Shattered

Getting a few corner points in on Drovers Brook. The one to sort now is the bridge. As always this is travelling hopefully and I was to find this out quickly. There were a couple of pillars in the box; these may have been built by Mr. Hill. Anyway, as …

Airfix mineral wagon final

 And so to paint. The whole lot was given a coat of Humbrol 62 orange as a base. Then, slightly paler than normal, the body outer, a coat of Citadel Corax White. Photos of 16 tonners often show an almost white finish, so I could dare to be pale.Th…

Airfix Mineral wagon 4

 A few moves in quick succession: The brake assemblies. As per the prototype, single sided Mortons as per the instructions… only they’re not. The Airfix kits have a knack for making an obvious blooper, note all the wrongly fitted windows on the …

Airfix Mineral wagon 3

And so to the underpinnings. All basic stuff bar one thing. I don’t usually like plain bearings, but these were to hand. The oval holes were opened out to 2mm and the bearings pushed in.  The outside edges of the W-irons at the back of the solebar…

Airfix Mineral 2

With the new non-door pieces fitted and polished it was on to welds.There’s at least one person I know who should close their eyes at this point. Welds are a problem; good welds are invisible, bad welds can be seen from 50′ away. To make it work I need…

Not a Spitfire

 I mentioned that there would be three 16 ton minerals running with COND lettering for Rhiw 2. This sprung me into thinking that I should get the third done as well. To this end the Airfix box was pulled from the cupboard and a start made. Then I …