Paint Shop

Since starting this blog I have been inspired to continue on with projects which had been ongoing for some time.
I now have 4 wagons ready for the paint shop, two of which are handy because they will be in similar colours.

 Another RKWY wagon; I'm undecided whether I'll do an AN green or ANR red variant. Either way it'll be heavily weather and be loaded with power poles (Auscision Models)

 RKQF (left) and RKPF (right); these will be a heavily weathered gunmetal colour (to the extent the gunmetal won't be very visible). A side note is the RKPF is a great looking wagon, the mesh deck looks great. The only aspect I don't like is the Kadee 70t sprung bogies, the springs just look to coarse. I will see how it turns out after painting and worst case I will change them over to other Kadee 100t or the Bergs no-name brand of 70t bogies.

Lastly, another RCQF with blue cradles (something different?). At present the cradles aren't secured to the deck, I may glue them on prior to painting.

I will post updates once they are painted and weathered.

Cheers,

Addition

I almost forgot to add the NGGF wagon I acquired recently.

Whilst not technically a steel wagon, they do feature on the steel train services so I thought it a necessary addition to the fleet.
I was actually going to buy a Silvermaz kit and build it up, however I have not seen them at Casula Hobbies in some time so I bought this from them instead.
Quite a handy thing how Casula happily separate the multi-packs of wagons to sell the single wagons.
I plan to weather it up pretty good, to the extent of the wagon I see regularly in Clyde Yard.

Cheers.

Steel Wagons

Well my first blog post, here goes!

I will start off by sharing some photos of my steel train fleet. These are either built from kits or scratch-built, and I have gradually been adding more wagons to the fleet.
The list of completed wagons are:

• 2 x RKLY 'butter-box' wagons.
• 1 x RCQF coil steel wagon.
• 1 x RCAF coil + scrap container wagon.
• 1 x RKWY wagon.
• 1 x RKQF plate steel wagon.
• 1 x RCOF coil wire wagon. 

I have a few other wagons which are incomplete and will make progress on in the coming weeks (hopefully).

 RCAF wagon; with Auscision Models coil cradles and a modified Walthers 'Genstar' container. Bogies are AR Kits 2CM and the coils are Walthers.

 The only wagon in today's list that is incomplete, the RCOF coil wire wagon. This was one of the most fiddly builds I've ever done, and creating the coils is time consuming also. I am using AR Kits 2CL bogies for now, though they may just stay. I need to create and print decals for this wagon, which I will eventually get around to doing.

 RCQF coil wagon; one of my favourites for the way it turned out. Again Auscision coil cradles and walthers coils are used. the cradles are glued to the deck (have no intention of them moving). The bogies are an unknown brand, I saw them for $3 at Berg's Hobbies and bought about 6 pairs.

 The two RKLY 'butter-box' wagons. Auscision containers and AR Kits 2CM bogies complete the wagons.

I should point out that all of the above wagons have been built using plans from the Australia Model Railway Magazine August 1993 article 'The NODY Open Wagon'. I have modified each frame to suit the particular wagon I built. At one stage I tried making a mould of one to cast in urethane, though it wasn't successful. They have all been made from hand-cut styrene according to the drawings in AMRM, detailed with Casula Hobbies/AR Kits parts. The steps on the side are actually 26/6 staples bent to shape (nice and strong). If i ever get around to making more underframes (I have 5 which have been started) I will take photos of the progress.

 RKQF plate wagon, an IDR castings Kit with the original bogies replaced with the mystery Barber type. This is a great kit to construct; I have another RKQF and a RKPF wagon from IDR awaiting painting.

 RKWY wagon; built from the AMK Designs kit with extra details via AR Kits brake detailing parts. These bogies are Kadee 100t Barbers (I know the prototype use 70t but the difference is minor and doesn't bother me). the load was scratch-built from styrene strips. Another enjoyable kit to put together.

Over view of the fleet as it stands. I have no idea how big it will grow to, but at this stage I have at least another 6 wagons to add to it.

Hope you enjoy!