RNAD Crew Van

Encouraged by success fitting couplings to the bogie Hudson wagon, I decided to have a go at another kit that has sat in the pending pile for a while because the bogies looked challenging for couplings. This is the Narrow Planet kit for the crew van used at RNAD munitions sites, and now found on several preserved railways for permanent way duties. It's a multimedia kit with 3D printed chassis and interior and an etched brass body, but the bogies are Dundas plastic mouldings used with small modifications. Here the parts are laid out, but I've already blackened some of the smaller parts on the etch, and tackled the first bogie. 

Although the bogies are different to those in Hudson bogie open I used the same "under-set" (type 2004) Microtrains couplings. These are a little more fiddly to make than the standard 1015 type as the cover for the draft box doesn't clip into place, but requires a touch of a soldering iron to melt it into place! 

The low-set coupling body can then be set under the bogie frame, after cutting and filing a rebate and drilling a hole for the screw, which needed shortening. I tried to cut down a screw with a cutting disk in my Dremel but it just bent! I realised it must be a soft metal, so I cut it down with side-cutters, which worked just fine. 

With the bogies sorted far more easily than I'd originally feared, it's on with the body, which folds up from the brass etch in two parts that join at the door recess. I opted to solder them together, though I guess epoxy would have worked. The parts slot together, so I smeared some flux along the inside edge and placed three small slices of solder onto the flux, then it just needed a touch from a tinned soldering iron until the solder flows into the join. Actually even my tiny pieces of solder were too much as some solder appeared outside the join, but was easily cleaned up. The mini clothes peg adds a little weight to the upper part but also allows me to hold it with a finger without burning myself during soldering, while the pliers are just weighting the body down.

Handrails are also bent up from etches, and I decided to solder them too. A piece of thin card was slid behind them to space them from the bodyside, and a sprung tweezer used to clamp the handrail in place. With the piece turned over flux and a tiny piece of solder were added behind, then a touch of the iron to fix. The windscreen wipers were added in a similar way. After the soldering is done the body was cleaned in Cif to remove any flux residue.

The assembled body slots neatly onto the 3D printed chassis/interior, which I'd already given a coat of primer. I've also glued strips of lead under the seats. The odd shapes of brass strip under the roof form the vents and tabs to locate the roof, it's a complex piece of origami but cleverly folds up, and I soldered it in a similar way to the other parts. It did need care to get central though, which matters for the roof to sit central on the body, and at first it was slightly skew. Fortunately it was fixed by levering the part sideways with a screwdriver while softening the solder with the iron. 

In the end it wasn't a difficult kit to put together, and after some thought (and selecting the right type) the couplings were not challenging to fit. At present the roof is loose and the body just slotted onto the chassis, which will make painting easier. 

It's an unusual but attractive little vehicle which will add interest to the permanent way train for Hexworthy, in a preservation setting. My next challenge is what colour to use? Most of my wagons are grey, but I did add yellow ends to the excavator wagons. Perhaps this could be yellow all over, like this one spotted at Amberly - though I'm not brave enough to try the stripes!

I might also tone down the weathering, and I'm really not even sure what colour the van on the right is...

However, I rather like the blue seen on this 4-wheel version, also at Amberly. Maybe blue with yellow ends? Or perhaps green with yellow ends? 

Putting paint on the Hunslet

I've gradually been progressing the Hunslet towards painting. First the final details were added - the handrail and injectors. The handrail knobs were tiny and drove me potty, but I got there in the end. The injectors are made from nickel silver wire with a piece of wire insulation, following the prototype photos, fitted into holes drilled in the footplate, cab, and boiler, then super-glued in place. Actually right after gluing the left side solid I realised they might be better fitted after painting... so I left the right side off.

After a small amount of filling gaps and removing excess glue the body was cleaned and polished with a fibreglass pencil. However it doesn't look it in this photo as I then gave it a wipe over with a blackening solution. It doesn't blacken whitemetal, but it does dull it so perhaps paint will stick better.

Then it's out to the garage for priming, along with the Atkinson Walker Steam Tractor which has also been waiting for warmer weather! Halfords grey etch primer does the metal bodies, in about 4 thin coats from different directions. Standard primer was used for plastic parts too. This was followed by the main body colour - Halfords Racing Green for the Hunslet; a rather glossy finish but I'll deal with that later.

As seen here it has also received the first coat of black, though 48 hours later that doesn't seem to be properly dry so perhaps the paint has gone off? In addition the buffer beams have had a priming coat of white as red doesn't cover well. You can also see I've been scraping the paint off the injectors this side (the masking tape is to protect the paint behind), and that on the other side has been fitted.

Meanwhile, in between painting, the workbench has moved to other projects!

A collection of projects

Since we are expecting to move house soon I had cleared away all my modelling materials and most of my tools into boxes, I even finished Thakeham 3 weeks before EXPO to allow time for this. But as is the way with house moves it seems we are still some way from the big day, so a box was reopened and some projects dug out.

 

Bottom left is another Egger coach grabbed at EXPO so I can increase my rake to three, or run a second mixed train (Awngate only fits two bogie coaches).

Above that is a Wantage Tram etch, along with a Halling chassis (top left) I got to go in it. However the Halling doesn't fit as it is too long, a shame as they are superb runners, so I have other thoughts developing to use that. Meanwhile I picked up a Meridian MPD18 chassis kit at the Convention.

Bottom right is an impulse buy from EXPO-NG, a WW1 Simplex should fit Awngate nicely. My son wants me to build the full armoured version but I'm leaning towards protected. This was bought with the MPD18 chassis to fit - but this time a Mk2 version despite being bought just a month later than the first I bought, hence the different packaging!

So there is plenty to get on with. The coach is probably the easiest having done two already, and the Simplex if a "proper" kit so should be reasonably straightforward, but I'm keen to start the tram loco to have something a bit different for Awngate, even though it may be the most complex project here.

So here is the MPD18 Mk1 chassis! It proved fairly quick to put together, though being tiny it is rather fiddly. The etch fits together very cleanly, I'm not convinced by the motor mount but it seems to work. I'd rather have larger wheels, these are just wagon or pony-truck wheels and I think they'll struggle to pick up power well. The axle is small too,

 

A couple of tips to anyone building one:
- Two brass tube sleeves are supplied to allow the worm gears to fit the smaller diameter axles. The instructions suggest drilling holes through the sleeve tubes to allow the superglue in to attach them to the axle, this sounded fiddly so I simply cut across the tube with a razor saw until a hole appeared.
- The pick-up on the insulated side is supposed to be fitted under the chassis by gapping the tiny PCB and soldering the upper half behind the lower part of the chassis side. I found this impossible, it would have been easier before assembling the running gear into the chassis. But then I realised I didn't need to bother as it could be superglued to the outside of the chassis and work just as well!

 

Considering it's tiny size and it is the first 009 chassis I have ever built (other than a Salford Models Hudson diesel which I failed to get working as a teenager) I'm rather pleased. It seems to work - but only with a finger on it, as it is too light to pick-up power! I need to add more weight to properly test it.

Skylark and Egger Coaches Completed

So here are some pictures of the completed Skylark loco and coaches. Well, I need to add some passengers at some point, and maybe one day I'll get some transfers to add lettering. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out - the modifications made to the Eggerbahn coaches have made a big difference to their look, the tram skirts on the Skylark look convincing, and by my standards the painting and weathering has come out well. Most of all both the loco and the coaches look right at home on Awngate, together or with my other stock, and fit in with the tramway theme.
       

Don't forget the Sussex Downs 009 group exhibition this Saturday in Haywards Heath. I'll be there helping out on the club layout or one of the other member's layouts, so do say hi. More details here.

What the heck, get on with it...

I said I was waiting for warmer weather to prime the recent projects ready for painting, but as the ghostly apparitions below show, I decided to press on anyway! Perhaps because of seeing that Chris Ford has started and finished his Skylark in the meantime...

 

Preparation involved a scrub in warm water with a few drops of Cif cleaner using a toothbrush (I'm talking about the models here). Since it is still cold out, and spraying has to be done in the garage at the bottom of the garden, the technique was to keep me and the cans of paint indoors between coats, and the model too every couple of coats.

The brass balcony railings had a few light coats of etch primer, this is very thin so it was followed by the usual Halfords grey primer to get an even coat, which was also used for the roofs and the loco. The coach bodies though were treated to white primer. Priming is very useful as it shows up all the surface blemishes, I was pleased to find very few except a few stray blobs of glue on the Skylark. With them cleaned up and another quick spray I'm ready to start painting the top coats.

Progress with the Balconies

The next challenge was to fit the balcony railings to the ends of the coach in a sturdy manner, so they don't fall off when handled. I also wanted to be able to leave the roofs off until the coaches are painted and glazed, so ideally the railings should be affixed to the body and chassis only. The solution I came up with is shown in the photo below: the

 

The bottom of the corner posts fits into "feet" on the steps, which should appear to be extensions of the end frame of the chassis. The tops of the wire corner posts bend through 90 degrees under the roof, they then bend downward into a piece of plastic fixed into the inside of the coach body. The photo below shows the recesses cut into the underside of the roofs to clear the wire.

 

I'm pleased with how the look with the roof on, and they certainly seem well attached - even at this stage, without glue. I'm still to deal with the spikes, they will be removed and replaced with a plastic strip representing a wooden handrail.

 

Also visible above is my "prototype" step. The original steps were too fragile and long gone, so I need something more sturdy, this "solid" plasticard step (which doesn't show up well in the pictures) is certainly solid, the issue is ensuring sufficient bogie clearance. With some trimming of the end of the bogie and careful position of the points the coach is easily able to negotiate 12" radius Peco points, so it looks like this should work.

 

Coach Balcony Railings

I can't put it off any longer - it's time to have a go at the balcony railings! I think these will be what give the coaches character, and it is important to get them right. They could also be rather delicate, so there is no real option in my mind but to make them from metal.

These are the component parts - the railings from the Scale-Link etch, trimmed as shown, and some brass wire.

 

I figured the only way I am going to get these railings straight and even, and them solder them together without suffering severe burns, was to use a jig. Nothing complex here, just an off-cut of MDF with some thin card (slightly thinner than the wire) stuck on. The wire is laid into each slot up to the stop, a steel rule used to hold it in place, and then it is bent down.

 

With the wire uprights in the slots and held in with blu-tack they are tinned with solder. A little flux paste is applied to the ends of the railings and they are lined up with the marks and uprights, it then just takes a few dabs of a tinned soldering iron to solder it all together.

 

The results I am pleased with - strong, square, and even, and more to the point, I've not gained a single burn. Since I took this picture the excess solder has been filed away, I think they should look quite neat once painted. One thing I have just thought though - spiky railings on a moving coach don't seem a good idea, do they?

 

Update From The Coachworks

So here's how the Egger Bash is coming on. I've created the brake composite by adding a door to the side and blocking up the adjacent windows as per the mock-up in the last post. This has worked quite well, the door window is exactly the same size as the other narrow windows as are both panels. The door itself is rather narrow in reality, but it looks OK so let's not be picky!

Also visible in the above photo is that I have cut away the chassis outriggers (which implied a welded steel chassis, out of character for the style I am after), and added a new frame. The body has also been raised by the addition of strips of 40-thou plastic, helpful as the H0 scale body is a little low for 00 scale people!

There is a double line of beading moulded into the body side, but along the bottom edge the lower bead is barely formed. So having deepened the side I used fine microstrip to reinstate the bead, which should hide the join too. This is quite difficult to see being white-on-white - I won't really know how well it has worked until the body is primed - but hopefully this photo gives the idea.

I've added some internal partitions...

...and started work on the balconies. These have a planked floor, but for some reason the outermost plank is much wider than the others, then there is a gap where the end fitted. I've narrowed the odd plank and added another of similar size, reducing the gap at the end too. The balconies will be critical to the look of the coach - they will be rather different to the original coach, and I have a plan forming!

Egger-bashing

I've always rather liked the Eggerbahn "OEG" coaches, with their large saloon windows, end balconies and rounded roof-ends they have a feel of the Welshpool & Llanfair "Pickering" coaches. Being H0e scale they are somewhat smaller than the Welshpool coaches, but actually fit quite well with most 009 stock, and anyway smaller coaches make a small layout seem bigger! So I thought a couple of them would make a rather nice tramway-style train for Awngate.

For some reason these coaches sometimes seem to attract silly money on evilbay, but I had one I got from the 009 society sales stand a few years ago before prices rocketed, and picked up another at a reasonable price recently. Neither are "mint", having just one step each (they are rather vulnerable) so they are ripe for "bashing" into something more British-looking.

As you can see the first thing to do was to cut away the raised "OEG" motif from the side, a tricky job with much careful sanding to get the side smooth. The next step is to dis-assemble the coach ready for further work. The roof is glued on, one came off with careful leverage but on the other coach it seemed to have more glue - and when it did eventually come away it broke one of the windows with it. However, that may not be a problem...

While at NG South I spied some Egger coach conversions on Charlie Insley's layout, Winter Overcoates. As well as modifications to the balconies and underframes, and repainting into GWR livery (similar to the Welshpool coaches), one has been turned into a guards/brake coach.

Awngate only has space for two bogie coaches, and that doesn't leave much room for a brake van, so perhaps a brake composite would be a good idea? However I don't want too much of the coach given over to the guard, so having studied the Welshpool brake composite I have come up with this proposal:

Apologies for the basic MS-Paint doodle, I don't run to Photoshop, but you get the idea! Half the coach is still a Third class saloon (originally Second), then there is a small guards/parcels compartment with a single door, and finally a First class compartment. Perhaps a look-out ducket would add character, but it seems unnecessary and there isn't really space.

Cosmetics

As the layout nears completion it is time for a quick tidy up of it's external appearance. Now the rules of the competition dictate that the box-file lid must close, but in any case I wanted the layout to still be a box-file externally when closed up. In other words, to look as much like a normal box-file as possible and be able to be stored as one. Since I am going to the trouble and compromise of building the layout in a box-file, it seems to me to defeat the point were it to loose those characteristics. However the outside of the box was starting to look a bit tatty and "butchered".

Amazingly I found a matt-black emulsion paint test-pot (Crown "rebel") at my local DIY store (presumably for the Goths, but why would you need a test-pot to see what black looks like?!). All the exposed chipboard of the box sides where it has been cut had already been sealed and smoothed with PVA glue. So the edges, and any other exposed card areas, or marked external surfaces, were touched-up with the black.

















Other than the two holes in one end for the tracks, the main modification to the box was to cut out a section of the front. I've kept this to re-fit, using some small hinges obtained from Squires. The hinges are super-glued to the box and then track-pins pushed into pre-drilled holes via the holes in the hinge plates. The lid catch still works, the hinged front now makes the closed box much stronger.

I need somewhere to store the buildings, end-panels, extension track, and stock for this layout, so what better than a second box-file? I've been using one to store all the bits of the project, but to protect the contents I have used some cereal packet card to organise it. The backscene end panels slot inside the lid, the extension track along the back edge, and a set of "egg-box" partitions protect the wagons. The trouble is there isn't space for the tops of the buildings so I will need to re-organise, I'm sure they should fit in somehow!

Couplings and things

While I haven't managed a lot of modelling time recently I have made up a number of couplings. I use Microtrains (ex-Kadee) couplings, and they generally come in packs of 10 pairs to be made up. Assembly is simple enough, although it does involve some very small and easily excitable springs ... I tend to make them up a pair at a time and work through a batch to make up several pairs. When in the rhythm a pair only takes about 10 minutes.

It can take a little longer to fit them to rolling stock though. It is not too hard with larger stock, and especially when building them. The three "Welshpool" wagons I built recently were on the workbench, when building them I had added plasticard behind the buffer-beams to give a flat surface around 5mm square, at the right height to fix the coupling to (I have a height gauge made from plasticard which sits on the track, when the stock is rolled up to it the coupling mounting should just pass over a tongue on the gauge). So all that was needed was a small hole for the fixing screw. With hindsight I should have mounted them slightly further out, as they are rather too close-coupled, but they don't foul on bends so they'll do!



These coaches have been in my stock boxes for years and needed conversion from the "DG" couplings I used to use. They are Parkside Dundas Vale of Rheidol coach kits, although to make them more suited to the curves and train lengths of my layout at the time (Pen-Y-Bryn) I shortened them by a door and a window at each end. They do look a touch "mainline" for Awngate, although even with the VoR brake van they do (just) fit the loop. Anyway, the DG's had been mounted on the bogies, but the Microtrains are rather tricky to mount that way. Being sprung though they work well attached to the body, so the bogies were reversed (I could have cut the coupling mount off instead!), and a plasticard mount built up behind the buffer beam. This time I got the spacing a bit better, though I have noticed there is a vacuum pipe missing from one coach. Not a big deal as come to think of it, they are missing from all my locos!