Snailbeach - at a Snail's pace!

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

 

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

Adding a Touch of Rheidol?

It appears to be the time of year for raiding the 'grey' projects box - those almost complete models in primer awaiting the inspiration to complete the paintwork. Following on from the recent wagon exploits and due to join them in the queue for another blast of primer is my semi-enclosed conversion of the Chivers O9 coach kit. That I hadn't got around to painting it is in some ways is a bonus as I have now decided that it would benefit from a different roof.

Although I was making best use of the Dapol Railbus roof parts in the original build, I wasn't happy with the way I had treated the ends of the roof, it looked more like a GRP moulded roof plonked on an older coach, which whilst perfectly feasible in 15" gauge wasn't the look I wanted. It didn't help that the roof was under-reinforced and starting to banana upwards, further not helped by gentle pressure to relieve this... Snap!

I decided to cast about for alternatives and offered up a Parkside Vale of Rheidol roof (available as a spare ref. DP08) - the width is just right...

With the roof trimmed to length, rainstrips added and the ends reconstructed, I think that this is an improvement. As a bonus it now sits a little higher and matches my other enclosed stock a little better. What isn't apparent from the picture is that this roof was once split down the middle and widened in a failed attempt to re-roof one of my 'Exmoor' coaches, then reconstructed and filled at the original width! I won't tell anyone if you don't....

I managed to get the shed workshop warmed up sufficiently over the New Year weekend to put a coat of primer over the rebuilt coach and new roof. All seems well, when the time comes to add a top coat it will just need a light rub down with 1500 grit wet and dry. I am getting the urge for a two-tone scheme but I'm not sure what yet, that may depend on which project it is intended for.

 Colin