Sunday, August 16, 2009

Pimp my Guards Van 5 : Fin.

DB Says:

Ummm, where were we...? Bogies. The pointy ends of the big screws used to attach these on the observation car stuck up through the floor of course, but rather than cutting them down, I painted them flat black, as they're almost completely hidden from view. I removed the bogie brake cyls from AG90's bogies, but I don't think it was worth the effort and won't bother from here on in.

The plan was to wrap superfine strip styrene around the cars to represent the module joins, but I decided to leave this out, fearing the possibility of making a complete shambles vs a small visual improvement. About this time, the 'regular' FM handrails and safety gates on AG 78 were also glued up and into place.

I painfully welded up four more end platforms for the observation van and these came out close to passable. They were stuck in place along with more Preiser 1:120 tourists/boilermakers/commuters-from-the-1960s and two giant HO mutant children with orange backpacks. Now that I think about it, I should have made someone up as Where's Wally or Adolf Hitler or Zaphod Beeblebrox. Makes mental note...I normally like to weather things up a bit, but the Tranz is kept very clean, smart and shiny. Dullcote was sprayed on the roof, and a thin coat of acrylic semi-gloss clear was laid on the decals, which were leftovers from the DCP effort of a few months ago. Anyone who has tried clearcoating ALPS decals before will know that putting anything stronger than this or Dullcote on them is a receipe for disaster, but they really do need to be covered.

So that's my extra-short off-season Tranz Alpine consist completed. 56 foot cars - for those who don't want to stand for the whole trip - will be constructed later in the year.

A critical review: they run well, but when seen up close, these aren't perfect models. I should have marked out the window openings more carefully (oh, my sagging duckets!) and cut them out with round corners. The end railings are a bit messy in places. A few imperfect details were added in the wrong place in haste, or left out altogether.

Not that I'm losing sleep over it.

I don't build NZ120 models to be competition-winners, so up-close, the vans look a little hokey around the edges, but that won't be the case for long. When I'm done building a few things around them, they'll be reduced to a small part of a long train flowing through scenery. And isn't that the essence of NZ120?

Doing something imperfectly is not failure.
Failure is not doing anything.
So pick up a knife. Aim it at some plastic. Just do it*!

                          - D Bond, one of the great contemporary philosophers



*This blog post sponsored by Nike. All trademarks and catchphrases referenced are the property of their respective owners. Some products may be produced by child slave labourers in factories that also process peanuts.

9 comments:

manaia said...

nice, I have the good old brass kinki bogies maid in the 90's, thay are good but are the steam and postel tipe, how much are the kato's fm tipe and how mutch are the wagon tipe???.

Kiwibonds said...

405 yen about 4.24 USD for a pair:

http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10003596

beaka said...

they really look the part.nice job. re the bogies.I have ordered twice from same site. very efficient. only problem was larger box for items than neccesary increased freight charge. how did frt work out for you?

ECMT said...

Nice work DB ! You put the NZ120 community to shame ( that's not hard says he ) with the quantity and quality of your modelling efforts.

My Etchcetera FM kit was supplied with a pair of Greenmax no.509 / DT21 bogies. Near on identical to your Kato's.

Hmmm - how many 56 footers do you have to make ? ;)

Andrew Hamblyn said...

Very nice DB, superb as always.

Drew

Kiwibonds said...

Thanks all.

I bought ten sets of bogies for two vans and eight 56 footers

That 1999 site seemed be reasonable for freight both times given the speed at which the things arrived. I don't know if they have an economy option... These were shipped in a box the size of a largeish hardback novel and it was 1500 yen for shipping = $23 NZ, which isn't too bad?

They have an 'EMS' chart on the site that shows shipping costs - I think it goes by weight, and these were pretty light.

Anonymous said...

As has been said, great work as usual Darryl.

If making a second Guards Van, how long do you estimate it would take to completion?

For those of us aspiring to build in your footsteps, would you have parts lists that you could make available for each of your models so far?

Congrats again on producing such fine and inspiring pieces!

Kiwibonds said...

The parts list:
Old HO ladders for footsteps *
Kato bogies (plus screws and a MT coupler if you want) * .010 and .020 brass rod for the end railings etc * brass meash for the safety doors on one end of AG 78 * Old sprue for air/diesel tanks underneath. * N scale handbrake wheels (really too small) * Preiser people * .010 brass for roofs (.005 would have been better) * I think the rest was styrene - clear sheet, .010 flat (easy to cut), thicker stuff for the wall bulkheads (can file the roof curves) and a few rectangular strips. for the underfloor bits and the 'posts' on AG90's viewing areas.

Luke Ueda-Sarson said...

Regarding EMS from over here, they certainly weigh it at the post office, but I'm not sure if it is costed by weight, since when I send a kilogram of white metal figures out of Japan, all packed up small and tight, it costs me about 1300 yen or so to go Sri Lanka, and I doubt it is cheaper sending them their than say NZ or NY.