Vowchurch project in 006.5...

The prototype etches arrived over the weekend for the forthcoming 006.5 Vowchurch Slate Company wagons and locomotive...

I had four wagons designed (well three, a pair of small opens) and the chassis arrived some time ago from Shapeways. These were very neatly printed and needed minimum cleaning up. I have made a start on the etch assembly by putting together the small open. This consists of a fold up wagon body, with etched plank detail (on the floor and outside of the wagon), corner pieces and the one piece chassis, and is superglued together.

The corner pieces have recessed circles on the back to allow you to press the rivets through to the front. I put a 0.4mm brass wire in my pin vice and used this to emboss the rivets before folding them along the fold line.

These were then superglued to the folded wagon body...

...and then fitted it to the chassis and added a brake lever from 0.4mm brass rod...

...pictured here with the locomotive (more on that below). Mark Greenwood recently posted photos of our (6point5 models) next wagon with a 20p piece - I couldn't find a 20p so a new £1 will have to do... it shows how cute an tiny the wagon is, and the couplings (magnets) fitted in the pre-formed coupler boxes. These are a variation from the prototype sketches of Brian because to traverse the Busch track and use the magnetic couplers I couldn't use extended frames.

So I mentioned the locomotive... here she is, the Taffson Evans and Jenkins saddle tank. There are a few small changes needed to the print and etch, but in principle it all works and fits nicely. The proportions look great and it's a scale representation of Brian's original sketch.

It looks tiny, and it is...

...and it's worth comparing it to the existing 6point5 steam locomotive, the Avonside. Here you can see it's a little shorter, so the driver is going to have to stoop in the cab (just like in the illustrations by Brian). It's the same width and length though, cute but not ridiculous. It will use the same etched parts for the conversion of the Deutz diesel chassis too, and includes lovely works plates and name plates.

More soon, as I intend to finish the prototype as my own model and modify the etch and print design subtly for the production run.