Saxa Salt wagon - Part 3

 

After a coat of sanding sealer, the colours I chose for the wagon all came from the Humbrol acrylic range - 69 Gloss Yellow for the body, 33 Matt black for the chassis and RC414 Executive dark grey for the roof. All chosen because they were in a box of paint I bought second hand - I knew it would come in useful!

The lettering is a vinyl sticker. You press the front to fix the lettering to the clear carrier film, then peel away the white backing sheet. Place the film over the wagon side, where it's the perfect size so no lining up, run the letters down and then peel away the clear sheet. 

This didn't quite work on the first sheet. The letters stayed on the backing, and I ended up peeling them away with tweezers, putting them on the wagon side and lining up by eye. The letters are pretty robust and with a little care, everything worked out OK. 

The instructions say you don't need to seal them with varnish, but I shot some satin over the sides anyway. 

 

Underneath, the bearings are chunky bits of brass - impressive as you don't always get (or really need) them. I reamed them out a bit for some slop to accommodate less than perfect track and the wagon is now a nice smooth runner. A lump of lead underneath adds useful weight, without it, the wagon is very light. The plastic wheels should be OK, but metal ones would add useful low-down mass.

 

All in all, a really nice kit. OK, it's not very realistic, but it is pretty and goes together well. If you can wield a PVA bottle, I don't think you'd have any problems building it and the design should ensure any modeller can end up with a vehicle they can be proud of.

Timpdon Models Saxa Salt van.

Saxa Salt wagon - Part 2

 

The wagon rides on an inside framed chassis which can be built to either 32 of 45mm gauge - but once you've chosen, this can't be changed. I pondered this a bit, eventually deciding it's time we had a proper non-LGB train for the garden railway and choosing 45mm. 

Note the Peco loco cradle coming in handy again - not a use its designer will have contemplated!

Everything slots together nicely, those squares are just to ensure the frames are perfectly upright as there is a tiny amount of slop in the joints. 

On top, I added a bit of detail - very thin plywood forms the top doors with hinge detail using a cocktail stick and more ply. Handles are thin aluminium tube, because I'd just bought a bundle and it looked about right. Wire would have been better, and not cracked on the bends, but I think I got away with it. 

Of course, you can see that I can't resist slotting the wheels in loosely, just to check all is OK. nd screwing the couplings on as well. Does anyone else have to keep putting the bits of kit together just for the satisfaction of seeing progress, before taking it apart and getting back to the build proper?

Saxa salt wagon - Part 1

 

While I might have come back from the NGRS without any new kits, the same can't be said of my parents. My mum was particularly taken by a Timpdon Models Saxa Salt wagon, and so this arrived with the instruction to get it built. 

Saxa Salt wagons are a model railway classic, with everyone from Hornby to Bachmann producing them in 4 and 7mm scales. Bright yellow, they look pretty and while being a bit of a modelling cliche, it doesn't really matter. Timpdon's 16mm narrow gauge take on the prototype is less than accurate, but looks nice (hopefully) and appeals to lots of garden rail scale modellers. 

The main parts fit together quickly and easily using Deluxe Materials Super-Phatic glue. The Elastic bands aren't essential as the stuff grabs very quickly, but better safe than sorry. 

I think it's possible to build the body and chassis as separate entities, and use the edging strip to hold the top on, but I glued everything together as it's not going to make painting much harder, and I don't plan to use this as a battery holder. 

The little bulldog clips will just open wide enough to clamp things together. Another of those occasions when you can't have too many clips!

The hipped roof needed to be weighted down while drying, a job for those handy bits of steel and some masking tape. This is a pretty strong little box, so the weight won't worry it while the glue dries.