What's your latest acquisition?

Sun Chariot said:

@4COR what a fabulous haul, G I really like how you give a new "life" to wagon kits I remember from the 1980s (and, a few from 1970s!). Yet, with your skills, kit-bashing, an etched part or two, plus your paihting and weathering seen upthread, you've created beautiful models and bespoke versions.

Your post mentioned Parkside's PA16 underframe kit. It's a 10ft wheelbase, as is Peco's R-20.
Do you know of any OO 10ft 6in wb chassis?
Parkside's LMS dia 1664 non-vent van (9' wb) is an identical body to LMS dia 1982 fish van which (uniquely for LMS fish) ran on 10' 6' wb (grrrrr!)

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The big thing with the old kits is using proper wheels and bearings rather than the original plastic rubbish! The 16 tonners need etched brake handles as the original Airfix ones are wrong (both the same and no Morton clutch!) and the door hinges need trimming away. The 20T brakes need new roofs (the Airfix ones are a mirror image of what they should be...) and the handrails can be trimmed off and re-made from wire (I need a Bill Bedford jig for those!).

Strapping with plasticard, and rivet transfers adds to the ability to add uniqueness to various models (the LMS vans often got these later in BR days).

LMS 10'6" WB is awkward (and, though I haven't looked at Essery for it it would be the J Hanger type?) - I guess you could take the PA16, and cut/extend a bit - it's only 1mm either side of the V hanger in 4mm scale though. A jig for ensuring the wheels are square would be useful here too... It may depend on period too: the 1982s look to have been originally 9ft, but then altered later...

Your comments underplay the level of effort that goes into your "rejuvenating" of 20th century kits. I am in admiration!

Yes, the dia 1982 fish van is J hanger. For its wheelbase (and to preserve the plastic chassis' rigidity), I mulled over doing no more than adding a Peco 10' wb to it. I think I can live with a 2mm shortfall in the wagon wb. After all, a 2.3mm shortfall in OO track-width has never bothered me!
Leaving as-is also solves the fact that I'd lost much dexterity and feeling in my left (dominant) hand, nearly a year ago; as that has vastly slowed my mid-1950s fish train's progress.

Sun Chariot said:

Your comments underplay the level of effort that goes into your "rejuvenating" of 20th century kits. I am in admiration!

Yes, the dia 1982 fish van is J hanger. For its wheelbase (and to preserve the plastic chassis' rigidity), I mulled over doing no more than adding a Peco 10' wb to it. I think I can live with a 2mm shortfall in the wagon wb. After all, a 2.3mm shortfall in OO track-width has never bothered me!
Leaving as-is also solves the fact that I'd lost much dexterity and feeling in my left (dominant) hand, nearly a year ago; as that has vastly slowed my mid-1950s fish train's progress.

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The trawling for old kits is partly my being cheap (!), and partly those kits being the ones I want to run - in some cases limited other options! (In fairness, the modern Dapol ones are the same as the old Airfix, but at around three times the prices I paid for effectively the same moulding. Similarly for the Ratio kits - they are about half the price of the modern Parkside version or less, though, the wheels do reduce the savings a bit...).

Sorry to hear about the loss of dexterity - for the d1982, reckon a few mm would be un-noticable really, esp in a running train. (The d1664 is a Cambrian kit (C80) isn't it? Shame that 9ft chassis for the C80 isn't J hangered - that would open up the 1/240 and 1/241 banana van diagrams as a kitbash with the Ratio kit...)

Oh yes, silly me, the dia 1664 are the Cambrian ones in my "pile".

Cambrian's C87 (I think) dia 1885 can be kit-bashed to dia 1886 and dia 1887; both have 10'wb and, if I recall, 1886 has end louvres only, but 1887 has side louvres only. My young self would've had a go at those!

Ah, the Fish vans are all NPCCS so they aren't in Essery