Rob P's Rolling Stock Workbench

Some time later I had reserved an item from the Guilds E&T service for collection at the Summer show when it was held at Cleckheaton but when I arrived and collected by items one of them was missing and they couldn't find it so I took another kit for a sand wagon instead. I had decided to build it and sell it on.
I finished it as a BR era vehicle because in my experience of trying to sell built/finished 7mm stock it needs to be either BR or GWR or preferably BR/WR to gain interest.
This one I weathered myself.







The tarpaulin is from a piece of an old pillowcase and the canvas protecting the axle boxes is made from lense tissue the same stuff that I make my roof canvas out of.



I entered this one in the Guild's modelling competition too but it was at a time when it was votes from the public that carried the day and it wasn't sexy enough to garner lots of votes.

 

A slight diversion in the form of a complete foreigner to me - a Parkside SR Brake Van.

It's ultimately destined for the small ads but it has made a change which has resparked my interest.

This is as far as I got in a couple of sessions over the weekend.



It's just posed for the photo at the minute




As you can see the brakes are not fixed yet.



I found an interior shot which showed a couple of small seats below the lookouts.

There was also a separate box/locker with a lid which I may or may not model. I say that because when the lid is one there isn't much visible inside.... Although once the interior is painted a bit more may be seen.



I have planked over the tops of the verandas which I appreciate isn't visible when looking at it from above but it does enhance it as a model.



Some were made to slightly different diagram in that they had additional windows added adjacent to the doors in each end. many others had them fitted later in their lives. I found a couple of photos where they survived intact without so I decided to leave them as is.

It will be finished to represent a BR liveried example so I won't be fitting the sand boxes although having said that I am very tempted to model this one

https://flic.kr/p/96HAx8

Or this one, as being something quite different. I am not sure what the time frame for it being fitted with the cylinders on the end platform though - I want to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

S49000 SR BRAKE VAN by Linda Chen, on Flickr

 

Thanks Paul,
That's what I feared but I have just been informed via the Guild forum that they were built like that for the War Department during the war and only ended up in SR/BR service after they were released from WD service so it looks like I may have a go at it after all.

 

Is Line Clear wrote:

Me neither, but then it's the wrong end of the country for me to have knowledge of...

 

Not much done this weekend but a little progress was made on the brake van

 

Although the Southern Brake van is still ongoing we didn't risk a trip up north this weekend so I thought I would share with you another of my kit bashes.
I have a reasonable library of wagon books and in amongst them are Midland Wagons vols 1 and 2 by Bob Essery
In there I found a single photo of a conversion of a Midland wagon by the WD in the first world war into a Locker wagon. Although not confirmed the theory is that it was used for munitions.
The basis of the conversion was a Slaters Gloucester open wagon kit.




To that I added some end extensions and a sloping roof






You will note that I had to add/remove a few rivets to make the Gloucester wagon match the Midland wagon. Had I used one of the Slaters Midland opens for the job I possibly wouldn't have had to do that but I had already bought a couple of Gloucester kits so decided to use one of them.














It's worth mentioning that this predates me getting the Silhouette so all the washer plates, hinges etc were all cut by hand with the aid of a North Western Shortline Chopper II - a worthy investment for anyone scratch building anything in styrene. I wouldn't be without mine now.

 

Thanks Gents,
A couple of shots of the finished wagon, complete with home produced transfers (White laser decal paper).





It was unusual to note that this wagon was fitted with screw couplings and it goes toward reinforcing the supposition of it being used for munitions

 

Back at the beginning of last year (February) I built a Powsides ex GER 5 plank open. This was an E&T buy at Telford about 3 years ago.









Warren primed and coated it in grey for me and I have finally got around to adding the transfers ready for some weathering. I must have done a bit of weathering/painting of the woodwork but I can't recall when...











The last shot has it's load which is one of the Skytrex castings that I bought and painted two or three years ago.

 

Thanks Kimbo,
They do finish off very nicely the Skytrex loads, I took advantage of a Christmas special offer some time ago and bought quite a few. Now I just need to built enough open wagons to use them all.

 

I managed to move an even longer term inhabitant of the workbench a bit closer to the finish line this weekend.
I first built the basic kit back in May 2015 but I have only just got around to finishing the transfers. At the time Adrian Marks advised me that at grouping these ended their days in departmental service and as such never received LNER livery, hence this one will be finished in a very scabby GER livery.








A superb kit with all the brake gear being lost wax castings rather than etches.








The only changes I made were to add the tie down rings from bent brass dressmaking pins (I annealed them to bend them).

 

What I forgot to add is that it's a Ragstone Models kit and I have a few more of them in my stash to build at some point - hopefully the start to finish time will be much reduced....

 

Hi Pete,
if you plan a GER layout it's worth having a look at Andy Beaton's range because he does a few ex GER kit's.
Jim Connoisseur at is also bringing out an F3 kit soon to go with his other GER locos.

 

paul_l wrote:

You will Paul, I must admit getting a decent airbrush improved the finish of my models immensely.

Sadly a poor paint job can spoil a great model whereas a good paint job can in many ways rescue what might be a poor build.