Spitfire2865

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.

WHat would you say coke looks like? Softer and duller? Smaller isnt it?

Well. One RMwebber was kind enough to take some pictures of Esserys Midland book which gives me the info needed to letter the coke wagon and the long low. I wont letter the latter until its complete but the coke wagon was waiting. I had a fun time getting the word coke to fit between the v hanger. I ended up using the small condensed letters off the HMRS PO sheet. The rest comes from the HMRS LMS sheet. Sadly, the M doesnt actually fit in the proper place. Its a hair too big but its close enough. The black metalwork may be incorrect, but I think it helps it stand out in a sea of grey. After looking at the pictures, I realized the wagon had a grab rail to the right of the door. Its odd. What looked like bolt heads was actually the mounting for the rail which was neglected in the instructions. At first I tried to drill into them but the bit wouldnt bite in and instead of risking further damage, I just glued the bar right to the bumps with superglue. I blackened the bar, which is piano/guitar wire by running it over a flame. Although brittle, its blackened. Thats all I wanted. Rather dark photos. Sorry about that. Brighter now. The wagon still needs a proper load. Its currently loose and I already have a piece of cardboard ready to mount inside. The top plank is painted and weathered inside but below that is my wood basecoat. I was too quick to build and I forgot to do a proper interior. Oh well. Wasnt going to leave it empty anyway.

Hello again. This morning saw some work. With lettering stalled for the coal and coke wagons, and the long low giving me trouble still, I put the van in top priority. The underframe as I have said before is a pain. I really never want to build another. Next time will need a brass underframe. The roof is still not glued down. Ill do that later. The underframe is surprisingly my best cambrian yet. Solidly on all 4 wheels, no rocking at all. What a difference from the 1mm gap before. The brake gear was all glued with superglue because at the time, I was so fed up with plastic cement. What I love about superglue is you can pry it apart and the parts are still good. No gooey plastic. Speaking of superglue, I can thank it for the existence of the long low still. I discovered the brake gear could not fit with my packing so I carefully pulled the underframe off the body and floor. Came clean off and with a quick dremel and some sawing, had the packing severly cut down. Went right back in too. Now I discover the brake gear is moulded incorrectly and requires a fair bit of bending to get it all to line up with the brake rod and wheels. So Im giving up on that for a bit while I finish some other kits. Im really happy with the van. It turned out very nice and will look the part with some very light weathering. Im also happy I happened to have a picture of the van So yeah. More work to be done.

Ohh very nice. How was the underframe on that? That roof has one hell of a profile.

Wow!

Cambrian makes great wagon kits. Nice detail. Durable parts. Great selection. Yet their underframes are hell. Their steel underframes are especially impossible. The mounting tabs to connect solebar and w iron is extremely inaccurate. This is my 6th cambrian kit and by far my worst. The wooden underframe kits are fine if youre careful with the solebar mounting. The steel on the other hand are a lot easier to screw up. And thats exactly what I have done. I hope the redo I did will fix it. I had to carefully pry apart the two parts and wiggle them a bit to get a more level fit. Oh how I hate it so. I actually am considering spending twice what I already paid for the kit to get some brass w irons and cast axleboxes. At least then Id get a level chassis. Forgive crap pictures. Its late, desk is a mess, and Im too tired to bother now for such a small update. My first attempt ended up with a mm or two gap under one w iron. Im no engineer (yet) but I dont think those fit into OO gauge tolerances. I ripped it apart and tried to redo the solebars. I seem to have managed to get it close enough. Not perfect but better than before. Hoping the glue goes off like that and doesnt revert to how it was. The 7plank is fully built. Just needs livery details. Same for coke wagon (no photos) And finally, I figured with the parkside and slaters kits stalled at lettering, cambrian stalled at building, and not wanting to start a 5th kit (the chivers), am trying to finish the long low. Still need to figure out couplings. Maybe just cutting some smiths down and gluing them in with plenty of superglue. Or somehow drilling a hole in the hook to mount it with a pin directly behind the headstock. I wish I could cut metal...

Lots of pictures. Well. The coke and coal wagons went together quickly. The coke wagon needs lettering and a permanent load. I cant find a single picture of one online so Im at a loss for how to do it. The instructions neglect any livery detail and the picture I hoped to go on doesnt make sense. The coal wagon is in the same boat. No livery info, no running numbers, no anything. Im at a loss whether to paint a white stripe,not do it, or anything. All this needs is brake gear and door springs and assembly is finished. Since my work has been slowed on these two wagons until the Essery book arrives, I have to move on to the cambrian LMS van. Handrails done, everything primed and painted. Now for assembly. Just a note to whoevers reading this. Telling someone to buy a hard to find book when theyre asking for some help isnt help. I couldve bought at least two more kits, or spent the money on something non train related.

Very nice.

The one piece chassis looks weird, theres no detail at all. Parkside and slaters both have frame detail. Cambrian seems to not care about such things. The big question though...does it sit on all 4 wheels? Oh and you seem to be growing some moss in a couple of those axleboxes. The trio looks very nice. Especially the third.

Haha thanks. To immitate coal, you must first be the coal.

Because there is no limit to human stupidity. I like the nonexistent descriptions. Probably hasnt a clue what hes selling. Odd assortment dont you think?

Well Im being a bit of a modelling butterfly right now. Jumping from one kit to the other. I cant even finish one first! First is the Long Low. Today, not much work besides fitting the outer v hanger which is an etch. Primed, paimted, and glued on. Painfully slow. You may just be able to see it here. On the other side as well. Now. My Slaters coke wagon. I rather liked the picked out ironwork found on the picture while in MR livery and Im going to keep that whether or not it was picked out in LMS livery. All 4 sides are painted, underframe bits are painted, floor is ready, solebars are surprisingly done. I didnt get the best paintjob on the w irons but my black paint isnt cooperating in the muggy weather recently. And the Parkside open. Ive done a lot of work on this tonight. Aside from being primed. The inside is all painted and weathered for coal. My hands are filthy from the powders. If you look closely, I took the time to paint all the ironwork inside. Not sure if its correct, but looks pretty good either way. I always forget how I do wood weathering and always do it differently the next time. Gives a good variety! This time, a base coat of flat tan, followed by a rubbing down with grey/brown powders while still wet, then a rough imperfect coat of flat brown, finished with a heavily brushed coating of grey/brown and black powders. Then, rubbed with both fingers and a wire brush once dry. It leaves a very patchy yet blended finish. The floor had a few planks picked out, redone, and toned down again to give slight variation. Just to illustrate my point, Im not sure why but the camera makes it A LOT lighter than it is, my fingers are mostly black with only the ridges clean. And finally, my newest kit. The Chivers LMS Bolster wagon. It looks like a fun challenge. And much more wire than my Parkside brake van! One of the solebar mouldings was actually damaged in the packet. I was able to fix it and even though they offer part replacement, even for your own screw ups, Im fine with saving him the trouble. It got here earlier than expected and Im just happy for that. I cant wait to build it...but I need to clear my workbench of the 3 other wagons first....the long low came in first and I think will leave last...

I dont even want a one piece chassis. Slaters, parkside, they know what theyre doing. The solebar fits snugly against blocks moulded to the floor. No balancing against nothing but the axles. Also, if they fixed their w iron moulds. Theyre uneven most of the time. If you build it flat and square, you get a 3 wheeler.

Im not kicking and whining. Im just surprised at their choices. Im all for rubbing down the livery. I half did a Hornby Pug..still have to remove one logo. Its hard work. Id rather go from BR to LMS than vice versa. Im just saying they have done a very narrow field here. But hey, thats RTR.

Well, been a few days. Have been working both at my job and on my trains. My Midland Long Low is coming along. Was primed and painted last night, and buffers added this morning. Still need to attach the wheel assemblies and then underframes. And ughhh couplings...how will I ever fit those... Wheel assemblies were masked, primed, and painted. Came out nice. And just needs a little touching up in a couple spots. And now, new things! I just got my order from H&A models yesterday. I got 3 nice new kits. All of them have now been primed. Waiting assembly...and time... A parkside 7 plank with end door. This will be painted and lettered in LMS livery. Heres a cambrian LMS van. Ive wanted to try a cambrian van for a while. I just dont look forward to the underframe...its cambrians biggest fault. But it does have wire handrails rather than moulded details, so theres a plus. And this will be my first wagon with Morton brakes. Yay for firsts. And finally a Slaters MR coke wagon. This may be my last slaters kit for a while...I hear theyre having production issues again, and most kits seem out of stock. Sadly, Im rather disapointed with this kit. Its an open wagon, yet no internal details were provided. Not even a planked floor. A bit of scribbing and a permanent load will be on order. Well...first permanent load then. But Ill never need this for anything else but coke so I guess Ill live with the compromises. Well theres my update. Not too big, but a good bit of news. Oh, and my new controller is still very fun to mess with. If anyone has any ideas where I could find a sort of spiral phone cord with 4 separate wires, that would be very helpful. Since this is a handheld controller, I need a connection better than 4 loose wires.

Emailing works well too. Hes very helpful and got my order out very quickly.