One Horse Parcels Van - Based on a GNR example

I have always fancied building a horse drawn vehicle or two mainly as wagon loads for several Open Carriage trucks that I have on the go. I was put onto the idea by a gent I spoe to at a show a few years ago who subsequently brought me a horse drawn carriage from a company named Brumm. Some of the Brumm carriages fetch crazy amounts of money but I found one that was being sold as scrap for not much more than postage and bought it to salvage the wheels from.

Although my photo is of a Great Northern Railway parcels van, the only drawing I have is for an LNWR example but they are broadly similar. I scaled the drawing on the basis of the wheel size that I planned to use (the Brumm Wheels are slightly bigger diameter than the LNWR drawing).

I drew out the body pieces in Inkscape and cut them out with the silhouette and got this basic body.

Please excuse the colouring of the photos as I had to adjust them to show the white against the white background...

 

Next I made up the underframe and shafts from Plastruct. The shafts I put in a collet in the lathe and then used a file to taper the end. Then once I had them both tapered the same I held them together and kept holding them in boiling water while applying pressure to get them to curve at the ends. Once happy I stuck them into holes in the ends of the under frame.



What will become housings for the harness rings were made by wrapping a 5mm wide strip of 10 thou around an off cut of the same plastruct rod that I made the shafts from and gluing the ends together leaving the piece removable. I held it in a small hand vice until dry. Once dry it was removed from the rod, trimmed to size and tested out on the shafts. At this point it still need to be drilled.


Then I moved back to the body and added beading from 0.8mm half round Plastruct strip following the photo rather than the drawing fr the placement of the strips.













Last but not least the seat, the wheels and the springs were the items that I mentioned that were salvaged from the Brumm model.

 

Finally got it up on its wheels still a bit more in the way of details but it’s getting there.

 

Thanks Pete,

Isn't it always the way though, I just got it painted and ready for varnish when I noticed that there was a piece of beading missing. You can see it in the photos above so I had to set to and add it and then back to the paint shop.

 

Front steps and a suitable period handle in the way of a nice brass casting from the spares box and it's ready for painting.

 

Ahh, I have a cunning plan that doesn't require a horse. Although it has been suggested in some quarters that I draw one in Fusion....

 

I finally got it painted and ready for glazing. The roof was 'canvassed' using my old favourite used lens cleaning tissue.

I plan to do the glazing with Glue n Glaze from Deluxe materials assuming it hasn't gone off since I used it last.

 

Excellent, I love it.

 

Thanks Pete, I have thoroughly enjoyed making it. I have another couple of sets of wheels so I ay well make a four wheeled version at some point. I now have suitable drawings so it's just a case of picking a candidate.

 

I have already done it before you asked but I can describe the process.

I seem to recall in the past using the nozzle of the glue n glaze to apply the glue but this time I squirted a small amount onto a scrap of styrene and used a cocktail stick.
Collecting a small blob on the end of the stick I dabbed it around the opening gradually building up the thickness while testing with the cocktail stick laid almost flat to the opening whether the glue could be teased across the opening to create the glazing. It must be stressed that at this point the glue is white but it does dry clear. Once you have it stretched across the opening clean up any overspill with a wet cotton bud and put aside to dry.

I reckon with practice you could glaze cab spectacles and I think that I may have a scrap cab front to test it out on. Leave it with me.

 

Just to finish this thread off for now.

This is the finished article, I would have said 'beastie' but that might have implied the horse....







The slightly rustic look of the glazing really suits the period vehicle to my mind at least