Mr Grumpy

Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
Progress is slowing as I’m in need of transfers for the solebars which don’t appear to be readily available in the quantity I want, so I’m waiting to see if what I need can be made for me. Also, I want to see if I can make some covers that were added later (not the early sun shields) and add to two or three wagons.

The second wagon has four of the beefier supports that were used on later batches. I’m not sure if these were also replaced by the later six supports.
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Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
While waiting for my transfers to be made, I thought I would experiment with some 4thou brass sheet to produce the outer cover that was present on many tankers. The photo below is of a former GWR wagon. I played around cutting segments out to make the sheets look individually applied, and also scored the wrapper to see if that looked realistic. Here’s the result with a separate section to the left and the rest scored on.
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Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
The second of three LMS tankers is complete, but will get a fine frame dirt covering to tie everything in once the transfers have arrived.

I personally prefer the barrels with the later steel sheet covering the strapping. I made life difficult for myself by soldering the straps and anchors. This means the length of the straps must be spot on prior to fixing.
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Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
I wasn’t entirely happy with the 0.004 brass sheet, so considered some 0.002 sheet for the outer cover, but felt it would still be too thick, and easy to crease. So for the next three, I have decided to score the sheets on. The final Ex-GWR tanker will be built with full strapping on show. I like to try different ideas and experiment a little, and it often results in a step forward and a couple back. So this is the barrel for the final LMS wagon, looking a tad sorry for itself :) Hopefully once re-sprayed and the sheeting joints highlighted it should look fine.
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Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
Not much progress to report due to a very chilly workshop. However, to prove Im still chipping away, here’s the last of the LMS tankers coming to completion. Just the brake leaver brackets, buffers, vac and steam hoses and ladders to fit.
I fancy a break from plastic, so bought an etched brass Stove R with lost wax castings to tack on to my milk train:)
I’m also being tempted by Phil, of Intentio with a rather nice GWR signal box....it’s hard to stay focused with so many distractions:)
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Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
Well, again apart from my long awaited transfers and weathering of the chassis, all three of my LMS tankers are complete.

Perhaps I should have named the thread 9000 gallons of milk, as I’m going to take a break from plastic and have a go at a Sidelines Stove R, so the guard has somewhere warm to sit behind the tankers :)
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Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
The Sidelines Stove R is a very nice little kit. It isn’t super detailed, but should be fun to build. All the castings are good quality lost wax brass, except for the buffers, screw couplings and hooks which are nickel silver. I bought the corridor connections detailing kit as the original looked very basic. The replacement could do with a couple of enhancements and I’ll see what I can do when I get to them. The roof is profiled aluminium and a little on the thick side!
I also bought the new Slaters solid machined wheels and they are nice and heavy, without a sign of rust.
I started off by spending a couple of hours fettling the buffers, drilling the housings and then blackening them.

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Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
Following the instructions, I cut out the coach sides ready to form my first ever tumble home.
I have had a bit of practice with my rollers and thought it would be a straightforward job. The brass is quite thick, and although the ends formed perfectly, the middle stayed flat. I resorted to annealing the brass and it made a slightly better impression, so in the end I used finger pressure, constantly checking against the end profile. Then I got the door stop positions drilled.
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Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
It's not obvious from the photo but do the new Slaters wheels have the correct dish profile similar to the cross section of the P48 US wheels below? (this image is from the Protocraft web site)

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