Monday 12 March 2012

PPM Progress

I've been getting on well with the Parry People Mover to the point where most of the outside of the railcar is complete now.



This vehicle has two very distinctive bands around - at the bottom and at the waist - which have been built up with styrene strip.

In the case of the centre band this was made from a strip (about 4mm wide and 30 thou thick) which had to be chamfered and sanded to a rounded profile before pieces were cut from it and stuck in place on the bodyshell.

Once glued on they had to be smoothed over with emery paper once more, particularly at the 45 degree joints at each end of the railcar.

After this was done holes were drilled for the headlights which I did by starting off with a small drill bit to make sure the hole was centered in the strip and then expanded them with a larger bit.

The hexagon panels - which are also curved - were cut from styrene sheet and, when glued in place, had model filler applied to the gaps behind them.



The skirt beneath the body - which has a double angle - is attached to the chassis which fits up into the bodyshell using the same technique I have with my styrene carriages.



I have also completed the raised section on the roof - which I suppose is there for ventilation equipment? - and so the next stage will be to begin work on the interior.

3 comments:

  1. Hi Rob

    Sorry if you've covered this in a previous post but when making your coaches/railcars do you make all the windows before you cut the panel from the plastikard or do you cut them out first? I've been working on some large window openings and I'm finding it tough not to warp the frames.

    I'm attending the Sparsholt show and can't wait to see this beautiful layout in the flesh!

    Christian

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  2. Hi Christian, from what you wrote it sounds like you're cutting out windows from a solid sheet of plasticard - my technique is completely different, I fabricate a window frame rather than cutting anything out. May I suggest you look at the Carriage Building Guide page on the menu on the right of the screen? If you have any other questions I'd be happy to answer them. Thanks for reading the blog.

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  3. I really like your work on the Heritage Style PPM

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