Whilst things have appeared quiet on the wagon building front, nothing could be further from the truth. I have been busy completing the wagons that I had been using for my demos so here are some pictures of the finished articles.
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First up is a LNER Cattle Van. I think its origins lie in the old Westykits model which is now sold by Parkside. It certainly needs a fair bit doing to the body in order to represent a later build, Diag.122, as here. The chassis is from Dave Bradwell. I have a confession to make however. This was intended to be the subject of the third wagon tutorial and I had photographed each stage of construction up until Scaleforum came around. For reasons I can't now explain, after Scaleforum, I ploughed on with the construction but completely forgot to photograph what I was doing. So, apologies and you will have to wait for the third tutorial until such time as I get around to building a suitable model.
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A Ratio body on one of Mr. Newitt's chassis plus some extra body detailing to match the photo that I worked from. Its a LMS Diag. 2039 van and, judging from the collared buffer housings, it was built as an unfitted van and converted at a later date. That nice Mr. Newitt waited until I finished it and then brought out his body detailing etch! He did, however, send me one, so I suppose I'll have to do another van just to use it up! I used Archers transfers for the extra rivet detail and these aren't easy to fix to plastic bodies. They like to move around or attach themselves to your fingers! I found that it was best to seal them in place with varnish, which once applied, solved the problem.
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Another Ratio van kit, this time with a Masokits sub-frame underneath. I had originally intended to put a Morgan underframe underneath this one but couldn't lay my hands on it when I needed to, hence the Masokits chassis. I have now built a van with the Morgan underframe, of which more at some other time. This is a diag. V34 van, again built without vacuum brakes but converted later on.
Now for some minerals.
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First up, a Diag. 1/106 BR 16 tonner. The last batch of these was identical to the much more numerous 1/108s. A fairly straightforward build of a Parkside body with a Rumney models chassis. These Morton 2 shoe brake gear chassis go together very easily and, more importantly, very quickly. Very useful properties, given how many more I have to build!
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Next up are a pair of 21 tonners to Diag. 1/110, the riveted variant. These two Parkside bodies were put together for me, probably at least ten years ago if not more, by Len Folkard. The idea was that I would scratchbuild the underframes. Suffice to say, they were put away in a box and disappeared when I moved to sunny Norfolk. They recently re-surfaced and I thought it was about time that I got on with completing them. Of course, Rumney Models now do the correct chassis so I was saved the scratchbuild, so moving does have hidden advantages. This first one has a pressed end door. When I mated it with the chassis, there was a small gap, approx. 1mm. between the bottom of the door and the top of the chassis. I couldn't work out what the problem was at first, but the solution seemed to be to insert a plastic strip of the appropriate height, thus filling the gap. I did eventually work out why there had been a gap. The door used must have come from a 16T kit. On a 21 tonner, the vertical ribs at the top of the end are longer than those on the 16 tonner, hence the gap. I had no intention of trying to seperate the parts, especially given how long ago they had been assembled, in order to put in longer ribs, so I can live with it this time.
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The second one has a conventional fabricated door but otherwise is to the same specification as its companion.
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This is the first of what will be a pair of LNER Single Bolsters to Diag. 197. Their short wheelbase gives them a lot of character, at least to my uncultured eye. It is a Dave Bradwell kit, which, if memory serves, are sold in pairs. Not a lot to say about them except that, as with all Dave's kits, I thoroughly enjoyed building it.
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An ex-Southern wagon, which for me, is quite a rarity. Perhaps that's something that I should rectify in the interests of having a balanced wagon stock. It is to Diag. 1375 and the LNER built identical wagons, although I don't have their diagram information immediately to hand. It is a Cambrian kit on yet another Rumney Models chassis.
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A real blast from the past is this one. I have had an old 3H LMS Diag. 1666 5 plank Open knocking around my cupboard for many a long year and again, I thought that it was about time that I built it. It has Masokits sprung W-Irons and brake gear.
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A quick look at the wooden floors inside the last three wagons, for those interested in such things.
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Bringing up the rear, appropriately enough, is this LMS Diag. 1657 Brake Van. There is some extra detail added to the body sides and I used Archers rivets once again. It also utilises Masokits sprung W-Irons. I decided to drill out the buffers for springing on this one, something which I now do pretty much as a matter of course. A word of caution is required here though. When you do the final drilling out to 2.5mm. for the heads, you won't have much buffer left so have the heads to hand and insert them straightaway to protect the buffer bodies from handling damage. You know how I know this!
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