N Gauge wagons - lots of lovely TPM and N Gauge Society kits out of storage and finally built!

[Trev218]

When I first started collecting locos etc I also got hold of a load of wagon kits from various places. Among them were some N Gauge Society sea cow kits. I made a start on them years ago with a bit of basic assembly then they got put to one side - probably lack of time and all that. 

 

As part of my lockdown induced re-kindling of enthusiasm, an interested grandson...and the price of RTR versions (if you even find them)...I unburied them to see about getting them finished. 

 

The storage boxes of 'stuff' from back then have been like an aladdins cave - loads of TPM HEA kits and JUA hopper kits & some electra vinyls for coach conversions etc and 4 TPM class 60 kits - and the enthusiasm is back with a bang to get them made up 😀

 

So, here's the seacows - by the time I finished them I was just starting to get the hang of building them...might have to get some more! 

Edited April 1, 2022 by Trev218

[Trev218]

First thing was to get some paint on the body shells. First time with acrylic paint, needed a bit of touching up after

[Trev218]

Made up some wagon loads - filler on plasticard then ballast glued to it

[Trev218]

Then it was all the etched brass bits and pieces...was nearly the end of me - flippin' fiddly! 

[Trev218]

Transfers and a coat of varnish and they're starting to look the part 🙂

[Trev218]

And done - and the kit building bug has bit! 

[Trev218]

Onto the TPM HEAs...enjoyed building these!

They'd been partly assembled years ago, after dusting them off they got a few coats of railfreight red and grey. Then I epoxied a bit of lead in to the bottom of each hopper so they have a nice bit of weight to them. 

 

I made up a couple of test loads out of crushed coal (courtesy of blackrat 🙂) on plasticard formers with shaped filler - technique refined a bit from the seacows - and put on the transfers etc to see how they'd end up - more than happy with the outcome so cracked on and made the loads for the remaining 14! 
 

[Trev218]

Added the details and transfers to the rest then dabbed some weathering powders to the chassis before going over them with a little spraying of frame dirt etc. 

 

Gave them all a coat of varnish and popped the loads in...and they look pretty neat! 

[BlackRat]

WoW someone’s been busy!

They are all looking superb, as I thought they would.

[Trev218]

Next bit of dabbling was with some Electra vinyls - impressed with how well they kept their good condition after being in a drawer for 15 years! 

 

I'd bought a Dapol 67 & DVT when they were first released to make the EWS management train - the aladins cave had some old second hand farish mk3 coaches that I managed to strip the paint from, get the vinyls on and touch up the paint on the ends. 

 

I'd also got hold of a pair of 73s that had been re-liveried in the earlier network rail livery and had bought the vinyls for farish mk2 coaches...again all tucked away in the aladins cave! 

[Trev218]

That's the last couple of months caught up with! Now it's on with the TPM JUAs. Most of the shells I made up years ago, there were also 4 unmade ones. They're assembled now so it's paint time. 

 

I've always liked the original ARC livery and with a Revolution ARC 59 on order (along with Yeoman one and National Power pair - anyone want to go half's on the latter for 1 each?!) its a great chance to have a rake of wagons ready for it 🙂

[Trev218]

That's a couple of coats of the mustard yellow sprayed on...and in between times, made progress on a 37 I've been playing around with 🙂

[Trev218]

Assembly line underway...worked towards  finishing 1 to try the transfers etc...just another 16 to go! 

 

Pleased with it...the other 16 bodyshells are glossed ready to start on their decals and I'm slowly working through painting the bogies - been building those in batches cos it was getting tedious! 

 

They're certainly nice kits though, I'm glad the n gauge society has kept them going - tempted to do a rake of Yeoman ones too 🙂

 

Will make a start on making loads for them soon - the ones on the previous wagons worked out nice so I'll follow the same principle. 

[Trev218]

In between waiting for paint to dry etc on the wagons I've been fiddling with Electra vinyls for the NMT. 

 

Got hold of some old farish mk3 coaches on ebay then spent ages trying different ways of getting flippin paint off! Definitely want to include the catenary test coach so that meant butchering one of the roofs...not something I've done before. So I attacked a roof with a razor saw then used plasticard to make a floor and add a rough representation of some of the bits I could see in photos - nothing accurate but doesn't look too bad either - just need Revolution to do another batch of pantographs🙂

[Steven B]

Looking good.

 

M1.5 or M2 machine screws make good insulators for pantographs and other high-voltage wiring.

 

Steven B.

 

 

[Trev218]

Realised the pantograph answer was staring me in the face - when I was chipping my Revolution Pendolino I spotted the spare ones in the box! 

 

They've not turned out too bad, the vinyls were slightly too long for the donor coaches I was using but wasn't a huge issue 

[Trev218]

Cheesed off big time! Once bodyshells had a couple of spray Coates of Phoenix enamel, I used humbrol gloss cote just brushed on to give a good surface for the transfers. 

After a very fiddly few hours I got the transfers on all the wagons, they ended up being a mixture of Fox and Railtec. 

Time for the varnish - having heard a few horror stories I tried the humbrol matt varnish on a spare bit of plastic already painted in the mustard yellow to make sure it was OK on the paint - all was good so it was time to spray the wagons... 

They looked great for about 30 minutes...then all the Fox transfers (mainly the ARC logo bit) started wrinkling to a lessor or greator degree leaving them looking a right mess🤬

 

At that point it was best to grit my teeth and walk away! Going back to them today to look at the extent of the problem, pretty much every wagon has it to a lessor or great degree. I've put a spare logo transfer over one of the messed up ones - it looks OK with how it's covered it...going to be annoyingly expensive to do that for all of them but hey ho, you live and learn! 

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by Trev218

[PaulCheffus]

3 hours ago, Trev218 said:

Cheesed off big time! Once bodyshells had a couple of spray Coates of Phoenix enamel, I used humbrol gloss cote just brushed on to give a good surface for the transfers. 

After a very fiddly few hours I got the transfers on all the wagons, they ended up being a mixture of Fox and Railtec. 

Time for the varnish - having heard a few horror stories I tried the humbrol matt varnish on a spare bit of plastic already painted in the mustard yellow to make sure it was OK on the paint - all was good so it was time to spray the wagons... 

They looked great for about 30 minutes...then all the Fox transfers (mainly the ARC logo bit) started wrinkling to a lessor or greator degree leaving them looking a right mess🤬

 

At that point it was best to grit my teeth and walk away! Going back to them today to look at the extent of the problem, pretty much every wagon has it to a lessor or great degree. I've put a spare logo transfer over one of the messed up ones - it looks OK with how it's covered it...going to be annoyingly expensive to do that for all of them but hey ho, you live and learn! 

 

Hi

 

I use Vallejo Acrylic varnish spray through the airbrush after I couldn’t get Testors Dullcoat to looked back since. It’s a real pain when you get that far for it all to go wrong.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[Trev218]

3 hours ago, PaulCheffus said:

Hi

 

I use Vallejo Acrylic varnish spray through the airbrush after I couldn’t get Testors Dullcoat to looked back since. It’s a real pain when you get that far for it all to go wrong.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

Yeah I use that too on acrylics - much prefer them really - I was limited by that colour only being available in enamel and when I've gone to use the acrylic varnish on enamel it sort of beads up on the surface when spraying. 

 

Oh well its all part of progressing along the learning curve I guess 🙂

[PaulCheffus]

2 hours ago, Trev218 said:

Yeah I use that too on acrylics - much prefer them really - I was limited by that colour only being available in enamel and when I've gone to use the acrylic varnish on enamel it sort of beads up on the surface when spraying. 

 

Oh well its all part of progressing along the learning curve I guess 🙂

Hi

 

Never had a problem with Vallejo varnish over enamels, how long did you leave the enamel before using the varnish? I tend to wait a week or more.

Couple of examples both painted with either Humbrol or Phoenix Precision enamels and sealed with the Vallejo acrylic varnish.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

[Lacathedrale]

I got almost finished with my 37 and got the same problem with the beaded varnish (this time over oils) - clearly I didn't wait long enough. Is there any way to salvage it or am I stuck with stripping and repainting?

[Trev218]

10 hours ago, PaulCheffus said:

Hi

 

Never had a problem with Vallejo varnish over enamels, how long did you leave the enamel before using the varnish? I tend to wait a week or more.

Couple of examples both painted with either Humbrol or Phoenix Precision enamels and sealed with the Vallejo acrylic varnish.

 

Cheers

 

Paul

Interesting point actually - it was probably only 24 hours between enamel and the varnish - I'll exercise more patience in future for that one! 

[Trev218]

Finally had the enthusiasm to re-do the ARC logos on the wagons and then made up the loads for them - there might be quicker ways but this seems to work for me...and I used the Attwood Aggregates extra fine Mendip stone for a bit of authenticity 🙂

 

Can't wait to see them lined up behind the Revolution 59/1 I've ordered @Revolution Ben!

 

Edited May 24, 2022 by Trev218

[Trev218]

On with the next project... 

The N Gauge Society Autoballasters - looks quite a challenge, those etches are pretty daunting to say the least! 

 

Starting off by tidying up the flash etc on the sides etc...looking forward to getting to put them together

[Trev218]

These are proving fun!

I assembled all the hopper chutes and painted and 'stickered' them before adding the extenders and fixing them to the bodies - it was quite apparent they'd be pretty much impossible to paint etc otherwise. 

The support etches for each end had quite substantial gaps around the edges which certainly aren't there in prototype pics, so a lot of fiddly  filling was needed.

Once rubbed down as best I could and then hidden after a couple of coats of the railtrack buff paint they don't look too bad

I'll fit the hoppers to the bodies next and then it's time to tackle the remaining (challenging looking) etches!