4mm An EM Workbench: n shades of grey

[AJC]

Feels like a group build in the offing?

Do you have a 2mm version to bring to the party? I surely don’t need another… that said, I do have other fitted vans on the go, so if anyone wants to share them while my workbench is out of action (we have the builders in), please feel free.

Adam

 

[Matt.S.]

Do you have a 2mm version to bring to the party? I surely don’t need another… that said, I do have other fitted vans on the go, so if anyone wants to share them while my workbench is out of action (we have the builders in), please feel free.

Adam

I feel a little fraudulent after taking so much motivation from your workbench thread.

No vanwides, but I have a few other vans on order to try and field a train for Steve M's St Erth.

 

[AJC]

I feel a little fraudulent after taking so much motivation from your workbench thread.

No vanwides, but I have a few other vans on order to try and field a train for Steve M's St Erth.

Don't fret about that - I appreciate that anyone gets value from the thread (beyond its purpose for me, which is keeping track of what I've been doing). Any sight of those vans when they make their way across the globe to you in NZ would be interesting, should you choose to share it.

Adam

 

[AJC]

Last night’s project, a multi-wheelbase axle setting jig: 9’ 6” one side, 9’ and 12’ the other.





Hopefully this’ll make that element of wagon building less of a faff.

Adam

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Could you squeeze the common 10' wheelbase in there as well?

 

[AJC]

Could you squeeze the common 10' wheelbase in there as well?

Not quite! But that's one where I almost invariably have a moulding or an etching so it was a lower priority.

Adam

 

[ullypug]

I must confess to using the Brassmasters gauge for a while now
gauge

 

[MartinWales]

I must confess to using the Brassmasters gauge for a while now
gauge

Same here! Indispensable!

 

[AJC]

I must confess to using the Brassmasters gauge for a while now
gauge

Yes, they’re good and dad has one, which I’ve had a play with, but I want to do the job today, not next week!

Adam

 

[Lyndhurstman]

Last night’s project, a multi-wheelbase axle setting jig: 9’ 6” one side, 9’ and 12’ the other.

View attachment 194405

View attachment 194406

Hopefully this’ll make that element of wagon building less of a faff.

Adam

Good work!
I did similar for my 7mm single bolsters. It’s around somewhere in all this junk!

Cheers

Jan

 

[AJC]

A post-holiday quickie, in the form of a 51L Furness Railway open (this one for my ‘30s freight train). A couple of things left to do, horse loops and capping strips, and then it's paint time.



Incidentally, if you’re ever in Cromer, Buoys Toys and Models (where I got this from) is well worth a look. Excellent range of paints, kits and bits.

Adam

 

[AJC]

A second small open, this time from Prickly Pear Models, a North British three plank.



Quite a pleasant build, even if I didn’t choose to use the designed in compensation system (it works, but I really couldn’t be bothered to spend sufficient time fettling the axleboxes for a 9’ wheelbase - it’s hot and I’m tired).

Here it is with the Furness wagon we’ve seen before. Quite quaint, really.



Another project, a Ratio LNWR open, which is a minor mystery. Clearly built in EM (the wheels and brake spacing is sport on), but with enormous Tri-Ang(?) tension locks.



Should keep me busy until it cools down…

Adam

 

[AJC]

Since the NBR open will be quite long in the tooth for the date modelled, I reckoned that there was an opportunity for something more interesting with weathering - the sort of thing pre-Nationalisation modellers don’t indulge in overmuch (despite plenty of evidence that such scruffy wagons were about). So here, evidence of NB lettering will be showing under the LNER branding.

The process is exactly as I did for the SR van made store I've just completed, but the aim is for the result to be less subtle, but not overtly so. Hence, picture 1 shows the roughly applied ghost of the NB lettering - the 'B' is especially rough, but the proportions of the very distinctive style aren't bad, I reckon:



And picture 2 the starting point for lettering and weathering. In both instances the grey is Humbrol 67, the top coat let down with a spot of white. Once that's hardened up in a few days, I'll add the transfers, seal them, and weather the lot over the top.



Adam

 

[Rob R]

Adam,
My attempt at a later Furness open hacked from a Coopercraft GWR open more than 40 years ago..............
Was EM but now sitting on a set of P4 Ultrascale/EMsoc wheelsets.

 

[AJC]

First pass, lettering on, a little bit of working back into the ghost letters. The white on the number plate is gloss - once that’s dry I can float in some black (which I think is right) before giving it a coat of Matt lacquer and weathering. The picture is pretty shonky, but you get the idea.



Adam

 

[AJC]

Something finished. It’s really quite difficult to model a goods wagon that’s convincingly new. This Vanwide is an attempt at that, and I think that it’s relatively successful in representing a wagon after a month or two in traffic. Anyone modelling railways in the ‘50s and ‘60s really needs to address this challenge as there were tens of thousands of new wagons heading into traffic, they’re fairly obvious in photos and few things make a model less convincing than caking everything in filth.



Adam

EDIT: here's an example -

https://flic.kr/p/pETaB6

 

[steve50]

That is a good point about modelling the 50's - 60's especially mineral wagons before they were complete rust buckets. Although it's a lot more fun completely rusting them to an inch of their lives

 

[AJC]

That is a good point about modelling the 50's - 60's especially mineral wagons before they were complete rust buckets. Although it's a lot more fun completely rusting them to an inch of their lives

I’ve actually taken a bit more weathering off since! And you’re quite right about 16 tonners, though I’ve yet to make a ‘new’ one, and the fun factor is probably why.

Adam

 

[76043]

Totally agree on this point, I've not seen any BR built total rust buckets in 1950's photos and as a result won't be doing this treatment on my forthcoming 16 tonners. The MoT, LNER and LMS 16 tonners do seem to be more rusty as they were older if not repainted, but many were repainted by BR. Again reference books like the Larkin books are great for this, along with Tim Mill's pics too!
Tony

 

[AJC]

Another set of rescues, likely to be a slowish project because we have a newborn in the house (he’s fine, the nearly four year old says he can share his trains, so I'm doing something right!). That said, the first of these, a GNR open from D&S, has been stripped, cleaned, and the body soldered.

Before:



After:



There’s a second one of these which I’ll do in parallel - always nice to have multiples in the same train - and then there’s this, which turns out to be a David Geen kit for an NER D.44. I know nothing about these, but whatever it was glued together with vanished at the merest whiff of cellulose thinners.



These are all quite big (I initially thought the GNR ones were S scale until common sense and some measuring came to town), especially compared to the usual 10 ton pre-group open. I think the GNR wagons were for general merchandise, anyone know anything about the NER type?

Adam