Chippenham - The Work Bench

[billbedford]

The first ones were built in 1886, so Iwould expect them all to have been built of steel. 

[billbedford]

The first ones were built in 1886, and by that time most of the shipbuilding industry had converted from wrought iron to steel. So steel sheet and sections were readily available and in all probability cheaper than wrought iron. 

It's likely in this context that "iron" is a colloquialism meaning "not wooden" rather than signifying any particular form of ferrous metal. 

[Compound2632]

8 hours ago, billbedford said:

The first ones were built in 1886, and by that time most of the shipbuilding industry had converted from wrought iron to steel. So steel sheet and sections were readily available and in all probability cheaper than wrought iron. 

It's likely in this context that "iron" is a colloquialism meaning "not wooden" rather than signifying any particular form of ferrous metal. 

 

The first Tay Bridge, built in the mid-1870s, was of cast and wrought iron; the Forth Bridge, built in the late 1880s, was of steel - so that nicely dates the transition. 

[Bluemonkey presents....]

That makes perfect sense. I have never really considered whether Iron minks were actually iron or not it is a very good observation, so very much now plausible for 'oil canning' to be part of the Mink F even if only a little.

[Compound2632]

Looking through All About..., there is no mention of a change from iron to steel for GWR iron minks; the side and end panels are stated to have been ⅛" iron sheet. However, the wagons built for Spillers by Harrison & Camm in 1906/7 are stated to have been steel bodied, the Barry Railway vehicles built by G.R. Turner in 1904/5 are described as 'iron and steel' on Fox's patent pressed steel underframes, and the Rhymney Railway ones built by Cravens in 1912 were all-steel.

 

From which one concludes that by the first decade of the 20th century, the wagon-building trade was happy working with steel - and presumably using it for the 'ironwork' of wooden wagons - whereas in the 1890s, the Swindon Carriage & Wagon Works was still set up to work with wrought iron. 

[Bluemonkey presents....]

OK tgank you everyone. With everything considered I am going for a 'much used and unloved' look. My understanding is these minks ran mainly at night on fast freight, so I am thinking appearance is not that important. 

May have got carried away though.

 

 

 

 

Don't think it will match most of my stock but well, if not, I guess the later Western and early BR boys may snap it up.

Just waiting now for the paints and washes to fully harden before applying some rusting solution to the rusty areas. Probably not all of them though, that should add a little depth, maybe.

[Bluemonkey presents....]

I couldn't resist putting a few pics together of models I have recently purchased from Chuffinghell. Especially as it will still be some rime before I have anything to run on.

 

 

 

It has been a pleasure putting this little lot together. There are a few more Aero and Engineering wagons to add but the idea us there.

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and I have some transfers from CCT to finally complete the T12 chaired sleeper wagons, only took me 6 years to order them 🤪🤪🤪🤪

Edited June 24 by Bluemonkey presents....

[Bluemonkey presents....]

Been a tough week for modelling what with the heat but some progress on the Mink F sees it ready for a liquor coat and storage.

Weathering and rusting now complete. Maybe a little too much but we'll It'd done now and no taking it off.

 

 

 

 

[Graham T]

That looks really good imho.  What do you use for the rust texture? 

 

(You may have said earlier in the thread but, if asked to describe myself in three words, my answer would be - lazy!)

[Bluemonkey presents....]

1 hour ago, Graham T said:

That looks really good imho.  What do you use for the rust texture? 

 

(You may have said earlier in the thread but, if asked to describe myself in three words, my answer would be - lazy!)

 

I used for the base colour Mig  0913 Red Brown Vase and Mig 0043 Shadow rust, these are from the Tools colors box set I have. I followed this with a light covering of Deluxe Materials scenic rust.

[Bluemonkey presents....]

Well after T one needs to P.

A recent purchase of GWR transfer sheet from Custom Cambridge Transfers prompted me to continue with the departmental theme. My intention was to complete the very long awaiting T12 chaired sleeper wagons as the sheets specifically covers the GWR Cambrian kit range. However I got side tracked and fished out some Bill Bedford P4 Ballast wagons from my stash.

So a week of fiddly folding, flap fixing and general fiddling I have arrived at 3 almost complete wagons. I lost a couple of etched detailing parts, a coupling picket pinged into a parallel universe (even with my new flooring!) and a angled door strap disappeared whilst cleaning I think. 

One of the etches had been misaligned during the etching process as the rivet detailing for the botton of the W irons was missed, overlaying with the actual W itself.

 

 

I managed to use some rivet detailing offcuts from the Cambrian ties used with the cattle wagons.

 

Sadly I do not think I have managed at great job of the wagons. The soldering and some of the fine detail manufacturing proved rather challenging at times. I am pleased with the overall outcome though as the kits are exceedingly well designed and good fun even if fiddly.

 

 

 

I am aware the life of these wagons would have been hard so I am planning to weather these as such, on a similar line to the Mink F. This will also help hide some of my failings and faults.

Now where are those sleeper wagons stashed?!!

 

 

[Bluemonkey presents....]

Oh No!!!! Another longer term distraction has materialised. The sleep wagons will have to wait. This us the other half of a rescue pair. Think I got these about 7 years ago 🫣

 

 

 

Think I may have make up a few bits. Lost one destination board down the drain already 🫠

[Bluemonkey presents....]

Seems the P4 are better than thought once cloaked with primer.

 

[AlfaZagato]

Yeah, the ballast wagons look fine.

 

What are those other two?  The rescues?

[The Fatadder]

1 hour ago, Bluemonkey presents.... said:

Oh No!!!! Another longer term distraction has materialised. The sleep wagons will have to wait. This us the other half of a rescue pair. Think I got these about 7 years ago 🫣

 

 

 

Think I may have make up a few bits. Lost one destination board down the drain already 🫠

Look forward to seeing that one finished, I still haven’t got around to doing the roof boards for my 3d printed pair (or for that matter added the underframe detail).  

[Bluemonkey presents....]

2 hours ago, AlfaZagato said:

Yeah, the ballast wagons look fine.

 

What are those other two?  The rescues?

Thank you.

The other two in the background are a runner for the Cowans crane and one of Chuffinghell's T4 to possibly have angled trusses to simulate a T7.

The rescue pair are the mess and tool van pair that fit the crane. I managed to pick them up them up years ago for a decent price because they were poorly constructed and heavily over painted. I'll dig out some pics I have of them before if you would like? I don't have many though.

Edited July 11 by Bluemonkey presents....

[Bluemonkey presents....]

Ever wish you hadn't had that 'excellent idea' ?!?!

 

 

[Bluemonkey presents....]

@AlfaZagato as promised here are some pictures of the other wagon, tool van I think, before, during and after.

 

  

 

 

 

And this is what the mess van looked like before I set about it.

 

[Nick Gough]

2 hours ago, Bluemonkey presents.... said:

And this is what the mess van looked like before I set about it.

 

An appropriately named vehicle!

 

Considering the starting point, the tool van is a vast improvement and, no doubt, the mess van will be as well.

[Bluemonkey presents....]

This one is proving to be harder to clean up than the first even though in detail and builds terms it appears simpler.

 

  

 

 

I accepted that there will be detailing parts broken or lost through this process as it is at times brutal, in modelling terms. The brake rigging had to be sacrificed in order to access the W-irons and chassis.

 

 

There appears to be various layers of paint and superglue on paint, the chassis is a really pain to clean up. So far it has seen a week in Dettol, 3 days in White Spirit, coating og Nitro Mors, 3 separate 30 minute sonic baths, glass fibres in hands and fingers, a broken scalpel blade and a whole load of scrapping and swearing!

 

 

The van sides and roof though have come up quite well. Hopefully well enough that any primer and paint will hide any further baddies.

 

 

You can see the amount of debris from the clean up surrounding it. This if it was possible to mould that all together I could get another van out of it. Certainly considering sourcing and replacing all the finer details rather than trying to salvage.

 

Don't really think I'll be attempting any further rescues. Better off asking Chuffinghell if he has the time and interest for a commission build instead! Certainly safer for one's hands!

Edited July 17 by Bluemonkey presents....

[The Fatadder]

3 minutes ago, Bluemonkey presents.... said:

This one is proving to be harder to clean up than the first even though in detail and builds terms it appears simpler.

 

  

 

 

I accepted that there will be detailing parts broken or lost through this process as it is at times brutal, in modelling terms. The brake rigging had to be sacrificed in order to access the W-irons and chassis.

 

 

There appears to be various layers of paint and superglue on paint, the chassis is a really pain to clean up. So far it has seen a week in Dettol, 3 days in White Spirit, 3 separate 30 minute sonic baths, glass fibres in hands and fingers, a broken scalpel blade and a whole load of scrapping and swearing!

 

 

The van sides and roof though have come up quite well. Hopefully well enough that any primer and paint will hide any further baddies.

 

 

You can see the amount of debris from the clean up surrounding it. This if it was possible to mould that all together I could get another van out of it. Certainly considering sourcing and replacing all the finer details rather than trying to salvage.

 

Don't really think I'll be attempting any further rescues. Better off asking Chuffinghell if he has the time and interest for a commission build instead! Certainly safer for one's hands!

Did the roof windows survive the cleanup in a good state?  If not I should be able to print a couple of my drawing if that helps

[Bluemonkey presents....]

1 minute ago, The Fatadder said:

Did the roof windows survive the cleanup in a good state?  If not I should be able to print a couple of my drawing if that helps

Thanks for the offer Rich. No roof windows on this one. The other one had four and cleaned up surprising well, then soldered.

Thanks though appreciate it. 

[micklner]

Get some of these

 

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/265527842/3m-scotch-brite-radial-bristle-discs-for

[Mikkel]

Those close-ups are quite un-appetizing!

 

The "before" ones, I mean 😄

 

The transformation of No. 148 really is impressive, Matt, hard to believe it's the same model. Well, I suppose it isn't actually the same model, as you have completely remodelled it. Philosophical question: When does a model become a different model?

 

[Bluemonkey presents....]

11 hours ago, Mikkel said:

Philosophical question: When does a model become a different model?

 

 

For me, my friend, it is the same model just wearing a different coat.

Not many things were replaced on the first (and hopefully the second) and in most cases they were like for like because of the damage I caused. I have however added detailing such as steam pipes but I think I would have done this if I had bought the kit. I certainly would have change the rain strips from side on brass strip to what I used, squared styrene. Oh and the wheels have been replaced to Mansell rather than the disc wagon wheels but again I think the original kit would have not included wheels.