New to building my own

[Steveford666]

I bought a wagon kit from ebay. Never again. It said "glue the end to the base. But there was nothing rigid to hold it in place while the glue set.

The kit defied superglue, extremely fast setting tough bonding glue which works perfectly well on other things. It all fell to pieces even after an hour.

So I decided to build my own wagons using alluminium. Work has held me up. The bogies need to be thought about. I can do a simple design, but I am looking for a model engineering shop that sells alluminium / copper/ brass strips, tubes etc.

i am new to G gauge, but intend to make my own points as I can get the angle right for the diverting line to save having to juggle the line to match the points.

I am considering using wood for the sleepers and I am soaking some wood in creosote for a few weeks and will let it dry so I can see if it is okay before I start laying the track. The track will be panel pinned to the sleepers. Bridges will be built in the same material. The sleepers would have to be drilled in a jig so they are all the correct width.

If anybody has any ideas I would be glad of their advice. I have some time yet as the garden is being worked on so track laying can commence in May.

 

[Granitechops]

Hi Steve

You dont say wether the kit was wood or resin

I mainly scratch build in wood, & very very rarely fix it with superglue

Tip for supergluing wood is to dampen wood - SLIGHTLY - first

But I prefer to use white wood glue, PVA if I remember correctly

Some kit manufacturers seem to be very optimistic as to the amount of material they give you to accomplish a joint

Maybe they assume you have got multi clamping devices to hold everything square till glue has set

I find I am often several clamps short of a good glue up!!!!

If you are going to use aliminium, you can get angle etc from the big DIY barns but be warned the prices are now astronomical

£18 for a 2 mete length of 1inch angle!!!!

it pays to shop around to some of the less popular ( thats DIY wise ) multi chains as they may still have old stocks left at the old prices if they have not jacked the prices up yet

You dont say where you are, but here in Devon there is a firm near Newton Abbot called Tr*go Mills that has plastic & ali sections at half & a third of the big multichains like C & R

 

[Granitechops]

If you want to look here at my thread on scratchbuilding

http://www.gscalecentral.net/tm?&m=34029&mpage=1


you may find some tips of using ali for chassis strength & wood & ply for bodies

Bear in mind I model in 1/12th scale

but the gerneral principles apply in different scales

Happy building!!

 

[steven large]

[H2]what a clever tricks tht u kit bashing it...well done and it look superb especailly this figure!!!!.......loves that figure when he doing the job on it......[/H2] i was thinking i try to make sw-4 switcher dummy out of woods,mdf,plywood and plastic........to match my sw-4 usat....then spray colours,etc...