class 50 scratchbuild 2

Entry posted by sleeper July 4, 2015

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So that's the faffing around all done now down to making the model. Despite a long lay off from Inkscape I managed to produce a workable drawing and cut the first sides which were entirely wrong but proved I could produce something here's the result

I hadn't got the scale right it was too high and too short but eventualy it came back to me and I got the hang of altering the measurements and cut the first sides, 5 in total. I stuck these together to form a side 2.5mm thick together with the complete end panels including windscreens.

Then the brain begun to engage and I started thinking about the chassis. I had a rummage through my bits and pieces and came up with a Lima chassis complete with motor bogie for a class 50, how clever is that? Not that clever because I had had visions of etched bogies with a nice little machima motor, dream on sunshine!

Anyhow I compared the side I'd fabricated with the chassis and it was surprisingly compatible it just needed about 1.5mm removing from the middle so out with the razor saw and with a square for guidance hacked it in half.

I chose to cut it just aft of the box thingy underneath. There is a 1mm gap between that and another box thingy beside it, if anyone knows what these two boxes are for sing out I'd like to know.

here's where I cut it

After filing out approximately 1.5mm the two halves were re-united but it was still too long! too late it was stuck together, so my thoughts turned to the alternative, lengthen the body but that would be out of scale, what to do?

I measured the chassis and then realised that the side I'd produced was a mite too short anyway. So back to the drawing on the computer and resized it by 2mm and re-cut the sides. When I laminated them together I clamped the layers together thus

The Lima body is held to the chassis by small slots that coincide with the step below the doors slotting over small nibs cast into the plastic chassis, these lined up perfectly with my sides and so, a possible method of holding the two parts together

So I took this shot to give you an idea of how it might look like

I then made up some new ends deleting the windscreens, these will be added later, possibly from etched brass as the laminated card ones were too thick, these next shots show work to date