Monthly Archives: March 2013

Private Owner Salt Wagon, a trial with home made transfers

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Another joint effort between me and my good lady is this Salt Wagon. It was built from one of the unlettered Slaters kits and it’s another that has sat for quite some time unfinished – I am not sure why really….

I finished of the build and having looked at POW sides for transfers we liked the Mangers colour scheme I also fancied the idea of a very faded and worn look to the wagon. Working towards this I still hadn’t ordered the transfers but I painted the wagon green using Railmatch Doncaster green.

Using the air brush and varying the amount that I sprayed on I got a head start on the colour variations that I was looking for.

Salt Wagon Salt Wagon2 Salt Wagon1

I had also ordered some transfer paper in transparent and white with a view to making my own transfers for boiler bands and the floor cloth wagon. To cut a long story short we decided to have a go at making our own Mangers transfers and after a bit of playing about in Microsoft word with various font Chris came up with these printed onto clear laser paper (I printed a full sheet in case I had problems).

Mangers transfer

They were a bit of a challenge to get them to lay down over the hinges and straps (I will buy some Microsol for another set). By applying them over the varying shades on the wagon and with them being printed on clear decal film they further “faded” without too much effort. Chris then did some more weathering to the whole wagon ending up with this which is just what I hoped for but wasn’t it could be achieved.

Salt wagon 007 Salt wagon 006 Salt wagon 005 Salt wagon 004 Salt wagon 003 Salt wagon 002 Salt wagon 001

In the end up I only make a muck up of one set of transfers – being a bit heavy handed, so I have 3 spare sets should I happen across any more salt wagon kits.

The roof canvas was done with some blackout curtain liner which make a reasonable representation of canvas.

Another one bites the dust, well almost……

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There are a couple of my shelf queens that are especially dear to Chris’s heart, since they were gifts from her. This is one of them finished at last – an MMP LMS Glass wagon.

This is one of those that I started a couple of years too early in the confidence and experience stakes. When I started on it I made mistakes but didn’t have the confidence to unsolder it and start again. What seemed a struggle at the time was so much easier when I picked it up again. To be honest using some of the MMP bits on other build has helped me understand the way that they go together which has helped tremendously.

As a kit it is very highly detailed and the only bit’s that I changed were the rope rings that I remade from brass wire (they were very nice whitemetal castings) and the screw clamps that hold the packing cases. Once again the ones supplied were castings but I wanted them to work. It turned out quite easy to do the make up of the slide that holds the clamp was easy to tap 10ba and the clamps themselves I made from a 10ba brass screw with two sections of tube soldered over them at the head end (I only had countersunk screws so I had to mount them in my mini drill and turn the heads down so that the large tube would fit. This was then filled with solder.

There were some etched handles supplied but I wanted something a bit more robust so cut a slot in the end of the screw and soldered in a brass pin.

A shot of the clamps – I need to patch in the paint where I moved them to clamp the crates.

MMP LMS Glass Wagon 009

I didn’t take any photo’s of the end of the journey on this one but here it is in it’s grey livery just needing the black bits doing and then some transfers and weathering.

MMP LMS Glass Wagon 001 MMP LMS Glass Wagon 002 MMP LMS Glass Wagon 003 MMP LMS Glass Wagon 004 MMP LMS Glass Wagon 005 MMP LMS Glass Wagon 006 MMP LMS Glass Wagon 007 MMP LMS Glass Wagon 008I also replaced the buffer heads with some brass ones that I had in the spares box this made it a bit easier to spring them.

The wood for the deck and packing cases was supplied with the kit along with cutting templates.

Another one for Love Lane

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Chris spent a bit of time this week weathering the 12 ton van for Love Lane

Sadly the flash has been a bit cruel in picking out the rust and exaggerating it much more that it is in reality.

Love Lane Wagons 002

Love Lane Wagons 003 Love Lane Wagons 004 Love Lane Wagons 005Love Lane Wagons 001

 

And lastly a photo of the two together.

Love Lane Wagons 006

 

All that’s left for me to do is to clean the paint off the wheel treads and get them in the post…

For a worthy cause

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Along side my own stock builds I have built a couple of Parkside wagon kit’s to Scale 7 for a layout that is being completed by a group of S7 modellers as a tribute to the gent that started it but sadly passed away. They appealed on one of the forums that I post on for any offers of help so I pitched in.

They consist of an LNER Loco coal wagon and an LNER 12 Ton van (more on that later….)

Love lane coal wagon 001 Love lane coal wagon 002 Love lane coal wagon 003 Love lane coal wagon 006 Love lane coal wagon 007