Spodgrim

I've wondered in the past about cladding the whole side in thin plasticard which can the heated and moulded into a flute. Problems are 1) your tender has just got wider. 2) you'll have to lose any rivets on the tender side. 3) The fluting rises from the outside edge of the top not from the whole of the top.

Ian - Reminds me of Woolston from when we were kids. Or Micheldever (which is possibly a William Tite station) which I suppose is the same era as you're modelling, 1840's

Ian - Encouragement is my middle name

Ian, I tried buying you a 7mm coach from Parliamentary Trains for Christmas (just, because...) but it didn't work out unfortunately. If Chris can do them as kits I'll buy you a couple. And if you live long enough I might even build them for your birthday :-)

I think I've said before I have problems finishing anything. I have half built locos in O Gauge (x2), O-16.5, OO, 3mmFS, and 2mmFS. The 2mm one, a "scratchbuilders aid" for a LSWR Class 700 from Worsley Works has been sitting around for at least 15 years, still all on it's fret with 2mm Society wheels, a worm and three gears (if only I could remember which one was supposed to go where), bits of PCB and, somewhere I hope, a motor. I've also got a plan of the loco. I know this because I've found a photo copy I did at 2mm to the foot, but no sign of the original 4mm one despite looking in "all the usual places" (absolutely everywhere I can think of!). So, yesterday having waited only a decade and a half I rushed in and started with the tender. I've decided I just need to get something built, if it looks right, great! If it runs well, amazing! If it looks right and runs well... let's not get carried away. What a place to start! Bending 4 round corners, bending 3 flares, doing something clever with solder and files at the bit where round corners and flares combine. maybe I need another 5 years to think about it. Helped by the kit design I bent the corners round a brass rod and got something I'm happy with. There were no major issues with bending the flares, slow and steady seemed to work. I'm going to have to check the angle on the plans as currently they're just by eye. I've decided to solder the sides to the footplate before doing the magic bit with the corners as that seems to involve a lot of filing that will possibly benefit from a secure base and happily tacked them together, badly as I now see on the photo. But, I had fun doing it and if it doesn't turn out to be a masterpiece so what, at least I tried. Tune in for the next thrilling instalment... sometime around 2027 at my glacial pace.

I'll see your 3 Terriers and a shunting layout you're building because you've got bored and raise you 3 Midland Railway vans! I don't even model the Midland! Good luck with the layout and hope it gives you pleasure.

But, were the corner plates painted black on both liveries? If not the ends are going to look odd.

So did I get it wrong on the LBSC van? That would have saved me time and angst

The Great Lock-down wagon project is proceeding at my usual glacial pace (if glacial, in today's climate, means retreating, cracking up and liable to cause a global disaster!). I've added a, nearly finished, LBSCR open wagon, but I still can't get straight lines on the the painting which frustrates me. I'm still part way through a Midland van, but I can't decide whether to build the chassis solid or fit suspension which will involve carving half the under-frame away first. What this space!... but not too frequently. So my butterfly modelling brain has skipped to weathering and I've bought some weathering powders (hereto and forthwith referred to in this household as "model railway make-up"). Never having used them before I didn't want to practice on the new wagons and I remembered my brother (who from time to time sends me his model railway cast-offs (To be fair, three of the four kits I've built this summer have come from him)), had sent me some RTR wagons once. So here is my first attempt at weathering. I've gone for toning down the colours and a general dustiness, rather than overdoing it and I'm quite happy it won't stand out on a layout as too clean or too dirty.

Hi Ian, the first one did, but I'm also going to make up a couple of S&W couplings and see which one's look best and work well. It's taken 50 plus years not to build a layout, a few more weeks messing about surely can't hurt... can it?

Of course I've just realised, with reversible wagons, if I decide to standardise on Sprat & Winkle couplings I'll have to put hooks on both ends if I only put loops on the loco... Every silver lining has a cloud

Now that's what I call a hard audience :-)

I've had to take a few days annual leave from work and I've utilised it to finish off a couple of vans. Working on the basis you can't see both sides of the van at the same time I've played with timeframes and put different liveries on each side. The white patch on the LSWR van is the light reflecting, it looks fine in real life. I can also see the camera cruelly brings out the worst in my painting (and transfer setting) some of which I need to touch up and some of which will need the willing suspension of disbelief,or I'll just drive it round the layout (which I haven't built yet) at a scale 200 MPH so no-one can see it!.

I now see what the problem is... I've run the calipers inside the solebars and it's 23.7mm so the Bill Bedford unit was never going to fit. I think I'll build it rigid and use the w-irons on another kit... except I used my last 4 bearings (I soldered them in to the carrier) and they're on back order Grrrr!

Thanks Collett, I was aware I needed to remove the w iron on the kit before getting a proper fit, but I was thinking there still wouldn't be room (of course I forgot I would remove the other W iron on the other solebar as well)... What can I say, It was late! I'll give it another bash at the weekend, in between finally being allowed to collect my daughter's stuff from her University hall of residence where it's been sitting since mid March. Interestingly, I've just run a caliper gauge over the one I've made up and it's more like 24.9/5.00 so I think I need to be more careful making them up. Perhaps that's part of my problem. Update 11/06/2020 21:56 - I've (gently) bent the bottom fold in with small pliers and they're now more like 24.7mm. Thanks for giving the measurement Collett, I wouldn't have thought of that otherwise.

Working on van no 3 and I thought I would fit Bill Bedford sprung W Irons. They're a great bit of kit, if a little bit fiddly (but it was the first time I'm made them up so I should get better) and seem to spring really well. But it looks like I'm going to have to shave half the depth of each solebar off to get them to fit (and a fair part of the floor struts). Do you know? I'm really not sure if I can be bothered :-) I think I need to sleep on it.

...in between going to church, having lunch, going for a run and hovering the house. It's a Cambrian Models LSWR 10 Ton Van (the roof is only resting on it atm as I need to add weight to it yet). It's a great little kit with loads of detail and went together well (I accept the half hour I spent fettling it so the corners joined, may well be due to my cack-handedness). I bought some Bill Bedford compensated W-irons, but the one piece floor, solebars and W-irons seemed to sit so squarely I decided to keep them for another project, time will tell if that's a sensible decision. The only thing I'm not sure of is how long the buffers will last (they're made up of 3 parts and feel a bit fragile) and I might look at sourcing some brass of whitemetal ones if they do break. All in all a fun little project. The only issue is I've got 2 more vans in the pipeline and I either need to start building some open wagons or work out what traffic I can load at a quay that needs to be in vans.

Thanks John The Kadees are an experiment. I want delayed uncoupling, but having just bought the loco I can't bring myself to cut the NEM pockets off to fit something like Sprat & Winkle, I bought some No 18s for the loco and I'm trying them out. I'm interested in how you use the bamboo skewer to uncouple Ian Simpson - You're going to have to add Bamboo skewers to the coffee stirrers and Lottery cards in your modelling box :-)

Thanks Ian, It was meant to go in the body of the post, but something went wrong. Now corrected

This model railway lark is harder then it looks. Maybe that's why after 50 something years of messing about with modelling I still haven't got a layout! So I've scraped off the errant "5" and replaced it with another one (which I was happy with until I looked at the photo, Oh well!), sprayed it with matt varnish which has made a lot of difference (although it looks shiny on the photo as I had to use flash) and I've got a working train... of one van. Not sure what an Isle of Wight van will be doing of the mainland, I expect it's a question that will go all the way up to Sir Herbert Walker, but I'm happy with it. One of these days I'm going to have to attempt weathering, but I get the feeling you probably have to sacrifice a goat at new moon or something to be any good... or practice, which I have an aversion to.

Having had the last 7mm wagon I'd nearly finished roll off the table and fall into it's component parts I started looking round for something to get my modelling enthusiasm back. Answer - yet another LBSCR kit my brother had sent me (I'm starting to see a pattern here), this time in 4mm. A Smallbrook Studio 8 Ton Van, which went together well, took paint well... and then I got to the transfers. Oh well! Next time they will be spaced better and horizontal... I hope :-)

WAIT! ... "I'm afraid the new job did rather get in the way of posting," I'm your brother and I find out you've got a new job through RMweb! Where's the familial loyalty :-) Congratulations Oh! and good modelling with the wagons.

Thank Ian It's Precision Mahogany (P988). having done these I will certainly look at the LSWR ones

My brother despite, or perhaps because of, my predilection for the LSWR will insist on giving me LBSCR kits/stock/books. To be fair we did grow up in a flat above a LBSCR station so I think he's returning me to my roots or something. It's got to the stage where I have almost as much Brighton stuff as South Western. So it's time to bite the bullet and get something Brighton running. Within the many "relief parcels" I found a set of 4 Etched Pixels 4-wheel coaches and Peco chassis' (he thinks of everything, damn him!) so this is where I started. Early days before gaps have been filled, partitions added and the soldering cleaned up. These are great kits - although the Guard's duckets did require my strongest language to get them to fit properly (and even then I could probably do a better job if I was willing to burn all my fingers). Partitions added, body painted and just sitting on the chassis'. The paint finish looks better in real life, so I'm wondering if the camera was on too high an ISO or if the flash has shown up flaws I can't see. Or of course I was spraying from too far away. I'm currently plucking up the courage to fit Dapol magnetic couplings to the outside ends of the two Brake Thirds and will run them as a fixed rake. All in all, this Brighton stuff is OK... after a fashion :-)