VER Car 2 - Finished

 

Job done. Not a difficult kit to build. It even drops perfectly onto the chassis, and is retained by a tiny amount of superglue. The only slight drama was the roof, which had distorted slightly. A warm with a hairdryer and some gentle bending fixed this. 

At the front I've used a Mony's Models (I think, he's whitemetal) figure with a traditional dustcoat. OK, traditional for the Manx Electric Railway anyway. We'll assume the VER is having a vintage weekend and eschew their more modern uniforms. 

At the back, my Dad enjoys a ride. 

This is a ModelU figure. He's a bit wedged under the roof, which is solid, not hollow, but just fits. 

I'm pretty certain that this is a model I'd have been building if my Dad had been at Bournville show with me. He loved the VER, and we had considered options for building it in the past. Is this a precursor to a layout? Not at the moment,  but who knows? 

Squeezing the seats in

 

3D printing is a marvellous thing, but it can throw up some issues. 

In an effort to provide as complete a lump as possible, the designer can cause the builder a few problems. For example, painting around the seats on the end would have been a whole lot easier if they were separate parts that were then glued together -  a kit, in other words. This isn't the only model I've found this problem with, and I wonder who much it's the designer focusing on the finished model, and how much the customer needing (wanting?) to avoid having to assemble anything. 

An extra problem here is that the seats drop inside the sides, pretty much perfectly. You can do that in CAD, but when the modeller sticks glazing material inside those sides, the space for the seats, is less than the length. Not much, just over 1mm, but enough to stop them fitting. 

I ended up breaking off the seat support at one end, sticking this in place, then shortening the seat itself, before fitting it. Not a big problem, although you do need to be careful when cutting resin as it's brittle, but niggling. 

Anyway, job done. Figures are all Hornby ready-painting, as I rescued them from an old project. They needed to lose their legs below the knee to fit, but as they are made of a rubbery plastic, that's a few seconds job.  

The wrong transfers, for the right reasons

 

Despite painting this VER in the wrong livery, I have been doing a little research. And that research shows me that the livery varies between cars, even today. While the body colours remain the same, the typeface used at the ends seems to vary. 

To make things even more interesting, I can't find any transfers available that match. So, it's a case of commissioning something, which will take ages, or using the closest I have in my stash. Which is what I have done for the VER.  

Under the letters, there should be a number, and I was really struggling to find something suitable, until I dug out a sheet that my Dad had bought many, many years ago, to letter a London E2, the first whitemetal kit he ever built. Now, pedants will point out that it looks nothing like those on the real VER cars, but it is the right size. So I'm going to use it. 

I love the idea that mt Dad has had a little input into this project, and that matters more than perfect fidelity. Besides, hardly anyone will actually notice.  

Paint on the VER car

 

A quick update on the Volks Car - painting has started using the closest colours I have to hand. Precision Paints LNER coach cream for the top, and Humbrol 73 (Wine) for the lower section. 

Looking at photos, they aren't a bad match for the current colours. Yes, I know Car 2 never made it into this livery, but I'm keeping things simple so the model actually gets finished. 

Volks Electric Railway - Car 2

 

Fate sometimes pushes projects your way. Wandering around Bournville show, I found a trader who was new to me - DoubleM Models. 

Most of the range is 3D printed narrow-gauge models. There are also some T gauge trains, which is what caught my eye. At three quid a go, I picked up a couple, and was about to pay, when I spotted in the boxes at the end of the stand, Volks Railway Tramcars 1 and 2 in 4mm scale. 

The VER was one of my Dad's favourite lines. He had travelled on it as a child, and many times since. That included the centenary day, which we arrived at by accident. 

So, what choice do I have, but to buy the kit? I'm sure if he'd been with me, we'd have been leaving with at least one - over the years, we'd discussed, and investigated ways to make a model of the line.  

The kit runs on a Kato 11-109 chassis, and they sell those too. The Kato unit is well known and respected, so a working model is guaranteed. I walked away from the stand with a ligher wallet, but all the bits for a model. 

This one's for you Dad.