Adam

Cheers Andrew - I'm sure that the gen on the scenery will prove useful someday. I thought about that, having had a nice chat with Geoff Kent about it, but decided on a Catfish instead. Interestingly, this wagon was much bigger but carried a ton less payload than the Herring. Contrary to my memory of building a Dogfish in my teens (I really knew how to pick wagon kits as a beginner: mk 1 Pakside Grampus, Cambrian Walrus, Cambrian Dogfish. If you can build these you'll manage most things). They weren't really creatures of either the southern or western regions, but the SR had a few on loan in the late '60s and early '70s and two factors steer me towards one of these. First is that Dave Larkin photographed them and Cambrian designed transfers based on those images so I have the lettering in hand although some of it is the wrong colour and should be yellow. I think I have a way round this but that's a little way off. Meanwhile, it has actually gone together rather well, strengthened here and there with some slivers of 10 thou'. I've added a couple more bits to the Coils too but there's more to come yet. One delay is caused by failing to buy any more 0.5 drills at Expo. Oops. Adam

What Arthur said. Adam

Very nice Andrew; strangely, the bottom picture is the correct way about... See you at Expo on Saturday. Adam

There hasn't been much time for modelling over the last week or so - I'm in the throes of completing work on a book (not remotely railway related) and this has eaten all my spare time. Still, I've managed to get the sheets over the centre of the three bays completed and have made a start on the hoods over the end bays with the sheet rails. These have been tacked onto the plastic formers with cyano and then more firmly secured with 5 minute epoxy. Both wagons have now reached the same stage but I've only photographed the one. The nice thing about this point is that for the first time there's a sense of what the completed wagon will look like. There is a long, long way to go, however. I admit that this picture looks a complete mess, but under a coat of paint, all should be well. I hope. Lots of brackets and struts next. Adam

See you at Expo too, Chris and hopefully the standard. The standard 5 has always struck me as one of DJH's better efforts. It always amazes me how something that was basically a 'black 5' could look so different with different platework. Adam

You mean it *still* isn't complete?! Wasn't it a runner last time I saw it? What Morgan said... Adam

Finally!

Thanks for the clarification Jol - as I said, it was only half a notion, presumably based on no more than being a kit for the same prototype. Adam

Prior to putting the hoods on the centre bay it was time to add a but more detail (not much, the hood will cover most of it...), but I've added representations of the angle iron bracing between bays since they will affect the 'hang' of the sheets. Time to put the pair to one side so the solvent has time to harden. Adam

Next steps. Roof on, I won't add sides because the tissue will be tough enough and the one clear picture I have sows a certain amount of settlement/billow. This provides a supporting structure for fairing in with epoxy putty, like this (my earlier Coil H): This one will use more tissue since the shaping isn't the same, on the inner ends, at least. So the Milliput doesn't have to do quite so much work, I've added some triangles of 40 thou'. I shall get the centre hood done first. but it will be a fiddle. Anyone else contemplating this sort of build might like to consider only adding the outer cradles afterwards... Adam

Going back to an earlier project, the pair of Coil Rs have seen a little bit of attention, building up the supports for the tent-like hoods, which will be fully modelled like a building, with roof and sides. The structure will eventually be covered in tissue t represent the sheets but only after the remaining hinge and bracket details are added. Adam

Ah, good - I couldn't quite tell from the angle of the photo! Yes, the arrangement of vee hangers is tricky, isn't it? Adam

Does it have vac' cylinders? Otherwise that looks a nice, reasonably straightforward conversion. I suppose that the bolsters should be different as well, but it depends ho far you want to go. I am not aware of any GW-built bolsters with diamond frame bogies (other than converted Rectanks or Warflats) but have been wrong before... Adam

Mek-Pak - don't bother to clean the brush, any excess will simply evaporate off, but don't then use the brush for anything else. Ignore the instructions about the door controller, it would be far better to have it securely fixed and to trim the transfer to suit. One thing with these big letters - it's a good idea to press them in to conform with the planks, Microscale's Microsol is the thing to use here as it softens the transfers to allow them to be pressed in to the detail. If you must use Kadees (a personal hang-up this - they look ridiculous on this sort of wagon no matter how well they work though the state railways in Victoria, Australia used knuckle couplers with side buffers until quite recently) I suppose the thing to do would be to mount the coupler pocket so the coupling protrudes below the headstock packed with plastic sheet as appropriate. If you like 'em, ignore my aesthetic hang-up, it's your model and thus your enjoyment that matters and they do work well. Real cross shafts seem to be about 2" diameter so I use 0.7mm wire (brass) which can be had from, among others, Eileen's Emporium or Alan Gibson. 0.45mm wire is always useful for doing things like handrails Painting: prime everything, it's easier. Halfords primer is a good an LMS wagon grey as anything else I reckon. Unless modelling a brand new wagon the running gear is unlikely to have appeared black and don't forget that the solebars in LMS livery should be the same colour as the body. I tend to paint wagon chassis in Humbrol matt chocolate (no. 98 I think it is) and weather back into that with a bit of oily grey on the bottom half of the axleboxes and some dusty colours here and there. HTH Adam

Ah, good! Thanks, the transfers were a (worthwhile) fiddle but I am so very glad that they're done. The Railtec maintenance data sheets are especially nice I think. I have some bits and pieces commissioned from them in the pipeline and am looking forward to them when they eventually turn up. Adam

Chris, I'm certain that it was still about later than that - Paul Bartlett's galleries have several examples: At Newport, 1970 - http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/gwrherring/h176b8c2a#h176b8c2a (I don't see a branding for Coleford in the set John has posted btw). At Cadder, Scotland, 1984 (possibly in Olive Green, I think) - http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brherring/h1aec94d9#h6a312f6 And at Crewe, 1983 - http://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/brherring/h1aec94d9#h1ae07499 There will be others, but many seem to have been painted out and replaced which is what I have gone for here. If I were to build another then I would probably go for the script since it was such a 'western' thing to my mind and such brandings certainly appeared on other wagons. Adam

Those script versions are very nice indeed John, albeit not what I wanted in this instance. Of course, they have wider applications! That's interesting - the high lever-type? Dave Bradwell already does this of course - I've built two and very nice they are. Adam

Thanks - what did you go for? Providing that you take care to ensure that the basic frame assembles square they're enormous fun. I have more in the queue. The Herring, meanwhile, has been treated to a coat of matt lacquer and is ready for detail painting and weathering. Adam

Gordon - the drawing shows more than I would expect of a weight diagram - where the brake rigging goes, for example - hence my description. As for original drawings, goodness knows - some were built by Met Camm so there may be something among their archival material held in a variety of places (I think that the principal repositories are Birmingham and possibly Staffordshire Archives, details to explore here: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=metropolitan+cammell Anyhow, back to the wagon. Lettering is, something that if you want to do it right is always a challenge. We have a mixture here, from left, Cambridge Custom Transfers used more or less as supplied, the 'empty to' branding is cobbled together from leftover lettering from a Covhop, also from CCT, the 'Stoneycombe' branding (multiple return brandings seem to have been very common on P22s - the 'Herring' branding seems rare on pictures before 1970 so I've left it off) was pieced together from bits of a KB Scale sheet intended for 7mm. It is sufficiently tiny that the subterfuge with the spelling is all but invisible - there were no 'B's on the sheet... The maintenance panel is from Railtec. The bits you can't see are overhead warning flashes from Modelmaster. Hard work all this. Compared to dad's Hornby Trout, we can see that this is small.. Adam

Gordon - The GA (really a very General Arrangement, it's more of neatly drawn dimensioned sketch) is in Russell's OPC Wagon Plans book of goodness-alone-knows-how-long-ago - dad very kindly copied the relevant pages from his copy. Not sure what the page number was. Andy (and anyone else thinking the same thing) - if you look, all I've done is to finesse what Barry at Cambrian moulded and that's fiddly, but it isn't especially difficult. Cutting vee hangers from sheet is a bit of a swine but it mostly takes patience and practise: many would just draw up an etch these days (and let's face it, if anyone wants to do just that, I would be delighted!). The hard work is done for you and really very well. This is a good kit for a wagon that is tricky to model. I think that my main difference to most modellers is just one of emphasis: I reckon that wagons were the whole point of the railway system (for the most part) and are far more intrinsically interesting than what pulls them about. Adam

Please don't, for goodness sake - even I would admit (and have, several times up the thread) that what I've done is overkill. Under a coat of paint most will be none the wiser that the detail isn't that Cambrian included in the packet: almost all of it is. I'm just fussy and have taken an age making finer replacements. For that which isn't, like the vac' pipes well, whitemetal vac' pipes would have been absolutely fine, for example - you could simply add the stays - but I didn't have any! Adam

And speaking of the Herring, here's last night's work, a pair of steps - note the pins intended to anchor the steps to headstock: And this morning's, a pair of vac' pipes (this pattern were custom jobs - note that some had below the headstock vac' pipes which are much easier to do: this pair took about an hour). Here's what they look like mounted on the wagon. There's not much left to do now. Adam

Thanks Colin, Andrew, clickers. The transfers are Modelmaster, Colin. I wouldn't bet on them being exact matches to a prototype but I think it's in the right ballpark and at the back end of a long rake of something or other it will do nicely. Now, back to the Herring, I think. Adam

Thank you Andy, the kind words are much appreciated (as are the clicks on the various buttons - thanks folks). The 74 is living in a box file, currently, I need to find myself in the mood to tackle the various handrails but once that and the indicator boxes are complete then the thing will be done. It doesn't sound much, does it? Hmm. I'm just in wagon mode at present. One complete brakevan, I'm quite pleased with how the patch repainting has come out: Adam

After a break from the workbench (conference, talks to give, book proofs to check), in my travels I acquired one of the new Hornby LNER 21 ton hoppers and it's well, quite nice though the axles have a lot of slop which must cause a bit of strife for the running in OO. In EM, however, this is not such an issue and the regauging was nice and simple. Here's the thing as it comes: And here's after the first dabbling with bits and pieces left over from the Dave Bradwell chassis kit, the bang plates thus far which seem to have been later additions as were the cat's cradle of handrails at the ends. For this reason, I've replaced those supplied with 0.3mm nickel silver wire for the sake of consistency but I haven't yet worked out which of the (many) variations to fit. I've since changed the buffers with some from ABS as well and the 'Comic Sans' lettering had to go if only to get rid of the metric tare weight... Other projects have come on in dribs and drabs but they'll have to wait for the weekend. Adam