[peter bunce]

Hi,

I have finished (except for some decals for the sides) a medium size horse drawn van.

I say medium size as the design, which is from a Garden Railways magazine pullout plan was extended in length; I will also do a smaller one with a cut under for the front wheels in due course.

The van is made from plastic card and PVC solid foam sheet, with laser cut wheels from Northeastern Narrow Gauge. Those are very good and in the UK there is nothing like them! There is also aluminum strip & tube used in the undercarriage.

A view of the inside before the roof is added, the inside is painted by the way, it is not wood!

V
The horse is a Draught Horse from Papo, and is midway in size between the normal horses and the shire horses. All the harness (breast strap style – it does not use a horse collar) is cut from thick aluminium foil – from food trays.

One figure is by Carlo Spirito, and the other is the ‘lad’ from the Schliech Wild west wagon, with shoes added to his feet and his steson moved to his head.





The rear of the vehicle showing the rear curtains - I made these as two curtains the plan shows one. They are made from scrumpled up heavy Kitchen foil, painted and the glued in position; the retaining straps are painted paper though they could be like the horses harness, and made from the thick foil used in food trays.

A final photo of the horse harness - all made from aluminium foil, as used in the heavier food trays

Added to the 'to do ' list is a lighter version with a raised cab to allow the front wheel to turn inside the body.

 

[Richard Weatherby]

Very, Very Nice!!! Did you also do the leaf springs from foil also?

Hi Richard,

No, the heaviest foil is not strong enough.

I bought one of their kits (for the RFD van) and that gave me some of their brass 'flat wire' - that is what I would call brass strip: the size of that is just under .020 (1/2mm) thick and 3mm wide. I then searched through my capacious 'useful bits' boxes and found some aluminium sheet of the right thickness that can be cut to width (I use my own scissors - not your wifes !) for them. This has about the same stiffness of the brass strip, and can be easier to bend than brass.

That is the strip for springs: bend it carefully with pliers and fingers to match the plan, to hide the wholly non protypical sharp bend at the ends ( the full ellitical style were two springs joined with a pin at each end) by adding a styrene card disc (about 2mm dia) to represent the pin that would join them together, and paint to suit. Looking at the ones on this (& I will leave them as they are I think; Another note for future use!), another possibilty is to add up to the spring pillow (fixing) and axle fixing some slightly shorter pieces - those could be from styrene strip. I would add some false extra leaves to make them look better in future whilst building them.

A tip when bending the plastic tube for the shafts - insert some copper wire (that is easy to bend) into the end to be bent: then that wire which should be a tight as possible but easy to fit and glue inside, will 'hold' the bend. Leave a small space at the extreme end to allow for the split pin (the same copper wire!) that holds the shafts on the front axle.



A toi

 

[Stan Cedarleaf]

Yes, Peter.... A very, very nice model. Well done.

 

[jimtyp]

Excellent work Peter! Very impressive. Everything is well scaled also. Will you add some advertisement or something on the side of the wagon?

 

[SteveC]

Wow Peter

Very nice job on the wagon, I was trying to figure out where you had used the foam, cause the sides looked like it was really wood. That harness really sets the whole thing off.

 

[Rich Schiffman]

Peter,

Your attention to fine detail always amazes and pleases me. More fine models for your RR. Great stuff.

Rich Schiffman

 

[Torby]

Nice.

(I'd have left him barefoot.)

 

[peter bunce]

Hi All,

Thank you for the kind comments – now for some answers to the requests –

Jimtyp – Yes there will be a shop name on the sides, fitted there (Both sides -need designing and then will be sent to Stan for a decal. As I live in the UK, and naturally Stan has to add post ($12) I build up a set before they get ordered

Steve – The base and the framing, the seat, and the roof ribs are where the (3mm) foam sheet lurks, the main sides are .060 styrene card. To hide the joins the pillars as the outer edges have paper overlaps. When shopping other uses for packaging are always thoughts of what can I use this for! The heavy and thicker foil came from a 3 bird roast joint (Turkey/chicken/goose) – the almost flat base was liberated from the sides, which did go in the bin, burnished smooth and marked for the future use, it is just right for the length of the reins – I can see that my vehicles will have to be a single or twin horse size. They are still up to 12” long which is why they gain a base

Rich, It’s a bit of a change (keeps my interest going, variety is a great help) in size from the large building that was done before; there will be a couple more vans using the smaller wheels from Northeast Narrow Gauge, but at the moment there is a short 4 wheel D&RG caboose being built, I have gone up a small amount in size; it is a bit longer then the DSP one I have already.

 

[Richard Smith]

Boy that is great! Nice job Peter.

 

[joe rusz]

Pretty slick, Peter. Although my first thought was, "What era is he modeling," I quickly reminded myself that when I was a kid growing up in Buffalo in the mid to late 1940s, there were still a few horse-drawn vehicles around: the milkman, although that may have been for effect, the ragman, and a fellow with a plow who used to scrape the snow and ice off an outdoor skating rink across from our home. I used to ride on the plow with the guy and pull the handle when it was time to dump the snow that had accumulated in the hopper. Got an up close and personal view--and smell--of the business end two sturdy draft horses.

 

[Gary Woolard]

Peter, another of your excellent, envy-inducing pieces of work! And since I'm modeling turn-of-century (Should we now call it "turn-of-LAST[/i]-century"?) I intend to steal as much of it as I can!

I'm especially paying a lot of attention to your harness design!

Please continue to send updates, including signage, and certainly the other version that you mentioned!