Bend & Twist

Do you find that you get 98% of a model done and then it sits on the shelf for months before you finally get around to doing all the little jobs needed to complete it? I do.

My 3 DZ wagons for Bron Hebog are a classic example of this.

The missing items were rivets (now in progress) and vacuum pipes.

Making vacuum pipes is one of my modelling pet hates and so it usually gets left until the point where my irritation at seeing an incomplete model on the shelf above my desk exceeds the disinclination to pull out the soldering iron and the brass wire and make some.

One of the DZ's - 1412, I think - has been recently rebuilt at Boston Lodge with new removable ends, and a unique under slung pipe arrangement, so there is no upright in the way of any loads that may hang over the end of the wagon.

It took a lot of trial and error, bending, straightening and re-bending to coax the 0.7mm brass wire into something which looked vaguely like the serpentine shape of these 'bags'.

The next step was to replicate the flexible hose, which we do by demolishing the coils from a Peco point motor and twisting the very thin copper wire in a tight spiral around the bent brass.

I believe that when Himself makes the pipes he twists the copper around a straight length before bending it into a vac bag shape.

I've tried doing it this way but found that I either end up flattening the copper twists in the jaws of my pliers or the spirals spread apart as the brass is bent.

So now I shape the brass wire first and then twist the fine copper wire around it.

Here is the wagon with the vac bags in place at both ends and a connecting run of brass wire.