Slaters 1/32nd 6 Wheel Milk Tankers

taliesin

Western Thunderer
Thanks Rob, do you know if they are directly opposite one another or looking at both sides are they both to the left? cheers Rob
 

taliesin

Western Thunderer
The self imposed break seems to have done the trick for with the first two tankers having put the straps together and primed them i've stopped for the rest of the day.
But this afternoon i carried on after spraying the straps. At the top are the final six centre castings for the diagonal tie bars, two per wagon, and at the bottom is the final set of castings for the last set of straps.

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This actually represents a small milestone as these are the last of the castings to be used :), it doesn't really feel like it but i guess they are well on the way now, cheers Rob
 

taliesin

Western Thunderer
Thanks Rob, i thought they were myself but it's good to ask. Maybe someone knows different?
cheers Rob
 

Mr Tiger Viking

Western Thunderer
Hi Rob
The milk tanks are looking excellent, I like your idea around how to retain the strapping, when I did my LMS milk tank I foresaw the hassle with the strapping and thankfully found an image of a LMS milk tank with cladding all over it and short straps that went from the chassis to just about the half way point on the tank sides, luckily I only need one converted into a waist oil tank for Worcester Road, however I know Trevor Hale when he was into 1/32nd modelling conveted the tank sizes down to a small 2000 gallon tank, which looked superb and broke his uniformally rake of milk tanks up. These milk tank wagon were then purchased along with his layout by Bob Hunter, who has nearly finished building the layout called Hatherliegh Junction, which images can be seen in the Gallery area I believe, so hopefully you will see the milk tanks I am on about.

Now with eveybody not only building fantastic models and now wanting to put sound into them, to give them a more realistic model, I hope if you take this approach that you will have some offensively stale smelling milk weatherd on, or a bottle of it next to your rake !! should go down quite well at Simon's Larkhill show in that warm hall :eek::eek:
cheersw
Mr TV
 

taliesin

Western Thunderer
Steve, I have mixed feelings regarding the different types of milk tankers as i really wanted to have one in that funky St Ivel livery. It appears that livery was used on the 2000 gallon type only so I discarded the idea.
Looking at pictures of a modelled 2000 gallon tank might fire me up to do one in the St Ivel livery but it also means building another :eek: and at the moment thats a "when hell freezes over" scenario.

Regarding the smell i guess it's possible to take realism that step too far but several sewage farms had internal narrow gauge systems, one for the 16mm boys to explore i suppose but i understand that Pendolino's are not that sweet either :D.

Trying to be serious for once I find it amazing that the milk tankers always seemed to be some of the dirtiest wagons around when you think of the prominent advertising displayed and the nature of the load, you would have thought a quick steam clean would have been carried out at the various dairies out of pride if nothing else,

cheers for now, Rob
 

taliesin

Western Thunderer
A bit more progress has happened since the last posting, one set of ladders has been made and fitted, this has been written up before on 7mm builds and consists of a brass etch folded up and wire soldered in to form the rungs using the jigs helpfully supplied by Slater's.

photo-40.JPG

The United Dairies plates are supplied by Slater's, a brass etch sprayed black then rubbed onto some fine glass paper.
The last two sets supplied were 7mm scale :headbang:, so an exchange has been arranged at Reading tomorrow.

cheers to all, Rob
 

OzzyO

Western Thunderer
I'm not sure if this has been mentioned before, but the glass lining of the tanks was in a way untrue. The lining was the same as used on enamel baths and pots and pans. You know the sort that chips off. How it was applied I don't know?

The out side my have been filthy, but the inside (the bit that matters) was steam cleaned on emptying and or before filling.

A nice looking set of models.

OzzyO.
 

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
Paul,
It is glass (as it is on all of the things you describe); the material description is 'vitreous enamel'; which uses powdered glass which is fired and fuses to form a glass layer on the metallic surface. In the case of the milk tanks it would have been applied as slurry before firing in an industrial oven.
Steph
 

taliesin

Western Thunderer
Having got over Reading a little bit more has been done, mainly soldering up ladders. Here is a picture of one pair just for completeness.

photo-43.jpg

The one on the left has been folded up and the rungs soldered in but still requires cleaning up, on the right is a cleaned up one waiting for priming, there is nothing particular to report about this job, just settle down and do it.

The wrongly supplied name plates were exchanged at Reading so they can now be cleaned up and painted ready for fixing, cheers to all, Rob
 

OzzyO

Western Thunderer
Paul,
It is glass (as it is on all of the things you describe); the material description is 'vitreous enamel'; which uses powdered glass which is fired and fuses to form a glass layer on the metallic surface. In the case of the milk tanks it would have been applied as slurry before firing in an industrial oven.
Steph

Thanks Steph, that the name of the stuff I could remember the enamel part but I thought it better not to just say enamel in case of the confusion that it could cause.
It would be interesting to see one of these tanks being prepared for it to be applied.

OzzyO.
 

taliesin

Western Thunderer
How are you planning to fix the ladders to the filler Rob?:)
For the one thats been done so far i used superglue having bent the tops of the brackets slightly inwards first so they "sit" within the spigots on the tank top rather than butt-up to it. Not sure if this is right or wrong but it hopefully gives them half a chance of staying fixed :), cheers Rob
( i should add that the correct way is probably to strip back some paint and get in there with a soldering iron but there's a lot going on there, might end up doing that though)
 

Phill Dyson

Western Thunderer
I have no easy way either Rob:rolleyes:

I super glued mine the same as you, although one side of the St Ivel tank has come adrift. I will re-glue it & see how long they last.

I toyed with the idea of soldering too, but it's dodgy IMO getting in & out without damage. Locating holes in the filler & glue would have been an idea which I may revisit if they become a problem.

Phill :)
 

taliesin

Western Thunderer
Today has seen the correction of a blooper :oops: , having formed the vacuum pipes from the closely coiled springs somewhat earlier in the build and soldered them onto the pipe fittings I had not attached them onto the buffer beam brackets, They had still been nice and flexible after being sprayed with a thin coat of etch-primer but since then a coat of Humbrol matt black had been slopped over most of the chassis including these springs.

When I came to curl them round and fix them to the brackets it was found that the black paint had "glued" the spring together and trying to free it up resulted in a couple of curves of the spring opening up and forming doglegs with wide gaps in between :headbang:, now these springs are really quite fragile and you only get one bite at them and mine had gone.

At Reading last Saturday I had mentioned this to one of Slater's staff who said " no problem, phone during the week and we will post some off to you" which I duly did. For very little cash eight new springs were supplied for a nominal sum, thanks Slater's.

getting the old ones off was easy enough, pull until they snap then uncoil the end with needle-nose pliers. Heat gets the fitting unsoldered from the other end. A new spring is placed over the fitting with a dab of flux and heat applied which sorts that end. The under pipe is a bit more interesting as its now attached to the mainly plastic chassis.
Luckily a lower temperature solder had been used at that end originally so luck and a dab of flux with a hot iron saw the job done without melting any of the chassis.

Here is the new spring in position,

photo-43.jpg

I think that I have got away with it on this wagon but suspect the other three will need the same treatment,
please don't make the same mistake and fix it before painting, cheers to all, Rob
 
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