This build has slowed down a little because when reviewing the two GA’s that I have and some photos that I took of an LNER brake van at Grosmont on the NYMR a few years ago, all of them have fully timber panelled doors whereas the Slaters kit depicts a 4 paned window in the door. At first I was going to just cut out the framing and fit a panel in the upper part of the door (and I will do that at one end) but being me I decided that I would have a door at one end open so I am just about to start carving the door out of one of the ends.
Monthly Archives: April 2020
A Start is made on the actual build
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Well I got the tools that needed it cleaned up and tested the soldering irons. All still do what they are meant to so I opened the Slaters box and made a start.
Here’s where I got to in my first session.
Drawing up an interior
In between cleaning rust of my modelling tools I have done a little more at the drawing and will add a little more explanation.
First I will give the key to the line colours. You can draw the lines in any colour you want, it makes no difference as long as you know what you want from each line. The colours control the cut once you import the drawing into Silhouette Studio but more on that when we get there.
Crimson Red lines are lines that I will cut all the way through.
Dark Red lines will also be cut all the way through but ensure that the cutter blade makes a separate cut for these lines rather then them being a continuation of the crimson lines – in this case they are the tops and bottoms of the window cut outs. If you draw the windows as a square/rectangle they will cut fine most times but occasionally the cut tries to go go around the corner and you get some rounding so when I remember I do it long hand with four separate lines to make up the rectangle or square. As long as they are the same size you one need to do the one as you can select all the four sides and duplicate them to create more window openings without having to redraw them.
Green lines are score lines which will only be cut deep enough to show them as plank lines etc.
I also use dashed blue lines for marking where things are to be placed (such as strapping or end posts on wagons) but I don’t need any on this particular drawing.
Also note that Slaters have glazing in the upper half of the door whereas the GA has it planked so I will need to modify that when I start the build.
Slaters LNER Diagram 61 20 ton Brake Van
Finally the prospect of getting a workbench up and running looms. Hopefully by the end of next week i should be seriously thinking about getting a temporary workbench set up. With the current lockdown extended it’s probably going to be a garden bistro table with a makeshift plywood top and a garden chair to sit on but it’s better than nothing.
I have a limited number of potential victims to hand to get back into the swing of things. It’s a toss up between this and one of Jim’s LNER Bogie Brick wagons. I won’t be able to make a final decision on what I can build until I dig in the depths of the shed and see what modeling tools I managed to bring with me.
What I know I don’t have, is access to my library. But I do have digital general arrangement drawings for the D61 brake van but only a couple of photos of the brick wagon so if I have glue etc. I am leaning towards the Brake van.
In anticipation, this evening I opened the box and scanned the sides and cabin ends so that I can use the GA drawings to draw up and cut an interior with the Silhouette cutter. That should keep me out of mischief for a few nights until I get the WB in action.
Progress will be posted as it happens.
I am still alive….
Since my last posting, far too long ago! I have taken early retirement and we have moved from Wakefield into the Yorkshire Dales, to a little village called Newton-le-Willows. Situated not far from Bedale (not to be confused with the town of Newton-le-Willows in Lancashire).
I am sure that we are not the first or the last to have what they buy as having a little work to be done turns into a major project. We have now been here for just over 6 months and only now are we approaching having the main living accommodation complete. I say that as the house is a bungalow with a downstairs. The downstairs element comprises the front door, a hallway, a cloakroom/utility and the former garage which has been converted into a study and hobby room for my modelling. It’s this downstairs bit that won’t be complete but the upstairs “bungalow” bit will all be done – just six more doors to shorten and hang.
One of the main things that attracted us to the house was the views and the fact that over the back fence is the Wensleydale Railway (currently closed due to Covid-19 of course). Below are a couple of shots of passing traffic….
Fingers crossed, next week should see me with some kind of modelling workbench up and running. The bench itself will be a garden table and what I will build will largely depend on what I have to hand since most of our belongings are in storage 7 miles away on Layburn which in the current lock down may as well be on on the moon. Still I have a couple of kit’s to hand so I will see what can be done.