I received a couple of Dundas Snailbeach wagon kits as a Christmas gift from my Dad after I mentioned that I might get a couple of the Peco ones when they came out. What I had forgotten to say is that the reason I was interested in them was based on them being RTR and that the kit had something of a "reputation"...
Between Christmas and New Year I started to build one of the kits, which has been an interesting build process to say the least. Any hopper wagon in kit form will be tricky, more so from what must be among the oldest moulds in the range. I probably took away too much material on the insides of the joints, you can see some of the styrene strip infill on the inside. A few mistakes have been made, such as scribing plank lines into the inside of the upper sides, thinking the old tooling just didn't feature them... before discovering that the real wagons had metal linings, and having to fill the lines back in!
I paid particular attention to the ends of the chassis, refining the shape, adding a 5 thou overlay wrapped around and adding new bumpers from Evergreen channel section. I have added some deliberate distressing on some of the planks and some very dubious looking brake gear, with the proviso that it isn't a Snailbeach wagon but one supplied to the Old Quarry Line.
One area where I did make a change was at the left hand end of each upper side, trimming the corner plate back by approx 1mm to line up with the plate on the angled section and also making each end section equal in length. I have had to add new bolt heads harvested from another Dundas part that was redundant. All painted up in primer it looks OK, and you can see some of the distressing I added to the planking.
Wanting a finish that would differ from any future RTR companions I applied a weathered wood effect, including some planks in "wood" colour and some in grey, black-grey and brown washes. The ironwork has been painted black-grey with brown/rust washes. The interior metal plating is finished in a base rust colour with various stippled effects. The hopper is seen here after varnishing but before weathering.
Once varnished the additional weathering and finishing work was completed. This is largely dry-brushing on the exterior using a grey/cream colour in an attempt to represent a wagon that has been in a quarry environment, along with some gunmetal dry-brushed on the axleboxes.
Unfortunately the lighting has picked up the plank lines I scribed and thought I had subsequently filled, you cannot really see them at normal viewing distance.
Inside the wagon I have added a representation of load remains, starting with the leftover mix of the acrylic paints used for the dry brushing and a dab of household filler. Once dry weathering powders were added to vary the colour a little and spread the effect further up the wagon sides.
Greenwich couplers have been added at ether end, I could perhaps have moved them in by another 1/2mm but wanted to ensure that the loop did not have any interference from the bumpers when lifting.
No doubt the forthcoming Peco model will be quicker to get into service, but a lot less individual!
Colin
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