macgeordie

Hi Jacob, you have mail. Ian

Hi Simon You have mail. Ian

Hi Ian It's good to hear from you again, I hope you and yours are all well. The cream van can be built from the Palethorpes van kit, you just need to leave some of the parts off the model, these items are mentioned in the instructions. I have one kit left in stock if you would like it, the cost is £49.20 plus £3.30 for p&p. You can pay by PayPal or cheque as before, let me know if you need any further details to do this. Cheers Ian

Hi John I did the roof detail based upon photos and a drawing in one of the books, a snippet of the drawing is below. As you say things may have been modified later but I have no evidence to confirm that. Perhaps someone from the GWR study group might be able to shed some light on the reasons for the differences. It was a pain to draw up but the end result is pretty convincing. Ian

That's a relief John, I did look at doing the 7mm version, but only for about ten seconds Ian

I heard the terrible news this morning from another friend of Mick, it is an absolute tragedy. My deepest sympathies to his wife Anne.

Lovely job Mick I am very impressed with your rendering of the Teak finish. It looks like you might have done that once or twice before Ian

Hi Simon I am pleased to hear that you are enjoying the build, it’s not the easiest model to build but makes up into a nice van. It wouldn’t be cost effective to do a 7mm version, every time I have redone a kit in 7mm in the past it has never covered the cost of doing it. The other problem is that the spring and axle box were a special commission from Justin at Rumney Models and I don’t know if they would be available in 7mm scale. Ian

Quick update for those who have requested one of these. I have received the etches so I'll get them packed over the next few days. I'm waiting for a delivery of castings from MJT/Dart which might slow things down as they sometimes take a long time to deliver an order. On the down side, I have just received the invoice for the etches and they haven't worked out to be as cheap as I had thought so I'm sorry to say the kit price will be £62 not the £55 I was hoping for. I'll be in touch with everyone on the list over the next week or so. Ian

I have ordered all of the etches and had the quotation back. A bit of good news, the etches are not going to be quite as expensive as I had originally thought as they have been able to fit two frets onto one tool for a couple of them. It looks like the kit cost will be £55 now instead of the original £66. Ian

I've now got the model back from my friend so I thought I'd post a couple more photos of it which I have just taken. I'm ordering the etches this weekend for those members who have requested one of these. Delivery from the etchers is still around 5 weeks so I'll contact everyone again then. Ian

The paint job is now complete thanks to my friend. I will be ordering the etches for those forum members who have requested one of these next week, so if anybody else wants to go on the list, please 'message' me. I will contact everybody on the list before I order all of the etches to confirm their request as I don't want to be left with a lot of unwanted etches. Ian

A couple more photos of the paint job my friend is doing for me. They are really starting to look the part now. Ian

A friend of mine has volunteered to paint this one for me. My painting equipment and paint booth are in the loft and with this gammy leg of mine I just can't get up there. Here are a couple of photos he has sent me of his progress, the primer is now on and the roof is painted. I've been trying to find out more about the East coast traffic, I believe without much by way of firm evidence that they were used out of Yarmouth and Lowestoft in the 1950s, while common sense suggests Grimsby too. Does anybody have any firm details on this or any other information about their use on the East coast? Ian

The model is now ready for the paint shop. Ian

Sorry Justin, my sincere apologies for the oversight. The error has been rectified Ian

The castings are all now in place, the buffers are Dave Franks (LMS Models). The buffer was originally his B019 but they only have 13" heads and this model needed to have 16" heads. Dave made me some with the 16" head and has now added the modified version to his catalogue as B054. Springs and axle boxes fitted. The spring is one I commissioned from Dave Franks with a master modified from one of Justin Newitt's (of Rumney models fame) castings (with his permission of course) and the axle box is from MJT. and finally the vacuum and steam pipes are in place. The vac pipe is another of Dave's lovely castings and the steam pipe is from 51L I'll get the model assembled, take a few photos of it and post them later. Ian

Got more done today, the roof rain strips are on. Lamp irons and coupling hook in place. I have just fitted a cosmetic hook to this one along with the fold up NEM pocket but if you leave the pocket off you can fit a functional hook, there is a screw link coupling on the chassis fret. Label clip and data plate in place This is the solebar footstep which sits below the van end ladders. This is the buffer beam footstep. It's actually attached to the body as you can see but when the body is in place it looks like it is on the buffer beam. The next job is the castings but that can wait till tomorrow. Ian

We all started somewhere, that's nothing to be ashamed of. I only started working in metal about 20 years ago myself. The thing is don't be frightened of it, get the right tools and materials such as low melt solder and a good liquid flux and you will be surprised how easy it is. Just make sure you get a good kit to build which isn't too complicated or too old. The old kits you often see on Ebay were produced before the drawings for them were done on CAD and often parts don't fit as they should. There are lots of excellent modellers on this forum and most are very willing to offer advice so ask questions or search the forum for your answers. Ian

I made the ladders for the van ends today, it's a simple fold up with rungs of 0.3mm wire. It fits into two small slots at the bottom of the van end and is soldered to the walkway at the top. The ice boxes were next, again a simple fold up job. The ribs need to be fitted and I have added a piece of 0.3mm wire to represent the mounting bolt. The boxes all fit into the slots in the roof. There is a small footstep to add to the solebar and another on the bufferbeam, but that's tomorrows job. Ian

The roof is now in place, Along with the roof end valance. These are the parts which make up the roof walkway. The small sub frets carry the ribs which fit onto the lid of the ice box filler compartment. The two layers need to be soldered together after the legs are all bent to 90 degrees. I used a hold and fold to do all of the legs on one side at the same time. This is the walkway in place on the roof. I fixed the legs in place with my RSU but they can be sweated into place equally well. Next job is the van end roof access ladders and the ice boxes themselves. Ian

The running chassis is now complete. I've also got all of the brake gear fitted but this isn't a particularly good photo, 'must do better next time' Fitting the roof and all of it's associated paraphernalia will be the next job. Ian

1969 is the date I have read, I mentioned it in the first post above. Ian

Sides now complete with all the strapping, ribs and handles fitted. The basic chassis is now assembled, I need to fit the running chassis and the all the brake gear bits next. My apologies for the poor quality photos, but due to the problem with my leg I am having to take them sat down at my workbench which isn't ideal. Ian

Got a bit done, the body is assembled. The overlays are fitted for the ribbing on the van ends. and finally the doors are now in place. The overlays and ribbing for the sides is the next job. Ian