Orient Express Sleeping Car 1929 by aydingocer - FINISHED - Amati - Scale 1:32

[aydingocer]

Dear fellow forum members and readers,

 

After somewhat a long time, I am back in these pages with a new build log. This is my next Amati kit after Riva Aquarama (link to build log here). I was then truly impressed with the quality material, instructions and precision of Amati kit and when I saw the review in this forum I just had to order this lovely train kit, also having my past ties with the destination city of the Orient Express, Istanbul, where I studied and lived many years before moving to Finland.

 

Anyway,

I received the package about an hour ago and didn't want to wait a minute to open it also for the sake of checking for any damages during transportation.

For start, I will only post a few unboxing photos rather than a detailed unboxing since it is already been done in this excellent review by James H.

 

Packaging and first impressions:

• The shipment package is 95x37x15 cm, where the actual kit box sits flush in it.
• Weight is around 9kg according to the shipment information. The package is heavier on the left part, where more metal parts are located.
• Sent by Amati by FedEX. No damage noticed on the package.
• Contents have been shaken a bit during transport. The small nylon bags were spread in the box, but all parts remained contained in their nylon bags. So no problem. 

 

Here are some unboxing photos.

I hope to start tomorrow if not already today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regards,

Aydin

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aydingocer]

BUILD DAY 1 - 4hrs (TOTAL : 4hrs)

 

Building commences.

Started by removing and cleaning the first pieces.

Figure 1:

 

 

 

A lot of neat looking cut outs, felt just too nice to throw away . I want to keep them who knows for future use elsewhere.

Figure 2:
 

 

 

The two layers are to be glued one on top of the other using PVA glue. Here I show cleaning the excess glue to avoid future regrets if I let them get hard where they are.

Figures 3, 4, 5:

 

 

 

 

Waiting to dry. 
Figure 6:

 

 

 

Edited October 5, 2021 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Now the first brass parts.

 

Figures 7, 8:

 

 

 

Strengthening pieces, using 1mm brass bolds and matching nuts:

Figures 9, 10, 11, 12: 

 

 

 

 

 

[aydingocer]

Bolts and nuts in place. If I guess right, they will carry the wheel structures (bogies?).

Figures 13, 14:

 

 

[aydingocer]

Now this is an annoying moment for any modeller: A missing part from the kit. One of the profiles (PART 804) is missing. There should be 3 of them but I found only 2 in the box and I looked everywhere.

 

Contacted AMATI about it. Let's see what (if ever) they will reply. Otherwise I will need to look around shops for 2x4x500mm L shaped brass profile. I may get my hands on a plastic version, which should be fine since it will be painted, but I won't go for that option until I am hopeless to get the proper part.

 

This is leaving it incomplete at the moment.

Figure 15:

[aydingocer]

I sent a note to AMATI and decided to continue as long as the missing part creates no obstacle. Two of these parts below will be used later.

Figures 16, 17:

 

 

[aydingocer]

Floor panel in place, completing the first day's work.

 

Figure 18a:

 

 

EDIT : Noticed a terrible terrible mistake, luckily only in less than an hour after assembly, before the glue totally dried! It was this close to make it total garbage or very costly to revert. I glued the floor panel in the wrong direction and I always double check the instructions. This train is very symmetrical, yet it doesn't forgive even a slightest assumption that any part is symmetrical. Do not repeat my mistake, if you build this kit!

 

Now looking back, actually what mislead me was that, it looked like the "front" face of the board would face up. You know, the face where the laser cuts are clearer. However it appears that you should glue the "rear" face facing up. It will be covered with carpets, but still, one would easily assume that the front face would face up. Anyway, always check the photos and instructions!

 

So, I removed the floor very carefully using knife, cleaned the glue remains, sanded, flipped the panel and glued back in correct orientation. What I mean by correction looks like below. The small slot in the circle mark should be on the opposite side.

Figure 18b:

 

 

 

 

That's all for today.
Thanks for watching!

Edited October 6, 2021 by aydingocer

[yvesvidal]

Great topic and beautiful kit. I hope you will give us a complete assembly review and not stop like James H did, with the kit that Amati sent him for review.

I collect trains at the scale of 1/48 and 1/32nd and thus have a special interest for that Build.

 

In addition, this kit depicts what used to be the most luxurious and romantic train in Europe. The Orient Express no longer runs between Paris and Istambul, Turkey unfortunately. I met an old colleague from IBM in the late 80's who used to be a sales representative for IBM. He and his wife as well as the entire French Sales team were taken by the Sales department of IBM for a trip between Paris and Venice in the Orient Express. The entire train was rented by IBM. He told me that nothing in his life had been more luxurious and lavish than this trip.

 

Yves

[Egilman]

I love the varied subjects shown here, and the great skills on display.....

 

Beautiful work brother.....

[aydingocer]

BUILD DAY 2: 2 hrs (TOTAL: 6 hrs)

 

Thanks for the encouraging words!

 

After yesterday's recovery from near-disaster (see my previous post), all looks good now and the build can continue. 

Figures 19, 20:

 

[aydingocer]

Still waiting to hear from Amati about the missing L-profile, I am continuing with other areas.

2 bumpers have to be bent 30 degrees. 
In this post I will appraise DSPIAE Photo Etch Bender: Highly recommended.

Figure 21:

 

Now some explanations on the next photos (Figures 21 to 27):

 

I am not too much familiar with railway terminology, the next component is called "Leaf springs". There will be 2 of them to be installed on either end. 

Dry fit the parts first, enlarging of some holes with a drillbit is needed here and there, as shown below, this is also mentioned in the instructions.

I use Casey's Brass Black for staining small parts. 
- Get rid of the grease (I use degreasing spray which I have at home, used on electronic circuits or wiping your keyboard etc),
- Soak them in the  Bras Black liquid 1-2 minutes,
- Rinse with water.

 

The "stirrups", i.e. the 4 small rods hanging down, should move freely in pairs, in order to be able to fit to the body (dry fitted in the photo)

 

Figures 21-27:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all for today!
Thanks for watching!

[aydingocer]

18 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

Great topic and beautiful kit. I hope you will give us a complete assembly review and not stop like James H did, with the kit that Amati sent him for review.

I collect trains at the scale of 1/48 and 1/32nd and thus have a special interest for that Build.

 

In addition, this kit depicts what used to be the most luxurious and romantic train in Europe. The Orient Express no longer runs between Paris and Istambul, Turkey unfortunately. I met an old colleague from IBM in the late 80's who used to be a sales representative for IBM. He and his wife as well as the entire French Sales team were taken by the Sales department of IBM for a trip between Paris and Venice in the Orient Express. The entire train was rented by IBM. He told me that nothing in his life had been more luxurious and lavish than this trip.

 

Yves

 

Thanks Yves, I also hope to post all my work to completion!

I would also dream of traveling in Orient Express, maybe some day some company will bring it back as a tourist attraction, who knows.

[aydingocer]

14 hours ago, Egilman said:

I love the varied subjects shown here, and the great skills on display.....

 

Beautiful work brother.....

Thanks!

[aydingocer]

BUILD DAY 3: 3 hrs (TOTAL: 9 hrs)

Making the battery housings. I used superglue all the way. Some modelers use solder at certain spots. Though I have soldering kit and done soldering on electronics level, I am not thinking of using it in this build, unless I have to. 

 

Figures 28-32:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aydingocer]

This is what I saw complaints in several build logs:The legs are quite short. As opposed to the picture in the manual, you are left with only around 1 mm margin to bend to act as feet to glue on the body.

 

The photo etched parts are clearly different size than in the manual. A bad point for a kit of this level. 

 

Figures 33-34:

 

Maybe I'll add some wooden support or something like that to the bottom. I'll see when I come to that.
 

[aydingocer]

Compressed air cylinder.

First time in my life I have ever bended a brass sheet into a curve. 
With the help of DSPIAE brass bender kit, I can say that the result was quite good.
You will make a cylinder of diameter 18mm. I used 16, 12 and 10mm rollers to achieve it.
I had to enlarge the holes with drillbit to fit the copper rivets. 

Here are 13 photos showing the progess.

 

Figures 35-47:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[aydingocer]

Rails.

 

Well I am not a big fan of dioramas. I don't like adding even human figures, I just prefer to display the model just as it is. It is a question of taste. 

Having said that I will give a shot to build the rails. The main reason being the instructions say they will be used to align the wheels later. I am not sure if I would put it to the final display. It is 1 meter long, adding almost 25cms to the length of the wagon.

 

MDF base plates fit extremely precisely. 

The pencil mark on the back in two of the grooves tell matching parts.

 

Figures 48-52

 

 

 

 

 

[aydingocer]

Sleepers

 

You need to cut 80mm size from the 8x2mm walnut strips supplied. 
Altogether 90 pieces. In the photo that's 1 down,  only 89 to go

Figure 52:
 

 

I used saw to cut them.

Figure 53-55:

 

 

 

Each two are then are glued in pair to end up with 45 sleepers.

 

Figure 56:

 

 

 

That's all for today!
Thanks for watching! 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2021 by aydingocer

[yvesvidal]

I know that you have spent some time working on the track, and I would like to suggest another solution, more realistic in my opinion.

Since you live in Europe, you have easy access to Marklin 1:32nd scale tracks. I recently used multiple flexible pieces to build a display for my BigBoy: 

 

 

The track is raised on two pieces of wood to create the crown typical of railroad tracks. The plates are then painted in Rail Brown (Rusty) and the ballast is made of chicken grits #2, glued with diluted white glue. The gluing is the most delicate task since you do not want to put any glue on the sleepers or on the rail itself. The dilution is done with water and alcohol. Chicken grits is a small granite pebbles given to the hens so they can grind their food. You should be able to find that in any farm supplies store. Gluing is done with an eye dropper and a lot of patience.

 

 

The Marklin track is very European and will in my humble opinion be more realistic than whatever Amati has provided in the kit.

 

Yves

Edited October 7, 2021 by yvesvidal

[aydingocer]

17 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

I know that you have spent some time working on the track, and I would like to suggest another solution, more realistic in my opinion.

Since you live in Europe, you have easy access to Marklin 1:32nd scale tracks. I recently used multiple flexible pieces to build a display for my BigBoy: 

 

 

The track is raised on two pieces of wood to create the crown typical of railroad tracks. The plates are then painted in Rail Brown (Rusty) and the ballast is made of chicken grits #2, glued with diluted white glue. The gluing is the most delicate task since you do not want to put any glue on the sleepers or on the rail itself. The dilution is done with water and alcohol. Chicken grits is a small granite pebbles given to the hens so they can grind their food. You should be able to find that in any farm supplies store. Gluing is done with an eye dropper and a lot of patience.

 

 

The Marklin track is very European and will in my humble opinion be more realistic than whatever Amati has provided in the kit.

 

Yves

 

Thanks, Yves, If I go for the railroad diorama option, I will consider this. Right now I am building the railroad only for curiosity and for reference to the distance between the wheels.

Edited October 8, 2021 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

BUILD DAY 4: 2 hrs (TOTAL: 11 hrs)

 

Completed the railway as described in the manual. Like I wrote above, I don't know what to do with it yet. If I choose to include it in the display then I may add some pebbles etc as decoration. So far I put it aside.

 

Figure 58: Fixings for the rails placed on the sticky side of masking tape, invisible sides down, ready for spray paint. I tried staining some of them with the brass blackener but it didn't work well. That's why they look dark. Probably because these are pressure die-cast, not brass.  There are 180 of them.

 

Figure 59: Sprayed from a can of black primer. They look good enough and just the matt tone I wanted therefore I am not going to put any additional paint on top of them.

 

Figure 60: I work in batches of around 10. I first place them dry on their spots, then apply a tiny amount of ultra-thin superglue with a thin nozzle from the rail side. It penetrates instantly between the part and the rail and bonds right away. Saves a lot of time compared to gluing and placing each piece one by one.

 

 

Figure 61: Railway ready.

 

 

That's all for today!
Thanks for watching! 

Edited October 11, 2021 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

By the way 1 week and no response from Amati about the missing L-profile part. I sent them another reminder email.

[aydingocer]

BUILD DAY 5: 6,5 hrs (TOTAL: 17,5 hrs)

 

Today I started to build the bogies.

 

This was a 6,5 hours of blood, sweat and tears.

 

The components come in quite thick brass sheet. I have to say that the build videos of this kit I saw on the internet about bending these parts, are like a joke. At least at my level of experience, there is no way bending them easily using just a pair of pliers and hand. I am talking about bending the long sections on the sides and "wings" in the center. Since the section you want to keep flat is much narrower than the section you want to bend, the flat part bends before the section which you actually want to bend. Then a lot of twisting, unbending, hammering...

 

I used double pliers, hammer, thin pliers, briefly everything at hand while trying not to damage the visible side. Well, after all, I am quite happy with the result, for a first time handler of brass sheet at this scale.

 

Figure 62: This is how we start.

 

Figure 63: The hardest areas are bent. Never mind the small distortions. I will straighten them on the way as good as I can. Most scratches will stay under the paint and on the invisible side once they have been installed under the chassis.

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Figure 63, 64: Legs, formed of 3 pieces glued with super glue. 2 identical parts and on different. Pay attention to glue correctly.

 

 

Figure 65: Legs in place. Dry fit.

 

Figure 66: My best friend of the day. A 2,5mm miniature hex wrench. Without it, I don't know what I 'd do.

 

Figure 67, 68: First set of fixing screws in place. They will be trimmed later.

 

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Figure 69: Brackets, on the brass sheet.

 

Figure 70: Removed 16 of them from the sheet. 8 of them are to be bent different than the other 8. Some will be used at a later stage.

 

Figure 72: Bent the parts as instructed.

 

Figure 73: The brackets are in place.

 

[aydingocer]

Figure 75: Followed the similar procedure for the other bogie. Now there are two of them.

Bogies are ready for first painting. There are still a lot to be done on them, but as per the instructions now they are at a stage ready for painting.

 

 

That's all for today!
Thanks for watching! 

[aydingocer]

Figure 76: Bogies' frames painted. 

- 1 layer matt black spray primer

- 1 layer matt black spray paint.

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

My only real experience of train carriages  is as a grounds keeper  for an  ex  boss  he used to live in an old  converted  railway station  complete with the old platform  - he decided one day to buy and have  transported over an old BR  sleeper carriage  the old type with seperate compartments  with pull down beds, any way  - he forst wantedn me to re paint the whole thing  in BR Red  and  Black  Tar  roof, then he decided he wanted the inside  wrippped out  using just angle grinders  - nice work,  I was on this job  for about Six months.😒☹️

 

OC.

[aydingocer]

BUILD DAY 6: 3 hrs (TOTAL: 20,5 hrs)

 

Continuing with bogies. Now the frames are ready, it is time to fill them.

 

Note: The manual is instructing to finish one of the bogies first and then repeat the almost identical steps to build the second one. I will not follow this approach fully, nor a parallel building progress. Instead I decided to go with a "hybrid" approach. I build some pair of components at the same time where it looks more convenient and keep them aside until I build the second bogie.

 

Next on the line is the suspension structure. There will be two of these.

 

Figure 77: Die cast parts. 

 

Figure 78: You will need to enlarge almost every hole by drilling, in order to fit the bolts conveniently. Do not try to push/pull the bolts with pliers or other tools to pass them through the holes, their pitches will get ruined very easily and the bolt will be impossible to use. Better open a wider hole and just insert the bolt smoothly.

[aydingocer]

Figure 79: Brass parts for the suspension.

 

Figure 80: Bent as instructed. 

 

Figure 81: Parts mounted and fixed using 1,5mm bolts.