Slow progress here, but I'm getting there with the two new slate wagons.
The Binnie one has now had brake gear added and received a coat of paint. It just neds weathering before it can enter traffic.
The other one, the iron-bodied one, is also much nearer completion. I finished adding bits earlier in the week and have been looking for an opportunity to spray paint it. The rain's stopped, and it's a little warmer, but there's a vicious wind howling around now - if I spray in my usual spot in the front drive, the paint will end up over the neighbours' car!
For now, here's a picture of the wagon's underside, which may be of interest, because it shows (some of) the Lego running gear:
- NWNGR iron slate wagon underside.jpg (202.44 KiB) Viewed 2378 times
I had considered building the whole underframe from Lego, but the geometry didn't really work. The axles go into roller bearings pushed (well, hammered) into the holes in the Lego parts (masked for painting in this view), two of which I've omitted for clarity. The ability to take the wheels on and off so easily has been an unplanned bonus during construction - I don't think I'll bother gluing the Lego parts together to retain that ability.
The brake gear was a bit of a challenge, because the real wagon seemed to feature brake bands (as I think they're called), rather than brake blocks. I've represented these with slices of a tube that contains vitamin C pills. The tube still has some in, it's just a little shorter than it was before...
Photos of the finished thing at the weekend, maybe?!
Andrew.