof meets the body. I have made the roof a tiny bit longer than it should be but in my defence, photo's of the original are limited to one. The roof is vacuum formed for a GWR coach kit and cut up to provide several van roofs. I have put thin strips of Evergreen plastic on the inside so the roof will just clips in. My better half will retire today after 24 years service. What impact this will have on workshop time I'm not sure. We will be able to go and look at houses with a view to moving and hopefully find a bigger workshop but that's not my wife's priority. There has been a few wagons on e bay recently from the estate of Adrian Swain. The seller claims that Adrian made them but I will have beg to differ on some of them at least. This is not any slight on Adrian's good name because Adrian was a craftsman who's talent has helped us all. There is a LNWR wagon on there at the moment which claims it to be a plastic kit. It is fact a resin kit built by me from one of Adrian's kits that he bought from Meteor Models. I made the master and built and painted it for Adrian to put on his show stand. It seems sad to see Adrian's models end up on e bay along with his unmade kits at vastly inflated prices.