CONSTRUCTION OF GS WAGONS.

HOW I MAKE AND PAINT GS WAGONS.

                                                                                                    

Having completed yet another batch of GS wagons I  photographed the whole process of construction and painting  so I can now share these with readers.

GS wagons are the most numerous vehicle in my armies. The total required for the army I am currently constructing is over 450. For the three armies already existing to date I have built almost 1400 !!!! The primary historical reference for these vehicles is the British mark X GS wagon made in large part by the Bristol Wagon Works and used in vast numbers in WW1 but I have also been influenced by the US army's Escort wagon and the products of both Studebaker and Murphy Brothers.

Construction starts with the cutting of balsa blocks. These are 30mm long and 15mm wide and are cut from 9mm thick planks as shown on the left of the photo below. I then take toilet tissue and cut small squares/oblongs which I screw up between my fingers as shown in the middle left and middle right of the photo below. These lumps are then glued to the approximate centre of the balsa blocks as seen on the right. The process is kept rough and non exact so as to ensure the lumps are all slightly different in size and shape as you can see in the photo.These lumps depict the cargo load in the wagons. 

The next stage is to create the canvas tilt cover to the wagon. I use the brown paper that comes from the large paper sacks in which we buy sunflower hearts to feed our garden birds !!!!!!!! These sacks are two ply and I use the inner ply. However you can of course just use regular brown wrapping paper too, I am just addicted to repurposing anything and everything I can to provide raw materials for my modelling activities because I am just odd like that !!!!  The idea behind using brown paper is simply that I have found it to be just the right consistency for this purpose. The paper is best used crumpled and a bit used, it then looks and creases more realistically.  

The photo below shows the roughly cut oblong of paper which is then glued onto the wagon body using hot melt glue around the edges. The paper is quickly and carefully pressed onto the hot melt glue to ensure a good bond all around. Any surplus glue oozes out and creases are created all at the same time. Practice will make perfect but be careful as hot melt glue is very hot and sticks to the fingers, and that hurts !!!!! The final stage of this bit of the process is to trim the brown paper tilt after the glue has gone cold as shown on the right side of the photo below. This can be done easily with sharp scissors which will also cut away any oozed out glue. After making hundreds of these wagons I have never found any two with the same exact pattern of creases which I think adds a lot to the aesthetics of the models.

The next stage  is to treat the end grain of the balsa wagon blocks  with sealer. I use MDF sealer which I find does a good job. This stuff is water based and soaks in well and drys quickly. The idea is to ensure a good painting surface that does not soak up gallons of expensive enamel paint, and it looks better too. I apply sealer at this stage because it is easier to file the end grain smooth after the sealer has dried  rather than later when other elements have been added. I follow the same process with all balsa block vehicles and equipments. For filing the end grain I use emery boards which are actually more effective for this particular task than my Excel belt sander as they are wider and do not create grooves if used too energetically.

The next step in the construction process is to add the shaft. These are made from long (average length 58mm.) flat toothpicks as shown below. Unfortunately these are only available in the USA but most large supermarkets over there stock them. I have bought large quantities over the course of a number of trips over several years. They can however be purchased on the interweb but the postage is high. Of course the best solution is to  actually visit the US or know someone going there !!!!. Please bear in mind that the wastage is high. You will find only at best a third of the contents are good enough to actually use so buy plenty.

Having glued the shaft on, next steps are to glue on the wheels and a towing hook made from a Bambi staple, also readily available online. In addition you will also need to cut and fix a block of 5mm thick balsa to the shaft on which you can mount the horses in due course. These elements are all shown in the photo below.

One last step before we  move on to the painting process is to trim the horse mounting block. I find that when fitting these blocks they are never quite square, therefore , to ensure the horses are fixed straight and level they need to be carefully trimmed by eye using a craft knife or the belt sander. Please ensure you trim the balsa block only and not your thumbs !!!!!!!!! I have a leather thumb stool but rarely remember to use it. Don't be dumb like me !!!!!!!! Once that is done painting can start. The first job of that process is to prime the wheels and the towing hook as seen below.

At the same time I also cut out the horse blanks needed to supply the batch of vehicles I am building and  prime them too. I find that partially painting the horses before fixing improves the strength of the glue joint. Therefore I  paint most of the inner surface of the horses. Do not forget that you will need mirror image horses for each side. The way I cover this is to paint either head up or head down. If you look carefully at the photo below you will see exactly what I mean by this expression.

Next job is to paint the wagons, in my case, olive drab.

At the same time I paint the horses brown, still one side only, again head up or down. Although my wife complains that my horses should be in a variety of colours, I decided long ago to have a standard "issue" horse colour, Humbrol Burnt Leather.

The next stage is to glue the horses to the wagons, ensuring you glue the painted side in. As soon as the glue has dried , the rest of the horse, that is the edges, outside and inside of the head can be primed and then painted brown just as soon as the primer has dried.

Almost there  !!!! Next job is to fix the twisted wire "harness" around the horses as shown below. I buy this wire online, there are many suppliers, just look for twisted wire. I originally used the sealing wire used on franking machine but that is no longer available in the UK. I just make a small hole in the wagon body and then bend the wire in my fingers then push home. Usually I can do it easily but occasionally there is a hard bit of balsa so then I just use pliers to push the wire home. I find no glue is needed. Be careful not to apply too much pressure to the horses during this operation or you will be re-attaching them  again and again and again !!!!

At this point I have a confession. The sharp eyed reader may have noticed that the photos above and  below are different in that the spare wheel has magically appeared on the vehicles below !!!!!! Despite the 1000 plus GS wagons I have now made , I actually forgot to fit the spare wheels to this batch until I was just about to paint the wheels black. I had to hastily fit the wheels and prime them. In fact, the spare wheels need to be added at the same time as the other wheels. I use no glue, just push fit the pins.

The very last job is to paint all wheels black as shown in the photo below. I only paint the outside of the spare wheel black. I paint the underside olive drab like the wagon, it's just easier.

The basic principles of construction and painting described above apply to virtually all the other vehicles and equipments I build. Unlike some of my other vehicles and equipments, the construction process for GS wagons is quite lengthy and complex. Given the quantities I make it may even seem arduous I guess to some readers. However the end results do look really good. To see hundreds of vehicles lined up alongside thousands of soldiers is what, being odd I suppose, gives me a buzz.