7mm At the Western End of F7

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Simon

All their wagons are like that the VAA and the OBA and the tanks, but I think they do look nice. Be warned though that converting the tanks is not so easy.
I have just received a catfish wagon and I will be converting that today, I will post some pictures later.

Richard
 

SimonT

Western Thunderer
Richard,
look forward to seeing the Catfish.
Meanwhile, some more progress shots.
IMG_1810.JPG
Because the Heljan coupling hole is square, I have sacrificed some very old Dinghams kept from my previous flirtation (Shelf stealer for about 15 years!) to provide doublers for the shank. The shank needed to be aprox 1.5mm square in section.

IMG_1812.JPG
View of the coupling mounted on the vehicle. The hoop clears the airpipes.

IMG_1813.JPG
A start has been made on getting rid of the late purple livery in favour of red and grey. This will become weathered, chipped and dirty once the Railtec transfers are applied. Looking at photos, it looks like I need to add some vac pipes as all the photo's I have found show vac pipes. At the moment I cannot access the OAA folder on Paul's website to do more research as it is locked and I am awaiting a password. Does anyone know anything about vac pipes on these vehicles; presumably they were just through pipes?

Simon
 

Pugsley

Western Thunderer
If it's coded as an OAA, then it's air brake only. I think some of the early ones (certainly the vans, not sure about the opens) were coded with a B on the end, meaning that they were air braked, with a through vacuum pipe.
 

richard carr

Western Thunderer
Simon

Its looking good, but you do realise that they are available RTR in that Red Grey livery.

One other thought is that the rail freight livery is quite late probably not until 1984 ?

Richard
 

SimonT

Western Thunderer
Richard.
Offered at a price that couldn't be ignored with no choice of livery.
These are for The ARSE and I am planning to run it as mid 1980's
A tiny amount of method in my madness!

Simon
 

SimonT

Western Thunderer
After a bit of titting about with some Vallejo Acrylics (Dark Sea Green in various mixes with Leather Belt for the tan brown crud & German C Belt Black Brown for the off black) the Heljans have been released into traffic on The Arse. Mostly done as brush painted wet in wet washes with a final dusting of the tan brown from the airbrush; all done with thin (<50%)washes. IMG_1819.JPG The VBA showing that I didn't quite get the Railtec decals to sit down properly onto the rivets. I used Micro Sol and obviously need to practice. The Railtec service was very rapid and the transfers are very sharp. I might revisit the underframe and deepen the dirt.

IMG_1839.JPG
The OAA has come out very patchy, just as I wanted.

IMG_1814.JPG
Finally a small problem. The vac vans fit with no problems but the VBA must be built to a larger loading gauge. To hear the sound of contact, recall the sound a body makes when dropped into an empty 16Tonner off Copenhagen Fields tunnel!
Simon
PS Those red tiles have to go!
 

SimonT

Western Thunderer
No idea. All the airbraked stock, whether RTR or kit built, sit at a higher buffer height than the 'old' vac or unfitted stock. I have no explanation.
Simon
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
I've no knowledge of modern BR goods stock but is it possible it is/was built to the maximum possible UK loading gauge?

Or the building is subsiding.... :confused:

Beating a hasty retreat.....:thumbs:
 

SimonT

Western Thunderer
Just looked at the height with the scale rule. Rail to roof is a highly accurate 12ft 9in. Fully compressing the spring takes 3in off the height. I'll dig out the diagram and have look at the other leading dimensions.
 
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