57xx

Mine are very much flush. :) Having built a few other Slaters kits, it was something I made sure was right. The D299 is particularly bad in this respect. How to do it? You either set the floor higher up inside or thin down the height of the solebars themselves, which is what I did here. One thing both Graham and I appear to be suffering from is pert buffers that are pointing upwards. I span the van around and the other end, whilst still a little high, is not as bad. Given the buffers, bufferbeam and ends are all one moulding, I would think it is a problem with the end moulding itself, it looks like the shank holes aren't square.

Don't worry, it's not your doing. You can see that difference on my pic too, though I hadn't noticed it before until you said about your's. It's the Slaters MR kit that is off. The Parkside wagon's buffer height is bang on compared with other kits and RTR wagons (I just checked!).

That was some small diameter plastic rod. I probably should have used some microstrip to get square heads, not sure why I didn't, as that is what I've use on other wagons where I needed bolt heads! I've also just noticed I've lost one on the lower right side strap.

They are both nice kits to make. In the best Blue Peter fashion, here's a couple I made earlier.

I built one of these in the recent past, I didn't have any wheel clearance issues, so I popped a look under mine. Your floor moulding is different, there are no diagonals on mine to foul the wheels. I wonder if they have remade the tooling for the floor since it passed back in to their ownership, mine was purchased whilst still under CC ownership. There is room in the square well under the wagon to get enough lead to bring them up to 35g.

Not so as far as the official paint schedules will tell you, the Midland/pre 1929 LMS grey was lighter, not even close to GWR grey. I've even put the ratios of white to black in my first post. Photo's of the era also show this for fresh out of the works wagons. What they also show is that the early paint darkened with age (due to the lead white used) hence why in my second post, I said context is required. Is it a recently painted wagon or one that has been weathering for years on end? What period are you depicting? After 1929 they switched to using zinc sulphide white and twice as much black in the mix, this would not suffer the darkening effects like the earlier recipe. I can't recall seeing anything about the LMS still using smudge for repairs like the Midland, though it was used as a primer coat when mixed with 33% white.

Humbrol 64 looks very similar to Revell 76, so that's a good call. Humbrol 27 looks to be darker though, not lighter. Here context matters, given the amount of lead white used in the mix. Fresh liveries would be much lighter than 27, something wanting for a repaint 10 years later would probably be close to it though.

Can you get hold of Revell paints? No 76 is a close match for the later 1929 grey. Otherwise mix 28:1 off-white to black for pre 1929 or 14:1 white-black for 1929 onwards. Doing a quick scan of Humbrol colours online (web repro permitting), #147 looks close to fresh Midland grey (for up to 1929).

Actually quite a few people have mentioned it if you look closer at the threads. 🙂

The Rapido one. Railmatch paints are quite renowned for their inaccuracy. Rapido actually put a lot of research into getting colours correct. Humbrol 67 Tank Grey is a good (if a bit lighter) representation that people often use and available in acrylics if you can get them shipped to you.

FTFY

With Checo coming up from behind, he would've see MV was going up the inside of Leclerc, hence I presume why he chose the outside line. He would've known MV wouldn't yield and back out either, so very optimistic to try and turn in early.

I missed this when originally posted. Was there any pad damage? I can see loads of debris being flung around again, the fence by the tank farm might need a slight bit of rebuilding too.

I would bet mine has no lube either then, that would explain the squeaking, even after 3hrs+ of running in. Looks like I'll have to tear in to it and get some lube inside (I did lube the axles where they stick out of the chassis, but to no avail)

In my experience, they are fine on PWM controller, if a little noisy (though it sounds more like the gearbox as the Dapol Manor and 28xx I ran at the same time were nice and quiet). Pure DC however is a different matter and the thing leaps into action rather than starting smoothly.

Which is what manufacturers strive to do isn't it? Unless doing a special weathered version, where they usually just waft over some dirt on the same base colour. Maybe for anything painted before 1929. After that, the same logic doesn't apply.

So the LMS grey livery... Does "pre 1936" mean: 1923-1929 grey 1929-1935 grey 1935-1936 grey 🙂

Are you holding out for the yellow polka dot Mica?

Have you actually tried looking on a site like Hattons? Russ has already posted a pic of one for you.

There were also some other changes, including putting on the rear guard irons. I remember when I picked up my 4257, having a look over it to see what the Brassmasters detailing kit improved upon and noticing this and then pondering if it was still worth getting the detailing kit. I don't need the bunker fender for 1930's condition and not too fussed on the brake rigging, not something I'll see under normal running.

Bonus points if you left the camera on 😁

Despite having enough Cambrian D1666s, one of these accidentally fell into an order I made. Andy was lamenting the "poor" sales vs the other wagons, so in a show of support and also just out of curiosity to see how good it is, I got one. It is very nice. Very very nice in fact. The underframe is light years ahead of the kits. There's a couple of interior details missing (already discussed and a limit of the RTR process versus moulding kit sides/ends) but that just gives me something to do to lift them that last step up. With a load in you'll probably not even notice them anyhow. It's also highlighted a painting error on my kits, I forgot to paint the drawhook plate black on the one kit I pulled out for comparion.

Have the pockets been moved back to get a better coupling distance? I seem to recall the other wagons got a bit of stick for the large gap between them with the way the couplings were located.

Yes and no, I do know that PWM can make for a noisier model . I pulled out a Hornby King, 28xx, Dapol Manor and Bachmann 4575 to compare and they were all significantly quieter. Most of the growl appears to be gearbox, you could hear it cogging at times. I'm preeeetty sure the controller was not the thing making it squeek either.

Silver buffer shanks. They weren't hydraulic buffers so would not be silver (chrome) and would be painted grey like the rest of the vehicle. 🙂