Over the Easter weekend I got a bit more work done on the contract job for a model of FR buffet car 114.
Having shown you the body shell in a previous post, this time I'm concentrating on the floor / chassis unit which will remain removable after the model is finished.
The seats are resin castings, using moulds I developed last year for the same customer.
In this carriage only have half the space is given over to passengers and I've yet to work out what needs to in the buffet area - I don't have any images to work from.
The underframe has a new innovation for me.
These Carnforth carriages have very distinctive truss rods made out of square tube section.
I've got an idea they might double as the vacuum brake pipes, but I could be wrong in that?
On previous models I've made these by fabricating each one out of styrene strip.
This time I hit on the idea of making a master and casting resin copies of it, with the idea they'd have more strength and durability and I think they've turned out very well.
The carriage will run on my own design of modern FR bogies with fold-up brass frames with resin covers.
I passed that magic moment this week where a carriage stops being four separate pieces and comes together into a body shell.
114 is much more delicate that my average styrene carriage because it has so little beading on the outside, meaning that most of it is just 0.20" thick.
In order to prevent it developing any permanent warp I quickly moved on to cutting the floor / chassis and not only making the roof but gluing it into position at a much earlier stage than I usually would.
This should keep in shape reasonably well, and by the time I have fitted the seats and the glazing it will be really quite solid.
The one thing the trio of Carnforth INCA carriages have in their favour, from a scratch builder's point of view, is they have very much less beading than almost any other FR vehicles.
Once the biggest headache of making the rounded window frames is overcome, it doesn't take too long to add the rest of the surface to each of the sides.
On this build I'm using strip which is 50% thinner (0.10") than the stuff I would use on my own models to try and get it to match as close as I can to its etched brass running mates.
The last thing left to do on these is to add horizonal bars on on the windows which opened, which were fewer on the buffet car than the two composites.
There's been some gentle progression on the commission to scratch build a model of FR buffet car 114 in styrene this week.
Before I can start adding a second layer of detail on the sides I needed to fill the gaps at the corners of the window frames.
My favourite material for these jobs is Milliput.
It doesn't dry too quickly and crumble like the sort of model fillers you squeeze out of tubes, and if you wet the surface it will flow into the tiniest gap and leave a brilliantly smooth finish, as well as setting very hard.
I've also made the base pieces for the two ends of the carriage.
For these I've used a different technique to get rounded corners, this time gluing tiny triangles of styrene strip into the corners and using a file to shape them.
A little more work has been put in on the contract job for a model of Carnforth buffet car 114.
The window frame detail has been added in using the 10 thou strip technique I described in a previous post.
Once you get your eye in and establish a rhythm it's quite a relaxing and enjoyable job, and also very satisfying when you see the finished effect.
The most important thing is to try to use reasonably 'fresh' strip - if it's too old and brittle there is a risk it will snap at the corners when you apply a drop of solvent along the edges.
I think I might make the carriage ends - and fill the corner gaps on these sides with Milliput - before I go on to add beading detail.
A start is being made on my mission to scratch build 'Carnforth' buffet car 114 for a customer.
The most difficult part of this trio of FR carriages is representing their big windows which have a very obvious frame with rounded corners.
The solution I hit on when I made my own fleet of these around 20 years
ago is to create the window apertures as usual with vertical and
horizontal pieces of strip, with the square corners.
Then I take a
very thin piece of strip - in this case 0.10" x 0.30" which when fixed
on its side stands slightly proud of the 0.20" thick window pillars.
I
curl that around the inside edge of the window, glueing it only along
the straight edges with the smallest drop of solvent and letting it
naturally form an arc in the corners.
With some very careful
cutting with the scalpel I can made the two ends meet so precisely that
you can't see the join unless you look really closely.
It takes a little while to do each one but I think the effect is worth the effort.
Afterwards I will use Milliput to fill the cap in the corners and once its painted you'll never notice.
I've been given a new scratch building challenge.
A long-standing customer is looking for a model of the FR's Carnforth-built buffet car 114.
Straightforward enough.
The challenge is that the other two parts of the trio of carriages have been built using the Worsley brass scratch aid kits, but mine will be constructed from styrene.
What I have to do is try to and make mine as good a match as I can, which is tricky given the nature of the materials they're made from.
They've sent one of their existing carriages to use as a guide.
In case you were wondering, the reason I've been asked to scratch build it is because 114 has undergone changes to its design - an extra window on one side - compared to the Worsley version.
