On the Road

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David B
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On the Road

Postby David B » Fri Jan 16, 2015 12:38 pm

I am a sucker for road vehicles. The period for my magnum opus (currently cerebral but making steps towards being tangible) is the Nineteen Teens so there will be a mixture of horse and internal combustion powered.

I have just put the last bits on to a Crossley staff car made by WD Models. It is very similar to the civilian version and that is how I will finish it. Crossley made vehicles in Manchester starting in 1906 making civilian cars until 1938, goods and military vehicles from 1914 to 1945 and, perhaps better known, buses between 1926 and 1958.

Crossley_0345.jpg


Resin cast bits are a new material for me and I posted elsewhere about an appropriate glue. In the end I used a Loctite superglue, Power Flex which came in a very handy bottle with squeeze bits on the side which work really well. Thank you to those people who offered advice.

I did find, though, that some parts of the model are very small and, not trusting superglue (I have had little success with it in the past), I felt compelled to reinforce some joints by pinning with some 0.3mm brass rod. I could not get one of the headlights to stay on so made a bracket from wire and the ring on top of the o/s sidelight broke so I replaced it with a bit of 10thou guitar string. There are a number of air holes in the castings and I am filling those with a very fine acrylic filler I picked up at the Warley show, a Spanish concoction called Masilla Plastica. The tube has a fine nozzle which puts the filler just where I want it.

Crossley_0346.jpg


Now all it needs is paint, something I am not so comfortable with.
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Paul Willis
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Re: On the Road

Postby Paul Willis » Fri Jan 16, 2015 4:26 pm

David B wrote:Now all it needs is paint, something I am not so comfortable with.


Now if only there was something like a weekend course on painting and lining, set somewhere relaxing and peaceful like an abbey, with good company and ale, and the opportunity to practice painting as much as you like...

Hmmm...

Looks very pretty indeed. Any idea what the "house" colours were for vehicles like this?

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Flymo
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Tim V
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Re: On the Road

Postby Tim V » Fri Jan 16, 2015 4:50 pm

Flymo748 wrote:Now if only there was something like a weekend course on painting and lining, set somewhere relaxing and peaceful like an abbey, with good company and ale, and the opportunity to practice painting as much as you like...

Hmmm...

Looks very pretty indeed. Any idea what the "house" colours were for vehicles like this?

Cheers
Flymo

Now there's an idea, did you have somewhere relaxing in the home counties that might fit the bill? St Albans has an abbey?

I would say black, but when you look at http://www.imcdb.org/?l=en you discover old cars were not all black....
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David B
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Re: On the Road

Postby David B » Fri Jan 16, 2015 5:36 pm

Flymo748 wrote: Any idea what the "house" colours were for vehicles like this?


The period before the Great War has been referred to (for vehicles) as The Brass era and there was certainly plenty of the stuff polished up. If you look through entries the London Brighton Veteran Car Run, a bit earlier than my period (only cars pre-1905 are eligible) but there is the whole range of colours, including black. I hadn't appreciated just how many vehicles do the Run - there are 620 listed for 2014.

This is another one I made at the New Year with a bit more brass on view. It's a 1909 Napier from Springside. I was more at home with this using a soldering iron and my RSU.

Napier_0351.jpg


One pleasant aspect of modelling is doing a bit of research. I didn't know that Napier were primarily engine builders and, as a result of a particular demand from the Navy in the Second War, they produced the Deltic engine. It was particularly complex but also very reliable and after the war became the power plant for a well known class of locomotive.

Napier_0352.jpg


Another one to paint! I only got the glazing in this afternoon.
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Andy W
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Re: On the Road

Postby Andy W » Fri Jan 16, 2015 8:02 pm

Nice models and interesting web sites. I'm surprised you glazed them before painting?
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David B
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Re: On the Road

Postby David B » Fri Jan 16, 2015 8:19 pm

Because I want the brass on the Napier, I will have to hand paint it, Andy. The windscreen surround will be brass so I saw no need not to glaze now.

On the Crossley, I will be painting the surround so will touch in the edges of the glazing which is glass on both vehicles. Like coal, there's nothing to match glass.

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Re: On the Road

Postby dal-t » Fri Jan 16, 2015 8:29 pm

Where you already have brass, and want a brass finish, it does make sense to keep it - but where you haven't, Alclad brass looks even more like brass than brass, IMHO (he says with feeling - being half-way through a 1914 Dennis Fire Engine with acres of brass fittings still to go ...).
David L-T

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David B
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Re: On the Road

Postby David B » Fri Jan 16, 2015 9:50 pm

Alclad. Thank you, David. That sounds like a very good idea.

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jim s-w
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Re: On the Road

Postby jim s-w » Sat Jan 17, 2015 12:39 am

Always nice to see some effort being put into road vehicles :)

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Re: On the Road

Postby David Knight » Sat Jan 17, 2015 3:03 am

I'm not even sure if it's still available but another possibility for a brass finish is Floquil. Very fine pigments but a nasty solvent.

HTH

David

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David B
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Re: On the Road

Postby David B » Thu Jan 29, 2015 6:08 pm

I have been working on some (railway) wagons which are rather fiddly and time consuming. By way of a change, I have made these two General Service wagons, again, from WD Models. I have soldered the metal wherever I can and used cyan on the rest.

I am short of some harness fittings to attach the horses - two are needed to pull a wagon - so will have to wait for them to come.

GS-wagon_0367.jpg
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Brinkly
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Re: On the Road

Postby Brinkly » Thu Jan 29, 2015 7:44 pm

Rather nice David. Does the driver come too?

Kind regards,

Nick.

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David B
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Re: On the Road

Postby David B » Thu Jan 29, 2015 8:06 pm

Brinkly wrote:Does the driver come too?


Yes, and two horses. The driver has a separate head. If I had butt joined head to body his neck would have been rather long so I drilled into the body, sunk his head down and held it with a dab of solder. You can now see inside his dirty collar!!

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Re: On the Road

Postby Brinkly » Fri Jan 30, 2015 12:48 pm

David B wrote:
Brinkly wrote:Does the driver come too?


Yes, and two horses. The driver has a separate head. If I had butt joined head to body his neck would have been rather long so I drilled into the body, sunk his head down and held it with a dab of solder. You can now see inside his dirty collar!!


Thanks David. I look forward to seeing the finished product!

Regards,

Nick.

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David B
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Re: On the Road

Postby David B » Wed May 06, 2015 3:36 pm

I had a very successful day at the races last Sunday. Not a horse ran nor a bookie seen, but at Newton Abbot racecourse, there was a Toy Fair. A mere £2 to get in and although there were loads of box shifters, there were also old kits and boxes with bits in that were going cheap, even cheaper if you bargained.

I came away with two Langley kits of a Hansom cab, a Scalelink lorry, Springside steam roller, GEM pantechnicon, PC kit of an LNWR cattle wagon and a Jim Varney Transport Replica. I didn't pay more than £6 for anything.

The Jim Varney kit is of Shillibeer's Omnibus which first ran in Paris in 1827 and London in 1829, so it is a bit early for my Edwardian collection, but an interesting model. It was also the first school bus - a girl's school in Stoke Newington bought one. A replica was built in 1979 and is in the London Transport Museum, either at Brooklands or Covent Garden.
Shillibeer_0548.jpg

The roof is not fixed on yet and when it is, there are a couple more handrails to fit.

Shillibeer's Omnibus.jpg

A postcard which shows the LT replica. There are better photos on the web.

Shillibeer's Omnibus carried 22 people (25 schoolgirls) and was pulled by 3 horses abreast. I have also been making a single horse 'bus from a kit by Rod Parker. This is in period, similar vehicles being owned by the GWR.

one-hp-omnibus_0550.jpg

Some cleaning up to do yet. I had a blitz on about a dozen horses with my airbrush.
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David B
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Re: On the Road

Postby David B » Fri May 08, 2015 9:25 am

Another of my purchases at the Toy Fair last Sunday. The kit is by GEM and marketed as a Super Wagon Load. It is certainly a weighty chunk of white metal.
Pantechnicon_0551crw.jpg


There have been a number of discussions on the quality of instructions elsewhere but nowhere have I heard of them being 'back-of-the-packet'.
Instructions_0553crw.jpg
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garethashenden
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Re: On the Road

Postby garethashenden » Fri May 08, 2015 9:50 am

I really like this thread. Some very good modelling. Will we see the models painted?

The replica Omnibus is in Covent Garden.

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David B
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Re: On the Road

Postby David B » Fri May 08, 2015 10:15 am

garethashenden wrote:Will we see the models painted?


The answer is 'yes', Gareth, but painting is one area I don't enjoy so much. I really like making things and am not confident of making a good enough job of the painting. The answer, of course, is practise!

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David B
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Re: On the Road

Postby David B » Sun May 10, 2015 9:01 am

Embarrassed by Gareth's enquiry about painting :oops: ;), I have made a start on the GS wagons. There are horses and the wagons still need some 'mucking up'.

Others will follow - there, I have made my intention public.

IMG_0517crw.jpg
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martin goodall
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Re: On the Road

Postby martin goodall » Tue May 12, 2015 4:16 pm

I am fascinated by this thread.

My own need is for one or two cars dating from the early 1920s. I already have whitemetal kits for a 4-door Bull-nose Morris Cowley [although I'm not sure what distingished this from the contemporary Morris Oxford] and an Austin 7, but I could do with a 'posh' car like a Rolls-Royce of that period to serve as a load on an open carriage truck.

Can David or anyone else tell me whether a kit for a 'Roller' of this period has ever been available? (I am certainly not aware of one, but then most of the vehicle shown in theis thread were new to me.) The Crossley might well be a suitable alternative.

This raises another question. Would a car such as a Rolls Royce be sheeted when travelling on an open carriage truck?

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MarkS
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Re: On the Road

Postby MarkS » Tue May 12, 2015 5:13 pm

Would a Rolls be placed on an open carriage truck?
Cheers,

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Re: On the Road

Postby garethashenden » Tue May 12, 2015 6:26 pm

MarkS wrote:Would a Rolls be placed on an open carriage truck?

I've seen a picture of a new chassis being loaded onto one at Derby. I don't know about how a completed car would be transported. Most cars of the era and luxury cars through the '30s were coachbuilt. So the running chassis was built by the factory, and then you arrange for it to be sent to the coachbuilder of your choice to have the body of your choice fitted. There wasn't really a "standard" body for a lot of these cars.

If you really want a modelling project, just a chassis could be a fascinating load. Although it would almost certainly be sheeted.

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David B
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Re: On the Road

Postby David B » Tue May 12, 2015 6:58 pm

martin goodall wrote:Can David or anyone else tell me whether a kit for a 'Roller' of this period has ever been available? (I am certainly not aware of one, but then most of the vehicle shown in theis thread were new to me.) The Crossley might well be a suitable alternative.

I don't know of a Rolls Royce kit in 4mm except for a WW1 armoured car, not quite the luxury vehicle you are looking for. The Crossley is an earlier vehicle, first coming out in 1912. The WD version (see half way down the page) is really a staff car which is why the wheels are disc rather than spoked, something I am conveniently overlooking.

As for them being on an open wagon, I somehow think this unlikely for a luxury car in the 1920s. The Damo appeared in 1925, the Asmo in 1930 and Mogo in 1933 (all special grey goods vans) so I suppose an open truck like a Serpent was possible before this but I imagine such a vehicle might have been sheeted, but what damage might a sheet cause? I don't know about any brown vehicles other than the Scorpion, effectively a fitted Serpent.

Didn't Rolls Royce and Bentley arrange for broken down vehicles to be conveyed in a van or something covered in order not to advertise the fact that their cars did break down now and then, or was this at a later date?

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jon price
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Re: On the Road

Postby jon price » Tue May 12, 2015 7:36 pm

The LNWR was building CCTs (covered carriage trucks) in the 1880s as the requirement for cover for luxury horse drawn vehicles was the same as for later motor vehicvles. Lots of them were painted in private liveries for motor manufcturers from at least 1900. I think if you look around you will find them on other railways.
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Paul Willis
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Re: On the Road

Postby Paul Willis » Wed May 13, 2015 5:05 am

Reading "Midland Wagons" last night, looking for prototype inspiration for something, there were *two* photos of Rolls Royce chassis being loaded onto wagons.

One was an open carriage truck (or if it had been the GER, an Implement Wagon!) and the other was into a van-like carriage truck, through the end-loading doors. Unfortunately neither photo was dated, but the car chassis looked like an early period one.

So the choice really could be yours...

Delightful photos, BTW. I was really struck by the one showing the enamel sign above the station door, where it looks like there is just a touch of rust staining coming from the nail-holes where it is fixed to the wall. Exquisite stuff...

Cheers
Flymo
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