puckotred

Firstly, my thanks to Amati for sending this kit out to be reviewed and built here at MSW.
 
The Orient Express 1929 Sleeping Car comes in a very large and heavy box which is chock full of laser-cut timber, brass/silver-nickel photo-etch, cast and turned parts, trip wood, brass section lengths, decals, etc. and two amazing glossy instruction manuals. You'll need a few basic tools for this, such as a good bench vice, craft knives, metal files and small drill bits, screwdrivers and pliers. Optional items are a soldering iron and a blowtorch. You will need some abrasive paper, superglue and some good wood glue. 
 
Work starts by removing the two thick plywood chassis frames from their sheets and gluing them together.

From here, the photo etch chassis frames are added with superglue and bolted together amidships. You will find a lot of holes in the photo-etch, need to be drilled out for the two different sizes of bolt that are supplied in this kit.

Brass strip is added to each side of the chassis whilst the frame is dry-sat on the ply platform. This creates a recess into which the platform with later sit.

The platform is now finally glued into place and clamped so that it's totally flat.

A mixture of 50:50 PVA and water is applied to the underside of the chassis, sealing it in readiness for the paint.

Games Workshop 'Chaos Black' is now sprayed over the underside, using a rattle-can. I did try airbrushing this, but it was too big a job, and the coverage of this spray paint is amazing. It also dries very quickly.

It was now time to open up some of the small bags of fittings. Her you see the buffer suspension. These needed to be drilled out to allow them to plug together. As they are cast, this was an easy task.

The buffer suspension units are now fitted to the chassis ends. 

Underneath the chassis are fitted a compressed gas tank and some battery boxes. You will find that heating up the brass for the tank will help it to be bent far more easily. 

Here you can see the completed tank and battery boxes. Solder was used for the main joint, and superglue for the rest. Note that one box had to have ply feet added as the legs were too short.

The battery boxes and tank are now fitted.

The photo-etch in this model can be quite thick, and in some cases, almost 1mm thick. You will need a saw to cut through the main tags.

The first bogey took me 3 days to get to this stage. I found that adding heat to the part before bending made it WORSE! Don't do it! Learn from my mistake and use careful and selective bending techniques to make this. I went through this pain so you don't have to. Small nuts and bolts are used to fasten things together.

More cast parts for the suspension here, and yes, more drilling out to make the various pins etc. fit into place. Note with this first bogey, I was painting things as I went along.

...including the main frame:

Cast and turned parts are included for the wheels and axles etc.

More brass parts for the braking mechanism.

Complete with all paint chips, here is the completed bogie. Total construction time was ONE WHOLE WEEK!!

However, after learning from my mistakes, I built the second bogie in only SIX HOURS!

Both bogies were now spray painted in black.

Uschi van der Rosten steel weathering pigments were now used to weather the bogies and chassis. More weathering will be added when the track is complete.


Fitting the Head A & B ply floor sections proved troublesome as the underlying photo-etch made them too thick. I reduced the thickness of these by half.

Head A & B bulkheads were fitted by the temporary help of the carriage end bulkheads. 

With these in place, the internal frames were now completed, and the side wall test-fitted.

Each cabin floor was now test-fitted:

...including the corridor floor:

Pritt Stick was used to affix the paper carpet parts to the floor sections.

And the floor sections finally glued into position.

 
More soon!!!!
 
 
 

Nice!!!

Not a lot of progress,but I have managed to get the guns on the quarterdeck installed. I hate rigging guns - I would rather do ratlines😉. The tackle ropes were simply glued to the deck,the ends were cut off,& rope coils were then glued to the deck on top of the rope ends. I did not do the inhauls.
 

 
Mark

Good, there is a biiig difference between 2 and 3 mm blocks. only 1 mm but it's one third of the size difference!!!
If it's rounded blocks they appear even smaller than the square ones... (But you know all of this.... I'm just pretending being wise 😁)

They are 3 or 4mm dont remember now but Daniel is sending me 2mm to try

How many mm are the blocks?
You could always buy from here: clasic model
 

Thanks very much guys .
 
No, I've had enough of this model .
 
Well, this is it - Bismarck is FINISHED . Here are all the final pics - enjoy :






















 
Thanks to all those who followed this build, and especially those who commented. Now onto HMS Hood .
 
  Danny

Hi Harvey
 
I solved this problem by using an old wooden desk (a school desk in fact) I chopped the legs down to the size that I felt comfortable with and added castors. The desk lives under my main work desk, which is an L shaped office desk. When I want to work on rigging, I just roll it out. I also fitted this desk with a hinged top so I can store scrap wood and clamps in it. I left the back of the desk open and I store strips and dowel in it. Hope this may give you some ideas.
 

 
Desk is stored under main desk - castors fitted
 

 
Desk rolls out when needed for rigging or for extra workspace
 

 
Desk lid lifts up for storing scrap timber and clamps.
Rear section of desk for wood strips and dowel.
 

 
For me the desk is at a comfortable height for working on upper rigging.
 
 
 
 

Well, I shouldn't be responding since I just stand up when doing the upper rigging, and if I get tired, I take a break and sit for 5 minutes sipping my coffee and mentally doing the next step.
I know this isn't a solution to your problem. I'm sorry, but it's just what I do. 

Looks like they just grabbed the cannons out of some old drawers in their back room😀
 
Mark

Well,anyway,I finished up the guns with carriages for the second gun deck.  I forgot to take pictures of assembling them,but they were pretty simple - just 2 sides,a bottom,& a front piece along with axles & wheels. The axles & wheels were brass,which I blackened. Only the breech ropes were added since it would be near impossible to rig the tackles with the decks in place. The guns on the carriages were actually pretty well made. They were also brass,which I blackened,but I went ahead & painted them flat black because the blackening was a little uneven. The breech ropes are from Syren - great looking rope.  Now I can start putting more "stuff"on the decks.....
 

 

 
Mark

And I have different barrels from you... 🤨
 

No they're not.
No, it does'nt.

And I have different barrels from you... 🤨
 

It’s a Spanish kit.........😝
 
Sjors

Well, now I'm starting to get annoyed with Occre... 😡

Well, now I'm starting to get annoyed with Occre... 😡

Hi Sjors - thanks & welcome to my log!  As you can see, I have changed a number of things about the kit such as the hull planking. My belaying pins are wood,but not long enough to go through the pin racks,so I made the racks thinner☺️. My wood sheets seem to match the drawings,but some parts don`t match the picture instructions or the photos of the finished model🤨. I see that you have taken over the build from your wife - nice of you to continue a great looking build.  I`m working on the gun carriages & just found out that the dummy barrels for the second gun deck don`t match the barrels of the full size guns of that deck - different size & different shape😥. Also,the order of building does not seem logical to me in some places,so I am skipping around a bit.  Thanks for bringing the popcorn - I was getting a bit hungry😊.
 
Mark

Painting, painting, painting ....!

It’s not a problem to mail OcCre when you have missing parts, they send it right away.
But i was asking about the belaying pins and all i’ve got back the answer.....we are sending you the missing parts and a day later ,we do not send it because you have the plastic (short) ones.
So i have to remake the pinrails......
I’m happy that i have a lot of spare wood from my Aggy.
And Mr. Pucko.....i see that you are from Sweden.
Only nice people lives there 🙃😝
 
Sjors

I also got a wrong plywood sheet, or I got two of the same sheet and one sheet missing. I wrote Occre and they sent the missing one within a week.... no problems for me... 
I got a lot of wooden belaying pins with the kit, more than I needed. I think Occre likes me better than you guys.... 😀😀😀
(In the spanish part list it says wooden belaying pins, but in the english one it says metal for some reason...)

Hi Mark,
 
I was just reading your log and you are doing a great job!
Thanks for showing me how to work 
At some of the first posts you are saying that this is your last kit from OcCre.
I have build a few kits from OcCre but this is sometimes a search for something that is not there.
For example the belaying pins.
I wrote an to mail to OcCre and the only belaying pins that they have are the plastic ones...
So I ask them why they give us on the part list metal ones and extended.
They don't give me an answer on that.
Also one of the wooden sheets is wrong.
It don't mach with the drawings.....
Beware of that !
So for me this is also the last kit from OcCre for us.
I think I will stay with Caldecraft the next time.
Then I see that you are looking for a popcorn machine.
There in the corner there is a nice place.
 
Sjors
 

No they're not.
No, it does'nt.

That's spot on, on the other side you are quite proud when you actually made a ship of that heap of wood...
 

That's spot on, on the other side you are quite proud when you actually made a ship of that heap of wood...