Garden Railway Forum

Here's my first attempt at a large scale piece of rolling stock.

Just a basic box van. Chassis is an old second hand O gauge one, cut in two and lengthened. Wheels are part of a job lot of plastic ones bought cheap second hand. Body is all balsa and coffee stirrers. Metal work is plastic card. Roof is card. Paint is from old tins of emulsion. Couplings are track pins that will have home made three links chain added.

Still to do: more strapping and rivet details, door handles, final covering and paint on roof, and weathering.

OK, it's nothing special but I'm quite happy with it as my first go, plus it rolls well, and it only cost about £5 to make - who said that larger scales had to be expensive.

Obviously, because of the materials used, it's very much a fair weather effort!

any feed back and tips on what I should do differently on the next one appreciated! Also, hints on weathering it would help. Thanks.

For a fiver it looks brilliant!

If you are not up for buying bits ready made use some wire to create door handles on those van doors.

That's a very nice van. When it comes to details an awful lot can be done with a pair of pliers, some wire and a few assorted panel pins. No need to spend money if you don't have to.

Very true Annie - OO track nails are useful as well if you have them lying around.

Love it, looks great, and shows hoe cheap it can be. great modelling

Si:74780 wrote:any feed back and tips on what I should do differently

Erm... Nothing... I love it. Very well done !

Barry

Cracking job with that, as good as some kits.

Si:74780 wrote:Here's my first attempt at a large scale piece of rolling stock.

any feed back and tips on what I should do differently on the next one appreciated!  Also, hints on weathering it would help.  Thanks.

If that's your first scratchbuild it's very well done. Worth at least an 'Attaboy' I think.

While I don't suggest leaving it outside permanently, it should't be affected by short exposure to any weather you'd be prepared to stay out in.

If you continue to use card, consider shellacing it before you start. Shellac converts card into a hard reasonably weatherproof composite material. Shellaced card had a long history in the hobby before Plasticard came into use.

I'm not a fan of balsa, but a few coats of shellac, or sanding sealer and some sanding down between coats will toughen it up and smooth the surface for painting.

Peco SL14 track pins make good small bolt heads/rivets in this scale and if you want square nuts for detailing, they can be cut from suitable size strips of plasticard.

The only real secret of scratchbuilding is to just keep on practicing.......

Can't help with weathering advice. My railway can still afford cleaners, so I just give wagons a matt finish and locos an eggshell finish. I also use very dark charcoal grey instead of black.

I will however quote a friend who does the best weathering I've ever seen. His advice is always to go and look at the real thing to see how it weathers and builds up dirt, don't copy other peoples models. There's a lot more to it than pointing a spraycan of grey in the general direction of a model and letting fly...........

Regards,
Graeme

Thanks for the encouragement.

Yup, I was going to go for wire or staples for the handles to keep costs down.

For rivets I had considered track pins but was going to try dolloping glue'n'glaze first as this will be cheaper and quicker. I'll see how it goes.

Cheers for the idea of shellacking it....definitely something that I'll have a go at.

Anyway...wagon number two is under way. This one's a flat wagon but with a scratch built chassis - so far it's rolling OK.

That does look really good, I had been looking at lolly sticks (some of the craft supply places sell them for a couple of quid for a couple of hundred) but the coffee stirrers look great.

A rake of these will look good without breaking the bank.


Mike.