Rob's 7mm Rolling Stock Workbench

[Robpulham]

Given that I now have a few in the to do pile I thought I would start a thread just for the building of plastic wagon kit's.

Starting with a 14 ton cylindrical tank wagon that I received from my son at Christmas that has beckoned this last week when I haven't been able to do much due to having new windows fitted but having time on my hands between moving things about. I wasn't too impressed with the body of the wagon itself although I do believe that with some filler and a it of patience a decent job could be made. I chose to rivet and roll a replacement from brass.

Following a post on RMWeb I also had a go at scratch building a tank body using the ends from a drinks can with a fair degree of success.

I just need to decide how I want to take it from here. I have some axle boxes I just need some brass U section to make the chassis from.

[52D]

I will follow this one with interest. What size do the drink can ends work out as?

[Robpulham]

Internally they are a shade over 44mm (one end is 44.32 the other 44.67). I used the same sized cylinder to go inside the drinks can as to go outside the Slaters plastic ends - 139mm long before rolling.

[Robpulham]

A bit more progress with the Slaters kit.

[52D]

Looks like the vernier will have to be set on a few different size drink cans, i have heard of Static tanks being constructed from Drinks cans using Scalescenes to cover them but never thought about using them in a mobile context.

[Robpulham]

I have Fanta, coke and some Caffreys at the moment. I suspect the coke and Fanta ones will be the same as they are both produced by Coca Cola but I will have to measure the Caffreys ones and let you know.

[Robpulham]

A few more build pictures - the springs for the couplings were a right fiddle but I got there in the end

[Robpulham]

I managed to finish the Slaters Tank ready for the paint shop this afternoon.

I have to say it has been a realy good and enjoyable kit to build

[52D]

Just got a new pic for our facebook site and i noticed the wagon behind the loco looks similar to your build.

[Robpulham]

Besides getting back to the A3 I have also just completed this Parkside Dundas fitted LNER Cattle wagon - I do need to swap the couplings for screw ones though these are what came with the kit and I haven't others in stock at the moment.

it's the first 7mm Parkside Kit I have done and I am impressed, especially with the brakes.

[Robpulham]

Just got a new pic for our facebook site and i noticed the wagon behind the loco looks similar to your build.

It does it's a shame that more of it is not visible. Thanks for posting it.

[Robpulham]

Next off the Slaters production line is a MR/LMS 6 Wheeled Brake Van.

I started this last Friday while up at the cottage and finished it during the last couple of days in between preparing my garage for having French doors fitted (I managed to fill yet another skip - where does it all come from?).

I upgraded the basic kit (a cheap eBay buy) with sprung W irons, a stove for the interior and a cast brake standard. I have also added one of Slaters LMS lamps that I had in stock.

[v3man]

Just wondering what the number of the Ivatt Class2 2-6-0 posted by 52D was, it's not 46462 of St.Margarets is it?

[52D]

Re the loco, sheds in the North East of England and South East of Scotland seemed to get a batch of these locos with consecutive numbers this one is probably Tweedmouths own but i will check for you.

[Robpulham]

I have embarked upon another 6 wheeled van again from the Slaters stable. This one one of the LMS slatted Fish or Milk trucks something I have long liked the look of but couln't really justify the £60+ for the kit when other things beckoned however this one was a nice ebay bargain.

It is a really nice kit that I nearly made a right botch of through not reading the instructions properly (or not taking in what I was seeing). In that I had assembled the sides and floor not realising that I had the two halves of the floor the wrong way round. I also had to replace the two outer most door stops with some made from brass as I broke one of them of while cutting the side from the sprue. They also seemed to fit on the wrong end, they are shaped and I had added them according to the shape and it wasn't until viewing a photo in the Midland coaches book by Jenkinson and Essery that I realised that they were at the wrong end so I had to cut them off and refit them at the other end.

It wasn't until I came to add the cleminson unit and the V hangers/vacuum cylinder with its cut out around the screws holding the cleminson unit in place that I had my Oops moment. It was too late to take it all apart, so I ground off the raised collars around the holes in the floor fitted the W irons and then measured and re-drilled the floor for the mounting screws for the cleminson unit.

I then added all the other detail. And you can see clearly where I removed the door stop to move it to the other end

I have since primed and sprayed the van in LMS crimson (Halfords Rover Damask Red) and I now need to fasten the wheels on and add the brakes before going on and finishing of the painting.