Dad-1 - Workbench - West Bay Wagon Works

[Dad-1]

Thanks for the kind comments sleeper,

My glazing bars are cut using a scalpel, each one trimmed to an interference fit.
Eye strain, or what !!. Even using a jig some variation in outer frames is inevitable
so if a glazing strip is not spot on I'll try in other frames that use the same patern,
sometimes one that's fractionally long will drop into another frame. They do have to be
almost exact - I used to mess a few up, but now hardly ever get any scrap. At times an
odd thou of an inch needs to come off and a light sanding on the end will reduce slowly
enough to get the required fit. Sanding the end of a piece say 0.75 x 1.0 x 3.5 mm needs
care ..... and again those eyes suffer !! As they do when lining up glazing bars, simply by
eye. Sounds difficult, but once a few are under ones belt it becomes easier.

finish of a completed frame is by facing off on wet 'n dry, lightly sanding both sides on
something no coarser that 240 grit. At times there is no visible joint lines remaining.

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

One may be surprised that someone who has made plastic aircraft kits from way back when,
has never made a railway wagon kit. My basic objection is that my aircraft kits were rather
delicate and I couldn't see how a plastic wagon would be strong enough to take the rough &
tumble of regular running on a railway layout. However at Warley my eyes fell on a Parkside
Dundas 22 ton long tube wagon kit, Bachmann have these coming out, announced over a year
ago, but not expected until April ?
I can't show any building as it's more or less finished from a Sunday evenings work. I can't say
I'm impressed when compared to my predominantly Bachmann wagon collection, but it fills that
gap until next year.



What's wrong with it ? ...... In truth not a lot. As I've found with many railway hobby kits the standard
& details of construction in the instructions are a bare minimum and some parts like the brake gear need
modification to achieve a satisfactory assembly. The long planked sides were slightly twisted & bent
are commendably thin, but didn't respond well to trying to straighten. The Alan Gibson wheels were
plastic, easy enough to replace, but one needed the stock to replace, lucky I had some spare Bachmann
3 hole types.
Never having done a wagon kit before I have no numeral decals to add the required number and it will need
me bodging some fittings to add NEM pockets & tension lock couplings not supplied. Anyway the prototype
details provided should allow me to finish as one from the first batch. Perhaps another picture when painted.

Geoff T.

[skyblue]

What's wrong with it ? ...... In truth not a lot.

And you got the satisfaction of building it into the bargain!

It looks great - have you added extra weight? Kit built wagons tend to be much lighter than RTR alternatives. You mention plastic wheels - don't let that put you off the rest of the Parkside Dundas range, as I think most come with metal wheels (at least the 10 or so that I have built came with them).

[Dad-1]

Hi skyblue,

Yes the weight problem, should be easy enough to add weight within the strengthening ribs of that floor.
They are so light without that I could see regular de-railing problems. All wheels touch the glass level &
it runs so freely that the slightest slope will see it creeping along.

A question for you - where do you get your wagon numbers decals from ? I'd go for quality first, but if there are
some cheaper ones that meet a good quality standard I'd go for them.

It was so easily made up that my 'time' factor was no longer an argument to not making more. Were there more
wagons that I fancy having, not available from the big 3 I'd happily make more.

Geoff T.

[skyblue]

A question for you - where do you get your wagon numbers decals from ?

I generally only build GWR wagons now and I paint them in GWR Freight Grey - what a wonderful livery! I use Modelmaster transfers which are very good value (I paid £7.99 plus p&p for them and I have used them for 4 wagons so far with enough to do at least another 20 if I use the small G W lettering). I have also built a couple of BR wagons, and I didn't put transfers on those (except on my ex-SR CCT which I numbered from the HMRS 1950s coach sheet). I would recommend trying Modelmaster - they have frequent sales so if you are willing to wait a while you could get some money off, I would expect there to be one around Christmas. Just sign up to their email newsletter and you get the discount codes - people also post them on here sometimes.

[Lysander]

HRMS Pressfix transfers are excellent - all areas covered and lots to a sheet.

Tony

[flying scotsman123]

Make your own! It seriously isn't that difficult with crafty computer papers, people just get a bit frightened of it. There are plenty of pictures to use as reference, and you don't even need a posh drawing package, I do them on publisher. A normal printer put on its best setting is usually fine, although I haven't tried doing some of the older more ornate crests, they might want something a bit better quality. Only transfers I ever buy are lining transfers as they are more difficult to do.

[sleeper]

It sounds like you got an old kit Geoff and that's possibly the reason for the warping in the body. The price for a current kit is around £9 and would have Romford wheels as standard. It seems there's a parallel market in old 'new' stock.
I recently built two covered vans one a Ratio ventilated van the other a Parkside Dundas with the vanwide body, both virtually the same van. The Ratio one went together like a dream, not so the Parkside one.
The Model Master decals listed for your wagon kit PC55 are - M4612 BR 1948-68,standard pack (15-26 wagons @ £4.95 or M8057 BR 1948-65 livery mini pack (2-5 wagons)
@ £2.75. Stocked by Parkside Dundas, Tel 01592 640896 email sales @parksidedundas.co.uk (no connection etc)
hope this helps.

[Dad-1]

Thanks for the advice guys.

FS 123, I have made my own decals before, but computer printers don't do white and of course
wagon numbering is in white on a black surround. I know I wouldn't get the quality black surround
to print just the black, leaving the numbers void of colour but allowing white decal paper to give
that. Also I don't have much in the way of graphics programmes .... in fact none !!

Hi Tony (Lysander) I have a sheet of HMRS GWR press-fix, but if I'm going to do a few BR wagons
I will need something extra. I also find working with water slide decals easier probably because of having
made 100's of aircraft kits.

sleeper I think that sounds like it may be the way for me to go. So long as this wagon works in a train
I may well do a few more. I think Fox will probably do what I want, but can't identify in their lists.

Geoff T.

[railwayjim]

I think you will find your wagon will look different again once painted and decals added.

The method I use of adding weight to a kit built wagon is simply glue lead strips underneath in the recesses.
The strips I use are sold in pet shops and are used for wrapping around aquarium plants to keep them down in aquariums.
They are about 5mm x 100mm and about 2mm thick, so easily plyable and cut with scissors.
I have quite a few Parkside wagons on my layout and think once painted and numbered look quite good.

See pic of couplings and lead weight strips added to wagon.

Hope this may be of some help.

Incidentally, the good old Airfix brake van builds into a decent wagon, (i've replaced hornby ones on my layout with Dapol versions see 2nd pic).

Regards Jim.

[flying scotsman123]

FS 123, I have made my own decals before, but computer printers don't do white and of course
wagon numbering is in white on a black surround. I know I wouldn't get the quality black surround
to print just the black, leaving the numbers void of colour but allowing white decal paper to give
that. Also I don't have much in the way of graphics programmes .... in fact none !!

Fair enough, I'm tempted to go and find a wagon to repaint just to demonstrate that you can though Perhaps an old tri-ang one just in case I muck it up and embarrass myself

[Dad-1]

Spent all morning working on the Thomas layout, then a meeting this afternoon.
So just a few minutes before I have to go out after tea !!
I've decided to use Bachmann NEM pockets fitted into plasticard mountings, First a couple
of tie beams (2.5 mm sq I think) with a sliver of lead trapped between then topped with
a small plastic mounting plate that keeps the lead enclosed and allows the building of a
mounting. This is MK.1 where the straight coupling is a little high at present, the cranked
version sits too low !!
I wish it lined up as per the bluetack 'test'



Won't be dry enough to try and slide the coupling out tonight.



I have 6 x 1/8" gas welding rods here, that when cut up & painted will give me a load 36 'tubes'
as heavy a load as I shall need.

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

Hi railwayjim,

Lead is great .......the EU want to ban it - that means it Must be good !!!
I think I'll try a few more wagons it all depends on how good my couplings fixing is.

Hi FS123,

All the decals on this aircraft were made on my Win98 system, which failed (motherboard I think)
loosing me all the scanner & manipulation programmes I had.



All the roundels, serials, fin badge, the lot. I also did several fin badges for our Bomber
Command group.

For anyone who may be interested the kit was a MACH2 1/72 of the Vickers Valiant
These kits were claimed to be almost unbuildable ...... but a modeller can do !!

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

Another rave from the grave ......
A Vulcan B.1A made with major modifications to produce the short span modified wing
as used on the B.1. The prototype Vulcans had a straight leading edge which had buffet
particularly at high altitude. The leading edge was extended forwards on outer panels
which cured the problem and all service aircraft were modified.
The B.1A had the later enlarged tail cone area that all service B.2 were equipped with.



I had to give this model away when we moved - no room to keep it !!

Geoff T.

[skyblue]

Nice aircraft their Geoff! I've got a Vulcan (XL321) in overall anti-flash white at home - it's not very well built though - I had a lot of problems with the paint not looking 'right' - I had to use a lot of layers and the result was a bit of a mess. The sheer size of the thing means that I won't be building another to try and get it right.

The wagon looks good and your coupling mounting is impressively neat. I assume you will paint it black to make it blend in with the rest of the wagon underframe? I normally just mount my couplings on slithers of platicard glued on top of each other; I constantly compare it to another wagon until the height is right. It's not as secure or accurate as your method though!