Hereby Hangs a Tail (Lamp)

With Burton been and gone I can turn my attention to looking at getting my 009 project The Old Quarry Line prepared for the 009 Society members day in Mansfield on the 13th July. For some time I had it in mind to add a brake van to the rolling stock collection, as a vehicle built (or acquired) by the preservation group. I was planning to scratchbuild this on a Colin Ashby chassis but whilst browsing the 009 kits at a recent exhibition my eyes fell on Dundas Models DM50, the Welsh Highland brake van. 

I actually have a bit of history with this kit, having purchased one years ago in the hope it could be converted to suit O9. There is a bit of a Sand Hutton look to the sliding door... Remember that this was when I was building much smaller O9 stock than I do nowadays so it made some sense. Sadly it wasn't to be, so was sold on. Now was my second chance!

Wishing to have a vehicle with a balcony, I opened up the hinged doors to create an opening, and the centre section between the windows at one end. 

As can be seen, I then opted to open up the balcony openings a little further prior to assembly, which improved the look of the end somewhat.

The next job tackled was the interior partition, created from 40 thou styrene carefully marked up for a vertically planked door in the centre, flanked by windows either side with horizontal planking below. Vertical framing is from 30x40 thou Evergreen strip plus some other additions to mark the top of the door frame and top/bottom of the windows to match the Dundas moulding on the kit ends. I realised that fitting the partition in place would make painting rather awkward, so I opted to fix it to the underside of the roof, with the joint reinforced with two sections of styrene at right angles to it.

Progress through the paintshop was remarkably swift. To be honest, there isn't much real "painting" on it as the main grey finish is actually the Halfords primer with washes of black-grey and brown over it. Only the roof and running gear have really had a full coat of paint. Everything has had a light dry-brush to highlight edges etc and a coat of Humbrol aerosol matt varnish. After glazing the windows and positioning the guard on the balcony (a modified Dapol figure), the roof was fixed in place and the final addition was a Springside tail lamp.

The brake van sits very well with the Minitrains Bagnall, despite on the face of it being quite a tall, thin vehicle, which I suppose is why I thought it might suit O9 all those years ago...

Colin