4mm An EM Workbench: n shades of grey

[AJC]

Time for something different (I'm waiting on the delivery of buffers for the Herring) before I fit the steps and haven't been in the mood to concoct fancy vacuum pipes, well, not yet. The underside door gear has been added and all is pleasantly 'busy' down there.



A new wagon project comes in the form of a Hornby BR standard brake acquired for a fiver in their pre-Christmas sale. The rather exciting livery that I've abused will be replaced by more sober bauxite. The body moulding came with a representation of a plywood veranda end (an in service replacement) rather than the original planking. The ply replacements seem to have been a bit later than the period I work on* so I've done the extreme thing and cut out said end panel. It will be replaced with some scribed plastic sheet reasonably shortly.



I won't be doing nearly so much to the underframe on this vehicle since with all those footboards and things the detail can't be seen so outer brake yokes and safety loops only. I've moved the brakeshoes out a bit, spaced out from the solebars with a bit of 60 thou' plastic and trapped it in with some more for added security. The brakeshoes, by the by are grey styrene, painted black. The chassis moulding is self-coloured. Hornby, with their various farcical attempts to reduce production costs, detailed, decried and sycophantically defended over there have missed an easy win.



Oh, and the lamp irons at one end have gone - these will be replaced with Masokits brass ones which will carry the lamps themselves. The plastic ones would have done, but I went and dropped the body...

Adam

* That said, re-sheeting could be quite extensive in the mid-60s, witness this LNER-built van:

https://flic.kr/p/n7eQdZ

 

[Rob Pulham]

Superb Adam,
It's hard to see that it's 4mm in some of those shots

 

[AJC]

Superb Adam,
It's hard to see that it's 4mm in some of those shots

Thanks Rob. I would note (slightly cheekily, perhaps) that many of these details are routinely ignored by 7mm scale modellers...

Anyhow, here's the brakevan with its new veranda screens and safety loops.



I'm not quite convinced by the buffers - I wonder that they might be a little short - so these might have to go but first, handrails.

Adam

 

[AJC]

A few more details, rainstrips, lamp irons and lamps and the bodyside handrails (the latter are not quite complete). I'll have to work out how to paint the thing shortly - some deft masking will be required for the duckets which are clear plastic, welded in with solvent.





Adam

EDIT - I have now straightened the lamps...

 

[Gilbert]

What buffers will you be using on the Herring?
Thanks
Chris

 

[AJC]

What buffers will you be using on the Herring?
Thanks
Chris

Hi Chris - they've just arrived. Lanarkshire Model Supplies B022 - GW self-contained buffers with a 13" head. These match both the Swindon diagram and photos nicely.

Hope that helps

Adam

 

[Gilbert]

Thanks

 

[AJC]

After a break from the workbench (conference, talks to give, book proofs to check), in my travels I acquired one of the new Hornby LNER 21 ton hoppers and it's well, quite nice though the axles have a lot of slop which must cause a bit of strife for the running in OO. In EM, however, this is not such an issue and the regauging was nice and simple. Here's the thing as it comes (complete with lettering in Comic Sans):



And here's after the first dabbling with bits and pieces left over from the Dave Bradwell chassis kit, the bang plates thus far which seem to have been later additions as were the cat's cradle of handrails at the ends. For this reason, I've replaced those supplied with 0.3mm nickel silver wire for the sake of consistency but I haven't yet worked out which of the (many) variations to fit. I've since changed the buffers with some from ABS as well.



Other projects have come on in dribs and drabs but they'll have to wait for the weekend.

Adam

 

[AJC]

I've actually finished something. One titivated Hornby BR brake:



I'm quite pleased with how the patch repainting effect came out, but now the sun is shining so I'm off outside.

Adam

 

[AJC]

Last night's work




This morning's work:



And what all the bits look like assembled:



There are a couple of small things left to do, but the external detail is, whisper it, done!

Adam

 

[AJC]

Lettering, something that, if you want to do it right, is always a challenge. We have a mixture here, from left, Cambridge Custom Transfers used more or less as supplied, the 'empty to' branding is cobbled together from leftover lettering from a Covhop, also from CCT, the 'Stoneycombe' branding (multiple return brandings seem to have been very common on P22s - the 'Herring' branding seems rare on pictures before 1970 so I've left it off) was pieced together from bits of a KB Scale sheet intended for 7mm. It is sufficiently tiny that the subterfuge with the spelling is all but invisible - there were no 'B's on the sheet... The maintenance panel is from Railtec. The bits you can't see are overhead warning flashes from Modelmaster. Hard work all this.




As you can see, relative to dad's Hornby Trout this is a small vehicle...



Adam

 

[AJC]

Going back to an earlier project, the pair of Coil Rs have seen a little bit of attention, building up the supports for the tent-like hoods, which will be fully modelled like a building, with roof and sides. The structure will eventually be covered in tissue t represent the sheets but only after the remaining hinge and bracket details are added.



Adam

 

[iak63]

Mmmmmmm!

 

[AJC]

Next steps. Roof on, I won't add sides because the tissue will be tough enough and the one clear picture I have sows a certain amount of settlement/billow.



This provides a supporting structure for fairing in with epoxy putty, like this:



This one will use more tissue since the shaping isn't the same, on the inner ends, at least. So the Milliput doesn't have to do quite so much work, I've added some triangles of 40 thou'. I shall get the centre hood done first. but it will be a fiddle. Anyone else contemplating this sort of build might like to consider only adding the outer cradles afterwards...



Adam

 

[SimonT]

Adam,
do you have a copy or link to the photo of the prototype hood? I have never seen the hood and would like to know more as I ought to put hoods on my two vehicles (as well as the vac pipes to keep Oz happy!).
Simon

 

[AJC]

Simon

The only picture I have with the hoods on is in the far distance in OPC's 'The Power of the Peaks', plate 165. All it really does is confirm how far down the sheets go (roughly below the top of the little drop doors) but there are dimensioned sketches - weight diagrams really - to scale here: http://www.barrowmoremrg.co.uk/BRBDocuments/BRFreight2Issue.pdf on page 82.

Adam

 

[SimonT]

Adam,
thank you. The one book missing from the library .......? Something to look for at Telford.
Simon

 

[AJC]

Time for a bit more detail before the first lot of sheets go on - the representation of the angle iron bracing between the bays is necessary because it they affect the hang of the sheets - so door hinges went on as well. @SimonT has unearthed a David Larkin picture showing the sheets nice and clearly so I now have a much better idea of what to aim at...



Adam

 

[AJC]

There hasn't been much time for modelling over the last week or so - I'm in the throes of completing work on a book (not remotely railway related) and this has eaten all my spare time. Still, I've managed to get the sheets over the centre of the three bays completed and have made a start on the hoods over the end bays with the sheet rails. These have been tacked onto the plastic formers with cyano and then more firmly secured with 5 minute epoxy. Both wagons have now reached the same stage but I've only photographed the one. The nice thing about this point is that for the first time there's a sense of what the completed wagon will look like. There is a long, long way to go, however.







Adam

 

[AJC]

Following a jaunt to Expo EM on Saturday some small bits of progress, but first, a quick shot from Andrew Ullyott's demo' piece (actually part of his rather fine model of Clevedon on the WC&P) courtesy of Andrew's iPad.



Rather than buy another Herring, I decided to branch out and pick up a Catfish, a type which wasn't really at home on either the southern or western regions but some did get loaned to the SR in the late '60s; Dave Larkin took some pictures and Cambrian produced some transfers based on these (and they can now be had from Modelmaster).



Getting this far was surprisingly easy relative to what I remember from doing the larger Dogfish in my teens. Perhaps I'm getting better at these things? Anyhow, barring a few slivers of 10 thou' inserted at either end of the hopper this has come together surprisingly easily and - given that the dies were cut in 1982 or thereabouts - rather well. It speaks very highly of the kit that the only bits I intend replacing are the handwheels and handrails; other refinements will be very limited indeed. The first lot of brackets have gone onto the Coil Rs. More too come.



Adam