Wagon-mongering

I've said it before an I'll say it again, when I start tinkering with wagons something is either amiss or afoot...

Seeking a suitable wagon for an extended diorama I'm working on (more on that another time), my initial thoughts were to use my Black Dog Mining mine tub, at that point sat on a KB Scale skip frame. In context that looked a bit wrong so I switched it back onto it's original chassis, however it still didn't look quite right - being too much of a view block. 

Recalling a picture I had seen recently of a skip frame flat wagon where the planks were longitudinal to the frame I opted to make a flat wagon on the KB Scale skip frame. I initially scribed some 60 thou styrene to make a planked top but I found this looked far too neat and instead added basswood planks over the Black Dog adaptor. The planks were finished in a weathered wood effect and representations of nail marks made using a pin.

I had loaded the tub with a couple of Black Dog leaning sacks and a pallet, rather random but it worked in the context of the diorama. The flat has a Black Dog laying sack, all of these parts being from the painted selection I had to hand having been used in other places in the past.

I do rather like the mine tub with the block couplers and it is causing a few thoughts about how to treat wagons if I ever get that un-stalled layout project back into motion...

Colin