The "Chivers Diet" - the Results are In!

After a lot of slicing, dicing and generally making it up as I have gone along, I can reveal the finished products of both of my Chivers Finelines O-16.5 to O9 conversions. These wagons were both rebuilt from assembled kits in a batch of five that I had acquired at a very reasonable price via the NGRM Forum.

The 2-plank wagon is seen complete, weathered and fitted with couplings. I have had the brown MicroTrains couplers in stock for a while, they suit this use better than a grey wagon or locomotive bufferbeam, in reality they do not look so obviously plastic.

The steel-bodied wagon is also now painted, when I said that it would have a splash of colour I meant it...

I've always liked this shade of grey-blue, I had an early O9 bogie wagon painted like this, plus a Gn15 loco at one stage - I also know that it is a popular choice with Steve Bennett of Black Dog Mining fame! Some subtle weathering in the form of colour washes and dry brushing have brought out the details in the Chivers mouldings very well. Using a 1/43rd scale drone I can show the interior weathering and plank effect on the floor.

Those who have followed my wagon ramblings over the years will realise that both of these wagons are in rather different colours to my usual choices, is there perhaps some scheme in the back of my mind that needs the wagons to all be different colours...?

Who knows ;-)

Colin