S
Steve C
Guest
As part of joining the party I promised / threatened to unleash my creative side once again and so after casting around my 'things to finish' pile the nominees are a Lima CCT and Parkside Dundas Fruit D (having two on the go will stop me / you getting bored..).
The two are merely the first in a number of such vehicles which will form the basis of a small fleet for depicting a small parcels working on my yet to be built layout. The Lima CCT was picked up a few years back and whilst having a reasonable body, the roof had suffered a crack which I've noticed on a few second hand items - presumably down to the fact that the roof and glazing are moulded as a one piece unit which breaks when the windows are depressed. The Parkside Dundas Fruit D is pretty much in 'as built kit' status.
Firstly lets start with the CCT:
The above image is how it once looked - after I'd gone to town on it (i.e. depreciated it's value even more) then this is what I currently have:
I suppose now that I'll need to explain myself - because I'm an EMr (good to throw in a bit of txt spk so as not to betray my advanced years) then the Lima offering doesn't permit a simple exchange of wheelsets. I started out by removing as much material as I could from the rear of the sole bars / axle boxes but what was left was as wafer thin as an 'Eastenders' plot line, hence off they came. This presented an obvious flaw in that it wasn't ever going to be a free rolling spirit without wheels so what to do? Fortunately a set of MJT wagon compensation units charged to the rescue so after much hacking of the floor and even more packing it back out again, I arrived at the above point. The white patch in the second picture shows were the handbrake has been carved away - by being very careful and not swearing (a lot) you can take out the panel between the top and bottom of the solebar using the two side webs as a guide and replacing it with a piece of plasticard (by the time it's muckied up it shouldn't be too apparent0. You then have to do this on the other side...
Next it should be apparent that the windows aren't windows but holes for windows to go in - the Lima moulding has very faint raised beadings around each which try as I might I can't see on any pictures so off they came.
Now the most destructive step so far - away with the roof, no messing around in an effort to get it looking right as it was bust anyway. Like the wheels this then gave rise to having to create a replacement (there's always something isn't there..) but what? Studying pictures of the prototype the roof has a gutter strip which runs the full length of the body side and is moulded on the top of the body side of the Lima CCT. In the unmolested version, there is a gap between the roof and bodyside which has a tendency to get larger and more noticable so one of my plasticard efforts wasn't going to fare much better. So I thought in terms of brass (being a Yorkshireman by birth then this isn't an unusual occurance) and rolled out a suitable curved effort to which I soldered 1mm brass strip on either side. A couple of interior formers and something to screw into (behave!) means that when the roof is sited, the soldered on gutters hide the roof/side interface and also stop it from wandering about.
The Parkside Dundas Fruit D is like all things Parkside a joy to put together but because I want to depict a BR Swindon built electric light version then the floor has gone in upside down whilst the roof has had rainstrips / vents fitted.
And there we have it folks - if you aren't too traumatised by the rambling dialogue then I will do some honest toil in an effort to entertain you further...
The two are merely the first in a number of such vehicles which will form the basis of a small fleet for depicting a small parcels working on my yet to be built layout. The Lima CCT was picked up a few years back and whilst having a reasonable body, the roof had suffered a crack which I've noticed on a few second hand items - presumably down to the fact that the roof and glazing are moulded as a one piece unit which breaks when the windows are depressed. The Parkside Dundas Fruit D is pretty much in 'as built kit' status.
Firstly lets start with the CCT:
The above image is how it once looked - after I'd gone to town on it (i.e. depreciated it's value even more) then this is what I currently have:
I suppose now that I'll need to explain myself - because I'm an EMr (good to throw in a bit of txt spk so as not to betray my advanced years) then the Lima offering doesn't permit a simple exchange of wheelsets. I started out by removing as much material as I could from the rear of the sole bars / axle boxes but what was left was as wafer thin as an 'Eastenders' plot line, hence off they came. This presented an obvious flaw in that it wasn't ever going to be a free rolling spirit without wheels so what to do? Fortunately a set of MJT wagon compensation units charged to the rescue so after much hacking of the floor and even more packing it back out again, I arrived at the above point. The white patch in the second picture shows were the handbrake has been carved away - by being very careful and not swearing (a lot) you can take out the panel between the top and bottom of the solebar using the two side webs as a guide and replacing it with a piece of plasticard (by the time it's muckied up it shouldn't be too apparent0. You then have to do this on the other side...
Next it should be apparent that the windows aren't windows but holes for windows to go in - the Lima moulding has very faint raised beadings around each which try as I might I can't see on any pictures so off they came.
Now the most destructive step so far - away with the roof, no messing around in an effort to get it looking right as it was bust anyway. Like the wheels this then gave rise to having to create a replacement (there's always something isn't there..) but what? Studying pictures of the prototype the roof has a gutter strip which runs the full length of the body side and is moulded on the top of the body side of the Lima CCT. In the unmolested version, there is a gap between the roof and bodyside which has a tendency to get larger and more noticable so one of my plasticard efforts wasn't going to fare much better. So I thought in terms of brass (being a Yorkshireman by birth then this isn't an unusual occurance) and rolled out a suitable curved effort to which I soldered 1mm brass strip on either side. A couple of interior formers and something to screw into (behave!) means that when the roof is sited, the soldered on gutters hide the roof/side interface and also stop it from wandering about.
The Parkside Dundas Fruit D is like all things Parkside a joy to put together but because I want to depict a BR Swindon built electric light version then the floor has gone in upside down whilst the roof has had rainstrips / vents fitted.
And there we have it folks - if you aren't too traumatised by the rambling dialogue then I will do some honest toil in an effort to entertain you further...
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