A Week's Brake

S-Club-7

Western Thunderer
A couple more shelf queens have found their way through the paintshop:
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They started out as identical resin bodies with Exactoscale, Slaters and Ambis bits underneath. No prizes for spotting the differences!

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This one is supposed to have had all it's timber replaced but not painted during it's last visit to the workshop so it should last a few more years in service.

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This one will soon be daubed with "One journey only, Loco coal" before being dismantled to recycle the metal, or maybe just added to a bonfire.

I'm not entirely happy (yet) with the finish of either vehicle (and I spotted things to add to the "to do" lists whilst taking the photos) so they'll be put back on the shelf for a while and looked at with fresh eyes in a few days/weeks/months/years time.


And then I found this on the shelf:

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A Parkside LNER open with Slaters and Ambis additions below. Four scratchbuilt LNER axleboxes (each with the letters LNE embossed upon the face) -- it's been a shelf queen for so long that it pre-dates 3D printing technology which is how the axleboxes would be done these days; well, there was nothing on the goggle-box that Christmas... There's a "to do" list to complete before E208143 goes through the paintshop to become "unpainted" as shown in the (fuzzy) picture behind.
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Highly detailing wagons is one thing that I need to find the 'want' to do, if that makes sense..

Massively appreciate seeing others' work, but just don't have the inclination to improve my own wagons - though I wish I did..

JB.
 

Dog Star

Western Thunderer
This one will soon be daubed with "One journey only, Loco coal" before being dismantled to recycle the metal, or maybe just added to a bonfire.
I like this one very much... and as the appearance has similarities to this prototype then I am keen to know how you achieved the result that we see here.
 

Rob R

Western Thunderer
Dave, the brake van and wagons look fantastic but then they should do, having taken so long..........:)

Lokk forward to seeing them in September at the MEMRC show (shameless advanced plug).
 

AJC

Western Thunderer
Highly detailing wagons is one thing that I need to find the 'want' to do, if that makes sense..

Massively appreciate seeing others' work, but just don't have the inclination to improve my own wagons - though I wish I did..

JB.

You needn't be too concerned - O is very definitely the loco-builders scale and, from my experience of 7mm types (present company excepted - along with many others), a significant proportion don't look beyond the drawhook. A pity, because the scope for really convincing railway - as opposed to loco - modelling is there with all that this entails but it's your hobby for you to pander to your preferences. Who knows, you may come round to the joys of wagons in years to come. ;)

Adam
 
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S-Club-7

Western Thunderer
I like this one very much... and as the appearance has similarities to this prototype then I am keen to know how you achieved the result that we see here.
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First spray with BR Grey (PP enamel) then add a couple of washes with the lighter colours from Lifecolor's acrylic Weathered Wood diorama set; add some dry brushing etc with the other wooden colours in the set. Then use Lifecolor's Dust and Rust set to appropriately colour the ironwork. Mask the inside and the underframe. Spray with hairspray and then, within 5 seconds or so, sprinkle table salt onto your handiwork (Did you spot my mistake? One hand to hold the wagon, one hand to hold the spray, and the third hand to sprinkle salt...). Remove any excess salt before spraying with PP Red Oxide enamel so that it looks like pebbledash. After a couple of hours remove the masking.
I then carried straight on but waiting for the enamel to harden further may give a different impression to the flaking paint. With a large brush, a selection of toothpicks and a bowl of water soak the wagon side. Chip through the paint with the picks to enable the water to penetrate beneath the enamel. The salt and hairspray will dissolve causing the enamel on top of it to chip away. Continue soaking and chipping (in the direction of the woodgrain) until you get the effect you desire. A spray of matt varnish to stop any subsequent dampness affecting the finish and then some more ironwork colouring along with a wash of black. Finally a fine spray of mud around the bottom to represent dirt thrown up during its travels.
 
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7mmMick

Western Thunderer
Hi Dave,

Great to see these on here, are they the ones with working brake gear? Very inspirational indeed and right up my street. I especially love the effect of the damaged paint on the 12t ex Po wagon. It instantly reminded me of these two, which I snapped at the National Mining Museum a few years ago. They look really poorly and would probably never been quite this bad in service ( mechanically speaking), but I bet the paint work and faded timber was;
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I have a large amount of these type of photo's to try and capture the multitude of rust and damaged/worn paint work, the idea being that I transfer this to my models. I will definitely give your method described a go, I have seen it used on a steel mineral in MRJ and liked the results, but your work with the timber body looks the business :thumbs:

ATB Mick.R
 

Overseer

Western Thunderer
Dave,
I have been holding off commenting, but have to ask. Have you changed modelling period since building the two wagons? The brake gear and detailing is really nicely done but the wagons are unlikely to have survived in service beyond the 1930s, if that long. A post war rebuild is even more unlikely as there were rules controlling how much timber could be replaced especially on small grease axlebox wagons. And to be uprated to 13T a wagon had to have oil axleboxes, as well as being large enough to carry 13 tons of coal. After all that, the paint effects are progressing well and look good.
 

S-Club-7

Western Thunderer
Dave,
I have been holding off commenting, but have to ask. Have you changed modelling period since building the two wagons? The brake gear and detailing is really nicely done but the wagons are unlikely to have survived in service beyond the 1930s, if that long. A post war rebuild is even more unlikely as there were rules controlling how much timber could be replaced especially on small grease axlebox wagons. And to be uprated to 13T a wagon had to have oil axleboxes, as well as being large enough to carry 13 tons of coal. After all that, the paint effects are progressing well and look good.
Rule number one applies...
 

Overseer

Western Thunderer
Rule number one applies...
No dispute there. I have number of 'might have been' models but they are not as detailed as the models that I am trying to make accurate representations of the prototype so was curious when I noticed that you had put a lot of effort into getting the brake gear looking so good and had reduced the depth of the ears on the Ellis axleboxes, modelled non-reversible brake shoes etc etc.
 

S-Club-7

Western Thunderer
Great to see these on here, are they the ones with working brake gear?
Hi Mick,
P210192 has etched brass brake blocks so was constructed with non-working brake gear. The blocks on P70656 are plastic so the working brake gear does not cause any electrical problems when applied.
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This image (originally posted above) shows the brake in the "on" position and NOT copied from the Dapol rtr wagons! I find that when building brake gear from individual parts it's actually easier to make it work because you can adjust it (just like the prototype) if things aren't quite right first time!

Hi Overseer,
It was seeing these superb resin castings that caused me to join the S7 Group as they were only available to members at the time (and are no longer available). I felt my additions had to strive to achieve the same quality as the castings. If I ever feel the need to be too pedantic then I'll mark them as "Internal Use Only". There's another resin wagon body by the HMRS "on the shelf" but this one is even more unlikely to have been running during my timescale so I think Rule Number One will get stretched even further when I get around to starting that one!
 

Len Cattley

Western Thunderer
Hi Dave, I have a box van and tried to get the brakes to work but had trouble with the middle section how did you get them to work independently?
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S-Club-7

Western Thunderer
Hi Dave, I have a box van and tried to get the brakes to work but had trouble with the middle section how did you get them to work independently?
Hi Len,
That's easy, model wagons with independent either-side brake gear! The photo in message 52 above shows the lack of cross-shaft and two V-hangers each side to support everything.
I have previously thought about fitted Morton gear as attached to your van and when I get around to modelling some it will require a Morton clutch on each end (like the prototype). The side shown by your photo shows the Morton clutch used to "change direction". The clutch on the other side is all mounted on the end of the cross-shaft with the lever free to rotate on the end of the shaft except when actually transferring movement via the pair of single teeth.
The lever between the vacuum cylinder and cross-shaft is not fixed to the piston on the prototype so allows both hand-levers and the vacuum to be able to operate independently of each other. On the model I was going to add a light spring either inside (opens) or above (vans) the vac cylinder to push the piston downwards with just enough force to release the brakes; unlike the prototype where the vacuum moves the piston upwards to apply the brakes.
Hope that helps.
 

Eastsidepilot

Western Thunderer
Excellent work Dave, the standard we've come to expect from you mate:thumbs:...........hopefully we'll see some of these running on Love Lane ?

Col.
 
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