Westdale BG (NCV)

[Richard08]

Well, that wagon involving bricks... it sort of transmuted into a BR BG. Technically not a passenger coach, so it counts as a wagon in my universe, I'm looking currently at doing an Newspapers all blue version. Soddingham has a short parcels platform, for which a Parkside fish van in Express Parcels was intended. Looks like they handle newspapers there too now.

This is going to be a whole new experience for me, what with it being an aluminium shell and wooden floor. So more epoxy rather than soldering. To be honest I'm not keen on gluing, but hey ho - learning curves and all that. I've read up on Westdale kits - it seems, detail wise, that extras may or may not be required to complete but a quick look through the box suggests it's pretty comprehensive. The seller has included wheels and WayOh bogies, which were not part of the kit, and there are things like door handles which may be extras too. There's a lot of junk to go on the under-frame which is promising. I'm going to have to create a Guard's compartment too, plasticard to the rescue there. How to fix the glazing without it affecting the interior is a thing, but I fancy adding security bars to the windows and using those to fix the 'glass' may work. Being a van, there's no other interior to speak of (phew!), but I'm intending adding suitably dim DCC interior lighting - just because really. Here the journey begineth... possibly into madness.

[Richard08]

Step 1 : Drill holes for roof furniture, door handles, hand rails and, er, commode. Roof no probs, marks show where. The others... where? There's no marks on the body, the instructions just show an dimensionless sketch. Going to need some drawings I think.

These are the instructions. That's it, with some sketches of the under-frame gubbins on the back. (The bogies are an entirely different kit). They are actually generic ones for a OO Mk.1. This one, for example, has a white metal castings of combined buffers and buffer beam (with no hole for the couplings!) not separate buffers and beams. This is going to be... interesting.

[Phred]

Richard08 wrote:
This is going to be... interesting.

I'll be watching with interest.

[Richard08]

Though finding all sorts of useful info (see the BR Diagrams thread) I've still not found out where door handles/hand rails should go. And then I realised the same goes for the hinges, bump stops etc. For the ends (steps and handrails) EasyBuild BG instructions help, so one step forward. EasyBuild also do a complete BG interior kit, which makes that easier if I go go down the 'as built' route. What fun. I'm aware of the Parkin Mk.1 bible, but at £65-£85 just for one kits that's not happening. We also no longer have libraries round here, so that idea's out too. Looks like it's going to be a case of 'scaling' from photos, ugh.

[Richard08]

So... after a ridiculous amount of staring and googling I got nowhere with finding any info about locations of door handles, hinges, etc. Then the little grey cells finally rallied together. A visit to Paul Bartlett's excellent site confirmed their efforts were not in vain (for a change). Looking at a blue/white liveried one the colour changes provide reference lines which show that the door handles are on the same line as the bottoms of the (non door) windows. The top hinges are just above the door window top line, the middle hinges in line with the bottoms of the door windows and the bottom hinges in a line immediately under the running number for which a dimension is available in the livery diagrams book. Also, there are only hand rails on the Guard's door, one side only. Also that door needs the body to be hacked away a bit as it doesn't go 'all the way down' (to form a step). I love it when a plan comes together. Even if it wasn't a plan exactly. Now to find someone who makes MK.1 door hinges in 7mm... and 'lever' handles for the right door of the paired ones - not in the kit ;-( Also, the double doors need steps... plasticard for those I think.

[Richard08]

That's everything marked marked out. I've used a CD marking pen as it's leaves no marks, won't rub off, but primer will cover it. I didn't use a scriber as aluminium is way to easy to mark and difficult hide mistakes. On which, the roof is going to have to have a full complement of ventilators which I suspect isn't right for a BG, but the roof has very definite location marks for them. The hinges it looks like I'm going to have to make, Plan A is chop up bits of brass rod and whack them with a hammer to make them less 'round', similarly the long handles on the right-hand doors. If I were making it to an early livery I'd leave fitting the handles until after painting (having drilled the holes now) so they stay 'brass', but it seems by the period I have in mind handles (not hand rails) were painted over in the body colour. So far, so good. Hopefully. Now to clean up the apertures and then to the drill...

Also need to de dink the dink in the roof.

[Richard08]

And so a new game... waiting for glue to dry

[Richard08]

Much more marking out and it'll end up self-coloured in Post Office red livery. All the holes for door handles and bump-stops have been drilled. Whacking 0.5mm brass rod with a hammer does indeed produce nice handles for the right-hand doors (way too small to get a photo), I made them 3mmm long going off photos. After some staring at prototype photos I've made the bump-stops 0.5mm brass rod too, they look to be 1-2 inches in diameter from photos. Next is making the hinges - 36 of them that all look the same is going to be... time consuming.

[Richard08]

Had a bit of a Plan B moment regarding the hinges... a length of guitar string (good old 0.5mm brass rod is too large) glued to a strip of plasticard. How will it behave when being chopped up? Time to find out...

[Richard08]

Well that idea crashed and burned, chopping up the strip created some shrapnel and some varying length hinges. Unfortunately filing down the length of bits of guitar string is an exercise in futility. Plan B then. Cut up 2mm lengths of plasticard, glue to body and then add bits of string. Eight out of forty eight done...

[Richard08]

Listening to two Poirot audiobooks later... hinges.

I've noticed what may be the remains of marks on the roof for the cross-wise strips every few feet some Mk.1s have. Together with a very faint line along the side I'm wondering if someone hasn't taken Step 1 in the instruction a little too enthusiastically regarding polishing the body with wire wool (the thing was gleaming when I got it). Still, there we are. Happily, having now picked a particular prototype picture to work to, this will be one of the Mk.1s that have a plan roof. Getting those ribs right wouldn't be easy anyway, they are pretty subtle so a strip of microstrip would look awful - the instructions suggest sellotape. Cutting thin strips of sellotape... Non.

[Richard08]

Ever had that 'down the rabbit hole' feeling? Sometimes researching things just ends up with brain freeze I settled (finally!) on exactly which of the great many variants of the BG I'm going for, specifically Diagram 711 in 'Newspapers' flavour. Job done, no? No such luck... This is the vehicle I have in mind (I hope copyright holders are ok with using these pics, Paul Bartlett and BRB Residuary).

and here's Diagram 711 (possibly ex Diagram 711?)

Interesting differences are that in the exterior photo the Guards door and one pair of side doors appear to be welded up, though the slot for the step at the bottom is still there, there are no handrails for the Guards door (well, obviously), and the sole bar steps have been removed. Presumably in the absence of the Guards doors, the interior Guards compartment is also gone. Also, the two vents (I guess) on the body sides on the diagram don't make any appearances in the photos. So how far to take it? Well, I'm going with the Diagram, not least because the deleted doors are present on the model's body shell and trying to fill them would, I suspect, probably only produce a temporary result - there's nothing for filler to key to really. So I'm going to cheat a bit and do an all-blue version of this:

bg_blue_white.png (222.05 KiB) Viewed 404 times

Only with a W number prefix because phase of the moon.
So next is the Guards door handrails and door step cut-outs. I'm looking at putting an EasyBuild interior in, together with 'strip lighting', which raises the next hurdle - the body is going to have to be made removable, at the very least to allow fitting glazing after painting - the floor (wood) holds everything together bodywise and the chassis isn't an independent thing. Onwards, pilgrim, onwards...

[Richard08]

Having packed away the little grey cells somewhere nice and quiet I finished off the main body junk - handles (18), hand rails (8), door bump stops (32), hinges (48) etc - need to add load clips, there's always something! 1 'T' door handle short, some searching suggests they are Markits ones so... shopping. I've concluded that epoxy glue is made of unique kind of very small black hole - everything in the immediate vicinity is irresistibly attracted to it, except the parts you are trying to fit. I don't think I'm destined to become a glue kind of modeller...

FWIT computer screen cleaner gets the red ink off - don't ask how I found that out.

[Phred]

Richard08 wrote:
FWIT computer screen cleaner gets the red ink off - don't ask how I found that out.

Wow! How did you find that out? Oh, sorry...

[Richard08]

On to the ends. This should be simple, right? Well, not really. The end (both are the same) is not quite the same shape as the pre-formed body. After much faffing I concluded that either the roof could be 'adjusted' to match the profile of the end, or (sort of) vice versa. However, if I'd started at the centre of the roof and forced the sides to fit the end then there would be an overhang on both sides of just under 1mm - which isn't supposed to be there. Adjusting the sides would mean filing off that just under 1mm along the whole side. It would also make the roof profile at the ends different to that in the middle. It might be only a bit, but likely the difference would stick out a mile when complete and painted. The other plan, which I went for, was to fix the end to one side, flush at the bottom, let it go off (zzzzzzzz) then fix the other side the same together with the middle of the roof. As can be seen, this leaves a gap each side between the top of then end and the roof but at least doesn't distort the roof profile from as-is. I'll be using some filler to fill these, it will hopefully look the part ok. So now to rinse and repeat at the other end. When dry, the corners need rounding off as per prototype. At least aluminium is easy to file In the mean time it's back down the rabbit hole to try and establish which bits and bobs attach to the ends for the age intended, there are some nice 'rubber' corridor connectors included in the kit, though I don't know if they are an addition or not.