Sunday 8 July 2012

Brake Bits

I am a very lazy modeller and I don't mind admitting it.

I don't see the point in making a great effort doing bits that no one's ever going to notice. Or perhaps putting it another way, bits they'll never realise aren't there.

Normally on FR and WHR rolling stock the brake gear comes firmly into this category.

Most of the carriages sit so low that unless you get down on your hands and knees you really don't see a lot of what is underneath them. A few tanks and cylinders, yes, but not a lot of the brake gear is visible.

(It most certainly is audible, though!)

Unfortunately for me the DZ's are the exception to the rule. They are indeed the Katie Price of NG wagons - everything is out on display.


So I really don't have a lot of choice but to bodge up some bits and pieces representing all the thingamajigs and whatitsnames under the floor.

And yes, you've guessed it, I'm going to try and cast these too.


I'm not going to pretend that these bits are going to win any prizes for finescale modelling: if I wanted that then I'd be drawing up designs to be etched in brass.

They will be completely flat, so they won't have the joints and depth that a faithful replica would do, but that's not what I'm wanting to achieve here.

The idea is that it will create an perfectly acceptable silhouette of all the bits that are under the DZ's.

Very little assembly will be required except for drilling through a couple of holes and adding some lengths of brass wire here and there.

No comments:

Post a Comment