Yorky D's Küchentisch - Jonny half-a-job...

[Yorkshire Dave]

I've been meaning to set up another thread for ages to encompass the non-US stuff I've been messing about with in 7mm in between the Cotton Belt GP9 build.

The starting point are these two multimedia kits (to be built concurrently) from the Furness Railway Wagon Co of Joseph Wright & Sons (later Metropolitan Railway Carriage and Wagon Co.) 4 wheel carriages to build for fun and see what I can do with them.


The kits themselves come in a sturdy corrugated a card box (almost a shoe box) and are quite basic as can be seen below. The resin castings are not high fidelity but I see these kits as a starting point for additional details to make well used and worn out ancient rolling stock.

The etched parts. Underframe detail, steps, birdcage and roof.


The cast resin parts. Underframe, sides, ends, internal roof supports and a piece of styrene for the floor.


The detail parts. Axleboxes, buffers, oil lamp pots, vents, vacuum pipes, vacuum cylinder, end steps and couplers. In addition there is a length of brass wire and glazing material. OH! and instructions on a mini CD which are okay if you have a computer but if not......


A start was made by cleaning up and washing the resin parts. I glued the luggage third ends and sides together using superglue ensuring all is square. Once set I began filling any gaps and bubbles left in the resin castings with Squadron green putty.

It was not until I applied the filler primer (Tamiya) I could tell whether I was successful with the initial gap filling. The painted body and photographs reveal more filling to be done.



I was not too satisfied with using the green putty as a filler as it is plastic based and does not stick to the resin. Therefore I used a trick I'd seen in Model Railroader - superglue and superglue setting accelerator - so the air bubbles in brake third sides were filled with superglue, accelerator applied and repeated this process until the holes were filled. Once set these areas were filed and sanded smooth.

The rivets were formed in the underframe overlay etches and these was glued to the underframe casting.


The luggage third so far.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

A tad more work a few nights ago.....

Addition of styrene rod to represent the door hinges.



....and a start on the third brake.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I've been messing about with these over the weekend and interiors have been made. Plasticard compartment walls, half height as there was one oil lamp shared between two compartments and wooden seats. Then painting using Vallejo Model Air acrylic paint.

Here I was trying out something different by shading the nooks and crannies first before applying a coat of zinc green acrylic paint. I also blanked out the windows of the luggage compartment doors with plasticard, superglue and baking powder as the accelerator.



After airbrushing the zinc green this turned out to be too light and my experiment above did not work and then decided to paint the carriages Russian green which is almost a dark olive green.

Before doing this I wanted to create worn paint patches using a technique found in wargaming using marmite, yes marmite (vegemite for those down under), as a mask. The marmite is dabbed on using a scrunched cloth or tissue around the areas prone to wear such as door frames. As I did not have any marmite I used French Dijon mustard instead. The topcoat was airbrushed and one dry I gently wiped the carriage bodies with a damp cloth revealing the zinc green. The droplights were painted with a mix of mahogany and light brown. After this I applied two black/brown washes.




The brake carriage has the brake end painted red. This was some SP scarlet I had left over in the airbrush after painting the bloody noses on my SSW GP9 and done before the green was applied.


Then there's the dry brushing to come after I have given these some decals and coat of Alclad matt varnish....

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Although I've temporarily lost interest in my British modelling (having disposed of the bulk of it) I have retained a few items - two vans, a loco and these two coaches.

I wasn't happy with the green finish I initially applied to the coaches so I stripped them down and started again .

This time I airbrushed a whermacht red surface primer and a topcoat of a mixture of the primer and red. Black and brown washes were applied and then finally drybrushed (all paints and washes are from Vallejo). I'm trying to achieve the unkempt run down effect for these 1870s coaches - not quite working at the moment .

While messing about with these I started work on the chassis. Rather than use the bearings in the axleboxes as suggested I instead used the Connoisseur 4 wheel coach compensation units which work a treat. The coaches will form a workmans train for a small private industrial line (yet to be designed and built) set during the 1920's utilising second (third?) hand rolling stock. Just need to find some NBR decals.....

Brake coach. Yet to receive it's detail parts and roof.




Luggage 3rd. Yet to receive it's wheels and detail parts.

I was trying to make one of the door panels look as if it had been replaced by the new owners - albeit not straight....


.....trying a lifting paint effect and carving corners where the wood has been damaged.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Some more intermittent work on the brake coach roof.

I pondered for hours how to attach the birdcage to the roof. In the end I tried Mikoo's technique of using a small sliver of solder in order to try a minimum solder construction.

After cutting the glazing the birdcage frames were soldered to the main roof and clamped on with metal bulldog clips. After this the birdcage roof was soldered on.

However, my question relating to early carriage roofs is - did they ever have rainstrips?

The roof.



Temporarily on the carriage to see what it looks like.




This wagon was a purchase from the O Gauge Guild E&T stand and after checking it over I could see an attempt to was made to weather the vehicle using black paint from a splatter gun.

In order to remove this I used a cotton wool bud soaked in gunwash (a cellulose thinner/cleaner I believe). This not only removed the black paint but started to remove the lettering and some of the original paint finish from the wagon. As I was going to re-weather the wagon anyway I was not too worried.

Once I had removed as much as I dare I set applied a Vallejo acrylic dark brown/black wash in order to get into the plank joins. After drying I drybrushed the wagon using various mixtures of dark brown, light brown and black mixed on a palette.

I then painted in some replacement planks, reapplied the dark brown/black wash and drybrushed again. I finally used a gunwash soaked cotton wool bud to clean the areas around certain lettering and applied a further wash of dark brown.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Yet more work, this time rather tedious - cutting and fitting individual window panes for the carriages.

I have used a CD case cover as I could not find the clear acrylic sheet I ordered and received a couple of months ago...... I know it's in the house - somewhere...

The glazing is tacked in with this glue.


Thus far I have only completed three windows. After fitting I had a go to try and eliminate the translucent/white edge of the pane. To do this I mixed up a wash of PVA and black Vallejo wash and brushed it into the window corners. The compartment nearest the brake end has has this treatment to see what it would look like.




The birdcage was also glazed.... a bit messy though but this will disguised by weathering. After all these carriages are for a workman's train.


Before glazing I fitted the grab handles and used Laurie Griffin MR/GW drop door handles. For the luggage compartment I also made a door handle.




....and finally the roof received some attention. I may add some repair patches. This is still a bit shiny at the moment but once the carriage is complete it will receive a coat of matt varnish.


Not the most logical approach to carriage building but I enjoy messing about constructing these in my own way .

 

[mickoo]

Like the canvas roof effect, really....effective

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Like the canvas roof effect, really....effective

This is toilet paper (obtained from work as they are longer than the usual domestic sheets) pared to single ply and soaked onto the brass roof with superglue.

 

[Peter Insole]

Well done indeed with that gorgeous roof canvas!

How many times when trying to stick something smooth with thin material, it all goes wrinkly, yet every time I have tried to deliberately obtain that effect it resolutely refuses to stay creased and dries completely flat?!

Pete.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

when trying to stick something smooth with thin material, it all goes wrinkly,

This is what I tried to do. It looked smooth until I applied a bit of paint and dry brushing this was the result. It's a case of leave well alone now.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

The tedium of making and fitting the glazing for the carriages is over and are for all intents and purposes completed.

Apologies for the picture quality as these were taken with my tablet. My main camera is out of action as the lens is broken. I either need to get a new lens or a new camera. The latter more than likely as technology has moved on (I quite fancy the Olympus PEN series so I can use my existing 35mm OM lenses).



I could not find any commercial carriage end steps or lamp irons. So I made up the end steps from etched chequer plate to the dimensions of an LBSCR end step I found in one of my books. The lamp irons are actually SR loco lamp irons from Laurie Griffin. I just bent them around a bit.
The steps, grab irons handrail and tips of the lamp irons were dry brushed with gunmetal to represent wear.


Luggage 3rd




Brake 3rd



The carriages were zapped with matt varnish, windows cleaned afterwards with IPA on a cotton wool bud and then given a brown wash.

After seeing the photographs I'm thinking I should make the dirt in the corners black rather than light grey. The buffer heads also need a touch of grease.

And finally the roofs.


.... all ready for workman train service. Just need and industrial loco.......

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Very nice work The painting and weathering is, to me at least very subtle and I love the roof canvass. I'm going to have a go with that one!
Was the super glue the very runny type or the more thick variety?

 

[mickoo]

Nice weathering

MD

 

[Ressaldar]

Nice weathering

MD

+1

cheers

Mike

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Was the super glue the very runny type or the more thick variety?

I used Zap a Gap medium. Neither too runny or too thick.

 

[Steph Dale]

I used Zap a Gap medium. Neither too runny or too thick.

That is, of course, the reason you're known as 'Goldilocks' to your friends...



Steph

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

As an interlude I built the, dare I say, the Peco hut.

(Again, my tablet was used to take the photographs which unfortunately does not have sophisticated exposure settings)






The kit itself is plastic injection moulded and took all of 10 minutes to build the shell. However before building I wire-brushed the four walls 1. to provide a keying surface for the paint and 2. to provide some texture to the bricks.

All the paints used are Vallejo acrylics apart from the matt varnish which was Alclad.

The shell was painted with Wehrmacht red brown and the odd few bricks painted in various shades of a red/brown mix. Once dry I applied a mixed some Mig volcanic ash grey pigment with a drop of water and IPA and washed this over the building. After drying this was wiped off leaving the pigment in the mortar courses.

This process also removed some of the paint from the edges of the protruding bricks and a brown wash was applied to the shell which also darkened the mortar joints. I then applied some more pigment mix over odd parts of the building to imply mortar repairs.

The roof as supplied represents a felt roof. I wanted to try out the Vallejo sandy paste to see if I could make the roof appear as if it was roughly cast from concrete. The sandy paste was applied to the roof and allowed to set. Once set, I roughly sandpapered it to remove the high points then painted it with a mixture of buff, middlestone and stone grey followed by a brown wash. Once dry it was then dry-brushed with a mixture of buff and middlestone to accentuate the remaining high points.

The door was painted grey, followed by a brown wash then dry-brushed with a faded green and old wood colour. Ironwork was painted a black brown colour and the window frames were also painted faded green.

The whole ensemble received a coat of matt varnish. After which I then lightly dry-brushed using mixtures of reds, browns and buff. The final dry-brush application was downwards with a middlestone/buff mix to pickup the top edges of the protruding bricks and window ledge.

All that remains is the 'tidying up' weathering such as soot, algae streaks (for north face of building).

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

That is, of course, the reason you're known as 'Goldilocks' to your friends...

Just need 3 bears (Steiff of course) to share the porridge......

 

[Steph Dale]

Dave,
I've just had a proper look at the Stephenson Clarke wagon and knowing what you started with, that's a superb job. When I get the chance I'll pick up a few more.
Keep hold of it for a demo piece for the TC, when the time comes up grab it from you.
Really lovely job mate, it's great see some different techniques for weathering.
Steph

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I took delivery of this yesterday - the Minerva RTR O scale Kerr Stuart Victory 0-6-0T locomotive I ordered at Telford earlier this year - In my view at £250 it's cheaper than building one.

Overall a pleasing model of an industrial loco (which have a charm of their own). I intend to finish mine in EKR livery although this was one of the options I could have selected.

This is the non DCC version as I already have an ESU Loksound decoder in stock which will be fitted in due course.

It weighs in at 1.05 kg and has a plastic body on a metal chassis.





It has a standard NEM 8 pin decoder socket.


Two bags of extras- Etched builders plates for all 10 members of the class and lamp irons, cylinder drain cocks, optional tank vents and sand boxes, three pairs of GW tool boxes and optional front steps.

Cab detail


Underside