Horsing around - D&S GWR N8 Horse box

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Craig Warton
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Horsing around - D&S GWR N8 Horse box

Postby Craig Warton » Sat Oct 24, 2015 9:06 am

I just realised how long it is since I did an update. The time in between has been filled with a road trip with my wife and following that I have had some difficulty getting my head back into this modelling thing.

My intention (ha!) was to stick with the goods wagons I have been working on, but frankly I seemed to make mistakes which resulted in me wanting to throw them against the wall. I figured it was time for a circuit breaker.

I have a thing about horse boxes, which is good because I also have a thing about the D.N &S. Fortunately, I have accumulated a good number of the D&S GWR boxes - some via Ebay with the majority coming via the recent Brassmasters reruns. There are a few others too. So, a horse box seemed a good thing to start.

After tossing a coin I decided to start an N8 and build it from the box. The initial part of the build went ok, but I always have trouble with the compensated W-irons on D&S kits. They never seem to wind up level and an N4 I was building ground to a halt because I changed it over to Bill Bedford W-Irons which I had to modify to fit. I will get back to that shortly. The only major modification I have done is to solder some half round brass rod to the bottom of the wagon side to represent the hinge bar on the drop door. To me, this is a big improvement and I will do this change to all the horse boxes i build (all?)

Two photos are attached of the progress to date. The other photo is of a sunset over the Olgas. In three weeks, we drove nearly 8000 kms. But with scenery like this is it any wonder it is taking me a while to get back into the modelling.

Regards,

Craig W
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Last edited by Craig Warton on Sun Oct 25, 2015 8:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

DougN
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Re: Horsing around.

Postby DougN » Sat Oct 24, 2015 9:47 pm

Looking nice there Craig. I too an finding the enthusiasm difficult to re kindle due to the rest of life getting in the way!

If you do happen to drive south. Drop me a line and we can arrange a meeting with some of the Melbourne group.
Doug
Still not doing enough modelling

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Craig Warton
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Re: Horsing around.

Postby Craig Warton » Sun Oct 25, 2015 10:57 am

G'day Doug,

I will most certainly take you up on your offer when we do head south. It would be good to meet up with some of the P4 crowd from over the border.

I am actually getting back into my groove now, which is pretty pleasing. My daughter is in Bali with her boyfriend, and my son went to a trivia night with his boyfriend. I mowed the lawn and my wife wanted to do some painting (artistic type, not walls) so I had a free afternoon.

One thing that can be said is I am not quick. I take my time, look at things, clean regularly and it all tends to drag at times. Today though, I managed to complete all the brakegear and also fix up the body mounting. So, it is slowly but surely taking shape. Once I get this done, it will be back to the wagons to get them finished.

Hopefully, while i am on a roll I will get the chance to keep working on things.

Craig W
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Paul Willis
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Re: Horsing around.

Postby Paul Willis » Mon Oct 26, 2015 10:53 pm

DougN wrote:Looking nice there Craig. I too an finding the enthusiasm difficult to re kindle due to the rest of life getting in the way!


Doug,

I know exactly what you mean! I keep thinking that I'll just do ten minutes a night. But then something else happens, and I don't have the time/energy/inclination...

Still, I'm at least ploughing on slowly with something. I'm now at the lettering stage of a batch of five LNWR ballast wagons, built from Ratio kits.

IMG_2043.JPG


I am pretty sure that I won't be doing a batch build again though. Whilst it had some efficiencies (only load up/clean the airbrush once...) I'm finding it tedious to do yet another set of lettering, and I still have two of them to go!

Cheers
Flymo
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Guy Rixon
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Re: Horsing around - D&S GWR N8 Horse box

Postby Guy Rixon » Tue Oct 27, 2015 9:43 am

I have the opposite problem. I find it quite easy to do a few minutes modelling per night, since I have my stuff on a dedicated bench in the house; but I find it hard to do more than a few minutes, because almost every operation recently involves waiting for something to dry - glue, paint, water from washing off prior to painting. I need to move to batch building to go faster. That's tricky, since I'm trying to reduce the mountain of unfinished projects and they're all stopped at different stages.

PS: I should have said up front that the horsebox is looking very nice and I'm looking forward to future reports.

beachboy

Re: Horsing around - D&S GWR N8 Horse box

Postby beachboy » Tue Oct 27, 2015 10:17 am

Hi Guy,

Just read your comment, with some idea's.

Have you thought of a separate paint 'station' akin to the MDF version that GamesWorkshop sold. Being a self contained unit that holds the paints, brushes, palettes etc. Which can be lifted up by the handle recesses, and put away whilst 'drying', or even in another room when its to hot and prevent paints from drying out. Which given an accumulative cost of the pots of paint . . .

For modelling, how about separate 'trays' on your workbench. I made some out of MDF Rectangles, edges added, and rubber feet for grip, & a mini cutting mat.
Thus can swap round for a change of project, or separate one for soldering. Bearing in mind flux concerns.

I say no more as this is diversifying from Graig's thread.

Steve.

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Craig Warton
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Re: Horsing around - D&S GWR N8 Horse box

Postby Craig Warton » Tue Oct 27, 2015 11:23 am

It is interesting to see that other people are torn by the notion of batch building too. In my working life I am involved in manufacturing and have done quite a lot of Lean methodology and to be honest batch production is counter intuitive to me in part because of that. That is why I have decided to stick in groups of two or three of something - I find I do not save time by building larger lots. Having said that, I really was getting itchy feet and needed a change from wagons.

Beachboy, I am not the least bit bothered by distractions - someone is bound to say something that will be helpful to me or others which is what these things are really about.

Regards,

Craig

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David B
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Re: Horsing around - D&S GWR N8 Horse box

Postby David B » Tue Oct 27, 2015 2:58 pm

There are certainly pros & cons with batch building. I find building 'run-of-the-mill' stuff in batches offers no particular benefit, but doing things that require more concentration and skill is beneficial. If you have, say, a load of brake gear to make but it is not straightforward, I find it better to do more and similar work at the same time. I then don't have either to work out how I did it again in the future or, having remembered it was more difficult, work up the mojo to tackle it.

In other words, strike whilst the iron is hot (literally) and the memory still works. I don't particularly like making Masokit screw couplings, but I did have a batch session on them and made two frets (28 couplings) in one bash. I don't have to think about making any more for a while!

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Craig Warton
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Re: Horsing around - D&S GWR N8 Horse box

Postby Craig Warton » Sun Nov 01, 2015 5:48 am

Having sort of found my mojo again, I have been continuing on the N8 in an effort to get it finished or at least finished in primer.

I have a few more bits and pieces to solder on, nothing from the kit mind you, but a few extra bits and pieces that I noticed were missing when looking at photos. The one I am building is vacuum only, in large part because I am not sure what stock that was dual fitted looked like around the underframe area. But, any thoughts of that will wait until I get to my second N8.

The roof had me stuck for a while, as I really do not like the idea of an unsupported styrene roof. In the end I decided to build up a sub roof from styrene sheet, all superglued together. This was then fitted in position and I have sanded it to match the roof profile. A little more finishing to do, but almost done. Then, I need to put a partition inside and also a screen to stop the light through the louvres. The final thing will be buffers and couplings. I will be fitting steel rams, but there just isn't room to spring them so I will ignore that!

Photos attached show the current state of play.

David, I take your point about batch building some things and it does make sense. I have to get some Masokits screw couplings to build before I can do that though!

Regards,

Craig W
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Craig Warton
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Re: Horsing around - D&S GWR N8 Horse box

Postby Craig Warton » Sun Nov 15, 2015 9:24 am

A small update on the horse box too - it now has a roof.

Some finishing off and cleaning still to go, but getting there.

Craig W
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Guy Rixon
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Re: Horsing around - D&S GWR N8 Horse box

Postby Guy Rixon » Sun Nov 15, 2015 12:01 pm

Looking very good. I'm curious about the brakes: is the one shoe worked by the handbrakes also worked by the vacuum brake, or is it independent? And was the full-size van built with this handbrake or is a it a retro-fit?

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Craig Warton
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Re: Horsing around - D&S GWR N8 Horse box

Postby Craig Warton » Mon Nov 16, 2015 7:06 am

Guy Rixon wrote:Looking very good. I'm curious about the brakes: is the one shoe worked by the handbrakes also worked by the vacuum brake, or is it independent? And was the full-size van built with this handbrake or is a it a retro-fit?


Russell Volume 1 has a photo (P168) of No 741 when new - or near new by looks. She was the first of lot 768. The Lewis article notes 741-756 being WH pipe fitted in 1897 and she does not appear to have a pipe in the photo, so must be near new - and hand brake fitted.I am not sure why horse boxes were fitted with a handbrake when the 6 wheel siphons were not (until 1920s)

I think the hand brake works the one shoe, with the vacuum working all. That being said, things are a bit vague around the underframe for that - and I do not have a clue what a dual fitted box looks like!

Regards,

Craig W

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Russ Elliott
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Re: Horsing around - D&S GWR N8 Horse box

Postby Russ Elliott » Tue Aug 30, 2016 4:56 pm

The kit has the normal D & S pragmatic touches in the brake gear department. The kit builds to the original form of the prototype, but I wonder how long the single brake block arrangement for the manual brake was kept - I couldn't find any prototype pictures taken between the official as-built condition and the very modified final form (as a tool van) of the last survivor, No 35.

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Craig Warton
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Re: Horsing around - D&S GWR N8 Horse box

Postby Craig Warton » Wed Nov 23, 2016 9:40 am

Russ Elliott wrote:The kit has the normal D & S pragmatic touches in the brake gear department. The kit builds to the original form of the prototype, but I wonder how long the single brake block arrangement for the manual brake was kept - I couldn't find any prototype pictures taken between the official as-built condition and the very modified final form (as a tool van) of the last survivor, No 35.


I have had a pretty good look around and cannot find anything at all to show if the hand brakes were modified. I am modelling early 1920s and efforts to have brakes on both sides seem to have happened in the later 1920s so on that basis I am sticking with the original arrangement. It seems sort of logical to me!

Regards,

Craig W


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