3mm Scale wagon kits and Fencehouses chassis.

Time to turn attention to some 3mm scale kits. These I have had for some time having bought some body only kits and relevant Fencehouses etched chassis.

Easily folded up and a small fillet of solder on the joints makes a strong freely rolling chassis.

Next the solebars, from spare chassis sprues and not necessarily right for the wagon, were attached after removal of the axlebox mountings.

 The chassis was test fitted prior to fitting the springs.

This van is an ex-Midland railway example which I found without a chassis but included buffers.

Once all was set, a coat of primer was applied- ideal for grey liveried rolling stock- and, again, when dry the transfers were applied. Again, these may be spurious markings but saves buying yet more transfers for just a few wagons.

 

 

One of the wagon bodies completed- minus transfers. The sheet rail is .45mm nickel silver rod superglued in place for strength.

The buffers have been substituted for some whitemetal castings which are more robust than the plastic examples supplied with the kit.

A 7 plank wagon ready for painting, the floor mouldings have been removed to provide a nice flat surface for attaching the etched chassis.

Below are the 3 open wagons completed ready to be united with the chassis and couplings attached.

The Midland van will wait until the next batch of chassis are soldered together.

009- Little and Large. Cattle wagon and Gunpowder van.

 Would you believe that these are virtually the same scale?

The cattle wagon is an 009 Society kit and the gunpowder van is from Rodney Stenning.

Still needing painting, the cattle wagon is the second I have built and goes together superbly. Four holes need to be drilled out, guides already moulded, for the wire safety rails- shown in brass- supplied.

Conversely the gunpowder van is tiny and a bit of a problem, for me, to get the wheels to rotate smoothly even with a lot of lead weight.

The final picture shows the gunpowder van coupled to a Bachmann Baldwin which illustrates how small this wagon is.

Next to paint with some grey primer first.

Very productive weekend- finished 4 00 Gauge wagons.

I managed to get a couple of Cambrian wagons with pre-printed sides.

The first is The North Devon Clay Co. Ltd., five plank. A 9ft wheelbase wagon that was easy to assemble.

As the wagon is ready coloured it was just a matter of a quick waft of matt varnish and the wagon is complete- except for couplings!

The 2 plank Sx SECR Ballast Wagons have also been completed and have turned out very well.

The two plank sides made assembly a bit fiddly when trying to get square corners glued together but the end result is worth it.

Transfers from Modelmaster were applied- yes I know the number series starts with a six but I am not going to pay for another set of transfer.

They make a good pair and willform a short Engineers train.

 Lastly is another S&D coalfield wagon. Again a pre-printed Cambrian offering and this one went together easily. 

The completed wagon only needed a waft of matt varnish and it is complete- minus couplings and some lead weight- up to the loft again!

00 Gauge kitbuilt wagons.

The SR Engineers Wagons have been assembled and an undercoat of Red Oxide has been applied. Actually this will be the finished colour as the livery notes advise that these wagons were Red Oxide.

Once completely dry the chassis will be painted black and the wagon interior a medium brown- what ever that is!

Below is a ready lettered wagon built from an early Cambrian kit. I managed to win a couple on an online auction recently which worked out cheaper than the cost of the kit and transfers. The thing with these early wagons is that you can use coarser wheels than the current kits so for this one a set of Dapol spoked wheels were used.

 

What's next? Bit of 00 gauge kitbuilding!

 Back to some kitbuilding, for a change!. The Ballast Wagons are next, a pair of them to form a short engineering train. They will be finished as used in Southern Railway days. The only Southern Wagon book I don't have from the series of five is, you've guessed it- the SECR one. Luckily there are a couple of images in the fifth volume which illustrates most wagons I am building.

009 Festiniog GEM Coaches completed!

Last to go on are the roofs- no roof ventilators as there are vents atop the doors.

My usual roofing material is slats from a disused plastic venetian blind which unfortunately came apart.

They are secured with UHU glue and bound with rubber bands whilst curing.

Final thing to do is attach the bogies, already fitted with PECO couplings. The bogies are ex-N Gauge coach bogies- cheap and cheerful!

 

 

 

Checking that the couplings are at the correct height- Ready for service once Woody Lane or Gwartha Vellan Tramway emerges from winter storage!

 

009 Festiniog coaches progress.

The whitemetal Festiniog coaches have had the transfers and a waft of Satin varnish applied- different from my usual Testors Dulcote.

The transfers I have used are from my stock- not going to buy more yet! The lining and lettering are both from the HMRS Pressfix range, I really wish the Woodhead range was still available!

Once the varnish had dried it was glazing time.The packaging for many household accumulations are packed in clear polystyrene so why buy sheets as this is free- my favourite price- forget Poundland.

The glazing is attached with Glue and Glaze and clamped in place till cured- Next the interior and passengers. And then the roof. By the way, the blemishes are on the camera lens.