I have just realised I drafted this up over a week ago, posted it in one place and then forgot the next day to add it here.
Been a bit quiet since Christmas; I had to work through, so didn't get my usual long break and so didn't get as much modelling done as usual. I've also been quite busy at work and with modelling jobs for other people so there's not been a lot worth posting.
I did start a whitemetal wagon one evening just as a change: I can usually finish off an ABS or D & S wagon kit in an evening and it's nice to start and finish a job in one session from time to time. This time, however, it was not to be.
The kit is a D & S 'Jubilee' coal wagon and the W iron near the camera is a faulty casting. The spring and W iron both have missing metal. All is not lost, though, even though Danny is no longer producing this wagon. Like a number of D & S wagons, the kit is now with 51L and he sells these as spares. It will be in my next order to him - probably once his waisted wheel bearings are back in stock. It sometimes baffles me to see people pay way over the odds for a D & S kit on Ebay when the same kit can be had from Andrew for far less.
I also started work on a couple of refrigerated vans over Christmas. One is the second of a pair I bought from Bygone Wagons in Australia. The other comes from Ebay and is advertised as an 'LNER Fish Van' though it clearly is not.
The Bygone wagon doesn't seem to be listed any more. It came as a kit and quite cleverly designed too. However the execution was not as good, as I knew from building the first one. This time I cut all the strapping off while the sides were in the flat. I'll make a new roof as well. The print was done on a filament printer and it shows. There's quite a bit of sanding and filler to get rid of the striations and for such as the roof it's easier just to replace. I also made a new underframe as I have my doubts about the robustness of the 3D printed one and the brake gear was crude. I'd had pointed out to me that the V hangers on these vans (Diagram 21) are not the usual offset ones the LNER used, but unusually (possibly uniquely) are symmetrical and also mounted on the outside of the solebar. There's still a way to go with this one.
The second van is in a different league in terms of quality of print. It's really excellent as these go. However, what is printed is a mixture of imagination and misinformation. Diagram 21 is the closest resemblance, but I wouldn't put it more strongly than that. The body is the right size, but that's about all: the end stanchions should be T section steel, the end vents are too flat, both ladders are on the same side (they should always be on the left as you look at the end) and the vacuum pipes are represented as a kind of raised curve flat against the end. As I went on I found more and more wrong with it. The underframe is timber instead of steel and the brake gear a long way from the LNER's asymmetrical vacuum brake design.
I replaced this completely although it did mean I ended up with a small gap round the base of the sides which I will try to fill with plastic strip.
All in all it's been much more work than I anticipated. Hopefully once painted, weathered and mixed into the rest of the perishables rake on Grantham they won't stand out so badly.
