Detailed Wrenn GWR Dia. X7 Mica B Refrigerated Van

I picked up this Mica B a couple of years ago on ebay, did nothing with it until this week.

This is the model in its original unpainted condition, mine was grubbier than this. The first thing I did was to remove the existing lettering then dismantled the model, sprayed the underframe black and painted the brake handle white. 

After this I added bearings to the little plastic inserts and fixed some extra ballast in the way of lead strip. The underframe is a one piece metal casting and the inserts provide a way of installing the wheel sets as there is no way that the axle boxes can be bent out to slip them in place.

After this attention turned to the body which received a couple of coats of white while the roof was repainted grey, followed by painting the detail on the door fasteners, handles and the steps on the ends.

Next came the transfers, with which I copied the livery of the Mica B at the Severn Valley Railway.

Romford vac pipes were added as were the coupling hooks ready for some Smiths Mk 2 screw link couplings. Finally the grab rails were repositioned, the cast instruction plates on the ends of the van were painted red and new wheel sets were fitted.

Obviously this won't pass as a fine scale model but I have enjoyed the detailing process and breathing some new life into this RTR offering.

My First Pair of Wagons Completed!

After all this time, I have finally completed my first pair of wagons! A pair of Cambrian Models GWR Dia. T13 Chaired Sleeper wagons. After the previous rush of primed wagons, I pushed straight on to painting these in black.

There seems to be some doubt that engineers wagons were actually painted black, but all of the ones that I have seen photos of in preservation are in black livery. The lettering schemes tend to differ too and in the end I mostly followed the instructions that came with the kit.

I have never attempted to number a wagon before and I'm quite pleased with my efforts. I could have chosen an easier model to start with, the delicate stanchions and tight spaces certainly made it more tricky than it could have been!

I used HMSR Methfix transfers which I am happy with and will probably use from now on unless there is a specific transfer I need that isn't catered for in the HMRS range. Applying the tare and running numbers took an age, the numbers being 100712 and 100716, applying each number individually then waiting for the meths to dry and washing off the backing paper and waiting for that to dry before starting on the next number. The numbers on the ends were started on the left and right and met in the middle to speed those ones up a bit.

Overall I am happy with the way the wagons have turned out. All that is left to do is to fix some screw link couplings in place and to do some weathering, oh and make up the all important chaired sleeper load!

Prime Time Viewing

As promised, I have actually primed my first batch of wagons. Here we have two Ratio iron minks, two Ratio open C tube wagons, two Cambrian Models Dia. N30 loco coal wagons, a Cooper Craft Dia. 04 open five plank wagon with sheet rail, another Cooper Craft open, this time a Dia. 05 open 4 plank wagon, a Cooper Craft Dia. V5 Mink Van, Also here is the Ian Kirk V7 Mink C van described in a previous post and the underframe of a Mainline Mogo van, on which I have replaced the original couplings with three links.

I used Halfords grey plastic primer from a can which went on nice and easily, the primer has really bought out a lot of the details, especially the rivet detail on the iron minks. The flat finish showing the relief of the mouldings much better than the satin finish of the plastic.

I have also sprayed the two Cambrian Models Dia. T13 Chaired Sleeper wagons, below is a sneak peek of the black finish and progress of applying the transfers.

Next post I hope to show the finished sleeper wagons...