My playmobil loco to snow plow build

Dave Hub · 6 Dec 2009

Ok folks, I had an old playmobil engine I wanted to do something with it, I need a snow plow and after seeing the LGB one I decided that a powered plow is the way to go.

I am using a lot of imagination for this build rather than say it’s supposed to be X,Y, or Z. Though It is inspired by the UK independent snow plow crossed with the LGB one. Also I think it’ll need some lights for those blizzard condtions we get here in the West Midlands.
I did find these pics on a website:

http://www.flangeway.com

They are a useful 3d representation of an independent plow.

Dave Hub · 6 Dec 2009

Part one: Getting the chassis
The chassis comes from an old playmobil track powered 0-4-0 shunt loco. Really you could use any chassis and ideally it would be 0-6-0 if sticking to prototype. I believe the original chassis for these came from old steam tenders. I am cheap and I have never stuck to prototype, so no point in starting now. 
With the playmobil Chassis its easy to get It down to the bare bones nice and quickly, there are two clips on the bottom and hey presto the body is off. There are some plastic moldings on the chassis which helped the body stay in place. I do not want these here because I want a flat surface to work off. So using a sanding drum on a Rotary tool they sand off easily. It does not have to be a tidy job as this will be covered up. See pic of removed body from Chassis For extra weight and to stabilize the front of the plow I did Rig an extra axle at the front of the chassis, this set is unpowered but did add some stability.

Dave Hub · 6 Dec 2009

Part two: Making the body All of the new Body Is made from 2mm Plasticard. A rough shape is superimposed onto Paper then the shape is copied onto plasticard. All the plasticard shapes are then cut out with a craft knife. The sides and base were simple to cut as it was all straight line and angular you can just run a craft knife along a metal ruler to ensure you stay straight. These are then glued together using Plastic weld (Dichloromethyne). Whilst sticking the angled top sections of the base on I ensured to leave a slight overlap to act as a flange. Once the base is finished this can then be placed onto the chassis, This then gives you the beginnings of your plow. The rest of the body is again basic shapes cut from plasticard based loosely on the UK independent snow plow. I decided to pre-cut the doors out at this early stage, unfortunately I forgot to cut out the window at the same time, which I’I'll mention later. It was at this stage that I decided it would be useful to learn a little about LED and electronics. (I’ill go into more detail later.) So I had to cut a hole in my nicely built base. It did not have to be neat as it would be covered by the housing. Oh and the answer is no the BR independent snow plow does not have lights, But I wanted mine to have lights as it gets dark early in Winter and I wanted to see where I was going. After cutting the extra hole and adding the sides of the housing things are really taking shape. Then it was time to add the roof. Again this was a simple affair of just a couple of rectangles glued into place.

Dave Hub · 6 Dec 2009

Part 3: The plow Blade
 OK this part was a big stumbling block for me, the original idea was to buy an aristo-craft replacement plow and modify it. It seems there is a bit of a world shortage of these right now, so I had to hunt around for other ideas. You may have seen me asking for ideas on the forum. Unfortunately after a couple of weeks nothing had materialised, so I started trying to build my own plow blade.I toyed with the idea of brass as this is easier to manipulate, I had done something similar on my shark ballast plow. I also remember the hard time I had attaching the brass to plastic without screws or bolts being visable. So I decided on a plasticard blade. 
 I tried several attenpts to get the curvature and size right with thin 0.25mm plasticard. Once I knew what size and shape to cut it I used 2mm plasticard. I cut two pieces to make each half of the blade. I glued these together at one end. Then using a hot air gun gently swarmed the pieces and started to bend them away from each other. Once I had a V shape with the two halves it was time to make each half rounded. Again using the hot gun I warmed the m and gently rolled the plastic. (Whilst burning my fingers many times). Eventually something resembling a plow blade was made. It was not perfect but after spending so long on it I thought I could make it work. 
 I sharpened the front edge which had been previously glued to make it look sharler and more blade like. I then attached this to the base. I attached this to the base primarily using plastic weld, then I was advised in snow this may not be good enogh and put 2 small screws through the base into the thicker part of the blade.
 A you can see I left an awful lot of space both on top of the plow blade and between the housing. On the prototype this looks easily filled, I was wrong. I had to cut a whole load of little bits of plasticard to build up the rest of the gaps. It was at this point I noticed my plow blade was wonky, now that I had glued and screwed it down. So rather than deal with the problem I decided to leave that and make some lights.

Dave Hub · 6 Dec 2009

Part 4: the LED lights
OK using an old playmobil loco made this easy it already has track pick ups. And little lugs to attach wires for the loco lighting. What I wanted was 2 front lights in White led, and 2 on the roof that flashed orange. Easy enough if you know what you are doing. I did not have a clue. I ordered some flashing orange LED, I already had whites from some other project. There are a whole bunch of rules regarding LEDs and volts etc. Basically you need resistors. The LEDs from ebay came with them so I knew I had the right ones. 
 My Better half is good at soldering and electronics so I roped her into helping wire them up. The only difficulty encountered was when we put them in series the flashing orange LED made the whites flash too. So we (Susan) wired them as 2 separate circuits. Tested them and hey presto the orange flash and the whites stay on. Here is aphoto of how they looked before going into the loco.
 Inserting these into a plow should have been easy, 5mm LED, Unfortunately being a bit dull I drilled the holes in the plow at 5.5mm way too big a hole. So had to then add filler into the surrounds. 
 Oh Just as a qick note after fixing LED’s into plow and adding roof and nearl finishing the orange LED have stopped flashing now are static. Too late to do anything about it as roof is glued on. (Doh!)

CoggesRailway · 6 Dec 2009

that is really cool. after mating a playmobile powered tender to a black painted bachmann circus loco has failed to negotiate points I may now follow you down this route. You kindly sent the coal, but unfortunately it won't run right!! I have the powered tender which is basically a playmobile 0-4-0 so i will follow with interest. keep posting.

Dave Hub · 6 Dec 2009

Part 5: the final stretch
 
To cover up the wonky plow blade I decided to put a flat horizontal blade on top of the vertical blade. Not prototype but had to cover up my mess. Added a diamond roof , this to break up the flat surface and give it the more appropriate stealth fighter look that the prototype has.
 At this stage I felt the front was aa little light weight, so using a hot glue gun I added some extra weight, Nothing too heavy about 150 grams. I used some weights usually applied to car wheels when balancing. I attached these inside the base of the plow using hot glue gun.
 I then realised I had not put a window into the rear, so had to cut one out using my dremmel. Not easy trying to put glazing in when the model is 90% complete.

After the glazing I added hand rails. I used this great plastic coated metal wire I picked up from a shop in Banbury. If any one knows what it’s called please let me know. It’s strong, easy to manipulate, and the plastic coating is good to be stuck to other plastic using plastic weld so makes it easy to attach.
 After the hand rails I thought the base looked a little plain so dug out some old guage one white metal tender axle boxes cut off the spring parts and attached these where the wheels were. I attached these by drilling small holes into the backs of the boxes, and small holes into the bases. Super glued a small peg into the back of the axle box then put it in the hole on the base with a little super glue for extra stick.
 Then it was time to paint it. Firstly a coat of Halfords grey primer. Then just plain old Halfords matt black. Then Just pick out the detail in white, steps, handrail. Etc.

Dave Hub · 6 Dec 2009

Well It's now 99% complete Just a couple of transfers needed on the side, and the rear buffer beam to be painted red. To get Yellow stripes I used Trim Line tape. Thanks to Whatlep for showing me the stuff it sure beats painting straight lines.

Hopefully if I get 10 minutes later to finish it I'll post a pic.

mike · 6 Dec 2009

a terrific biuld ,looking foirward to seeing it in actinon!! noow why am i reminded off robot wars?

CoggesRailway · 6 Dec 2009

wow i wish i had the talent, or even the time to find out if i do. When you it goes into action for real I assume it will be pushed as well? So it is a mimic of an unpowered model with power to make it more practical in the scale we operate? Congratualations.

George · 6 Dec 2009

wow that looks brillient, looks like the ones at Peterborough

heres a pic of one of them

Steve · 6 Dec 2009

Brilliant Dave , i have the day off work tommorow recon i may just have a go at building a snow plough

Phil · 6 Dec 2009

i have 2 of those in oo scale great infront and behind a class 66

Richie · 6 Dec 2009

cracking job Dave

bet you can't wait for the snow

Dave Hub · 6 Dec 2009

Thanks for nice comments,

Phil I don't think It'll be seen next to my CL. 66 its about 1:20 sacle and looks big next to my PIKO never mind a 1:29 cl 66.

Any ways I finished my detailing. I decided it looked a little bland on the side so I stuck a couple of BR signs on that I had left over and a few waning Electric transfers. Also finished the wasp stripes on the rear end too.

If weather gets clear over next few days I'll venture to outside world and take a photo next to some stock.

pugwash · 6 Dec 2009

Dave Hub - 6/12/2009 6:26 PM
To get Yellow stripes I used Trim Line tape.

The bees knees indeed!

yb281 · 7 Dec 2009

That's brilliant Dave. Looking forward to seeing it in action.

3Valve · 7 Dec 2009

Nice one Dave.

Gizzy · 7 Dec 2009

Nice work Dave.

Of course, now you've built it, you'll probably never get enough snow to 'test' it....

Dave Hub · 7 Dec 2009

Gizzy - 7/12/2009 2:17 PM

Nice work Dave.

Of course, now you've built it, you'll probably never get enough snow to 'test' it....

Nah we'll get snow, It'll just be the wrong type.

My playmobil loco to snow plow build

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