Painting the GVT wagon

After a coat of grey primer to provide a nice base colour, I've painted the GVT wagon with the lighter base colours from a Lifecolor "Weathered Wood" set. For variety, a "replacement" plank uses the mid-colour.

Ironwork is Revell Anthracite Grey, quickly becoming my favourite colour enamel.

I'm not great at simulating unpainted wood, so this is all a bit experimental. Once the base colours are on, I've dry-brushed everything with the palest colour, an nice pale grey/cream to blend it all together. The replacement plank gets a bit more cream too as I felt it stood out too much.

A little rust on the ironwork and I'm calling this finished for now. It's been a fund and quick project that will, I suspect, be followed by a few more of these kits. They will make a good-looking and modestly priced train.

Of course I don't actually have anywhere to run this stuff year. A New Year Resolution is to build a 32mm gauge line...

Wobbly axle good news

For a cheap kit, this GVT wagon is very well specified. When it came time to fit the underframe bits, which are mostly from glass-reinforced plastic, I find that this is no simple 4-wheel wagon.

A rocking, or compensated, axle is provided. This should aid road-holding over uneven trackwork. Something narrow gauge lines are notorious for. On a wagon with this short a wheelbase, I wonder if it's strictly speaking necessary, but a nice touch from the manufacturer.

Building a 16mm classic

As editor of the UK's premier newsstand garden railway magazine, I feel I need to do my best to immerse myself in the hobby. While I can't instantly develop 40 years experience in wrangling steam engines, I can at least build lots of the kits that have been around for years.

One of these is the Binne Engineering (hit that link, the site is well worth a look) GVT wagon. OK, so Colin's V-hoppers are even better known, but I rather fancy this kit. Since getting back into large-scale modelling, the 4-wheel wagon building bug has really bitten.

For my £12 (I bought at a show, add £2-3 mail order from most garden railway trade) I was in possession of a lot of big bits moulded in plastic plus some smaller ones, including wheels, moulded in glass reinforced plastic. This is, to my mind, a bit of a bargain.

A few minutes with some ABS solvent (normal plastic glue will work, but the more volatile stuff was faster and gave good, secure joints) and I had built the basic tub.

17cm long, 4.5cm tall and 7.5cm wide, the size puts your average OO kit to shame!

The detail is pretty good, as you might expect in this scale. Just as importantly, it feels properly "chunky" and should survive happily out in the garden.