CRT KIT - BR Horsebox Diag 751- O Gauge

Cheers Toto
not so sure about the phenomenal and first class comments…..more like mentally challenging mixed with stupidity

 

Cheers Brian.

 

So now the real madness begins. The two top swinging doors.

the instructions give you this:-

the parts look like these:-

1st issue….the top and bottom “hinge bracket” is small. My thinking is these will 1) be very difficult to solder up with out soldering up my intended hinging method and 2) if it could be done, their longevity as working hinges would be as good as a wet paper bag.
The other issue is I’ve added the internal partitions which fall almost directly in line with the hinge openings.

close up of the position of the 4 horizontal slots……which I’ve had to elongate a little:-

this shows the supplied parts plus an off cut of brass rod to represent the hinge. The hinge plate is just a riveted overlay.

So my crude method is to first use a longer riveted strip out of my spares box. Wrap this around some 0.9 tubing. Solder this up and file back the tubing to meet up with the riveted strip. This will give me a strong hinge to solder to the door.

Next up is to cut some long strips of brass and drill out a hole at the end. With some fettling these can then sandwich the new hinge and can be fed into the two slots. I will then tack the hinge strip to the door, align the two hinge points and tack them to the internal partitions, I will probably twist these long section 90 degrees to give me an easier fix to the partition……we will see how it goes…

 

Chassis painted flat black.

just the buffer heads and the couplings to add.

 

Soldering up the hinges proved an interesting task.

This hopefully shows you the pair of long top and bottom hinges that need to be soldered to the inner partitions. I did twist the first pair, but did not help me out with the alignment, so I’ll solder them straight onto the panel at 90 degrees.

I’ve used one long hinge pin to align them up on both sides. My concern here is the curve of the doors and the angle of the hinge as they might bind when in the open position.

and a cruel close up…

So by removing the two upper hinge pins and the long drop down door hinge this unit is now ready to be cut up into three sections.

then refitted to the body

will the upper two move?

answer….yes but they do bind a little so I’ll need to file a small amount off to give them some slack.
The long pins will be replaced with short brass rod on final assembly after painting.

So thankfully this section works but it has raised a major issue re trying the same idea on the other doors. These door being much longer have more of a curve to them and the first test run I’ve done on some scrap shows that they will not work because of the angles and the curve. Looking at photos closely it’s apparent that the top and bottom hinges are totally different to the middle hinge and extend out as they open….not sure if this is something I can model with out making it look to clumsy, so I think I’m going to go with closed storage and cab doors and concentrate on modelling the horse box interior as I’ve done with the others.

 

Two weeks on and lots of detailing added to the body. I’ve added my own detailing from the scrap box. Some small plates behind the grooms door handles, horsebox doors have two door supports / buffers for when it’s lowered, my representation of the door locks and pegs on chains to lock the doors.

assembled loosely here to see if it all works. There’s some adjustment to the door hinges to help align them all, I’ve used thin wire for this test, but after painting I’ll use a thicker peg which will help to tighten the hinge assembly up. There’s two handrails to add at one end but as these fit into the roof detailing they will be added last.

now the task is to disassemble and give the body a good clean up ready for primer. Then the interior can be started.

 

Cheers Rob.
I have a few pictures of it in my reference collection, there’s a few showing the horse stabling interior detailing which will be useful .

 

Oh dear

time to strip it back to bare brass

to cold to paint ? Re action between primer paint and thinners ? Humbrol paint ….not sure how old the tin is….into thinners and out with the wire brushes.

 

Just found this little clip on you tube..

looks at 1:24sec

 

Over 12 months gone since I last touched this build… …..amazing how interest can be lost in a build when things like painting issues set you back……so in a push to clear the “shelf Queens” from my stock cupboard I re visited this build. The brass had dulled down some what so it was all given a good clean up and then given a red oxide undercoat.

so far so good, no reaction….

I had hoped to buy some phoenix paints on my visit to the uk, but due to ill health they have withdrawn from the show. The cost of posting their paints to WA has caused me to try a different route this time. A search on the internet suggested that using a red oxide primer, then applying 2 coats of Vallejo 70.926 Red, gives a good representation of a BR maroon colour.
I did a small test on a scrap piece and the result looks good. So with a little bit of weathering I think , fingers crossed I might get this model painted up soon.

 

First coat of paint today ….

 

Two top coats plus some painted detailing and then a coat of satin varnish and it’s starting to look like a maroon horse box at last.

it will be a few weeks before I get back on to this model, detailing the interior and adding some more details in the grooms compartment..