TALYLLYN GUARDS VAN NO5 by Lloyd Edwards
Lloyd Edwards gives his kit a unique finish.
Anticipating lockdown being an issue, I ordered up a TR guards van from IP Engineering to keep myself busy. Once all the household DIY tasks were completed, it was a very good thing indeed to have a kit to complete. If one is a busy person, not content with watching telly or reading books, lockdown can be hard mentally, but not so with a garden railway constantly needing attention one way or another. Thank goodness for hobbies, eh?
The laser-cut plywood kit is complete with photographic instructions and the only issue I had was that the floor warped. Ply warps easily and the floor was not the best panel to have buckled. The way out of this was to dampen the concave side of the panel and keep it under heavy books overnight. It helped but was not quite good enough. I ended up glueing the chassis rails and wheels down to the offending floor to flatten it.
Modelling is not always straightforward, problems can arise all the time. Success is just thinking a way around the problem. That’s what stops us from getting bored along the way. When we have ways of fixing most things and a good data bank in our heads, we tend to move to greater challenges.
Just before I started the kit, I found some photos online of the Talyllyn Brake Van kit, to get an idea of colour schemes. What I noticed was that nearly all of these were made with painted schemes like the prototype. Searching for something new, I realised there was little variation on the theme. Years ago, I was struck with the wood finished product of Perfect World Models. These wooden vehicles looked great just varnished. “I’ll do that”, I thought. It saves some bother and it will be different.
Not wanting a shiny varnished model, I thought I would just stain the wagon plywood using an oak wood stain. I managed to carefully paint/stain twice, on several plank panel areas, to produce the idea that planks had been replaced over time. The staining had to commence before glueing, to avoid areas that the stain would not take hold, particularly on corners. I had to identify which panels were which, but with clear instructions, this was an easy task.
What I didn’t account for was when the parts were cut out, there were bright areas where the part is held on the ply sheet. Stain touching-up was needed, after parts are cut out, worth remembering in the future. Also, the lighter wood areas, or outside edge framework, had to have the burn marks painted over or sanded off to make them look like ash wood. I used a buff colour Humbrol paint to cover the edges up. I had not accounted for this issue when starting and realised later that the wood finish I wanted would take some time and attention.
After assembly, I used a matt varnish spray to seal all the wood finishes. A quick airbrush weathering of green paint to simulate Aspergillus, and a white paint to simulate rock dust. The Duloe Light Railway (D.L.R.) is a slate mining railway and so all my trucks have some weathering applied.
Not everything we do in model making is perfect or goes how we like. Another point keeping us interested. I think the wood effect works well. I think I might have gone a bit far in the detailing. I’ll let you decide.
Incidentally, I rate the kit highly. It goes around a tight 32mm Peco 605 set-curve, but only just, owing to the long wheelbase. Thank you IP for keeping me off the streets at a tricky time. ■