Nigel Lawton Japanese skip

 Nigel Lawton used to sell a small plastic kit for a 009 skip waggon. I have a few unbuilt examples stashed away, and I decided to convert one to 6mm gauge.

Here's the runner and instructions;

Axles are in the bag, and the wheels on the runner.

The skip body is made in three pieces, a main body and two ends. On the inner face of the ends there are location tabs, these I filed away;

Unmodified on the left and modded on the right.

The chassis is made up from several pieces, and looks to be designed so that it can double as a bolster as there's a spigot hole moulded in the centre. This I've filled by glueing in a piece of styrene rod;

As I'm building this to 6mm gauge I needed to replace the wheels. Axles as supplied are stepped, these were modified by being mounted in the lathe, using a watchmaker's collet, and the shoulders turned back to suit the narrower back to back (5.09mm). New wheels were made, to 4.3mm dia., using my 2FS profile tool.

Here's the chassis dry assembled to check the wheels;

I cut away the transverse stretcher and filled in the end coupler pockets with styrene off-cuts. I've never seen a skip with such pockets, of course that doesn't mean there weren't any. The two pieces below the skip form the bottom of the pocket and are also there to trap the ends of wire coupling loops, not present in the kit. I cut them down, note the one on the right;

The two end supports for the skip body slotted into place rather neatly, then the body itself was glued in place;

Showing the filled-in coupling pocket, and the coupling pin made from .4mm brass wire;

Paint is Vallejo 862 Black Grey, with the inside of the skip finished in my usual mix of Humbrol Leather and Citadel Rhinox Hide. The number '1' on the end was applied using a mapping pen and Vallejo white, I'd usually use ink but my bottle has dried up.

Next to a Parkside Dundas 009 job;

Comparing the two the Japanese skip is just that little bit smaller than the ParkyDundas one, which I feel makes it a little more suited to 6mm gauge without narrowing the chassis.

Finally, this may seem like a lot of work for a humble skip, but it will be viewed close-up on a tiny layout so I feel the work to be worthwhile.

Paul.