Monthly Archives: July 2014

Dragon Models NBR/LNER Twin Gas Tank Wagon

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A busy week hasn’t allowed much time to progress this but I managed a little last night.

The solebar overlays went on like a dream.

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The challenge came when I got to soldering the solebars to the underframe. The underframe has a broken half etched line to show where it’s located but getting it to solder in an upright position tested my ingenuity. In the end a piece of rectangular tube backed up with a strip of scrap etch under the lip brought it vertical so I placed it under one end while I tacked in and then repeated at the other end before completing the seam.

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Dragon Models NBR-LNER Twin Gas Tank Wagon

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A quiet day at home resulted in my getting the timber wagons into primer – two colours no less. I have read a few posts about people using black primer for underframes so I gave it a go along with grey for the bodywork.

Then I made a start on the next one which is another Dragon kit. This one is the NBR/LNER ‘twin’ tank travelling gas wagon. I emphasise the twin because I have asked Chris Basten if he can supply another kit with an extra tank so that I can do a triple tanked version too.

This is another one that originated in the Majestic models stable and so far the tanks have made up very nicely. The only adjustment that I needed to make was on the outer tank wrapper which has two half etched edges to make a smooth seam. When I tried them the left too much of a gap between the wrapper and the cylinder so I cut of one of the half etches plus an extra 0.5mm this allowed for a much better fit and the slight overlap from the remaining half etched section is hidden under the tank.

What has come as a bit of a surprise based on the other former Majestic kits that I have built is that the bulk of it is etched (I had in my mind that the chassis was cast much like the 4mm SE Finecast versions that I built previously – perhaps that’s where the false idea came from….).

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All the rivet strips are separate items giving a nicely reinforced appearance.

Another one (two) ready for the paint shop.

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Last night saw the Timber and Ore Wagons completed.

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The chains that hold the sides up severely tried my eyesight and patience – my £7 magnifying specs really came to the rescue! The rings that hold the chains on the ends were spare rope rings from the Connoisseur sand wagon kit. The fine chain is from Slaters (David Parkins kindly pointed me at the source after using the fine chain in the MMP Glass Wagon).

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On the one photo that I have seen there are quite prominent wagon plates on the sides. I am not sure if these were replaced by the LMS but I found four badly etched loco build plates that looked about the right size and added them. Once they are painted and lost under some weathering they should look the part.
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Next up is the paint shop.

“Braking” the Timber and Ore wagons….

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As I mentioned in my last post, the next job was to sort out the brakes which are one sided on these wagons – they usually ran in pairs giving access to a brake from either side.

This is what was provided in the two kits – the casting with the base being the Majestic offering and the rest came with the Dragon kit.

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The idea being that you solder the brass strip to one of the brake shoes with a few spares in case of accidents.

Me being me, I didn’t really fancy that so I went for a strip of scrap etch bent to shape and some modified etched shoes from the spares box (suitably filed to an approximation of the cast shoes).

My apologies for the rather poor first photo the camera kept trying to focus on something else…..

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I also managed to get the lever made up for one of them but the work bench “ate” the locking nut for the second so more scrap etch needed for a replacement…..

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Timber and Ore Wagons

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A bit of time over the last couple of evenings has seen the two timber and ore wagons up on their wheels and the buffer stocks fitted. I had to drill out the hole for the buffer shanks on the Dragon castings but this didn’t present any problems.

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The next bit of fun is going to be the brakes because at the moment neither sets of brakes will line up with the wheels so a bit of improvisation will be needed – watch this space….

It’s the details that matter…..

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Meanwhile I managed to finish painting, weathering and adding the details to the tender truck.

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The pieces of timber are coffee stirrers cut lengthways, and I am particularly pleased with the bundles of rope which are made from 4 strands of 32 gauge brass beading wire, twisted together in a couple of pin vices. This was them wound around a lolly type stick to get the length of coil and further wound around itself then it was blackened and dipped in the mix of paint that I used for weathering the inside of the cattle wagons featured earlier.

The lamp is by Slaters and the hammer another one of the Peter Roles castings.

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I have also taken a few pictures of the various stages of the weathering process on this and a couple more vans that I am on with and will post then to my weathering thread later.

Back to building….

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I took up the building reins again in between bouts of weathering over the wet and dismal weekend. Next up is another simple project in the form of a pair of CR/LMS 8 ton Timber and Ore wagons. One is the original Majestic Models kit and the 2nd is the same kit as produced by Dragon Models under the Celtic Connection banner. The kits are a little basic but form the basis on which to add some additional details if you wish and come in as a very cheap addition to the stock box – £8 for the first kit via eBay and £20 for the second from Dragon. The sides are formed from two layers of etch which have separate hinge detail applied (I also added some rod to represent the hinge pins)and the ends and sole bars are whitemetal castings. There was a sheet of brass supplied with the Majestic kit for the floor but Dragon supply a sheet of planked plasticard. I replaced this with a bit of scrap nickel etch from the 8F kit which was just the right width. This allowed me to solder all the way making for solid construction – they weigh a bit too!

 

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Playing about with details….

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Since finishing the build of the tender truck at the weekend I have spent some time playing with additional details. I have also primed and started the top coats of paint but I haven’t taken any photos yet (not much to show to be honest).

First I got a bit carried away and made a few more shunting poles…. I found that the pin shanks bent so much better without annealing first.

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Then I had a rummage in my scrap etc box to see what if anything I had in the way of tool boxes or something that could be made into them.

First off I came up with this it was a bit fiddly to make up and the first wash lost some of the bits of rod on the sides…. The oil can is one of the Peter Roles castings.

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Next up I really wanted an open toolbox. A spare etch and some scratch built straps etc. gave me this which I am quite suited with.

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With tools inside…..
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Jim also supplies a few cast details in the form of buckets, upright oil cans and shovels so I made a start on painting some of them.

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I am not too sure about the buckets……

Connoisseur NBR Tender Truck ready for the paint shop

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Last night saw the shunting truck compete or so I thought. A chance look through one of the RCTS Green Books revealed that some locos had shunting poles on brackets along the valances. This got my mind working and I reasoned that if the tender truck had foot boards and handrails for the shunter why not a shunting pole too.

A quick Google search this morning got me an idea of what they look like and the approximate sizes, so I set to this afternoon to see if I could make one.

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The hand rails look a bit worse for handling (if you will pardon the pun!) but given that the loco that I plan to run this behind is in post war LNER livery I would expect these wagons to be a little tired by then.

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The pole is made from a cut down cocktail stick, which I turned in my dremel wile applying a sanding stock.

I cut the point off and drilled a hole approx 10mm down the centre. I then got the end of a brass pin that I had used the head as a rivet (I have a little pot on my workbench with all sorts of offcuts etc. just for such occasions. I annealed the end of it and twisted it with round nosed pliers to the rough approximation of what I had seen in photos.

I then had a look in the scrap etc. box an found a piece of nickel that had been half etched so was quite thin. I cut a strip off this and shaped it to make the ferrule for the end of the pole and soldered it together.

I then glued the pin in the hole and mixed up a watery mix of black\gunmetal\steel acrylics and washed over the handle to give a used look. A quick dunk in metal black sorted the hook and ferrule.

As a slight aside I have found it very difficult to remove the excess solder on this build – or at least the staining of where it’s been.

Connoisseur NBR Tender Truck Part 3

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Still moving steadily along with this one.

Unlike most of Jim’s other kits (or at least those that I have had the good fortune to build) this ones has taken quite a bit of fettling to fit – I had to file the ends quite a bit to get them to fit properly between the sides (as the kit seems to have been intended) this is no reflection on Jim as he didn’t design it and he does mention most of what you need to file of in the instructions (and he may have mentioned this but I neglected to look at the instructions by this point).

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The corner plates are a little fiddly but they do fit very nicely giving a realistic corner – it’s a pity my blurred photo doesn’t show them that well -I only managed those on the rear corners last night.

Connoisseur NBR Tender Truck Part 2

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Two evening’s modelling on the trot sees moe progress made.

The body is well on it’s and is now quite a heavy and sturdy unit.

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I added the steps and dug out the etched LNER plates that Brian, a kind RMWebber let me have.

The ends, like the body sides are made up from 2 layers and the outer one has holes for pins that hold the cast end stanchions in place.

Soldering them in before adding the inner layer has made them quite secure – the use of some judicious heat sinks should see the ends attached to the body without them coming adrift.