This month will be by Jim, he will be showing us all the work that can be carried out on road vehicles.

Remember to post your comments and more importantly your attempts.

Over to you Jim :thumbs

Thanks Alan

Welcome to my monthly project.  I hope that some of you decide to have a go and for those that dont (or perhaps work in a different scale) I hope something here is useful to you

Cheers

Jim

Right then,  

As most of you probably know my layout is set in the 1980's and in a city.  The thing with cities is there are lots of vehicles there, the problem with the 1980's is there isnt a lot to chose from.



Route 1 - Kits.  Kits are great and lorry kits tend to be of quite high quality.  Assuming building them is not a chore there are 2 big downsides to kits.  

On the left, A Seddon Atkinson 401 from Langley Models.  Great kit but the downside?  Cost.  With the tractor and trailer coming in at over £40 its not a solution for fleet road vehicles.  Besides which the SA401 was an expensive vehicle in the real world.  Expensive means not a lot of real world operators brought them either!

On the right, A ERF B series tractor from Doug Roseman Engineering.  Another great kit.  Problem with this one isnt the price (although they are not cheap either) but availability,  These kits have been out of production for many years.


RTP?  (ready to plonk)  Plenty of 1990s and later vehicles but 80's?  Basically we are stuck with the Leyland Roadtrain from Base toys.

However all is not lost and the good old toybox yields some useful starting points for the added advantage that they are cheap.



all of these are from corgi.  On the left their mobile shop, in the middle a MAN rigid and on the right a Ford Cargo.  None of these cost more than £2 and the shop cost a whole 20p!

Corgi also do an older Mercedes as a bus and theres a good Commer walk through from EFSI.

The biggest give away to their toy origins are the wheels but look out for cheap base toys models as a good source of spare parts.  

More to follow

Jim

Hi all

Before we start rebuilding anything its important we get a prototype picture to work too.  One good source I found is Flikr and especially a phototream by 'homer simpson'

Click here to see it

A790 KVD - 1984 Ford Cargo - Sunblest Bread

if this picture looks familiar its because I have already done this one!



Cheers

Jim

Jim can we follow what you are doing  and do this with any cheapo car .

Your are right when getting a few cars for my eighty`s diesal module i was suprised how few for that era there are.

Brian

I got most of mine at the weekly flea market and charity shops.
lol::cool:

Hi Brian

Indeed, although you might want to see how close to scale they are.

Cheers

Jim

Whilst not a 'cars and lorries' modeller, Jim's thread does point out to us that sometimes we take things for granted, i.e. if this 'ere chap 'Homer Simpson' or one of his ilk had not taken a photograph of any everyday, ordinary thing like a bread delivery lorry, then this thread would be hard put to find enough details.

All too often family and friends will send me a picture of a locomotive taken on a day out at a preservation railway when better examples are readily available, whereas a square on picture of the door to the Gentlemen's Toilet would prove more useful!

Doofer, feeling philosophical.

Hi Doofer

Exactly so.  The chap was probably got funny looks at the time but his stuff is like absolute gold dust now.  I guess we should all be recording the everyday right now, not for us, for future modellers.

Cheers

Jim

Hi All

Right then, time to take your victim apart.  In the case of the Ford Cargo there are 2 rivets on the bottom of the lorry that you need to drill out.  The wheels can go straight into the bin bit you should end up with this -



While we will be replacing the glazing dont throw it away yet.  It sets the height of the cab so its handy to keep hold of it for the moment.


Above, the biggest difference you can do is swap the wheels for something a bit more realistic.  These are from a base toys lorry.

Cheers

Jim

Hi Jim

Keep it coming, I don't think I am the only one watching and learning ;-)

You're not.  Watching and learning here as well.

Thanks Chaps

Shopping time again!  The ford cargo comes with 2 wheel sizes most of which are the smaller one.  You will need a base Toys Leyland FG (the flatbed or the drinks one) while for the larger wheels practically anything else from base toys will do.  Cheaper the better.

Cheers

Jim

Hi All

In the summer I found this hidden at the back of the birmingham bus museum



Ideal candidate (although its a year too new for the layout so I will 'adjust' the registration)

Out with the hacksaw!



The lower spoiler on the original cab isnt wrong as some Cargos have them. ts pretty rare though so you will probably find you will need to cut it off. Make sure you keep the steps though.

Most cargos are not as long wheelbase as the corgi version. But this one looked about right. A scaffolders lorry would also be a good candidate if you want to keep the original chassis. If you go down that route then you can keep the rear lights too. For my rescue truck they were in the way so I cut the back off.



A start made on the back using the wills checkerplate sheet and 60x20 thou microstrip for the sides.

Cheers

Jim

Hi All

the ramps on my chosen prototype are a bit complex.  You could use solid ramps or even one of those solid backs that slides off.  However to way to produce the ramps is suprisingle simple and uses some Plastruct handrails as the base.



The original is on the left. The missing struts are 30x30 thou microstrip and the mesh is from my spares box.


The ramps in position on the model.  After the wheels the next biggest thing you can do is pick out the details that are not the base colour.  Its easiest to pick out the rubbers around the window using a black marker pen.

Cheers

Jim

HI All

progress on the bulkhead for the back.  Simply 60thou square microstrip and a bit of 20 thou for the plate.



This is how it looks in temporary position



The winch is just a piece of microstrip, a piece of tube and a couple of washers.  More 60thou represents the motor and wrap cotton round for the cable.  The guide again is from microstrip, the main housing being U section cut to shape.



Cheers

Jim

Keep it coming Jim, it's fascinating :thumbs

Very informative Jim, thanks for this :thumbs

Thanks Chaps

Few bits to finish off the construction phase



The winch has had a few guard wires added along with a handle while at the top of the frame I added a couple of spot lights.  These are nothign more than a couple of top hat bearings!

Cheers

Jim

Jim

You are certainly transforming  pretty basic model with some superb detail work.

I have sidelined 2 lorries in the shed which i will work on as they look to new and need to be made look more real.

Brian