A Victorian Victoria
In my earlier post about the 'Scale Link' kit for a horse bus, I mentioned that I had another of these kits to make a 'Victoria' carriage, which I've now constructed.
The 'Victoria' was an elegant 4-wheel vehicle, with a low and wide entrance, suitable for use by ladies wearing the voluminous skirts of the period. My example is destined to be loaded onto an open carriage truck, for the use of the local Lord of the Manor, on his annual trip to London for the Season. His wife and daughters will enjoy seeing and being seen in the Park in this handsome vehicle.
Like the previous kit, this one is very delicate and somewhat fiddly to build. The first task is to identify the various parts on the fret, as the main body has a very complex outline and some of the links look more like sprue than component!
The main body is designed to be folded to shape but is completely devoid of any tabs to facilitate holding the thing together, when formed. I decided to hold the parts in position, by hand, and then run a little superglue, with the aid of a cocktail stick, along the various joint lines.
There's a choice of two hoods on the fret, one raised and one folded. Amazingly, the raised hood has a couple of tabs to help hold the top of the hood to the sides. Unfortunately, the appearance is nothing like a real hood, seeming as though it is made of plywood rather than fabric.
Since my carriage will be a wagon load, I thought it most unlikely that the hood would be raised in transit (like an open umbrella in a strong wind), so I was happy to discard this part and used the folded version instead. Similarly, I discarded the rather skeletal lamps, deciding that these would be removed for travel and stored safely in the groom's compartment of the accompanying horsebox. .
As with the horse bus, there are some extremely delicate parts - the steps, for example, are held by a 'thread' of brass, whereas the real coach seems to incorporate these as part of the flowing mudguards.
Having learned from my previous encounter, I assembled the wheels onto their axles before fitting these to the minute slots in the hyper-thin springs. I used a dot of superglue to secure the wheels and their washers to the flat strip 'axle'. Alas, I got some excess glue on the hub and, in trying to remove it, seriously bent the hyper-thin spokes on one of the wheels. The real coach had pretty delicate looking wheels but I hope they were stronger than these!
I think the angular mudguards also need replacing, to create more flowing lines that would reflect the elegance of the real carriage. I suppose that, for transport, I should throw a tarpaulin over the whole carriage but, even if the model is far from perfect, I intend to leave it exposed.
I removed the shafts from the fore-carriage, for transport, and will lay these under the coach, on the bed of the carriage truck. That is the next vehicle that I have to build but that is another story....
Mike
- 11
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