I have always liked the old clerestory style coach stock, but very little of it survived into the 60's. Several of the vans did however, and so I decided to make one. The 2nd Fred lee plan book has 4 pages of plans and some pictures and drawings, so I reduced the plan down on a photocopier. Trackgang lists a set of bogies as being for 'guards vans and some passenger coaches'. The wheelbase is 13mm (or about 5'2") and again I have no idea what prototype they may be following. The bogies that I was after were 4'10" (or around 12 mm wheelbase). The visual differences are not that bad though so I decided to press on. I added in the Markits pinpoint bearings after drilling the holes out. I then assembled the bogies and inserted the wheels. The free rolling observed does make this modification worth it but only if you get the short axle wheels. The only real problem was that the axles were not parallel, which is probably due to my drilling skills as much as anything. To complete the modifications, I decided to add the external strapping from strip brass, as they are very important for the look. Finding a plan of bogies to BP1656 (the 4'10 ones), I managed to read that the top strap extended 2' outside the wheels at each end. A piece of brass strip was cut and glued to the top of the bogie frame. The bottom piece was the cut and bent to shape to give the correct look.

It was attached by gluing onto the bottom of the sideframe, and then soldering (Yes, Soldering...) the end pieces of the bottom strip about 1/2 way along the overhanging piece of the top strip. Geeze I'm crap at verbally explaining things. Its why I normally revert to the whiteboard before I open my mouth.

As built bogie on the left, modified bogie on the right. Its a short job which I think is worth the effort.

For the underframe I started off with a piece of 2mm plasticard cut to size. Holes to take the axle pivots were drilled in the plastic, and I also hollowed out areas under the bogie wheels, as they would rub on the underframe when installed. I fixed the bogies with woodscrews (M.5 I think). These had the heads filed flat, and the bogie mounting holes were drilled out to take this. The bogies were shimmed up to the correct height with plasticard and washers.

I then cut out the sides and ends from some scribed sheet plasticard (no idea which one as it was purchased 2 years ago and I have long lost the packet), and glued them together. The ends had holes cut in for the doorways. I braced the sides 1/2 way along with an internal spacer. This assembly was then mated with the chassis.

Being the middle of the afternoon at the time, I had not yet had a beer, and so my inner finescaler was awake and making horrible suggestions (bastard). Having decided to put the doors in, I then had to do the paneling didn't I. Fortunately it wasn't too difficult.

I even think that the effort was worth it...

My attentions then turned to the roof.  I considered making the roof from brass as well, however that would mean some sort of fettling effort and I just couldn't be bothered. Having selected thin plasticard as the medium of choice, I then had to have some method of bracing it. I decided on a longitudinal brace rather than cross braces, as I was concerned that the plasticard would sag between cross members (and also that a single rectangle is far easier to cut out than a set of arched spacers).

At this point I also decided to glue in some lead shot for weight.

The roof was added in 2 parts. First up I cut out a piece of thin plasticard to the correct size and shaped it by rolling it on my leg with a paintbrush handle. Fortunately I didn't have to get too much of a curve in it. This was glued into position.
To make the clerestory section I cut out 2 lengths of 2mm think plasticard, these were then glued into position to make the sides. I then roughly shaped the ends and glued them into position, followed by filing and cutting down to the correct size and cross section. The roof was again cut from thin plasticard, shaped on the leg and glued into place.

Ugg, now down to detail time. First up, the doors. OK I guess that this is a reasonably important detail. I first made the top door slides, then cut out the doors to size and glued them in. I had to trim up the bottoms a wee bit. Note that if you look carefully you can see that the doors are thicker than the guides at the top. Oh well. I then added the lower door guides and the foot boards. when first fitted they were full length but were later cut down. There's a completely useless piece of information for you.

At this point It was time to move on to the undergubbins. I angsted over how to do the bracing for a while (about 5 minutes). I did contemplate soldering up a set of queenposts and bracing wires, but several beers soon nailed that idea dead. I then feel back on the old method of cutting a plasticard rectangle and gluing it across the underframe. It then gets painted black, and you can't see it from 2' away. I notched the ends so that the bracing wires would sit neatly on the ends, and also added some cylinders as well (one of my paintbrush handles is now an inch shorter).

Back on its feet again, and I also added the guards lookouts at some point. These were based on a piece of 1mm plasticard with think plasticard overlays to get the top and bottom metal sheathing and also the window surrounds.

One of the big hurdles with building models of older NZR passenger rolling stock is the platform railings. These are quite hard to get right in S scale let alone scaling down even further. Here's how I do it.

First up get a piece of MDF or cardboard. Draw in pencil the shape of the railings, and use a knife to cut a V grove in the MDF. The brass wire is then cut to size and laid into the groves. I used a piece of brass microstrip for the base.

 

To solder everything together, paint some flux on the joint, and just quickly touch the soldering iron to the joint. If all goes to plan it should go 'pfftt' and you will get a nice joint. Don't worry if its a bit blobby as you can clean that up later. Try not to inhale the fumes as they are not that nice.

After you have done all the joints, carefully remove from the jig and clean up with a small file. The next step is to carefully file the tops of the vertical rails till they fit nicely under the roof without distorting anything. Then just glue them in (I used superglue for the bottom strip, and 5 min Araldite for the tops.

I've also added some details like number plates, dog boxes, door handles etc. The handrails on the sides, ends and doors will have to wait (mainly till I can work out where my fine wire has vanished to).
 

This is a make or break step. After a bit of consultation with my remaining brain cell, I decided to go with red (I've seen people paint vans anything from burgundy to red oxide). A quick look through the box gave me the options of Humbrol signal red or Tamiya red. I'd already used the Humbrol colour on the Da's and it was just a wee bit too red for what I wanted. So Tamiya red it was.

The most important thing with the first coat is to get a good even coverage everywhere while making sure that its not too thick. The colour is not quite as bright as the pictures show it to be.

As an interesting observation after the 1st coat there were patches of a worn pinky shade that might be useful for getting some of the faded looks on other equipment at a later date. After the second coat on things were very, well, red. Out with the magic weathering mix. Getting a darker shade into all the nooks and crannys worked wonders, and suddenly all my carefully applied detail came back out.

However after 2 coats of this I still wasn't getting to the grungy end of life type look that I wanted. Cue the undiluted Tamiya smoke. 2 coats of this and we are in business.

 

The last steps are a coat of matt varnish, and then a dry brush with the Humbrol chocolate brown. A very careful dry brush with Valejo Iraqi sand adds the finishing touch, and I think I may have just overdone it.

I'm still not quite happy with it, but its done apart from the couplers. and handrails.

'Hey, there aren't wood screws under this'

It doesn't compare too badly with the real thing.

I think the most important things with a model like this is to get the proportions right and add as much small detail as your skills will allow. Having the correct looking bogies improves things no end looks wise.