The thunder storms haven't deterred me from getting the tank wagon primed, painted and varnished ready for it's transfers. Thank heavens for an indoor vented spray booth.
I apologise for the quality of the photo, I carried it to my office in a cloth and it seems to have left some specks of lint on the tank sides that have caught the light in the photos but are not in visible to the naked eye in reality.
In hindsight perhaps I should have taken the photos while it had a flat matt finish......but you get the idea.
The gas tank wagon has joined the queue for transfers and frustratingly so still not having confirmation of my house completion date, I looked through the wagon kit stash for something else that wouldn't require too much in the way of thinking.
I plumped for a D&S GCR CCT. This is one of only 3 D&S kits that I have managed to get my hands on to date (if you don't count sunday night's eBay bargain of a D&S ECJS 45' BG for £81.55! - promptly stash away as a Christmas/Birthday pressie by Chris).
For a kit that has been around some time it is nicely detailed although the instructions leave a little to be desired.
The first thing that I noticed was the absence of a roof (the kit refers to a sheet of plastic that is absent from my 2nd hand kit). So having picked up a tip from Chaz Harrison on how to make clip in roofs' I decided to have a go at his method. - How it works will be detailed as I go along, but first off while everything was in the flat I made up some roof formers/supports from pieces of scrap etch.
Then I detailed the ends lot's of etched strapping to add - there are still some cast whitemetal blocks to go in the half etch rectangles but I will leave these until later so they don't drop off as I solder the body together.
A gent on another forum has asked a very good question that might be of interest to others - how did I cut out the roof formers.
First I measured the depth of curve of the roof - 10mm so I selected some etched of cuts that were 11mm deep to ensure that I could get the full curve (I have done similar in the past at just the right depth and ended up with a flat spot on the top of the curve).
I then used a square to mark horizontally across the inside of one of the ends (this was before I added any of the etched strapping which overhangs and would move the square out of true) at the top of the sides.
I used this as a datum to position the length of strip and then I used a pair of surgical clamps to clamp the strip to the end piece and then scribed the profile of the end on the overhanging edge of the strip.
Next using an old pair of jewellers shears (so old that they need the pivot screw tightening before each use!) to cut the curve of the roof on the waste side of the line and then the rather tedious filing back to the roof profile - I have left them slightly proud of the line at present until I assemble the body just in case I have made a mistake (working on the premise that I can take more off but I can't put it back!).
Some time Last night saw the doors detailed and a start made on the representation of the runner mechanism.
And lastly a shot of the sides with the ends to give an idea for those that haven't seen one before an indication of what it will look like once assembled.
The strips along the bottom edge will be angled support brackets once I get the sole bars in place.
There is still more work to do on the doors and runner mechanism before I finally attach them to the sides - hopefully tonight's effort.
A little more was done to the CCT last night. I managed to get one side finished and the other well on it's way - I would have finished it but I mislaid the bottom door runner.... after turning the workbench upside down without success I found it just as I was turning the light off.
Getting back to the CCT. On Thursday night I had a go at the roof and the fittings to make it removable.
I am still not 100% happy with the roof so I will probably revisit it once I have the formers sorted.
I initially ran it through my rollers to get the basic shape and then annealed each edge before making the tighter bed with my Metal Smith Drilling table - this is a substantial metal plate that is drilled and tapped at intervals and comes with clamps and a selection of different sized rods for assisting with making tight bends in sheet metal.
I then did a bit more work on getting the formers that I made earlier fit at either end and in the middle.
Still catching up on the week's progress on various things another thing that I managed on Thursday evening before going out to start on the building was putting the transfers on the Gas Tank Wagon.
That's another one ready for weathering - indeed it's now weathered (last night's endeavours!) but I need to have a look at it in daylight to see if am happy with it and to take some photos.
Here is the gas tank wagon after weathering - I have really struggled to get some decent photos that show the colours on this. Daylight seems to have washed it out to a grey colour when in reality it very much has an uneven brown cast to it.
All the photos I have in my LNER books show that gas tank wagons got very dirty but without exception (in the photos I have) the lettering is clearly visible.
My weathering mix was made up of the following Vallejo Model colour range, all diluted for spraying with Tamiya acrylic thinners.
Flat Earth
Leather Brown
Blue Grey
Black Grey
I started with a base of a more brownish colour and spraying from 8-10" away so their was a bit of splatter giving texture as well as colour. Then I added more of the greys to the mix and went over it again. I used a small brush and meths to uncover the lettering before adding another light coat with the greyish mix to blend it in. I used some antique brass to paint the handwheels before the weathering, again easing back the gunge with a small brush and meths.
Having looked at the photos, besides the lighting I still felt that something was lacking on the weathering of the tank wagon -despite the texture it still looked a bit flat. So with some input from Chris a bit of tweaking has taken place. No more paint has been added just some careful dragging of the pain with a small stiffish brush and some meths. I seem to have the lighting better this time around with it bringing out the true colours.
In between weathering the gas tank wagon further progress has been made on the CCT. I have now got the removable roof formers complete and with a little tweaking of the roof shape it should be ready to solder to the formers.
Following a tip from an observant fellow modeller on the GOG forum I got to the bottom of why I was struggling to make the roof fit. It looks like the original 4mm kit was designed for a scale thickness roof which when blown up to 7mm meant that my 0.3mm sheet that I used to roll my roof was a bit on the slim side.
More by good luck than planning it turns out my roof was around 1mm too wide which worked in my favour in so much as I could cut some more strips (1mm shorter) and solder them inside the roof to make up the required thickness and bring the roof out to the edge where it should sit.
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