Kirley's Projects

[Dave]

They look great Kieran, well done:tumbsup: Love the different shades between wagons.

[Jimbo325ci]

They look great! Ill be starting on mine soon and these are an inspiration!

[enniscorthyman]

They do indeed look well.

[Sulzer201]

Fully agree with all the comments. The wagons are brilliant.

[Shinkansen]

They are a smashing looking model, brings up the Dapol base kit 'big time' once combined with Weshtys detailing parts. Have to have a crack at this myself sometime too. By the way, nice to see an A-class providing traction. Kinda rare to see them out of late, especially with all this lovely fresh metal from Murphy Models:tumbsup:

Tom

[BosKonay]

Well tasty!! Live the colour and weathering variations!

[Kirley]

I extended the wagons to mirror the IE wagons to take 45’ containers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I used SSM detailing kit and transfers which I felt made a big difference to these wagons. Not an easy modification to do and was glad to finish them. I used rail to add strength when I extended the wagons. I have two more wagons to do (if I ever get round to it) and would look to other ways of strengthen them rather than the rails.

[Dave]

They look great Kieran, have you any pics of the work in progress?

[Kirley]

They look great Kieran, have you any pics of the work in progress?

 

I have Dave, but they were on my PC which crashed. Still hoping to retrieve them.

[Dave]

I have Dave, but they were on my PC which crashed. Still hoping to retrieve them.

 

 

Oh no, I back mine up to dropbox. Its a cloud server and its free http://www.dropbox.com

[Kirley]

I got another forest in a box (Seafoam plants) from International Models.

 

http://www.internationalmodels.net/acatalog/Seamoss.html

 

 

 

 

It’s tedious but worthwhile to trim the Seafoam into your required shape.

 

 

I then dip the trunks into modelling paste and place them into some flower arranging oases.

 

 

The excess paste falls to the bottom of the trunk giving a lifelike base.

 

 

The trees have to be dipped in scenic foliage and allow to dry before they can be placed on the layout.

[BosKonay]

They look fantastic!!

[Kirley]

They look great Kieran, have you any pics of the work in progress?

 

I have been asked how I did the extension to these wagons.

If you saw at the end of the body you can make a clean cut between it and the bogie section (sorry lost the photo of this).

 

Then I drilled 2 holes into the bulkhead and used rail to provided the strengthen support and filled the gap with styrene.

 

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If I was doing it again I would not use rail but maybe some brass right angle and run it the full length of the body.

 

 

If there is any flexibility in the body, the joins between the plastic and the styrene will show.

 

Also the containers fit snuggly into the" pockets" and the rail does not allow the containers to sit right to the bottom of the pocket.

 

It was a learning experience and hopefully anyone else who decides to do a conversion can avoid these pitfalls.

[Riversuir226]

Great work Kirley, thanks for the tip:tumbsup:

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

K why did you stick those lumps of rail in. If your joints are properly glued and left to set you should have no issues with strength

[Kirley]

K why did you stick those lumps of rail in. If your joints are properly glued and left to set you should have no issues with strength

 

It's to do with the length of the wagon with the weight on the bogies at either end. I used epoxy resin initially but when sanding prior to painting, the joints between the plastic and the styrene showed. It seemed logical that if the base of the wagon was metal and you were extending the length then some material of equivalent strength was required to fill the gap. Sticking 'those lumps of rail in' was the best solution I came up with and that's why I did it.

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

The Dapol pocket wagon is probably one of the lightest wagons out there. the ones I have are all plastic. If you cut the wagon and your joints perfectly straight. The new extended pieces if properly bonded to the wagon it should be strong enough. A 45' container is not that heaviest and its weight is spread evenly over the length of the wagon. I would say that your joints ain't strong enough a few shims of thin plasticard under the wagon should cure this and thus allow you to remove the rails from the inside of the wagon.

[Kirley]

The Dapol pocket wagon is probably one of the lightest wagons out there. the ones I have are all plastic. If you cut the wagon and your joints perfectly straight. The new extended pieces if properly bonded to the wagon it should be strong enough. A 45' container is not that heaviest and its weight is spread evenly over the length of the wagon. I would say that your joints ain't strong enough a few shims of thin plasticard under the wagon should cure this and thus allow you to remove the rails from the inside of the wagon.

 

The construction of the base of these wagons is metal covered in a light plastic coat. Have you done this conversion and are you basing your comments on your findings, if so what adhesive did you use to achieve your results please?

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

The construction of the base of these wagons is metal covered in a light plastic coat.

 

Mine are all plastic

 

 

 

 

 

Have you done this conversion and are you basing your comments on your findings,

 

 

Yes and Yes.

 

 

 

 

 

if so what adhesive did you use to achieve your results please?

 

 

Revell

[Flying Scotsman 4472]

K here is one of mine in the when I get round to finishing it pile

 

 

 

If your cuts are straight and properly bonded using the right glue strength is not an issue as you can see from this test this model when finished will never carry anything like this weight.

 

 

 

[Glenderg]

I think I know where Kirley is going here. When I did my first scratchbuild of the pocket wagon I got the length wrong and had to put an infill piece to stretch it out. I tried bracing it with brass rod and so on, but the best was a small piece of Styrene Channel bonded and clamped to the underside of the wagon, effectively welded to the plastic. Cosmetically and structurally it works well. Shown here in red.

 

 

I suppose it means that you can run your wagons empty without having the rail visible. The wagons look very impressive kirley, looking forward to seeing them in a rake - your layout certainly suits them. R.

[Kirley]

Thanks Guys, I've another 2 wagons to extend so I try the Revell to see how it works for me.

[Kirley]

I have been looking for some Cement (Curtain Side) Pallet Wagon to add to my MIR rake and the only ones currently on sale is those provided by Irish Freight Models.

 

I decided to buy their kit version and see how it compares with my MIR ones.

 

In the kit you get:

1. A very thick resin body

2. End wheels

3. Decals.

 

 

I placed IFM resin body onto a Dapol Chassis to compare both models.

As you can see in the following pictures the IFM body was higher and narrower that the MIR one. It seemed to taper down making it narrower at the bottom possibly to fit onto a Dapol Chassis.

 

 

 

 

 

I removed a few mm’s of the bottom of the IFM body to make it equal in height with the MIR one.

 

 

As the strap detail on the NFM model was poor I added strips of 1 mm masking tape.

 

 

 

I also added plastic card behind the wheel hubs to give the impression of a flat rather than the open structure. Probably did not make much of a difference.

 

 

NFM provided side wheels for their kits which MIR did not. As I only had 2 wheel sets I decided not to use them. The NFM number decals were for the front wagon stanchions and from the limited photographs I have seen of these wagons they are accurate rather than the MIR end number placing.

The ends of both wagons have different rib construction and I am unable to confirm which is the correct depiction.

 

Overall the addition of the NFM models in a MIR rake don’t jump out as being very different to me except for the under frame detail and are worthy for consideration if you wanted to complete a rake of these wagons.

[Guest hidden-agenda]

Good Job K they look well.

[Riversuir226]

Lovely job Kirley, a lot of work to get it too look right though

[Dave]

Very nice work

[Ral2011]

Great work. At the beginning of this tread I saw some pictures of the NIR brake generator vans. How do you build them, where can I get drawings? Does all five generator vans look the same ore are there differences?

[jhb171achill]

Been following these posts nice the first, and never cease to be amazed at how good they are. One thing's for certain; you've plenty of practice by now! Keep 'em coming.... !!

[Kirley]

Great work. At the beginning of this tread I saw some pictures of the NIR brake generator vans. How do you build them, where can I get drawings? Does all five generator vans look the same ore are there differences?

 

My Gen Vans were built from MIR kits, you got the brass etched sides and used a Mk II donor coach. The roof detail was left up to you. Unfortunately MIR are no longer in business but sometimes their kits come up on ebay.

 

As regard to their history, I step hesitatingly as my knowledge is not great.

NIR introduced the Brake Standard Class Generating Van in 1981 and numbered them 911-913. In 1982 they introduced another two 914 & 915. When the NIR livery changed to Intercity they were repainted but only 911 was further repainted to match the Gatwick rake.

Anyone please correct this if I have got this wrong.

[StevieB]

I thought that the description of the shortcomings with the IFM bagged cement wagon was very well put - surely no-one can find fault with this?

Stephen

[Shinkansen]

Very nice work on these. They dont really look too dismilar at all. Good stuff

[Kirley]

Finished off extending the rest of my Pocket Wagons and wanted to do a DFDS Liner but could not find any suitable DFDS decals. Then I came across DFDS Card Containers. I got them at ebay from a guy at Ballynahinch.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221139195488?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

 

 

 

They are easy enough to do but like everything else there is a technique to it. Scoring and cutting with a sharp scalpel. Folding right over the edges so you got crisp right angles.

 

 

 

I put some weight on the base of the container and painted any white edges before assembling.

 

 

The containers are finished with quite bright colours so a bit of weathering helped to tone them down.

 

 

At last I got my DFDS Liner.

 

 

 

[Ral2011]

The pocket wagons with the containers look great. Thank you for answering about the NIR Generator Vans. It is really sad that MIR aren't producing any longer. The kits on ebay are far too expensive.

I asked, because I saw a picture of 912 with the grills at the other side too. I will ask also at the "Enterprise" tread.

http://irishrailwaymodeller.com/showthread.php/1186-For-ME-this-was-the-Enterprise

[Dave]

They look great Kieran, they do a great range of containers including Bell's

[Kirley]

If you want a particular container that's not available elsewhere, you can provide Alex with good images of it and he will produce it for you.