4 wheel Guards Van in O scale

Ok so had a call from the manufacture of the kit today.
And I make the statement below re my building.

Just to make it Clear there is nothing wrong with the kit as per it is intended to be built I have chosen a variant of the HG van that the kit doesn't quite represent and have chosen to modify the kit to more closely represent what I want, not the van as supplied.

As I think it may have been misinterpreted When I mentioned it was, not as per the prototype that I have chosen. I orignaly mentioned that I wasn't building it exactly as per the kit

The other point was letting me know that the material for the chassis is a type of Acrylic not nylon and he expected that it would glue with Tetra or MEK. Glue. I orignaly tried Tetra left it clamped over night and it sprung open as if had never been glued. So I used the 454 Loctite without issue

The manufacture is going to ask what type of glue is best for this type of Acrylic and let me know.
Re, the choise of material for the ladder frame was due to production costs understandable when trying to keep the cost of a kit to a resonable $$ figure. He did say other options were considered but all had similar possibilities of warping due to the cutting process.
He was also concerned re the use of PVA as a bonding glue but as I said when I put the sides to form the box and then the brass over lays the Rapid set Modern PVA sets super fast and solid so is not an issue and eliminated the mixing of the 2 part arldite I just left the parts clamped overnight as a security thing maximum bond etc,etc and would have done the same for any other glue.

Now on to todays work on the van, drilling the Axle boxes for the bearings and fitting then to the Chassis.
Often a tricky little job with the with the shape of the W Iron, Spring,axle box etc however with a little Jig by Waratah models that holds the assy, now it's an easy to hold and drill
See the photos


I drill 3 times 2 pilot then the final size 2.9mm the larger of the two drills.


Now test fitting to the sole bar.


Edit fix photo

 

Gary wrote:

Gary. I think the aim was that you didn't have to use a soldering iron to do any of the kit if you weren't to that skill level, everything as is could be glued together,
If the chassis was brass section really would have needed soldering.

The various kits under the umbrella of The manufacture have been going for sometime, this kit is a new direction away from the traditional urethane type that was previously the norm in NSW O scale and from the conversation today it is in part to reduce production costs to a level that makes the kit affordable and an attempt to raise the quality from the traditional Urethane material. they do some nice stuff

Now more photos of a rolling "H" van it hasn't got the Guard bit yet so no "G"

H van rolling tests body jus sitting on chassis, all good

HG van rolling tests body just sitting on chassis, all good