Cardboard Van build with some MDF as well.

[dunnyrail]

This has been a long blown out project, I started it when I lived in Hemel after an article in Garden Rail probably near a decade ago now, talked about using Cardboard to build rolling stock. I was aware of this method from the 50’s where pretty well all modelling materials were hard to get and wanted to try it out just to see if it could still be done. I also wanted to use card and cardboard that we get in normal domestic situations like cereal boxes and corrugated from packing boxes to see if thie would be a good way to recycle as well. So I started and I have to say early pictures of the process are non-existant, believe me I have tried to find them amongst getting on for 30,000 digital images......

So the base body is made from a pile of Corrugated Card as thick and strong as you can find, of course each piece needs to be cut exactly the same till you get to the roof height, then gradually use thinner width till the top height is obtained. The first pic shows the layered approach at the top, the onny difference with the lower layers is that they are all the same size as previously stated. I glued this onto a base of MDF, hate the stuff but it is generally flat and I always seam to have odd bits kicking around despite my loathing for the stuff.

Next comes the sides using Cereal Box Card, before fitting I score for planks. An old modellers trick to get the RIGHT amount of planks evenly spaced is to lay a ruler diagonally, look for a measurement that gives you the amount of planks you need and mark them on. I find that the 5mm or 10mm marks are normally fine for G scale. Then move the ruler to the opposite angle and do again thus giving you 2 marks for each plank. Once these were scored and glued to the sides metalwork was made up again using Cereal Box Card. Cut to length then bent will give you the L that you need. These were glued in place then Pins Inserted to represent External Bolts, these will push in nicely to the card and stay in place with a little bit of PVA on the tip before you push them in. I find a dab of PVA on an off-cut of plasticard is just the job for this.

Sometime in 2018 I posted a pic of the van at this stage and was asked by Phil how it would take a spray of grey undercoat. This I did and posted the 2nd Picture and this was how things stayed till this week where I got going again.


As can be seen it has suffered a little from the move and being moved from pillar to post since I moved to the Nits in 2012. So before the next stage I did what the old hands used to do in the 50’s and toughen the Card up some by an application of Shellac, I was surprised a couple of years back to find that it was still available when I got a couple of small bottles of the stuff at a local Art Dealer in Cambridge, just a few doors up from the Cambridge Brewhouse most convenient.

 

[Paul M]

Very nice, and of course cheap, which is even better! I suppose, if you were inclined, you could cut the outer card in such a way, you could create a painted van advertising whatever was in the box. Or even print your design onto thick paper and stick it to the card.

 

[playmofire]

Very nice, and of course cheap, which is even better! I suppose, if you were inclined, you could cut the outer card in such a way, you could create a painted van advertising whatever was in the box. Or even print your design onto thick paper and stick it to the card.

The same thought had crossed my mind.

 

[dunnyrail]

Here a better view of the roof which is the next job to give it a cover. Another cereal box was cut up to make a rood profile that slightly overhangs on all sides. From this picture you can also see that I have been adding doors using coffee strirers, one of my favorite modeling mediums. They are mostly quite good wood (use the joints that only do the better wood ones) and more importantly can be got for free, well at least for the price of a Coffee that you were goint to buy anyway.

Here you can see the roof on its trial fitting with some off cuts, more about these later. At this stage you can get a better view of the doors and a blow of Matt Grey has been done.

Here you can see how I have used rubber bands to hold the roof in place with chocks of wood to block the bands out from the edges whilst the UHU glue used dries, remember this is very thin card that would not take to unbendingly to the bands.

A closer view of the doors and a start has been made of drilling for Peco Track Pins to be used for the bolt heads, note the a very fine No.73. These things take no prisoners to abuse so gentle spinning in a pin vice is the order of the day here.

There was a little bit of poor adhesion of the roof round the edges so Cocktail Sticks have been resorted to to strengthen the joints up, a little bending has occurred as well. Most should be relatively unimportant from normal viewing distances. I have also glued in some bent Ls of Cardboard to represent hinges and the door closing straps, the start of using those off cuts.

 

[Paul M]

Looking good, very inspiring, I may have a go myself if nothing else it'll help me practice cutting straight and square

 

[dunnyrail]

Looking good, very inspiring, I may have a go myself if nothing else it'll help me practice cutting straight and square

Hm looking at my pic immediately above your comment I must learn how to glue things on straight and in perfect plumb! Did not notice it till this pic!

Still on wards and forwards. Looking at the doors they looked a little stark so I decided to put some strapping on them. Many moons ago when building my Irish Cattle Wagons in 15mm to the foot scale I made a punch for the strapping. Being a T punch with a little cutting these can be modified to be I and L strapping as well. On this project rather than use Plasticard as on the Irish Wagons I decided to try the punch with Cereal Box Card, works just fine and I can get 3 out with each stamping. Here is the punch with some of the T’s.

Here are some modified as L’s for the door. Not as neat and pretty as with Plasticard but once sprayed up and rusted blemishes will be barely noticeable.

Now glued in place, they will also be drilled for bolt heads which will all be put in place after the next spraying session. Once dry the glue is invisible being PVA.

Finally yesterday I glued some workshop cleaning roll onto the roof with very sloppy watered down PVA, a sheet of the paper was cut in 3 to show a couple joints then after dry cut and wrapped round the roof to be further glued in place thus hiding the cocktail sticks. More sloppy PVA.

That bring us to where I am with this long delayed project, I will weather permitting warmth wise be blowing another coat of Halfords matt grey followed by a coat of Red Primer which will be the final colour.

Next up it will be on to the running gear, I have one yes just one of these lGB wheel bearings. I think I remember buying 3 at a show thinking one day (2 have been used) I will find another poor lonely one. Well this year no shows attended and at least 2 options to find one missed. So the other day in the loft I found a couple of Playmobil equivalents, I think that they will be pressed into service. Looking at them they will be somewhat easier to fit on the wagon with just a small hole to accept a small screw in the middle spigot. Plus they are ready fitted with hooks and to be honest are just as reliable in service as the LGB ones. I do have a couple of sets of the really early ones but find that they are tricky to uncouple so I have remived them from most of my stock except for in some if the ciach sets that are pretty well permanent formations.

 

[Paul M]

Hm looking at my pic immediately above your comment I must learn how to glue things on straight and in perfect plumb! Did not notice it till this pic!

North did we until you mentioned it. There must be something in the say "We're our own worse critics". I'm sure if we looked closely enough at any piece of home built kit or scratch built there would be flaws, but we never really do that, unless of course you're a judge or the worse kind of fault finding pedant

 

[dunnyrail]

Today I have sorted out the wheels and it is now a runner. I was looking for screws that would suit and was lucky to find these 2 in my box of brass screws. With the holes drilled out to 4mm they will take a bit of brass tube on the outside to work as a bearing so that the plastic does not wear down. I used my trusty cutting jig to half the length of perfect sized tube that I found in that box of tubing and other cutoffs.

I have a few wheel sets kicking around so as this is a cheapie I felt the bachmann ones would be fine, to be honest they run almost as well as LGB so I do not really discriminate that much between the 2 makes. Note the nylin brass washers to keep them more or less centered in the bogie.

Whilst this was going on being a nice day another coat of grey was blown on then some undercoat when the grey was dry. Behind still in grey can be seen the MDF that will be used for the sidestocks. Oh and a sundry bit of scenic getting a bit of brown as well.

The axle guards on PM bearings are open ended which offends me greatly, so I fashion a set of axle guards out of scrap plasticard leaving a gap where the axle protrudes makes them a little more complex to make up. A small plasticard round from a punch makes the bearing representation. 1 shown fitted and two waiting fitting showing front and inside.

 

[dunnyrail]

Now on with some more painting, but first a view in the line during testing.

Here on the workbench during the slow labourious job of painting the Ironwork, initial pass with a medium brush but some edges will need a finer brush. Then there are all those rivets to put in, 50 per door 4 doors. Speaking of doors, the eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that much like a UK van it has 2 hinged opening rather than the norm in the continental of sliding doors. I have looked long and hard in my sundry Grman books for a prototype and they are hard to find. One Van on the Harz has both but with no apparent handles on the outside for the twin doors. I imagine as this was a Mail Van that would be for reason of security. Still to heck with it my Harz line has now a twin hinged opening door van!

Also on the bench can be seen the ever important Wagon Card for Operations and the umber Plates to be put on. I have used the number of that doubled door Van on the Harz. At least it has a nearly believable number.

 

[PhilP]

I like the less-than precise nature of the medium (plus years of storage, and abuse! ) which gives the model a believable care-worn look. - So much better than the 'precision' of a moulded example.

Just needs dirtying-up a bit.

 

[dunnyrail]

I like the less-than precise nature of the medium (plus years of storage, and abuse! ) which gives the model a believable care-worn look. - So much better than the 'precision' of a moulded example.

Just needs dirtying-up a bit.

Once the rest of the rivets are done and the metalwork all painted it will get the treatment, possibly a well overdone job.

 

[ColinK]

Looking really good. Nice bit of proper modelling.

 

[ge_rik]

I've no idea why I've only just caught up with this thread. Really enjoyable seeing how it has evolved.

Rik

 

[Jasper]

No idea whether there's more to come, but I'm on board now.

 

[dunnyrail]

No idea whether there's more to come, but I'm on board now.

Worry not more to come.

 

[dunnyrail]

Couple of pictures taken this morning out on the line.

Yesterday I placed all the Rivets in the doors, these are Peco Track Pins shoved into pre-drilled holes with a little bit of Hafix to hold them in place. Blobbed a spot of Hafix on some old Plasticard and just dunked the end of each one in before shoving in the hole. Took 1/2 hour per side. Still some Rivets to do for where the end metalwork goes onto the buffer beam oh and some buffers plus the lack of brakes is now offending me. I think I overdid the Gloss Black for oil on the axleguards so that will get some dry brushing to tone it down a little.

Weathering has been done. For a change I used weathering Powders, a rusty and black one only have been used held in place with Testers Dull Coat. Plus the numbers are placed so pretty well near ready for introducing into service. In case you wonder about the Gpm, the original wagon was a G so I added the pm for Playmobil bits that have been used, makes a suitable vehicle type.

 

[Henri]

Well done sir!!!!

Can you elaborate a bit about the decals?

 

[dunnyrail]

Well done sir!!!!

Can you elaborate a bit about the decals?

I create them in MacDraft which is a Cad package so I am able to measure them to size. Font is a Lucinda Grand, I print them into Matt Vinyl Self Adhesive A4 paper, not really for a Lazer which I think is where some of the less than perfect black is diluted by non printing. Probably after years of abuse using this paper, I tend these days to only do 1 print as if the drum is too warm the paper has been known to melt some. The Lazer Print does survive outside with UV light presence pretty well indefinitely. In the past I have used Paint on a PC for such things, problem is it is tricky to size them up but if you do a few of the same with different Font Sizes you can get the feel for correct size. I tend to use Font 12 for larger lettering and 10 for the smaller labels, big label has 3 different sizes. Hope that helps Henri.

 

[Jasper]

These are the kind of photos that make you wonder which prototype railway just adopted Playmobil style couplers. You are quite the artist, Dunny.

 

[dunnyrail]

These are the kind of photos that make you wonder which prototype railway just adopted Playmobil style couplers. You are quite the artist, Dunny.

Many thanks Jasper. Kind comments like yours and others on here makes the time to post these builds most satisfying.

So today the completion of this job, it is now off the workbench in the Shed waiting for the next Operating Session where it has been ordered with Empty to load out of Silberhutte with perhaps cut wood or possibly Barrels.

But first those final jobs. Whilst sorting out the loft last week or was it the week before, hm this lockdown is passing very quickly now. Anyway I found a couple of small bags with Brakes in and even the parts to put them on with screws. Just the job only hangers to make to fit them on. I had sort of thought that I would do this out of Cardboard, but there are limits and I wanted these parts to be reasonably robust hence foamboard, mains wire flattened, some brass and the afore mentioned brakes come into play.

Here you can see the varying parts with the rod banged into the Foamboard so that there is a flat surface to glue to the bottom of the bogie. You can see that I fabricated them wrong at the first step hence one is thinner with additional holes. Fortunately in normal service the only thing to be seen will be the blocks and dropper. The small brass bits are to be soldered onto the dropper, a little bit of trial and error for the first one. Fortunately the resident drill in the PinVice was the right size to get the screw in without any tapping required.

Here you can see the fit of the first one with the other to be fitted. I decided that this Van would only have brakes on the inside, not an uncommon thing justified by the fact that it was a Van stolen from France during WW2 for use on the Harz system as they were very busy moving stuff around to the varying Factories in Nordhausen and elsewhere in the Selkt Valley. Not sure that French Light Railways were that concerned with the effects of braking systems.

Oh heck that reminds me, still needs a Brake Pipe each end. So not finished!

Buffers came out of the bits box and are ones removed from Playmobil Vehicles, I convert them to centre buffers hence each conversion throws a few spares for future use. They have been mounted on some Plasticard to be dropped slightly lower then the standard buffer beam. Of course some cosmetic and actually functional rivets will also be used to secure them.

I also decided that an Air Cylinder and Actuating Cylinder would be in order for the brkes. Both made from off cuts of Till Roll centres. Very useful medium if you can get them. My stock is lasting well, but none have been added for some time. Must get friendly with a local shopkeeper. Glued to odd bits of plasticard then sanded round when dry completes a simple bit of fabrication. Buffers now painted, glued to their backing and ready for installation.

View of the underneath which is now suitably busy with detail, ok not to LGB standard but works for me.

Final few views out on the line - sans Air Pipes! Looking at this picture one wonders at the need for brakes, but this was a full sunlight pic, they are more apparent out of the sun with no shade being cast.

Now in Alexisbad with a couple of other vans for comparison, one LGB the other Feld.

This picture shows the difference in length, a real shorty by comparison but I think nicely shouts that it is not a German built Wagon and gets one wondering where on earth did that come from and how did it get on this line.