Monday, February 22, 2010

Slate wagon

Hopper wagonA nice quick project - a little slate wagon from the RT Models kit in 4mm scale.

The "kit" is simple enough. A whitemetal body and chassis plus couple of n gauge axles. These are glue on to the bottom of the casting with superglue and the job is done. In an effort to make things a bit proper, I files grooves for the axles but managed to get these a bit less than level which meant a bit of fiddling to get the model to sit properly.

If you wanted a working model I suspect some brass tube around the axles stuck in place would do the job. I think this is meant as a scenic accessory though. The real thing would have been worked by a man pushing it along and if you can figure out how to make one of these in 4mm, then you don't need my advice on rotating axles !

Paint is rust washed over with track colour. I will play around with this a bit more to see if I can get a bit more wear and tear to show through.

Eventually this will be "dumped" behind a shed on the box layout I think. With some nice long grass around it I think it will look the business.

3 comments:

Robert Thompson said...

Actually this is intended as a working model just like the one on the website which i use as a tender behind one of my locos sometimes, just like the real thing!

you just need to drill the axleboxes out with a 1.6mm drill.

I am impressed by the rust appearence which many photos of these i have come accross shows, mines in too good a condition.

Regards Robert Thompson, RT Models

Phil Parker said...

Thanks for clearing this up - that's what happens when I don't have instructions !

Those axleboxes are chunky enough for this to work. I'll not make the change now to mine as it's just going to be a scenic accessory butI bet some of the narrow gauge readers of this blog could use one. The tender idea is pretty neat !

Robert Thompson said...

The kits do come with instructions, just at the time phil bought the first one at warley the day after they was cast so didnt have time to write or draw them!