A27 autocoach need advise. 4mm

[MJI]

Hello

 

I need an A27 auto coach, but cannot find any 4mm kits.

 

Not sure if i could convert an airfix one or not.

 

Any advice please?

[Hal Nail]

 

[jbg]

CPL used to do etches for A27 in both 4mm and 7mm. Not sure if they are still available. 
 

Jeremy

[MJI]

The Hornby one is the old airfix model which is a hybrid between the collett designs. But mainly A30

[MJI]

Will probably do the cut and shut as airfix plastic glues well.

 

Just need to find plans.

[The Johnster]

I think of my Airfix/Hornby autotrailers as A30s, especially as they are the correct length and have the correct bogies for this diagram.  This model can be made to represent an A27, but it’s death by a thousand cuts, as pretty much every space between windows is shorter on an A27.  You have to alter the bogie pivot positions as well, as the A27 uses the Collett 7’ bogie while the A30 rides on Collett 9’ bogies, but the outward axles are the same distance in from the ends of the coach on both types. This may lead to fouling of the bogies on the trussing on setrack curvature.  
 

There were some articles featuring this conversion in the magazines around the time Airfix first introduced this model, can’t recall details but it might be worth investigating this line of research.  I always thought the A27 would have been a better choice for Airfix than the A30 to go with it’s 14xx, as this coach is shorter and therefore better for limited space BLTs, and shares the 7’ bogie with the other Airfix GW introduction of the time, the E140 B-set.  There were more A30s over a wider geographical distribution, though.  
 

If the primary consideration had been  numbers of coaches built to a diagram, then the choice would have presumably been the most numerous, which for autotrailers was the A26, a 70’ panelled behemoth rebuilt from a railmotor, and using a variety of bogies, but Airfix may have gibbed at the length for a coach with those extended buffer headstocks that would need to be propelled on setrack radii. 

[MJI]

May be due to them measuring up at Didcot with 14xx and A30.

[The Johnster]

It is a great pity, then, that having measured up an A30 they didn’t make a model of an A30, but one of some nebulous neverwazza A28/30 hybrid.  RTR standards were not much to write home about in those days, but they made a reasonable job of the 14xx, and a model that is the right scale size and shape can always be worked up even if detail is poor.  

It is certainly not the only model from that period that offends in this way; look at what Hornby were knocking out at the time, and everyone except Mainline were producing minerals on incorrect generic scale 10’ wheelbase chassis (Hornby and Dapol still are!).  It takes the same amount of work to get a model at least the right size/shape to a scale as it does to get it wrong, and it has always bothered me when manufacturers purporting to produce scale models have got it wrong for reasons apparent only to themselves.  
 

It’s an inglorious list; Hornby LMS 6-wheel vans, Dapol Fruit Ds and Cattle vans, Bachmann LMS sliding door vans, Hornby’s re-released shorty clerestories, and of course the A30(ish). 

[lofty1966]

Cutting up a Hornby auto coach isn't as daunting as it first seems.

I marked out where all the cuts were needed.

Then using a sliding fence on a bandsaw using a fine toothed blade I sliced all the individual pieces.

As it is effectively a smooth sided body, a bit of filler in the joints and a careful rubdown with some 400 grit sandpaper should give you a decent surface.

[lofty1966]

Shows how much you shorten it compared to normal Hornby under frame