Another March build

[Peter Butler]

I always thought I would go wood with wagons but these plastic marvels make me wonder.  It is a nice medium to work with.

I could work with wood as I have many years of practise behind me making picture frames and furniture. I choose to work in plastic as it can be easily cut and shaped, and glued much more rapidly than wood.
I give plastic a wood-grain effect by scraping a razor saw along the direction of the grain. When spray painted it shows through and is very convincing.

[Peter Butler]

Thanks for the pictures Peter. It certainly is a beautiful van. One to be proud of and a fine example to those of us who fancy having ago at our own self builds.

What running gear is it sitting on?

Andrew

Many thanks for the compliments, I would encourage anyone to attempt a build themselves, it can often be quicker (and cheaper) than a kit!
The running gear is made from whitemetal axleguards which were designed for coarse-scale '0' gauge originally. These are fitted with metal wheelsets I purchased on ebay and have no idea where they were from. They do run very smoothly and add weight low down.

The same is also fitted to my latest build.

[Soar Valley Light]

Thanks again Peter, that's really useful info. I think I need to start and build a collection of useful bits and pieces like this. Maybe next weekend will be a good opportunity!