Connoisseur Macaw B/Bolster C

[Richard08]

So to the bogies - nothing to comment on here, they just fitted together - though adapting for Slaters wheels required a spot of filing (as indicated in the instructions. Time for a test run, or rather play. It all works, though the (supplied) washers will be needed to lift the buffers to the right height.

Next, the stanchions and stuff.

[Phred]

How satisfying when you put it on the track and it just...works.

[Richard08]

How satisfying when you put it on the track and it just...works.

Always a nerve wracking moment... it fits on the track... it rolls... the buffers are the right height... it goes goes through the points and double slip without derailing, or spirited attempt to so do.... coffee.

[Dad-1]

Depending if you keep or not, but it would look great (cos it's big)
with a nice load laying along that deck !!
Drooling here, very nice result, now to painting.

Geoff T.

[Richard08]

Depending if you keep or not, but it would look great (cos it's big)
with a nice load laying along that deck !!
Drooling here, very nice result, now to painting.

Geoff T.

This one is definitely a keeper, and I have a load for it, nothing spectacular just some 'pipes'. It would be rude not to when chains and such are supplied with the kit.

[Richard08]

Then the gubbins goes on, bolsters and spiky bits and all. Quite a bit of filing of the lugs and holes they fit into - not difficult but somewhat time consuming. These I expoxied on, there's not a lot of access to solder them and there's always that potential melting feeling. The stanchions are now squared up properly (that's why I take photos, my rose-tint removal process).

And there she blows! A great kit to build. Paint next, followed by transfers - which for a change are available without mix 'n matching. Or so they say. Back to distressing perfectly innocent fencing... while saving up for the next kit, something to do with bricks

[Richard08]

The painters & decorators have done their stuff, just transfers to add. As seems inevitable, there's no transfer set that exactly matches the period I'm after, as a BCO, but it looks like an earlier set can be cut up to get the required elements.

[Bigmet]

Very neat, looks like it has put in significant time in service. A little project I have long had in mind is a Bobol D seen in a nearby yard, with the deck covered in a very varied assemblage of tackle: chains, timber packing pieces and two of the bolsters and several stakes lying loose. I assume it had recently been offloaded, and would have been 'squared away' before its run back to depot. (The van behind your Bolster C looks right for having run many thousands of miles in traffic too.)

[Phred]

Barely recognisable after painting and weathering. Lovely job.

[Richard08]

Wishing to avoid getting into anything complicated, I thought doing the load for the bolster would fill a little time. As ever with 5 minute jobs...

No, not T gauge bridges

The pipe was donated by garden solar light that had shuffled of this mortal coil. And then back again. And then off again (no, not day-night-day). It's aluminium, and wanting to retain some of the shinyness I skipped primer hoping the god of paints might be in residence. (S)he was, it's (well I think) come out nicely. So then I made a huge blunder and decided to see how such a load would be secured pre load-straps. Eventually I found one picture with an actual pipe. There were plenty of other loads, but single large pipes were conspicuous by their absence - except for models, on which every other wagon has one. I'd presumed there must be some sort of chocking, even if just bits of wood nailed on, to stabilise things a bit. However, from what little info I can find it seems as though cradles that fitted over the bolsters were used, so I made a couple.

This is how it works. Some paint required obviously, and how to make the chains taut with the tensioners (together with chain and hooks included in the kit) being cosmetic only. More staring required on that one.

[Dad-1]

That is a real beauty.
I love my freight.

Geoff T.

[Bigmet]

...Eventually I found one picture with an actual pipe. There were plenty of other loads, but single large pipes were conspicuous by their absence - except for models, on which every other wagon has one...

Like the cradles, very similar to what a heavy lift contractor used to restrain large cast vacuum chamber cylinders for road transport.
A load that was fairly regularly seen on SCV's in my location was cyclone type dust extractors - or component parts thereof if it was a big one - from a local manufacturer. I will have to get around to one some time...