[Brossard]

I got these three kits about two years ago, and they sat in my to do box until this week. I'm in the mood to do wagons at the moment so I grabbed the opportunity to reduce my backlog.

LMS Long Low Wagon D2069

The kit is simple enough and contains several sprues. There is also a baggie containing whitemetal buffers and etched coupling hooks. The kit also include NEM pockets.



I used flanged bearings and these just popped in the holes.

The parts are very finely moulded and, as far as I can tell, accurate. I had Essery's LMS Wagons Vol 1 open while building.

The kit requires care when assembling but fit is precise and I encountered no problems. After a couple of sessions I completed the build:



Wheels are modified Hornby. I thinned the flanges and tyres. The flanges were also turned down to suit C&L code 75 track. They were re-gauged to EM.

I decided to tart up the brake gear a bit by replacing the crude safety loops and lever ratchet with brass.

The next kit, LMS Bolster Wagon D1674 was something of a disappointment. A quality glitch resulted in everything above the solebar being missing. Never one to despair I saw this as an opportunity to practice some scratchbuilding.

Here's the completed wagon:



It's clear which parts are scratchbuilt, being white Evergreen plastic. This wagon has been primed and the next operation will be to apply Archer bolt head decals.

I used Exactoscale EM 3 hole wheels - lovely things if a bit temperamental.

Finally LMS Tube Wagon D1675. Standard pack of well executed parts and all present and correct.



All in all I'm happy with these even though the bolster was a bit more challenging than I anticipated.

John

 

[lmsboy]

blimey John, you have been busy! nice wagons

, now comes the bit that personally I don't enjoy, the painting!

 

[Brossard]

Indeed Gavin, assembly is the easy part. I've been sticking Archer bolt heads on the part scratchbuilt wagon today - just gave it a coat of dullcote. I also painted the other two. I tried to follow Martin Welch's instructions in his "Art of Weathering" with the natural wood interiors. It looks pretty good - well I would say that wouldn't I?

Actually, thing I really don't like is lettering, that is tedious and must (should?) be done a bit at a time.

Pictures to come.

John

 

[Brossard]

Yesterday I made some very good progress on the Chivers kits.

I applied Archer bolt heads to the "ironwork" of the part scratchbuilt double bolster. Very fiddly and I had to use my magnifiers. This was done a bit at a time to allow the transfers to set. Nothing worse than having laboriously applied transfers being dislodged because of impatience. With the paint on I can just see them, so quite a subtle effect.

I painted the wagon bodies with Polly S Undercoat Light Grey (which I might have added some black to, I forget). Underframe ironwork is Tamiya flat black.



Now the decking, that's the challenge here. It should be natural wood (not brown!) and I had to determine how to do that.

So a broader search and inspiration struck as someone mentioned Martin Welch's Art of Weathering. Hang on, I said, I have that book! Sure enough, Martin describes the process.

What did I do?

Martin recommends application of three colours - earth, grey and black. These are initially brushed and the colours mixed at random on the model while still wet. I used acrylics for this.

When dry, the wagon floors needed distressing and faux woodgrain created, since the model floors are plain. I did this by gluing a small rectangle of medium sandpaper to the end of a piece of balsa and rubbing the deck. This scratched things up something terrible but it does look a bit like woodgrain.

Next Martin tells the reader to use the same colours drybrushed on, light to dark. For this I used Humbrol enamels. I love acrylics but IMO they don't do well at drybrushing (a revelation that came to me when watching Geoff Taylor drybrush a building with Humbrol - http://www.model-railway-dvd.co.uk/right_track7.php ). I think the problem is that acrylic is quite runny (this is what makes it good for brush painting surfaces) and dries quickly. Humbrol enamel is quite sticky and remains workable for some time. So anyway, what you see is the result of that process. I think it looks pretty good.

I sprayed the sides of the wagons with Glosscote last night in preparation for transfers today.

John

 

[Brossard]

Now this goes to show the dangers inherent in assuming. I assumed all the wagons were grey. However, when I got my Essery Wagons out again, about to apply transfers I discovered that the long low wagon had been outshopped new unpainted. Rats! I said, well I didn't, but the word did have 4 letters.

So, back to the paint shop. I rubbed off some of the grey paint with my fiberglass pen. I then used my sandpaper stick to put some approximation of woodgrain on the sides. I then followed the process described earlier, only with less black. I touched up the ironwork grey (this is a guess).



Now, to letter it.

John

 

[Brossard]

Well, I'm glad that's over! Transfers are done!

Here are the wagons in ex works condition:

Double Bolster:



I'm pleased that, after all that bother, the bolt heads are actually visible. Lettering copied off a pic in Essery's LMS Wagons.

Tube Wagon:



Again, taken from a photo in Essery.

Finally, Long Low wagon:



Not sure about how my attempt to have unpainted sides turned out. This time there wasn't a photo in Essery of the wagon in LMS guise so this is a bit of a guess based on a similar wagon.

Anyway, these won't stay ex-works for long, weathering tomorrow.

John

 

[Nick Holliday]

Lovely looking wagons, but, sorry to be a Jeremiah, are the brake rods on the Long Low wagon the correct way round?

 

[Pennine MC]

QUOTE (Nick Holliday @ 19 Jun 2014, 09:26) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Lovely looking wagons, but, sorry to be a Jeremiah, are the brake rods on the Long Low wagon the correct way round?

Possibly not, unfortunately - I'd expect them to be the same as the Tube, and pushrods are normally arranged 'left over right' at the pivot point on the side with the Morton clutch or drop link.

QUOTE (Brossard @ 18 Jun 2014, 15:36) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>...
Now the decking, that's the challenge here. It should be natural wood (not brown!) and I had to determine how to do that.

... Martin Welch ... recommends application of three colours - earth, grey and black. [snip]

Once you start looking at wood, rather than taking it for granted in that way that we all tend to do, it exhibits a bewildering variation of shades, and that said, I dont think it's necessary to be too prescriptive about colours as long as the final effect shows some variation in tone (largely achieved in my case by the final washes over an initial application of greyish-beige - a light brown is IMO acceptable although certainly not the chocolate shades favoured by manufacturers). There's a page here on my blog that shows a couple of examples, though I'd emphasise that it's far from the only way to go about it - it just works for me.

 

[Brossard]

Nick, thanks for the eagle eye, you are right, I did get the long low brake levers the wrong way round.

It doesn't look like a big job to correct.

Thanks for the blog link Ian, I like the look of your floors. I'll have a go with some other wagons at some point. I've bookmarked it.

John

 

[Brossard]

After fixing the long low's brake levers

, I turned my attention to weathering. After having the airbrush stop flowing twice, I got fed up and gave it good soak in lacquer thinner (horrid stuff

) - I found the body full of filth - this despite me cleaning it after every session. That done I carried on with airbrushing, followed by powder.

Double Bolster:



Tube:



Long Low:



I quite like how these came out.

John

 

[sean hpw]

Very nice very nice

I am slowly making progress with my fleet of PO wagons, Must get some of these kits, they look the dogs bits, really smartly done my friend!

Sean

 

[Brossard]

Thanks Sean, very good kits indeed. A lot of effort to get them to a finished state but worth it I think. Are you still doing EM? I don't think I mentioned these were EM.

John

 

[Pennine MC]

QUOTE (Brossard @ 19 Jun 2014, 19:47) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I quite like how these came out.

The Long Low in particular I think, it's come back well from a possibly uncertain start. Probably towards the darker end of the 'unpainted' spectrum, but none the worse for that - one thing I've learnt is that paintjobs that dont go as intended are seldom wasted as long as you can come to terms with producing a different effect to the one you initially had in mind.

 

[Brossard]

Thank you Ian, as you say, an uncertain start regarding finish, but not bad at all, now it's weathered. This is something to work at.

The floors don't look at all bad I think, although they could be lighter:







John