Berkshire Valley Models released their first S-scale vehicle, the pioneer-style ore wagon, in May of 2024. I bought one immediately. Nothing sets the time period like a horse-drawn wagon. Ore wagons were used to haul coal and ore from the mines to a central location where the railroads would pick up the material. Since my scene is a mine itself that already has rail service, the wagon isn't exactly an accurate fit. So, my justification is that the owner of this ore wagon goes to the mine to purchase his coal wholesale, and takes it back to his storefront in town, where he sells it to his customers, or he makes the rounds filling up the customers' coal bins.
(external link: Berkshire Valley Models)
The photo above and this photo show the original packaging of kit #3100. The kit consists of very thin laser-cut wood and laserboard (resin-impregnated cardstock), metal castings, and brass wire. There are a lot of parts to this, what appears to be a simple, kit. The kit is quite involved.
There are basically two assemblies to be built for this wagon. One is the frame and wheels, which are almost fully made from the white-metal castings, shown here. The other is the body of the car, which is made out of the wood, laserboard, and some metal parts.
Since I started this kit while we had no electricity due to a freak 100mph storm hitting us and losing electricity for three days, I decided that I'd start with the easier of the two assemblies, the body. The kit's instructions say to start with the frame, instead. It really doesn't matter, as you complete each separately, paint them, and then attach them to each other later on. These early photos aren't the greatest as I had to work with available daylight to shoot them. The main parts of the body are made from very thin pieces of laser-cut wood. I have never seen wood this thin, but, then again, I am not a big structure kit builder. The instructions do cover all of the bases, but the author uses "prototype" words for items, which, if you are not familiar with the lingo of 1800s wagons, is a bit of a challenge and confusing. Also, it wasn't entirely made clear at the onset that what you are building is an inner box wrapped by an outer box. Once I grasped that, it started to make sense. So, the photo shows the body's base, removed from the sprue at the bottom of the photo, which also consists of two pieces that are to be glued together. I used a new razor blade to free the parts from the sprue; they have a relatively large nub that holds the part to the sprue, so it takes quite a bit of force or several passes before the part comes loose. However, most parts are only attached with one nub. Several quick passes of the file removed any remnants of the nubs. It quickly became apparent that making sure to place the various parts in the correct orientation is critical in this kit, so I wrote on the to-be-glued sides of the parts the direction and whether it faces the inside of the wagon or the outside. The parts shown in the photo here are all oriented in the same direction; the slots of the base have to line up with the mating parts of the side walls.
After gluing the two parts together to form the body's base (I used yellow carpenter's glue for gluing the wood parts together), I cut out the walls of the inner box from their sprue, marked them, and laid them out in the orientation that they are to be installed.
The rest of the body assembly goes fairly well by following the instructions. Each sentence of the instruction sheet contains a lot of in-person intermediate steps, so I marked them on the sheet as I completed them. Although I marked the side walls correctly, I still managed to glue the rear wall of the inner box in the wrong orientation, so my scribbles are visible, and the etched-in board lines are hidden. By the time I realized that, it was too late. I plan to put a coal load in my wagon, anyway, so it is no big deal. The walls are a bit fiddly to assemble correctly, as the inner box has very little glue surface, and the tabs are quite tiny. So, I used metal weights to hold things down. The outer box walls are easy enough to install (follow the sequence in the instructions), but I had to go back and reinforce them with some superglue, as they separated from the inner box in some areas. I used tiny clothespin-style clamps to hold the parts together while the glue set. The instructions state to glue the "back body bars" and the "middle body bars" in their correct positions. I had no clue as to which parts the instructions were referring, and the two photos included in the instruction sheet, show these parts largely hidden. So, I have supplemented that portion of the instructions with this photo showing the "body bars", the ladder-shaped parts, in their correct positions on the underside of the body. There are tiny etched-in lines on the bottom of the body that you must align these body bars with and in between.
The next set of parts to install on the body gets even worse, as I literally had no clue what the instructions were referring to. So, again, I have included this photo with lines pointing at the parts that refer to the words used in the instruction sheets.
The instructions state to install the seat springs next, but not to attach the seat yet, until everything is painted. Well, upon review, I don't think I can line up the seat springs correctly so that the seat would sit correctly later on. This, then, led me to think about going ahead and painting the body. Also, upon realizing where the seat would eventually be positioned, I thought it might be hard to get a coal load into the body. So, I took a different path. First, I painted the body using Delta Ceramcoat "Brown Iron Oxide". Keeping the brush lightly wet with water was sufficient to get the paint to flow, and only one coat was needed. I let that dry overnight. I used a small section of common styrofoam that I shaped to fit within the body. This cuts down on the amount of "coal" that I actually have to place in the body, to make the wagon look fully loaded.
I painted the styrofoam black using Ceramcoat paint. I let that dry, and then glued the styrofoam into the body using Aleene's Tacky Glue.
Next, I applied some slightly watered-down Aleene's glue to the styrofoam and the inside walls of the body, and sprinkled on the coal (I don't remember the brand used). After that dried for a couple of hours, I came back, applied some rubbing alcohol and used an eye-dropper to put some more watered-down glue over the first layer to add the second and final layer of coal. I let that dry overnight. By the time I remembered to take the photo, I had already started to attach the brake lever metal parts. This is in a known position on the wagon, so I can base the position of the seat springs off of that, which is why I decided to install that first.
The next day I turned it upside-down to let all of the loose bits fall off, and I noticed that a number of pieces were stuck on the back shelf of the wagon. I decided to just leave that there as representing spillage.
I used the photo that comes with the kit as a guide for where the seat springs are positioned relative to the brake handle. I then eye-balled the one on the other side, and then glued the seat to them. I used superglue for these. As you can see, getting the coal load in there first is important before attaching the seat.
I am so glad that I chose to build the body before building the frame/undercarriage, as the kit's instructions literally make no sense whatsoever in identifying the various parts. If I had started with the frame, I would have likely put the kit back in a storage box for a future revisit. So, when I finished the body and the seat, this photo shows all of the kit parts I had left over. I have tried to identify each of the parts as best I could using the magic words used in the instructions. I must confess to some serious frustration that the kit instructions were written for people who build horse-drawn carriages professionally, instead of for the average model builder.
I have no idea if I glued the rear axle part to the "reach" correctly, but here it is. The two Y-legs need to be bent up a bit, so that the center prong bottoms out in the axle's center slot. I positioned the axle such that the two Y prongs are about flush with the other side of the axle part. I made sure that it cured perpendicular to the center beam of the "reach".
After reading and re-reading and re-reading the instructions, studying the photos, and finally contacting the owner of the company who produced this kit asking for clarification, the explanation of which that I received was just as confusing, I have decided to shelf this project. Given the available information, I cannot figure out how to build the metal underframe of this car. Since I write software for a living, and spend most of my time debugging code to find and fix problems (which I enjoy doing), when I step away from that for some relaxation time, I don't want to spend my time "debugging" or "reverse engineering" instructions to put a kit together. That defeats the whole purpose of having a hobby. I had hoped that the owner would give me clearer instructions, or a revised document, and preferably a close-up photo of the area related to the instructions in the first paragraph of the second page, but he didn't. Since this is supposed to be just a static scenery item, I am going to shelf it for now, and maybe revisit it some time in the distant future.