Liskeard and Caradon Railway 6 ton open wagon

[Jon Nazareth]

I've decided to have a go at one of Mike Williams's Liskeard and Caradon Railway 6 ton open wagons. I shall give my own twist by adding subtracting certain parts and painting it with a colour a bit more redder that Halford's red primer. Painting and varnishing trials are going on as we speak in an attempt to avoid the mishaps that occurred when painting my LSWR open wagon.
The first picture is from Mike's instructions, the second is believed to be the only picture of one of these wagons and, I think, the model is based solely on this. Like live unicorns and rocking horse droppings, there aren't many pictures in existence. The third picture shows the brake operating mechanism which Mike tells me was operated from inside the wagon! A bit awkward, to say the least, when loaded up with ore. I've drilled out the false rivets in the holding bracket and will fix the whole in place with some 1/32" rivets threaded 16BA. I'm going to try and chemically blacken as many parts as I can in an effort to keep things looking a bit crisper than if painted. There are four brakes fitted to this wagon but I'm only going to fit two on one side keeping the others for future scratch building projects as they are very nice examples of wooden blocked brakes.

As luck would have it, the first picture has loaded last

Jon

 

[Spitfire2865]

Very nice. A tempting kit, if I hadnt blown my budget on what Im building now.

The brake is certainly interesting. Without a footstep, most definitely a major pain in the arse to screw it down from the ground.

 

[Jon Nazareth]

I have painted the body of this wagon but it didn't turn out at all well and a bit of a disappointment for me. I sent a post to 'Questions or Queries' about the best way to strip off the paint but, and thank you to all of those that replied, I've decided to leave it as it is. For those that have looked at any of my other builds, they will have noticed that I never weather any of my models. Even if I say so myself, they all looked so good that I have never wanted to run the risk of making a hash of it . Well, all of that is going to change with this wagon as I've decide to have a go at weathering it with a wash of water based grey paint. The body at the moment has been sprayed with a gloss paint to aid the placing of the transfers after which, I'll apply a spray coat of matt acrylic to tone down the gloss and protect the transfers. I feel that if I apply water based paint with a brush to a gloss surface, it will form into puddles as it shies away from the oil based Halfords gloss paint. If this is so, should I use the wash over the acrylic matt surface and then apply another coat of matt varnish when all is dry?

Jon

P.S. I've never weathered anything before so, just going on what others have written.

 

[Spitfire2865]

Id always recommend, base coat, gloss coat, decals, matt coat, weathering, matt coat.
Best of luck

 

[Jon Nazareth]

Firstly, I persevered with the paintwork and from a dull messed up red , I've turned it into a chocolate brown with a good gloss finish, not too noticeable in these pictures. The thought of ending up with a gooey mess didn't appeal to me if I took the paint stripping road and so, I spent some time rubbing it down, tricky, applying primer to the places that needed it and then spraying with a Halford's rattle can. It's still possible to see some of the red where the sides meet the ends but I'm hoping to cover this with the weathering. I did try and cover this with the brown but for some unknown reason, I just couldn't get the correct angle to squirt the paint in.
Secondly the transfers. These are bespoke transfers and I'm not totally happy with the way that they have turned out. The font is spot on but well, least said and all of that.
I shall let everything dry off and even give the paint a few more days before I apply the matt varnish followed by a bit of watercolour weathering followed by more matt varnish.
All of the fittings, I've painted or treated separately before, and dare I say it, even trying them for fit on the body. Fingers crossed that all goes okay when the time comes.

Jon

 

[Mike W]

Looks nice Jon. If there is a tiny area of red visible, well, its an old wagon and the primer or previous livery is showing through - very prototypical.

Mike

 

[Jon Nazareth]

Mike, you're too kind

Jon

 

[Spitfire2865]

Looks nice Jon. If there is a tiny area of red visible, well, its an old wagon and the primer or previous livery is showing through - very prototypical.

Mike

What kind of primer would have been used in this period? I dont think Ive ever read any reference to paint practices in the UK.

 

[Mike W]

Not sure about the outside of a wagon like this, but generally white lead primer for wood, or red lead for ironwork. Having used white lead for restoration of a carriage roof, it is very thick and cream in colour. But the previous owner of Jon's wagon might had painted it red at some point!

 

[Jon Nazareth]

When I blotted the transfers, I used kitchen paper towel but because it was of the textured variety, it has left a slightly rough finish on the transfers! The wagon has already been matt varnished and I only have one spare set of transfers for one side left .

Jon

 

[Jon Nazareth]

Here is my finished version of the little ore wagon.
The first picture shows how tiny it is sandwiched between these two wagons with a between wheel centre measurement of about 5' 6".
The fourth picture shows how far I got with the weathering. Not very far but I did it more as an experiment to see how it would work out. I don't mind this attempt on the inside of the wagon but I didn't trust myself to have a go at the outside.
The fifth is to show the blackened ironwork which I carried out before fitting to the wagon. I did blacken most of the ironwork before fitting and some I sprayed black. All-in-all, I think the idea of treating the ironwork before assembly worked quite well and may try it on the next wagon which is to be a stepped end SER.

Jon

 

[jamiepage]

Excellent!

(What wheels do you use Jon?)

 

[Jon Nazareth]

Jamie
I was wondering if anyone would notice the wheels . These were some that I'd previously machined but, I can't for the life of me remember what they were for. They may have been for the Lion project but I have all of those wheels in a safe place so, they can't be those. I like things to be different or quirky, hence one of the reasons for making early stock, and so instead of them going to waste, I thought that I'd use them here and yes, they do look a little strange. If the whole thing was weathered, they may blend in a little more but, I quite like them.

Jon

 

[Spitfire2865]

The 12 spoke wheels are quite charming. Would be quite fitting under any pre-1850 stock.

 

[Ian_T]

I was curious as to what blackening agent(s) you used Jon?

IanT

 

[jamiepage]

Jon,
The wheels look just right under that wagon.
Jamie
Ahh, might they be turned up from the Mark Wood wheel castings (X315) for Lion's tender- as you suspected?

 

[Jon Nazareth]

Ian
I have a very watered down solution which usually works okay but the results this time around weren't goo. I then resorted to, Carr's metal black for steel/white metal, used neat. I immersed the pieces and watched for the colouring, it turned very quickly. I took them out, gave them a wash in running tap water and popped them back again for a second go and treated them the same. I like the effect.

Jamie
You are correct but I can't for the life of me think why I ended up with two sets. I must have had a senior moment when ordering together with an aberration .

Jon