Spitfire2865

Well. Its really come together. Today I managed to get the other end and side done, effectively finishing the exterior walls...aside from strapping and supports. Yes the veranda end is a little off. My "genius" woodworking skills gave me a crooked body so I need to put a brace on the top to try to bend the body back to a rectangle. And veranda doors. Glued in, ripped out, glued and ripped again, and finally given up and will put them on later. They were just a weak spot I didnt want when I need to assemble it. And that brace I was talking about. This needs to go towards the roof to try to square up the whole body. Well. Yeah. Next is the veranda/cabin wall. May take a bit of guesswork as I have no photos of it. Might just make a flat insert and paint a door on it. Would be as good as anything to be honest. Im sick of cutting wood, and Im so glad those 4 walls are done. Theyre all actually equal in dimensions. Just f***ed up the corners. I plan on building everything first, then priming and painting, assembly, adding underframe bits, touching up at the joints, and livery-ing. Still a long way to go. But hey, I managed to get the body knocked out in a weekend! Well. Thats all for tonight. With sawdust in my lungs and glue on my fingertips, Goodnight.

No help on preservation, but the cab wasnt something to be switched out whenever you felt like it. It was part of the engine. Just like any other component. Yeah you COULD change it out but that would require workers, a workshop, and time. Not something for any odd day.

Well. Another update. After my first post. I started building up the body. I now have 2 walls and I had a start at the end windows. The completed side is finished apart from the strapping which Ill make from plasticard. The window was a pain as I broke the tiny plank nubs at the outer edge and had to make spares and file them down to shape. Window finished and looks good. The frame for the other side. I built the edges first and fitted the wall to it. The whole body is surprisingly strong seeing as its all thin bits of wood. And heres the body mounted to the chassis. Well...more just placed on the chassis where its supposed to go. Well. Same as last time. Any information, drawings, photos of the LNWR diag 17A van, please tell me. I need it to do the veranda end or it will all be pure guesswork.

Well more work has been done and its starting to look less like a window frame and more like a van. The chassis frame was given springs and then a floor was added. The floor is a pressfit part now as I will have some issues with the clasp brake mounting. I need plasticcard to mount the w irons so I need to order that. Not sure why I didnt bring any with me when I went back to school. And with that done, I started on the body. A simple bottom plank frame to mount the rest on. The inner wall is a little off but will hardly be noticeable on the finished van. And the rear wall is mostly done. I had issues with this one as the wood I bought for the planks is a tad too thick so I had to shave each plank down to get 10 planks to fit in the height. I still need to cut out the windows but that can be done later. A quick mark, drill and saw will have 2 nice windows which will be glazed eventually. And the buffers. As wizard models didnt have any LNWR buffers, I grabbed a set of NER fitted ones and filed the round profile to a rectangle seen in the photo of an LMS liveried brake van on the LNWR society page. Its not perfect or ideal, but it works and saved me the hassle of looking for the correct buffers on other sites. Again, I ask. If ANYONE has any photos of the LNWR diag17A brake van in any condition, please do not hesitate to tell me. I have no photos of the veranda end nor the opposite side(though I assume its just a mirror to the first). Thank you

Well. Its begun. The Diag 17A Last night the bits came in from wizard models and I had a start at a w iron. Then today, I folded up a second and soldered both together. Fitted the wheels and they look great. Just have to figure out how to secure the spring wire as they keep flipping to a concave shape and giving no suspension. And today I started the chassis. I cut some wood for the solebars and headstocks and glued them together. The headstocks need a bit more height so I may sneakily add another piece of wood on top to look larger. The middle support is just to help keep its shape. And everything together...sorta. And today I learned that the local train shop closed down sometime over the summer. So stuck at uni, Im now lost on places to buy bits aside from online. I have to turn to amazon just for plasticard... Well. Theres the update. Short compared the the last few. I may end up redoing the chassis as Im not entirely happy with it. Problem with precut wood,I cant find the exact size I need. The headstocks and solebars are too thin. Needs more height. Oh well.

Well. I said my next update would have trains. Didnt say only trains. I finally used my Essery book. I found a nice picture of a 1924 built wagon with no stripe so I figured why not. I didnt want to paint the line so Its a win win. And a little bit more work on the double bolster. I finally got around to getting the brake levers on. Theyre a pain as they dont fit flat but actually curve around the solebars so I have the end and support glued and held, then Ill get the handle secured. I am still waiting for the components for my LNWR diag 17A brake van. Should come tomorrow. Ill get the drawings printed and Ill start work on the underframe first. Ill work till the solebars and then Ill build the body on that. If anyone has any additional photos of this diagram aside from those on the LNWR society page, I would be very grateful. And now the train update is over. The plane update has begun. My P51 has had its first couple decals. If youve been reading my workbench thread, youll know I absolutely hate waterslide decals. They are a pain to get to sit flat around edges, curves, and over details. Im happy the first two decals went on as easy as they did. Next, the bottom wing edges and then Ill paint the edge to match the stripes. Should also help hold down the decal edge. And for the dauntless which has had a ton of attention since I got back to uni. The cockpit was primed and painted and I built the gunners ring as well. The seat is a rubber band and the ring is brass and the first thing Ive soldered on campus. Heres the fuselage with all the insidey bits shoved in. I still have a ton of work to get it acceptable. I may even add details to the pilots area, with dash, gun details, and the like. Heres the same thing with the canopy off. Im thinking of getting a different canopy as this one is undersized, too thick, too undetailed, and overall bad looking. The reason my finger has been sore the past couple days. Ive drilled the dive brakes for one wing. Still have to do the other. One wing is fully drilled, cleaned, and painted. The other...isnt even started yet... The topside. This kit is turning into a pain. The lack of detail and horrible design choices makes this a rather ugly kit and I only hope all my hard work will end in a good looking model. (from 4 feet away) I am considering tearing into the underframe to get rid of those horrible moulded in wheel profiles and replacing them with more realistic gear. Well. Plane update is over. Trains will resume shortly. The brake van should give some good posts for a while. It will be slow work, it will be hard, and it will be a new experience for me. Wish me luck.

Well. Im back at school. New workbench for a majority of the next 9 months. Well my next train will be a LNWR diag17A brake van which will be completely scratchbuilt. I have bass wood ready to start and am waiting for an order from Wizard Models of w irons, brake gear, axleboxes, springs, and buffers. But for some actual modeling, Ive been working on a long stalled kit. A Revell P51 Mustang. The pilot was painted when I first started the kit probably over 2 years ago. It stalled at the wing/fuselage gluing. Everything was painted and ready but I just stopped. Just today I repainted and weathered the pilot from a glossy olive to a matt and dusty green. The plane as a whole. It still needs filling in some places. The cockpit was a very detailed one, so it was painted as such. I did a rather good job on it too. With pilot seated. I dont intend to glue him in. Bottom. I like the matt-ness of the yellow. Well. If you didnt like this post, then Ill be back soon with more railway modeling. Still getting used to this semester and it will be a busy one with 4 heavy engineering courses. This brake van will be the first non-open scratchbuilt wagon , will be the first not built on a plastic underframe, and will be the hardest to get right. I plan on getting an underframe correct and then build the body on top of that. Just realized I have no plasticard.. Gota head to the model shop at some point.

The blue and white coach looks nice with the crimson loco. I think a rake of them is in order.

Oh wow. I wish I could do that with plastic. I saw you changed the title to the thread as well.

If you need to paint the handrails, I suggest a soft tip white paint marker. Its how I did the handrails on my LMS brake van and it doesnt flake or chip off like paint. Just a quick piece of paper to protect the grey and a quick pass with the pen.

Wow completely neglected this for a bit. Been doing work on two wagons for the past week or so. If you havent read my status, the Essery book I ordered from amazon was destroyed by the postal service and returned to the seller. Its sad that this is an acceptable way to treat mail. And the seller didnt notify me until I enquired about my orders location. So a new one is ordered, I just need to wait even longer... Well. Ive been mostly working on the Chivers bolster wagon. Its all painted and assembled asside from brake levers which need to be bent, and the bolsters which I dont want to glue yet. I intend to run this loaded with some "logs" from the garden. And I was kindly provided with a good article on bolster wagon loading procedures and it seems I may want to make my next purchase a couple L&Y single bolster wagons. And Ive been progressing very slowly on the long low. Its honestly a pain as the brake gear were so badly done that I had to bend it so much just to get them to fit between the wheels, be near the treads, line up with the brake rod, and not foul the rocking axle. I managed to snap one in half while doing all that but it can be glued together when the brake rod is in place. The brake levers and guides were primed, painted and are waiting gluing. I honestly hate the etched components. They may look better when finished, but are a pain to use and are fragile too. The safety loops were added this morning. I think the floor has bowed a bit from the glue...oh well. The long low needs to be touched up after completion. Ive knocked a lot of paint off. Well. Theres that. I lost a book, two wagons are nearing completion, and I have to pack to go back to uni. Hopefully, none of my stock will be damaged on the trip back.

Hello. I recently bought a chivers bolster kit and while assembling it, it gives no indication if the bolsters were painted or left in plain unpainted wood. I have not been able to find any photos of such wagon. Could anyone help? And if anyone knows how exactly a load would be chained down, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you.

That van looks great. I like the chipping paint look.

Im not the first to say this, but usually scrap wagons arent in the same condition as the scrap its carrying.

Stupidly, "awful" still truly means "full of awe" which implies positive. Not sure where our definition comes from.

Well. Weathered the wagon last night and admittedly, made it way too dark. I cleaned off most of it leaving it stained to a nice degree in my opinion. The photos of it seem almost cell shaded to my eyes. Still needs a load. Will try charcoal but I have another idea already.

Charcoal may work.

Putting that hooked wire on the end of a pentorch will greatly increase visibility. Gets dark between vans and such

Yay for 3 links! The new wagons look great. Hows the new couplings for you?

Very nice. Though I foresee youll have fun painting the interiors of the opens. Haha. I always have to appreciate the time spent in lettering. You could spend 30 minutes just on one side if theres enough to put on. They turned out very nice.