Working Brakes

So as I previously mentioned I've been building another coal wagon. This is an 8 plank, 12 ton open coal wagon again built from a Parkside Dundas kit, painted with Humbrol paints and detailed with Modelmaster transfers.

As you can probably tell this was a lot more complex to paint than the all black Lofthouse Colliery wagon. I started by masking off the undercarriage and spraying the top red. I then reversed the masking and sprayed the bottom black. Unfortunately my skills with the masking tape weren't perfect so I used small pots of matching paint to touch up those areas were paint had leaked under the tape. Once this was completely dry I then painted in all the metalwork detail on the upper section in black. Which was time consuming but well worth while.

The transfers still aren't perfect; some didn't even go on straight but wouldn't move without risking tearing them, and from the photo it's clear to see there are still areas where there is air under the transfers. Clearly I'm going to have to work on perfecting adding the transfers, but when viewed from further away than the camera was it looks fairly decent and I'm certainly happy with it.

The one problem, as alluded to in the title, is that the model brakes actually work! I've obviously not quite aligned the brake detail properly and with the extra layers of paint and varnish one set was close enough to a wheel to stop it rotating unless I added more weight to the wagon. I've sanded the break block back and touched up the paint and it seems to be going round now, but I'll have to keep an eye on it and possibly file it back even further.

Yet again the transfers I used were to make the wagon appear local. This time I'm even closer to home. When I take the train to work the first place it calls is Silkstone Common before it heads towards Barnsley stopping first at Dodworth. I'm not sure where the Old Silkstone colliery was but it can't have been too far away.