peterbunce
1880's Colorado Narrow gauge on 45mm track
Hi,
I have been building (still more to do though the basic work is done) a spring fitted dray, to go with the other which has no springs.
This time I used a good drawing from my copy of the book ?Great Western Horse Power? by Janet Russell. There was not much difference between the style of UK and USA vehicles, so the drawing made things easy, the model uses wheels from Hobby?s, and are a scale 3 foot diameter. The body uses scored both sides (the top with deeper scores) 2mm plasticard, with 3mm square PVC solid foam for the underside of the deck, that being made to keep the deck from sagging; the turntable uses a piece of waste water pipe to make it, and it is painted black. The front has more 3mm sq strip used and the steps on it are from drinks cans sheet: handrails are straightened paper clip wire. Paint is from Humbrol.
The springs have 1 leaf from food tray aluminum, doubled and the other leaves are my usual .020 plasticard; the C hangers are from the doubled strip with a piece of drinks can metal for more strength and thickness.
The figure (without his head and is armless!) is a Chinese copy from E bay; I found that the drawings need to be checked with a figure otherwise his feet have nowhere to rest!
The crate design is from the same book where it is shown on the frontispiece ? mine is slightly different sizes but otherwise to the same design. Its is made from coffee stirrers which I persuaded McDonalds to give me ? their present wooden ones are similar but longer & less wide and some wood from my stockpile for the top & bottom outer planks.
The ?load? is polystyrene packaging covered in thin polyethylene sheet, such as that around all the freebies in the sunday papers supplements, as an experiment ? glue it on with frame sealant, as that will not attack the foam. Buried within the foam are a couple of pieces of lead, to give the load some mass. It looks like a thin cover when painted and weathered, as can be seen the ?rope? is heavy cotton held in position with superglue. finally the base has a couple of hefty planks (coffee stirrers) that it sits on and allows it to be easily placed on the base of the crate when loading it. As can be seen the top is loose but is a nice interference fit so I can use it in both loaded and empty configurations.
The colour is the result of 4 coats of very thin paint to produce a well used colour. Crates were returned after use and I wanted the colour I now have; the deck of the dray follows the same path to get a colour. The rope rings are from 30 amp fuse wire wrapped round a piece of tube and held with a bent over strip of drinks can metal. There will be some bits of wood and some rope (various bits of coloured string) scattered about the deck; the carthorse, which is a Papo animal will be fitted with harness and will have a some (mock) leather straps, made from 1.5mm strips of food tray aluminium and reins; the American horse drawn vehicles used this or a curved set of shafts where we in the UK had fabricated wooden shafts. The start of the collar can be seen of the horse already, it now needs the padded ring (more PVC solid foam) and then the hames which are to be from paperclip wire.
Here are some photos in the sun which is a bit bright.
side view with one large crate
top view of body
Underside showing framework
opposite side in the sun - showing a loaded crate
crate in pieces, showing removable top
Yours Peter.
I have been building (still more to do though the basic work is done) a spring fitted dray, to go with the other which has no springs.
This time I used a good drawing from my copy of the book ?Great Western Horse Power? by Janet Russell. There was not much difference between the style of UK and USA vehicles, so the drawing made things easy, the model uses wheels from Hobby?s, and are a scale 3 foot diameter. The body uses scored both sides (the top with deeper scores) 2mm plasticard, with 3mm square PVC solid foam for the underside of the deck, that being made to keep the deck from sagging; the turntable uses a piece of waste water pipe to make it, and it is painted black. The front has more 3mm sq strip used and the steps on it are from drinks cans sheet: handrails are straightened paper clip wire. Paint is from Humbrol.
The springs have 1 leaf from food tray aluminum, doubled and the other leaves are my usual .020 plasticard; the C hangers are from the doubled strip with a piece of drinks can metal for more strength and thickness.
The figure (without his head and is armless!) is a Chinese copy from E bay; I found that the drawings need to be checked with a figure otherwise his feet have nowhere to rest!
The crate design is from the same book where it is shown on the frontispiece ? mine is slightly different sizes but otherwise to the same design. Its is made from coffee stirrers which I persuaded McDonalds to give me ? their present wooden ones are similar but longer & less wide and some wood from my stockpile for the top & bottom outer planks.
The ?load? is polystyrene packaging covered in thin polyethylene sheet, such as that around all the freebies in the sunday papers supplements, as an experiment ? glue it on with frame sealant, as that will not attack the foam. Buried within the foam are a couple of pieces of lead, to give the load some mass. It looks like a thin cover when painted and weathered, as can be seen the ?rope? is heavy cotton held in position with superglue. finally the base has a couple of hefty planks (coffee stirrers) that it sits on and allows it to be easily placed on the base of the crate when loading it. As can be seen the top is loose but is a nice interference fit so I can use it in both loaded and empty configurations.
The colour is the result of 4 coats of very thin paint to produce a well used colour. Crates were returned after use and I wanted the colour I now have; the deck of the dray follows the same path to get a colour. The rope rings are from 30 amp fuse wire wrapped round a piece of tube and held with a bent over strip of drinks can metal. There will be some bits of wood and some rope (various bits of coloured string) scattered about the deck; the carthorse, which is a Papo animal will be fitted with harness and will have a some (mock) leather straps, made from 1.5mm strips of food tray aluminium and reins; the American horse drawn vehicles used this or a curved set of shafts where we in the UK had fabricated wooden shafts. The start of the collar can be seen of the horse already, it now needs the padded ring (more PVC solid foam) and then the hames which are to be from paperclip wire.
Here are some photos in the sun which is a bit bright.
side view with one large crate
top view of body
Underside showing framework
opposite side in the sun - showing a loaded crate
crate in pieces, showing removable top
Yours Peter.
