Tales from the Tinkering Table - Brinkley Works

Nick Rogers

Western Thunderer
Hello everyone,

I've been a bit on and off my modelling of late, but recently the mojo has returned and I thought I would share what I have been up to.

I'm currently building stock for two projects, my own OO-SF layout Horrabridge and P4 stock for Rod Cameron & John Farmer's Balcombe empire. My thread will have a mixture of both gauges, but essentially the same scale.

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First of all, these are four ex LMS Cattle Wagon vans (Diagram D1661) built from Parkside kits. They have Lanarkshire Model Supplies buffers and vacuum pipes - many vehicles had through-pipes fitted by BR - Masokits sprung W-Irons, Rumney Models axle boxes and Ultrascale wheels. Each weighs about 60 grams.

When the sun comes out next, I plan to prime and paint them. I tend to use Games Workshop Citadel Grey primer for the body and Chaos Black for the chassis. It gives a lovely finish and costs about the same as Halford's primer. Then they will receive a coat of Bauxite enamel paint applied through my airbrush.

Hope this is of interest to someone. Please do comment, I'm always keen to learn!

Best wishes,

Nick.
 
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Nick Rogers

Western Thunderer
Nice work Nick, I didn't realise you were over here.

Thanks Alan. I've been a member for a while, just not had time to do anything meaningful. There is a lot of very good stuff on Western Thunder and I don't want to miss out on other decent modeler's work.
 

Nick Rogers

Western Thunderer
Hello everyone,

Thank you all for the likes. I've spent the last couple of days plodding through some of the finished projects which have been languishing in a draw for several years now!

I thought I would share a pair of joint work.

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First of all, this trio are now nearing completion. They are the good old Airfix Meat Wagon kit, with some modifications. Built to a BR Diagram 1/250 design, the rake have different axle boxes from Rumney Models, Parkside under frames, Masokits W-Irons and Lanarkshire Models buffers.

Maurice Hopper build the basic bodies, but I have subsequently removed the original doors and fitted the chassis to them. Eventually, two will be painted Crimson (one fresh and one faded) and the third will go into Bauxite, being re-designated to ale traffic.

The other joint project was started by my late Grandpa in about 1994 if memory serves me: I was about 7 at the time. Sadly, it wasn't ever completed.
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It is an old Parkside Plywood van, with similar ingredient to the Airfix vans above. It might be quite an old model, however, it has a huge amount of sentimental value to me. I've based it on a similar wagon photographed at North Road in the late 1950s and intend to copy the weathering as best as I can.

Any comments are most welcome.

Kind regards,

Nick.
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
All very nice, Nick, but surely the chances of seeing three of those meat vans in the one rake seems remote (you've got 2% of the BR fleet there!). ;)

Adam
 

Nick Rogers

Western Thunderer
All very nice, Nick, but surely the chances of seeing three of those meat vans in the one rake seems remote (you've got 2% of the BR fleet there!). ;)

Adam

Hi Adam,

I must confess, I hadn't thought about it like that! One is certainly destined to work as part of a semi-fast London-Brighton freight service on Balcombe. The other two, well one will find use in the pick-up goods and the last one, probably a 'spare'.

Kind regards,

Nick.
 
BR Shock-Absorbing Van

Nick Rogers

Western Thunderer
Once again, thank you for the 'likes' everyone.

In between finishing off wagons over the past week, I started to part-scratch build a BR shock-absorbing van. Two days ago, I wasn't aware of the exisitance of the Red Panda plywood shoc-van kit.

Having read Geoff Kent's The 4MM Wagon Part 2 and having a stash of spare BR van ends and plywood doors, I thought I would go about building one of the Diagram 1/209 vans built at Darlington in 1956/57. This van is currently destined to work on Horrabridge and will be built in OO gauge.

This van isn't perfect, far from it, but this is the first time I've ever attempted to 'scratch' build something. One thing I have learnt is that glue causes things to bend - more on that in a bit.

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This is the prototype.

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Spare Parkside BR van ends being cut down.

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2othou styrene sheet formed the body sides, with 5thou overlays. The ironwork was made using Evergreen 101 & 102 strip. I gave the sides a gentle sand after this, which removed a lot of the sharp edges.

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Riveting underway. Unfortunately, glue on the inside caused the plastic to buckle slightly, which is annoying. :'( Lesson for the future, be very careful when using 2-part epoxy.

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Coat of primer. Citadel (Games Workshop) Mechanicus Standard Grey: I prefer Games Workshop primers, they seem nicer than Halfords and they are about the same price.

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The next job is to create the chassis and then a full paint.

I'm quite pleased with it for a first go. As I said above, I've learnt a lot doing it and know what not to do the next time round.

Thanks for looking, please do comment!

Best wishes,

Nick.
 

Nick Rogers

Western Thunderer
Please describe how you have put rivets on the corner plates and stanchions.

thank you, Graham

Hi Graham,

I use Archer's Resin Rivet Head fine tranfers.

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Essentially, they are the same as a normal transfer. I 'float' them off as a strip in warm water. I put some Micro Set on the area of the model, slide the rivets off with a OO brush, dab down with a cotton swab (bub) and then dab some Micro Sol over them and leave them alone for a couple of minutes. Then I give them a quick dab with the cotton bud to make sure they have stuck down and leave well alone!

They are a godsend for things like this. I can't remember where I got these from, but I have several HO scale sets: the spacing varies from set to set.

Archer Fine Transfers, Decals, Surface Details and Dry Transfers for model builders

Amazon also stock them.

Hope this is of use.

Regards,

Nick.
 
Priming wagons

Nick Rogers

Western Thunderer
Once again, thank you everyone for your comments and likes.

The sun came out today!! As a result, a collection of vans and wagons have been primed this afternoon.

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One van (insulated meat van) has been primed using Games Workshop Citadel Skull White Primer. Four have been primed using Halfords Red Oxide and the rest were primed using Games Workshop Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey.

The next job will involve painting this lot, a mixture of enamels and acrylics dependent on the prototype. I get on well with both mediums.

More later with any luck!

Best wishes,

Nick.
 
Painted Wagons

Nick Rogers

Western Thunderer
Hi everyone,

A little bit more progress was made today on some BR standard vans.

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I brush painted the four several years ago, but sprayed the underframes with Games Workshop Chaos Black primer yesterday. A BR insulated meat van lurks in the back ground: the body was painted using Skull White Games Workshop primer, chassis in Chaos Black and the roof received a coat of Humrbol 165 Medium Sea Grey through a rattle can.

The two planked vans are some of the original vehicles built by BR in the early 1950s. B755729 was built at Wolverton in 1951 and is a very old Parkside kit bought from the Bring and buy stand at Scaleforum. Again, it follows the standard mix of Masokit's sprung W-irons, Rumney Model axle boxes, Ultrascale wheels, Lanarkshire buffers and Smiths couplings. It was painted using Humbrol 133. B761329 is another Wolverton built van, but built 3 years later in 1954: again, Humbrol 133 was used.

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Bit too close!

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The two fruit vans are from two different lots. B875640 is one of the original batch built at Darlington in late 1953/early 1954. B875659 is one of the later built vehicles being built in early 1956. Both vans were painted using Phoenix P127 Bauxite.

I used Fox Tranfers for the lettering and numbering and applied them using Micro Set & Sol. Weathering will take place at some point in the future and I will fit the buffer heads.

Best wishes,

Nick.
 

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Nick Rogers

Western Thunderer
Hello everyone,

I spent a couple of hours today completing the plywood GWR design - built by BR - ShocVan. It isn't perfect, however, I'm pleased with my second piece of scratch-built stock. It is nice to have something completely unique. The van received a dusting of Games Workshop grey primer.

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Any comments are most welcome.

Kind regards,

Nick.
 

Geoff

Western Thunderer
Nice to see you posting here Nick, like many others I am very impressed with your wagon building skills. You are obviously back in the groove and enjoying yourself.

Geoff
 

Nick Rogers

Western Thunderer
Hello everyone,

I thought as it had been over a year since my last post (insert guilty face!) that it was high time for an update.

I've had a pair of Hornby Maunsell brake coaches (BTK & BCK combo) sitting in my maturing box for several years now. Initially, these were destined to run on a group layout; however, the decision was made to scrap that project several years ago.
These don't really fit in with my Horrabridge layout (being based on Western Region practice); although, occasionally SR coaching stock did appear on the line during the 1950s and early 1960s. As I've had a bit of extra time on my hands, and I fancied doing something a little different, I decided to dig the pair out and look at improving them.

Back in 2012, Peter Swift wrote an excellent article (split into two parts in MRJs 213 and 214) on improving Hornby's efforts. One thing that Peter identified was the interior corridor windows were 1mm high from floor to waist height and needed a 3mm infill at the top.

Through careful filling, I removed 1mm, lowering the windows and inserted the 3mm at the top using plastic strip. I also fitted top-lights above the doors. In the article, it is thought that coaches build before 1935 had a top light. On this pair, I opted to model this.

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Once the dirty work was completed, the interiors received a light dusting of Games Workshop Grey Seer primer and painted the woodwork in Humbrol enamel no. 62 and the compartment backhead in Precision satin GWR coach cream.

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I decided that I wanted to have a more realistic looking interior, so scanned Peco Kitmaster card interiors and printed these at home. Two of the old Peco interior kits where used, 13 and 14 I think. One has just third class red moquette, but the other included a blue seat covering for first class. The first-class compartments also received printed carpets!

Maunsell coaching stock had lovely cream panelling inside; I replicated this using an economy label painted in the Precision cream. The economy label was then cut into strips and attached with Tacky Glue, which is a premium PVA - excellent stuff. A couple of coats of satin varnish was then applied to seal it all in place.

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I need to tidy up one or two ends, but I'm quite pleased with the result.

IMG_4665.jpg All third brake.

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Corridor panelling.

The next job will be to fit a few passengers from Alan Butler's excellent Modelu range.

IMG_4654.jpg I'm looking forward to painting these.

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Thanks for reading and do comment - I'm always pleased to receive constructive criticism! It makes me a better modeller!

Best wishes,

Nick.

 

GrahameH

Western Thunderer
Top work Brinkers, I think the use of labels to represent interiors is a good ruse, I have tended to download images of seat cloth, printed onto labels and stuck them onto seats etc. . Works well but even in 7mm its not always evident but hey ! We know its there.

G
 
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