I've had this kit for quite a while and have had the basic rolling chassis together (sans couplings as I can't be certain of clearances until the body is done) and it is a very well designed and engineered bit of etch. My only problem is I'm not sure how to deal with the ends, as when the ends of the floor unit are folded up as instructed they need bending outwards to fit the body in place. This is fine until the body ends are fitted, as there won't be space for the folded tabs to go
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The tab over the top and end of the roof part of the body
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If however, the folded tabs rest on the underside of the bode piece, the underframe ends bow downwards at either end once the screws are inserted to hold the body in place. I've tried loosening the screws to straighten the underframe out, but this leaves a large gap between the body and underframe and the sides of the chairs ar visible in the first class section, as well as the whole vehicle looking a little out of proportion.
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The curved down end, a little out of focus I'm afraid!
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The coach as it stands
Can anyone point me in the right direction with what to do here, or rather where I've probably gone wrong!
Cheers
J
J
Thanks for the post - it's nice to know that someone's actually building my kits, especially the complicated one! And thanks for the detailed explanation and clear photos.
The problem is probably with my instructions not being particularly clear.
The kit is (obviously) in two main parts, i) the floor/chassis assembly with the integral seats and tables, and ii) the sides/ends/roof "box" assembly forming the body. It's designed so that the two don't actually have to meet until after you've painted them to make painting, glazing, etc. easier. The tabs that you've mentioned don't solder ONTO anything - the ends attached the chassis are a "dummy" end which is purely to keep the floor the right distance from the false roof (i.e. the top of the channel section you made when the roof and side etch is folded up). The tabs aren't really tabs - they're just a flat surface to butt up against the bottom surface of the false roof. I would suggest the following:
1. Ease out the floor/seating unit and straighten up the false ends and "tabs" on this unit.
2. Attach the "real" ends (i.e. parts 4 and 5, the ones with the door and fall plate detail) to the body/roof unit.
3. You should now be able to invert the body assembly and drop the floor/seating unit into it, and find that it will sit at the right height with the "tabs" up against the inside ends of the false roof.
I really hope this helps. If not, just drop me a line and I'll send you a couple of photos.
Regards,
Chris
Thanks for that, there's no better person to ask really thant the designer!
So the ends (without the real ends still) shoul look like this?
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With the "tabs" of the false ends up against the underside of the false roof of the body etch, the floor/chassis seems to sit too low, or is this right? looking into the coach itself, the top of the seat backs are now level with the bottom of the windows, so it would make sense, it's just the gap below the doors above the steps that concerns me.
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I really should stop these close ups, it's showing up how shoddy my work with a soldering iron is! A good burnish should see it right once it's all done!
Cheers
J
J,
You're definitely on the right track and the ends are correct. I've posted some photos in a Flickr set to show you what the prototype's like:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisveitch/sets/72157629407045119/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisveitch/sets/72157629407045119/)
As you can see the steps are not flush with the bottom of the doors - the section of the floor/seating unit protruding below the bottom of the side panels is supposed to represent the slim recessed solebar you can see in these photos. Unfortunately the FR Co. drawing included in the kit only shows the side with the vacuum pipe, which rather obscures the fact that there's about 1.5mm of solebar behind it. I did have a heart-in-mouth moment when I wondered whether there weren't any solebars (it's a while since I designed this) but a look through my archive photos shows that all the new FR stock does have them, although most are a bit deeper than these.
My dodge of adding the steps as part of the floor does have a drawback in that it leaves a hole in the sole bar at that point. I get around that by supergluing a small strip of scrap 10 thou plasticard along the bottom of each side to hide this. Also, the body is designed to be wide enough to accommodate the 10 thou glazing material between the sides and the seat units, so this strip at the bottom ensures the spacing is the same all the way down. You'll need to cut a couple of little notches for the interior partitions. I though the steps are a nice idea as they avoided fiddling with more awkward little bits of brass, but it might me a matter of opinion as to whether there trade-off between than and a hole in the sole bar was worth it :-(
I hope this helps - let me know how you get on.
Regards,
Chris
PS Don't worry about the solder - it'll all come off, and I've seen FAR worse than that made into a very good model!
Excellent! thanks for that, if I'd looked closely at the Festipedia photos I would've already seen the vac pipe and associated solebar, duh! Now I've been pointed in the right direction I can carry on! Thanks ever so much for the help!
Cheers
J
Bumped up for 009 news
I'd best put some photos of the finished item on here to add to the theme! I'll take some asap!
Cheers
J