airnimal

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.

I have only used resin rivets on plastic models but I would imagine it would be preferable to do all the soldering on metal models first before adding anything resin. I do have some metal rivets for brass loco's but I also file brass lace pins when I need different sizes. Mike

Historex Agents, go to brands at the top of the page and then down the left hand side, rivets nuts and bolts. Mike

I use resin nuts, bolts and rivets from Masterclub. I buy them from Historex in Dover. If you go on there website and look up Masterclub nuts and bolts, all the sizes are listed. They are a very reasonable price and Historex do a very good mail order. I use them all the time on my S7 scratch built wagons.

Marc, the drawing was published in a LNWR society journal. I could sent you a copy but I don't have a printer of scanner. I could ask my wife to do one at work but it will be next week.

I have got the wheels on which helps the motivation when the weather outside is grey and raining. There are still many hours to go and this one will have more lime wash than the others. I will use the photo in Vol 1 as a guide.

A small amount of work has been done with the end timbers and buffers in place. I have run out of metal coupling hooks so I have had to use PECO plastic ones. I am sure they will be alright but I haven't much experience of running long racks of wagons. And the fact I might never have the space to run them coupled with my age and lack of railway to run them on it means they may never be tested.

This spare kit has now been sold. It would be a shame to leave it doing nothing when a fellow modeller can use it. I am sure there are lots of people who would like to profit from unavailable kits that are never likely to be repeated. One only has to look at E-bay to see that. I have sold it for what I paid for it. Mike

Hi Sam, I have a spare kit if anybody is interested. I am not likely to build this anytime soon so it's a shame just to leave on the shelf. PM if anybody would like it. Mike

It's looking a bit more like a cattle wagon on one side at least. I have done the floor inside to please the wagonman. I am surprised how long its taken me to get my eye in on this one but it appears to being going well. I have another appointment at the Hospital on Tuesday and this time they told me by text, letter and phone call. Either don't tell me or tell me multiple times.

Although there doesn't look like much progress it has taken the best part of today to do one side and that even isn't finished. There are the doors to complete before I chamfer the edge of the timbers and add all the details.

'I don't appear to be making very much progress with this cattle wagon. Even though I have made two similar ones before I forgot the way I constructed the framework and what sizes I used. After many false starts I now the basic idea again. Another problem I have had of late was models taking far longer to get square and true. I traced the problem to my long and trusted Moore and Wright square that I bought when I was a mere slip of a lad. I placed a steel rule down the back edge and held it up to the light and was shocked to discover it was like a banana. Fifty years of running knives and scalpel blades down the back edge many thousands of times has worn it away. Still fifty years of service has more than paid for its self. I bought a replacement from Squire's which came by return of post. I don't know if the quality will be the same but I don't think I will be around in fifty years to find out. There will not be any progress on any layout until after we move house which may get a little easier now my better half has decided to retire. So after Christmas we will start to look at what is on the market in the area we want. My suggestion for a three bedroom workshop didn't go down well.