Tuesday, March 24, 2009

First quandary

Theres always something that comes up straight away. The bogie side frames looked a bit long to the inner finescaler, so I compared them to the plan.


Hmmm, way too long. Maybe the plan isn't that crash hot as the wheel base is 8' rather than 7'6'. a hunt and 3 different plans later and its correct. The length of the bogie side frames is between 31 and 33mm depending on which plan you use. The actual length? 36mm. Cunningly, I have got my inner fine scaler drunk tonight (he can't handle his Belgian triple) and when he sobers up tomorrow I will have removed 1/2 the material between the outer spring hanger and the end of the side frame, which looks about right to me.

Update: with the bogie sideframe issue dealt to for the time being, I turned to the cab ends, and again immediately ran into another problem. Do I want lights or not? If I decide to have lights (and the Da's don't, which would be a horrible thing to contemplate putting them in) then I'll have to buy some clear plastic rod to fit in the holes that i still have to drill. theres also problems with the skirts at the bottom (not square) and the pilot holes for the MU cables are too far over to the right (which is covered in the instructions by 'start drilling leaning slightly to the left, then slowly straighten up,). I Know Pat was always saying, 'if you are going to do it, do it right' but I'm starting to see a stack of wee problems that could have been easily solved at the masters stage before it went into production.

As an aside, and part of a real conversation I had with Kiwibonds today (as opposed to a fake one that involves typing), how many people have actually brought a trackside railcar (or other kit) and how many have built one? if unbuilt, whats holding you back? Or was it just brought as part of a wider investment portfolio?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't this a dandy. Hows the 'it looks OK at 2 foot'view?. Valid comments all the same and points noted in the little book for future reference. Russ

Motorised Dandruff said...

yes, the horrible fine scale alien wakes up from time to time doesn't he. Its a curse.
I guess at the end of the day we all wind up having to make decisions like this based on time/money/skills. I'm also always conscious of the 'keep it square and symmetrical' look as its the one thing that will attract the eye in a big scene if you get it wrong.

lalover said...

Are you sure you've brought a 120th scale one and not a 3/16th scale railcar??? :-)

Not sure about the fine scale monster.
More likely the "make sense of the muddle and get it looking right monster"! He's should always be under the workbench!