7mm On Heather's Workbench - 37 Varieties

[Heather Kay]

It may have been better to get a driver at 1/43th scale, the driver at 1/64th may just be a tad small.

OzzyO.

43th would be a proper giant! He’d end up as just a torso stuck on the chair!

I shall perform some surgery and see how the current one looks.

 

[OzzyO]

Looks like he's just had to many McD's. But if your paying money for a Burt it should be to the correct scale, but it could also be the seats are wrong.
You could look at 1/32th for the driver?

OzzyO.

 

[Heather Kay]

You could look at 1/32th for the driver?

You realise that’s just getting bigger? Larger numbers in the scale mean its smaller…

Anyway, surgery has been done.



That's better. His waving arms will - hopefully - more or less coincide with the cab side window height, so it’ll look like he’s resting the left arm on the ledge.

 

[OzzyO]

You realise that’s just getting bigger? Larger numbers in the scale mean its smaller…

You could look at 1/32th for the driver?

How is saying to look at 1/32th getting bigger? When I mentioned 1/43th was getting at the size the Burt should have been modelled at. At 1/48th he was already a bit on the chunky side that was why I mentioned 1/32th scale and not 1/64th like you did a few posts back.

1/43.54th is about as close as you can get to 7mm ; foot,

OzzyO.

 

[Heather Kay]

1/43.54th is about as close as you can get to 7mm ; foot,

Correct. Heljan, though, have modelled the cab parts smaller than that. At a guess, it’s probably closer to 1/50th, perhaps even smaller. I could get measure it and work it out, if I was bothered. The cab interior is notably and visibly smaller than a typical O gauge 1/43 scale diesel kit.

1/32 is gauge 1, 1/76 is OO - that’s what I meant about smaller scales having higher numbers.

 

[BrushType4]

The cab is smaller as there is a big lump of a Heljan motor in the way! It looks excellent anyway.

 

[TheSnapper]

Heather
I usually relocate the seat further back a bit....
Tim

 

[Heather Kay]

The figure does actually fit now, sans lower limbs. What's left of his knees fit between the pedestals nicely.

I need to paint him, but ran out of interest. Tomorrow, as they say, is another day.

 

[Jordan or Plymouth Mad]

Most of my drivers/engineers are amputees. Even in my Pannier Tanks, the ones leaning on the side window ledges had to have a 'v' sliver taken out of the belly to get them leaning down further than as supplied.

Yes they are twins - the same Modelu figure.

 

[OzzyO]

I don't know what I was thinking about when I started talking about 1/32th scale? I was thinking about the solders and tank kits that are about 1/50th scale.

And that was without a drink.

OzzyO.

 

[Heather Kay]

And that was without a drink.

Not to worry. I have days like that almost every week.

 

[Heather Kay]

Now, where was I? Oh, yes, starting reassembly.



Still not quite right, but the best I can manage. Another brainwave overtook me concerning the recessed nature of the glazing. I have some clear plastic sheet that just happens to be almost exactly the right thickness to fill the front of the glazed part. So, at least the front looks flush, although the dot is obviously some way behind due to the thickness of the clear moulded part. Some white tissue paper should be sufficient to let the light through. I imagine the real thing was opalescent glass with the black painted on.



Something more of an issue is wipers. Being moulded plastic they aren’t easy to bend, and I find the first one has only a passing acquaintance with the screen. That’s not helped by the original glazing being somewhat recessed. Again, the real thing was flush. The obvious answer is to work out how to flush glaze the windscreen, possibly repurposing the original parts. Or scratch new wipers that will touch the glass…

I also discover I only have two bogie brake pull levers. That’s a bit of a s*d, as that's fifty per cent of the required number.

 

[Heather Kay]

Over the weekend I applied some brushed weathering around the underframe and bogie sides. I think it needs a little more, but that'll probably be best done with powders. Inevitably, some paint has chipped off the copper and brass here and there. I’ll retouch that/weather it out later in the reconstruction process. There’s bound to be more damage yet.

As you can probably tell by the judicious use of Kirby clips…



… the PCB and wiring loom is back in, and bogie power reconnected. When I’ve cleared the test plank, we shall see if this thing still runs on 12V. The lighting loom needs some careful work, first not to break the thin wires, and second so it is held in place with sufficient slack to let me plug the lights into the various orifices in the noses.

Before the body is reunited with the chassis, though, the driver (not come up with a name for him: suggestions welcome) has to be painted and attached to his seat, and the cab interior parts need to be fitted into the body shell. The original parts were a press fit. The new rear walls may need some additional help.

I have been gathering scrap material to let me make new wipers, and will need to scratch together material for the hand brake linkages and chains. Nearly there. One big push and I would think we will be home and hosed by the end of this week.

Ha! As if!

 

[TheSnapper]

Wot no DCC?
( I’ll get me anorak….)
Tim

 

[Heather Kay]

I think it’s being arranged, but after this monster leaves me.

 

[simond]

the various orifices in the noses

nostrils?

 

[Heather Kay]

I was going to work out how to fit the little steps under the sides of each nose. Some twit has fitted sanding pipes in the way, so there’s nowhere to install the steps now.

I'd better paint the driver, then.

 

[Heather Kay]

Reckon he'll do, behind the prismatic glass.

 

[Heather Kay]

With Derek the Driver given a coat of matt varnish and enthroned, the innards are going, um, in. The detailed cab rear parts are smaller than the original floor hole, and it remains to be seen if they still clear the flywheels when mated to the chassis.

 

[paulc]

View attachment 160599

Over the weekend I applied some brushed weathering around the underframe and bogie sides. I think it needs a little more, but that'll probably be best done with powders. Inevitably, some paint has chipped off the copper and brass here and there. I’ll retouch that/weather it out later in the reconstruction process. There’s bound to be more damage yet.

As you can probably tell by the judicious use of Kirby clips…

View attachment 160600

… the PCB and wiring loom is back in, and bogie power reconnected. When I’ve cleared the test plank, we shall see if this thing still runs on 12V. The lighting loom needs some careful work, first not to break the thin wires, and second so it is held in place with sufficient slack to let me plug the lights into the various orifices in the noses.

Before the body is reunited with the chassis, though, the driver (not come up with a name for him: suggestions welcome) has to be painted and attached to his seat, and the cab interior parts need to be fitted into the body shell. The original parts were a press fit. The new rear walls may need some additional help.

I have been gathering scrap material to let me make new wipers, and will need to scratch together material for the hand brake linkages and chains. Nearly there. One big push and I would think we will be home and hosed by the end of this week.

Ha! As if!

Be carefull pushing the lights back into their housings in the body , the glass breaks way to easily. I ended up replacing mine with LEDs after i broke most of mine but that was probably due to the number of times i fiddled with them during the DCC conversion . First time fitting DCC combined with Heljan red & black wiring on a 37 , not recommended.