Saturday, October 10, 2009

A Bad Influence, Part II

Am_Fet writes: Apparently it started with a telephone conversation, where I was thinking aloud to Cabbage about how to do a ZH in Nz120. "By having an inner laminate to the bulkheads that was smaller all round than the width of the styrene, you could then use these to form the doors", I stated. "Hmmmmm....", he replied sagely, and thats where I thought things would be left.

However, by lunchtime the next day the man had drawn it all up in CAD having spent a night tossing and turning while the idea ran through his mind. Not just that, but by tea time the cutting template had been done....it was picked up from the etchers Thursday and the first prototype was declared complete Saturday morning.

So here it is: A ZH in 1.0 mm styrene in Nz120:



The body is formed around a series of bulkheads secured to a spine running the length of the wagon. The ends are laminated up from 3 layers. The doors in the prototype did have a groove cut for the fold lines with the holes for the handles burnt through.



The underframe is also etched up from 1mm styrene with a complete set of truss rods and slots for the upper bits to attach securely to the floor.



The prototype has thrown up a few issues, such as the laser destroying some of the finer details on the ends, and the doors needing a bit of a redesign. However, all of these have been changed and the Mk II model is at the etchers now to see what happens.

So, The Waihaorunga Creek Workshops strikes again! Like the IA, this will eventually be offered out to the masses...so watch this space!

6 comments:

RKBL said...

Do we have a time line for these. Are they going to be offerend in brass or styrene, brass etches would be good IMHO.

Gummy-Joe said...

Once again I am very impressed with the underframe detail that you guys have managed to get with styrene. All the ZH needs now is a coat of red paint and a set of Coca~Cola® decals ;-)

Cabbage said...

Well RKBL if i had more time off I'd say by the end of the week
but since I'm back at work next week any further iterations will take weeks not days
I'm very surprised at how strong the final thing turned out so it will be offered to NZ120 in 1.0mm styrene
We are yet to find out the cutting costs for the model
As for etched brass I think i'll keep this for doing the harder tiny details we can't do out of styrene like the door locking mechs on the ZH
Mini-Me-Wagons

Amateur Fettler said...

Coca Cola ZH's....Mmmmmmm.......

Andrew Hamblyn said...

Mmmmm....??

dont you mean

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

:)

Drew

lalover said...

Sweppa-vesince..... :-)