LarryG's Wagon w.b.

[LarryG]

Just decided to respray of the van of grey! It's a funny thing, but I always associate them with red oxide. Vac pipes on hand for later but a vac cylinder can wait. It started with a light coating of Halfords Red Oxide Plastic Primer followed by something in cellulose mixed for this job. Chassis next then body weathering....

 

[LarryG]

This is as far as its going tonight. The chassis and parts of the ends have been sprayed with a road dust covering....

 

[90164]

A lot of the Bauxite vans were piped, not fitted. No need for a vacuum cylinder in that case, but paint the upstand of the vacuum pipes white, rather than red.

 

[LarryG]

A vac cylinder is only a problem in that I ain't got one at the mo. Vac pipes are underslung type. Got to be careful about numbering due to handrails and other details. And knowing me, I'll still get it wrong

 

[LarryG]

The BR goods brake was finished today...


Note run-off from the rainstrips. (Forgot to remove Mascol from ducket windows).....


Lower stepboards carry brake block rust between axleboxes. Top of concrete weights on verandas unpainted. 'Window' ledge wiped clean by a thousand elbows.....

 

[Richard]

Larry,

Could you tell me where you got the transfers for your van?

I've been looking for some to finish off the unmarked one I have, but must be looking in the wrong place, as nothing seems to turn up.

 

[medium61]

The BR goods brake was finished today...
View attachment 113562

Note run-off from the rainstrips. (Forgot to remove Mascol from ducket windows).....
View attachment 113563

Lower stepboards carry brake block rust between axleboxes. Top of concrete weights on verandas unpainted. 'Window' ledge wiped clean by a thousand elbows.....
View attachment 113564
View attachment 113555
View attachment 113556

Hi Larry,

I could have ordered the bauxite one in the first place, Doh!

Andy

 

[LarryG]

Hi Larry,

I could have ordered the bauxite one in the first place, Doh!

Andy

It was a very generous gift, so grey or skybluepink, you know me and paint ha ha..

 

[LarryG]

Larry,

Could you tell me where you got the transfers for your van?

I've been looking for some to finish off the unmarked one I have, but must be looking in the wrong place, as nothing seems to turn up.

They are HMRS 7mm 'Methfix' SHEET #25 (BR Revenue Wagon Lettering - Pre TOPS). It covers much of the lettering carried in the earlier BR period.

 

[LarryG]

I'm building a kit for a GWR Toad goods brake. After building one 2-3 years ago, I was hoping Dapol would add a Toad to its range! There's nothing wrong with the superstructure, but the brake gear and foot boards were eventually thrown away. The black plastic will not adhere to the grey plastic unless Loctite is used. So I set too to replace as much as possible with 22thou brass footboards soldered to brass supports...


Backing boards were made from 30 though Plastikard attached with Evostik Impact...


The provided black plastic handrail 'knobs' would have driven me loony had I been fool enough to use them, Instead, I drilled the centre of the slots to take split pins. The short footboard by the door was glued direct to the solebar seeing as they are both grey plastic and short lengths of strapping glued above them.....


To be continued...

 

[simond]

Larry,

I’m guessing that it’s the Parkside Dundas kit rather than the Webster’s one. The black plastic does weld with MEK, but not the watered-down stuff. I got a litre of the real stuff on eBay for a fraction of the cost from the usual suppliers.

That said, nowt wrong with brass...

Atb
Simon

 

[Focalplane]

One of the 4mm models I cherish is a special edition Bachmann TOAD with Stratford on Avon markings, commissioned by the “smallest model shop in Warwickshire - two customers at a time maximum”. I would like to simply enlarge it to 7mm as it would be most appropriate to Moor Street Goods Station. As it is I built the Connoisseur brass kit which Jim McGeown claims can be built in a weekend. He was probably thinking of someone like you, Larry!

 

[LarryG]

Larry,

I’m guessing that it’s the Parkside Dundas kit rather than the Webster’s one. The black plastic does weld with MEK, but not the watered-down stuff. I got a litre of the real stuff on eBay for a fraction of the cost from the usual suppliers.

That said, nowt wrong with brass...

Atb
Simon

You guessed correctly. Its a peculiar thing, but I tested Plastic Weld on the black sprue and it obviously melted the surface and yet the black and the grey parts parted company in a perfectly clean break after a while. The buffer shanks are a different plastic again, being more nylon in nature, so I used Loctite during assemble.

These kits were probably produced in the days when kit building was fashionable. We older types well remember plastic and whitemetal being used for items for which they were entirely unsuited. This is the case with soft plastic footboards and struts on brake vans. In 7mm, they wont last two minutes and so we modellers just have to use kits as aids on which we fabricate the rest. As much as I prefer working in metal, etching are not my favorite route when it comes to multi-layered wagons and strapping. I would like to see a marriage of plastic wagon bodies and etched underframes, but the market for such things evaporated years ago.

 

[simond]

I’m with you on that, Larry, metal seems far more logical for functional things like chassis and suspension (just built a sprung Parkside Dundas Mica on my Porth Dinllaen thread on t’other channel), plastic is very good for things like van and wagon bodies.

I have a Connoisseur brass toad in the stash. I’ll see if it is truly a weekend project, when I have a weekend free!

Atb
Simon

 

[76043]

Back in the day at modelmaking college, we used Chloroform for acrylic bonding, the college had dispensation from a local chemist to supply it. It was much stronger in its effect than plastic weld/MEK or Dichloromethane.

Never used Chloroform professionally however, I guess it was too much hassle for the SME's at the time.

Parkside O gauge buffers are definitely some sort of non-styrene based material, but I'm sure the rest of the kits are ABS. A quick email to the PECO technical advice bureau would provide the answer to this.

Tony

 

[LarryG]

The brake has gone into the sprayshop so it will be a weekends work when its finished. I should really have used a thicker wire for the handrails. The roof is only plonked on.....



The end lamp brackets were made from scraps of brass and glued into slots. The black fixing bracket is purely cosmetic. The end coupling link was replaced with a steel one.....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I should really have used a thicker wire for the handrails.

I use 0.7 mm brass wire for 1:43 handrails (and generally 0.5mm for 1:48 handrails).

 

[Richard]

Thanks for the info on the transfers used on the brake van.

As a matter of interest, the subject of a rtr western 20t Toad was the subject of quite a detailed discussion between myself and Dapol at the MIOG show this morning.

 

[LarryG]

I used the wire in the kit. Having tipped the contents of the box out on the desk, I wasn't going to put it back while waiting for correct wire to arrive. It'll do until Dapol do a GWR Toad.

 

[Richard]

By the time you've put a coat of undercoat and then a topcoat of paint on those handrails, they will thicken up considerably, and Id suggest will look just right.

You only have to look at the width of planking slots and brick courses on 7 mm models and work out how deep and wide they are to realise that the eye needs to see them as visible entities. Even so in 7 mm scale the recess on a mortar joint wouldn't register in a true to scale model. Over emphasising and highlighting characteristics is a well known and well practised art in the military modelling field.

The same is sometimes true of the opposite, thinner and finer looks better even though it may not be 100% correct..