7mm On Heather's Workbench - CCT Hangover

[jamiepage]

'What a refreshingly rare and pragmatic view to take on what is, for most people, an enormous 'Elephant in the room'.

I think there would be far fewer unfinished projects floating around on the 'net, if more relatives and friends would stop giving such bad advice as - "Oh! you don't want to worry about that yet" and "You've got years ahead of you, just go ahead and do it!" ..... '

Not sure if that's irony or not.

But anyway, a few unfinished kits aren't much of a problem to deal with.
Personally, I aspire to a legacy of something rather more 'rock 'n' roll', but unfortunately there aren't too many skeletons in that cupboard alongside the half- built models just yet.
Never too late to start though.

Sorry indeed for the off topic thread drift. Nothing more from me unless resolutely on topic of your interesting CCT build, Heather.

 

[Heather Kay]

Oh, you guys!

Actually, we did start a layout. It's still there, in our big shed. The permanent way is all laid, and I had begun to weather it before ballasting and wiring-up operations were to commence. Sadly, life intervened, and it'll never be actually finished to anyone's satisfaction. I'm trying to persuade Best Beloved that we should try to lift the P&C to sell on, but he's not having any of it at present.

Anyway, back to the CCT. Life has again got in the way, so I've not had the chance to touch the thing in two days. Hopefully that'll change this afternoon!

 

[John Miller]

Oh, you guys! ........

Hey! - don't lump me together with that guy - we have widely differing views! ....

 

[Heather Kay]

A willing sacrifice. I had a rummage and found this 1980s era Dinky model of an early Volkswagen. A distinctive profile just glimpsed through an open droplight or grimy window.

Enough mucking about. On with the build!

 

[Heather Kay]

Work is progressing behind the scenes on suitable springing for the underframe. While that goes on, I have decided not to progress with the underframe build for now. Instead, spurred on by Ian's useful interior shots, I played about with the sides for a while.



It's very easy to get utterly carried away detailing things that may never be seen again. I am not sure if it's a personal failing or not. Anyway, I've decided to apply some detailing to the interior sides. I will probably limit things to superficial likenesses of door latches and bolts and so on. Yeah, right…

The sides are planked. Door planking doesn't seem to quite match the body planking on the real thing, but I've compromised and kept it all lined up for simplicity. To work out the plank depth, I measured a droplight aperture, which worked out at 30 inches. From Ian's photo, there are six planks to the window depth, and a quick burst of arithmetic gave me each plank is five inches wide. Good enough for me. Using dividers I scribed the planks, using the bottom edge rebate of the sides to guide. I doubt they'll be visible, of course, but some weathering washes might get bring them out. Likewise, I scribed the door panels in. My current thinking is to also file away the bottom ledge by the doors. The reason is opposite doors might be visible from the droplight, and the ledge that runs along the bottom of the sides wouldn't look quite right.

Unless @Bob-65B has the numbers, I shall attempt to estimate the width and depth of the folding shelves. With a car safely chocked at one end of the van, I might fit the shelves lowered at the other end, perhaps even some boxes or other goods just visible on them. As for the restraining bars, if I think they'll be visible, simple concoctions of square styrene strip ought to suffice. I suspect the bars were laid along the sides when not in use, otherwise they'd constitute a trip hazard. The VW will probably be held in place with a bolt through the floor of the van.

I suppose the next thing will be to mark out the various commode rails on the outside. The kit doesn't have holes for them marked out, which is a little odd.

 

[Bob Reid]

The shelves were each 5'-2" x 1'-11". If you're modelling them down, the top of the bottom shelf was 1'-8 7/8" above the floor and top of the "top" shelf, a further 2'-3" higher.... The wheelbars were made of 3" round tube. but at barely the same distance off the floor, you're going to struggle to see them!

p.s. I meant to say - at 5 1/2" you made a good job of estimating those T&G boards

 

[Heather Kay]

Armed with Bob's dimensions and Ian's photos, I've knocked this up.



Various sorts of styrene strip have been pressed into service as representing the door latch bits and bobs. Blocks of styrene have also been fitted as the resting places for the shelves, seen on the mat in front. The lowered shelves will have twisted wire suspension chains. I've realised the upper shelves when folded will need to be trimmed to avoid the moulded ridge at the top of the sides. Further small blocks need to be added so the folded shelves are more or less parallel to the sides when installed. I also plan to lay a new floor to cover the various holes I made in it!

I'm quite pleased with that. Now for the outside details.

(Edited much later to overcome some autocorrection mayhem. Note to self: proof read properly before submitting a post!)