Model O Kits HCX build

Had this sitting on the shelf for about 9months I had a bit of time plus a friend had been asking about it, what was it was like so now seemed like the time to get it going.

What is a HCX basicly it is a Composite Brake/passenger Carriage.
They were used mainly on branch line trains often in a mixed consist as the trains brake van and passenger accommodation.
Originally the cars were standard CX 6 compartment carriages that had 3 of the the compartments turned into the brake and luggage section

Here's what it looks like on the instructions and the body parts

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The kit is a urethane resin kit with some white metal and brass parts it is also noted that at least one page seems to be missing from the instructions as there is no mention of the body's assembly in the pages I have.

The sides varied in thickness along there length so a lot of time was spent sanding to get the sides as close to even as possible it was also found that one side was several Milimteres shorter than the other so some time was spent carefully reducing the length of the longer one to match.
Then into the jig to square up and glue the corners to form the cars basic body.

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Set in the Jig I place grease proof paper on the bottom as CA is use to glue the urethane and it also bonds well to the jigs surface so the reason for the paper as if some glue gets on the paper will slide off

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A rectangular box the start of a carriage finally looks like your getting somewhere after about 4 hours of sanding parts to size/thicknesses

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The luggage compartment doors fit into a shallow section of the body seemed quick and easy until I measured the depth at 0.5 and one door at 5mm the other at 3mm
More sanding plus heating the doors and letting cool weighted down on a flat surface, to get straight as they were a bit like a banana, they can be seen fitted to the body in the photo below and a section of the roof sitting in place the 2 parts of the roof have to be cut to length joined and the join filled and smoothed out.

I have started on the floor/Chassis as can't use the machinery to cut the Roof, this late at night apparently it may wake the neighbours

The Chassis has lost wax brass stirrups to hold the brass running board and guards step. Lots of mounting holes drilled for these 2 per stirrup,
One side running board can be seen soldered in place, plus the queen posts and cross braces in place ready for the truss rods to be made.
The moulded blocks on the Chassis casting, for locating the under floor detail are all in the wrong places on the floor moulding when compared to the prototype carriages, so plasticard block are being positioned to mount the parts in the correct positions as per photos taken under a real HCX car, battery boxes first items to be fitted as per the prototype side by side at the luggage end of the car
And that's it for tonight time for a stretch and maybe bed
http://www.click

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Hi Rob
I know where your coming from it takes a bit of the fun out of the build when you have to spend more time getting the parts right than the build

Re the Jig
It can be configured in several ways not just as a corner square
I have missed placed a few parts from the original kit over the years but it has been one of those items I use so often I've well and truly gotten my money's worth and should buy a replacement/spare as its now listed as discontinued line

Brunel Hobbies Melbourne, “model mate Jig” I got my one about 10 years ago certainly gone up in price over the years
http://www.brunelhobbies.com.au/modMate/modMate.htm

 

Not much progress tonight after a day out, and a continual procession of phone calls tonight then time spent researching some items on the carriage that didn't add up we have decided it's a generic representation of the HCX class of cars not a representation of a particular No from the class, as the conversions from other classes of cars did make for some variances.
Mostly to do with length of the body and Chassis, where there are variances to the prototype. However this models body doesn't measure up to any of the prototype.
Next when I came to look at the seating for the interior see photo all 6 of the partions are way to wide for the floor by a large amount so will need a lot of time spent reducing the size so as will fit within the body.

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I did get the rest of the foot boards on the Chassis but may have to remove the buffer beams and lengthen the section behind them on the Chassis so that it fits the body length

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The running boards fitted and guards steps
Research has found the top full length running board wasn't on all the cars and seems to have been removed as the cars got older leaving only the guards step section with the double steps under the compartment door

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It's starting to look more like a carriage now
It even have a painted roof for about 1/2 an hour this afternoon.
However the bad luck with this build continued.
After spending a while sanding the two halves of the roof to a consistent shape, I decided to prime the roof as it was a nice warm day so after it was primed I placed it under a cover so as not to get any dust on it out on the garden table to bake the paint in the warmth, later on I gave it a coate of flat Black again placed it under the cover, however a late change in the weather and a gust of wind dislodge a good size tree branch that fell and knocked it off the table in doing so it place a couple of good size scratches in the new paint so I have had to strip the paint off it and will start again when the weather clears as it has turned and doesn't look like being nice and sunny for a few days now

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The seats for the passenger compartments where installed to the floor, these where also well over size up to 5mm too wide so were all cut down on the drop saw
I'm amazed at how much excess resin has been cut away or sanded away with this kit it's messy stuff so I regularly vacuum it up and it has filled a full Dyson stick vac's dust chamber.

I have also made a start on the bogies drilling out the bearing holes, installing brass bearing then drilling the bolsters and side frames to accept screws.
A test fit of the first Bogie found the mount on the Chassis floor and Bogie do not give a correct finished height so will need a mount making from plasticard to get the correct ride height there are no parts supplied in the kit for setting this height.

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The HCX Is on the rails for a test
With the bogies as solid frames as supplied the HCX didn't track very well so pulled the bogies off to look at what could be done
After changing how the bogies are put together from being fixed solid, so they have a fixed frame one side to the bolster and a floating frame on the other this allow it to articulate with any irregularities etc to mount the bogies I have also used screws long enough to allow a spring between the screw head and the bolster this holds some light pressure on the bolster this will reduce the chance of wobble or when off the layout in transit the bogies flopping around that could cause damage.

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Keith M wrote:

Thanks Keith
My wife said if there is a RTR model or kit out there that isn't right straight out of the box I'll be the one that gets it I think she is right I'm banned from getting a kit or train for Xmas this year a Friend has the CX version of this carriage kit it's the all compartment original that the HCX was converted from and looking at the parts they are spot on but his instructions are also missing pages he has the ones I don't I have the one he doesn't so between us we have a full set of instructions now

I have spoken to the manufacture so he is aware of the issues with my kit Plus the offer is there to replace any parts if I need then, also advises that the castings are now being done elsewhere.
So hopefully this is not going to effect other models in the Oaust kits range.

jakesdad13 wrote:

Hi Pete
send it over if you like I do like a challenge
There is usually a way but we shouldn't have to resort to heavy machinery or kitchen experiments to get them in a state to start the build, I am amazed, that some kits get produced that are considered so bad the owners never attempt the build as they just look impossible but we usually purchase after seeing a fine example of the model in advertising etc

The cut point between the CX sides and HCX guards van compartment

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The Under side of the Chassis came in for some attention tonight
After a bit more research it was found that in most photos of the HCX vans where the Truss rods were visible they were on the inside of the Chassis the kit came with a Chassis that was for outside of the frame truss rods.
I looked at fitting these as per the kit on the outside however with the correct longer framed 2AD bogies the truss rods fouled on the bogies when turning on even a small radius curve.
As a compromise I decided to drill the sole bar and fit the truss rods closer to the style in all the photos this also has them clear of the bogies win win solution I think I added the supplied under floor detail parts in positions as per photos not as per the kits diagram modifying the parts like the brake air cyl as supplied it was a all in one cyl and triple valve however the prototype has the valve seperate so I cut it off the casting and mounted separate as per photos also the generator was mounted in position, I cut off the big white metal mount post off and drilled and inserted 3 mounting posts made from phosphoru bronze wire as in the photos it shows 2 angular mounting bars and one tensioning adjusted, next will be to make up some brake Roding and air pipes for the under side of the Chassis, The car is now at rolling stage and in need of couplers I'm going to fit screw links to this one.as all the prototype photos where you can see the buffer beam shows their are hook and screw links fitted.
I also got the roof finished with the venterlaters fitted and primed again when dry it will get painted with silver as the colour.
I was going to paint the roof Black but most colour photos show silver roofs on the HCX in there later life so silver will do me.

Check out the video of it on the layout being pushed along the platform on Moonan Flats

https://www.facebook.com/groups/PLATFORM1MRC/permalink/1527943717261255/

Under floor truss rod details being installed

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The roof with all its venterlaters fitted and in primer ready for some silver ones the primer has cured fully, sorry about the light flare from the work bench light

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