Coal containers I have known

Carrying on from the last installment of coal container madness, 'proper' HLC curved-side coal containers were next on my 'little projects for rainy days' list. Again, the Dec 03 Journal has a nice set of NZ120 plans for both series 1 and 2 of these containers - the most obvious spotting difference these days being the shape of the forklift pocket surrounds on the base. Series 1 has chevronny HCC types, whereas series 2 has plainer - and easier to make - bevelled ones. Bet that made no sense at all. The above series 2 was snapped from down low at Oamaru in July while I was either sitting on the ground or in the Mighty Green Mini - a difference of only a few centimetres.

So today I spent about two hours making this series 2 master with the intention of trying to cast a few: It's not too fancy and a little chunky in places, but they should look the part when viewed from a few feet away through dirty spectacles. The master was built entirely from plasticard bits except for the curved sides, which came from the same small squeeze bottle of about 5cm dia from the 99 cent store that provided the CW sides last year. It's perhaps a smidge too curvy for this, but that's hardly noticeable.

It will be interesting to see how these will cast up given their complexity. I only got a handful of HCCs out of that mold before it gave up. This time I'm casting it upside down and have included the tarpaulin bars to save time later. I squeezed squadron toxic modelling putty under the bars to make removal from the rubber easier/possible. If I get time I'll make the mold tonight.