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

[aydingocer]

More photos on the assembly process.

 

Figure 82: Dry fit on the springs, for aligning the small parts on the left side of the picture, to be glued on either side of the brass component. 

 

Figure 83: More drilling. The holes are simply too small. They are almost there only for a reference of the correct location :).

[aydingocer]

Figure 84: The moving structure is ready. The parts are mounted using copper rivets, not bolts, to allow them rotate freely.

 

[aydingocer]

Figure 85: Suspension structure painted and mounted in place.

 

Figure 86: How to mount the suspension structure to the frame. See the brass rods connecting on left and right side. Altogether four of them. They also use copper rivets to allow the suspension to move.

Edited October 13, 2021 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Figure 87: The so called "struts" and springs. This will be the structure where the wheels will sit on, later.

 

Figure 88: Painted in matt black as usual

 

The springs consist of 3 parts to be glued together. But I choose a bit different order than in the instructions, to ensure accurate alignment: 
- First I glued the two parts which will be on the side of the struts (like in Figure 89 below), 
- Then screwed them to the struts
- Inserted the 3rd part of the spring structure to the frame
- Finally placed the struts on top od that 3rd part.

 

Figure 89:

 

Figure 90: Now everything looks perfectly aligned.

[aydingocer]

Installation of the dynamo. This part is only on one of the frames.

 

Figure 91: Dynamo is installed using 2 bolts and nuts, which need to be shortened to size (10mm and 7,5mm) and must fit in the dynamo. Well, except once again they don't. Hence, drill. 🤣

 

Figures 92-98: Showing the process of dynamo installation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's all for today!
Thanks for watching! 
 

 

Edited October 13, 2021 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Amati has replied to my request, they are sending the missing part. Fingers crossed 🙂.

[aydingocer]

BUILD DAY 7: 2,5 hrs (TOTAL: 23 hrs)

 

Figures 99-102: This is how I bend this kind of small and thick brass parts. I used plier's handle as a hammer. A soft rubber hammer would be a more proper tool for this purpose. 

 

 

 

 

[Egilman]

1 minute ago, aydingocer said:

A soft rubber hammer would be a more proper tool for this purpose.

Probably, but we are modelers, so what ever works is good as well.... {chuckle}

[aydingocer]

Time to install the wheels.

 

Figure 103: Parts.

 

Figures 104-105: Painted matt black with airbrush. 

 

 

 

[aydingocer]

Figure 106: This wheel set differs from the other three by the additional wheel on the rod. It is for the belt turning the dynamo.

 

 

Edited October 15, 2021 by aydingocer
Corrected a typing error.

[aydingocer]

Figure 107: Wheels dry fit. The wheels are not supposed to be glued. They should rotate freely and independently. The rod will stay still. This is needed especially for the rod above, which  is connected to the dynamo via a brass belt.

 

I see some build videos in Youtube gluing everything to the wheels including the brake shoes (to come later in this log). Such approach is only for in case you are absolutely sure you are building a fully static version, in which the wheels will not move!

 

[aydingocer]

Figure 108: Testing the bogies together on the rail to ensure that they are aligned. If one is higher than the other, then there is a risk you'll fall from your bed in the night due to inclination 🤣. So far looks fine and I can glue the bearing blocks holding the rods in place.

 

[aydingocer]

Figure 109: Dynamo belt installed.

 

[aydingocer]

Figure 110: Brake shoes, consisting of two parts assembled with nut and bolt. There will be 16 of them, one pair for each wheel. In the middle you see one of them assembled.

 

[aydingocer]

Figure 111: First brake shoe installed. When installed it swings freely on the bolt. I used superglue to fix it in position, just as close and parallel to the wheel. 

 

The brake shoes on the outer side are rather easy to install. However those on the inner parts are very very tricky to even fit at first place, let alone insert the bolt, tighten the nut and glue to the right position. My recommendation to a builder reading these pages would be to consider installing the brake shoes before installing the wheels. 

 

 

 

That's all for today!
Thanks for watching! 
 

[yvesvidal]

8 hours ago, aydingocer said:

I see some build videos in Youtube gluing everything to the wheels including the brake shoes (to come later in this log). Such approach is only for in case you are absolutely sure you are building a fully static version, in which the wheels will not move!

 

What an heresy. You will have so much pleasure rolling it back and forth on the short track that is provided.

And who knows, that may be the beginning of a huge layout in your basement or garden.....

 

Yves

[yvesvidal]

9 hours ago, aydingocer said:

 

You should not paint the tire of the wheels. If I may offer an opinion, the wheels were not painted black: they are naturally rusting, so a brown rust is more appropriate. Secondly, the tire is always shinny since the car running on these section of the wheels, rust cannot adhere.

 

I would use some paint thinner and clean the outside of your wheels. If you ever run them on a small piece of track, they will look awful, once the paint starts peeling.

 

Yves

Edited October 15, 2021 by yvesvidal

[aydingocer]

3 hours ago, yvesvidal said:

 

You should not paint the tire of the wheels. If I may offer an opinion, the wheels were not painted black: they are naturally rusting, so a brown rust is more appropriate. Secondly, the tire is always shinny since the car running on these section of the wheels, rust cannot adhere.

 

I would use some paint thinner and clean the outside of your wheels. If you ever run them on a small piece of track, they will look awful, once the paint starts peeling.

 

Yves

Thanks for the good tip, Yves! I will actually go through the entire painting details on the bogies once they are fully ready. There are many unpainted small parts as well as scratches caused by using tools. I’ll keep your points in mind then. I use acrylic paint hence removing it off the metal surface should not be a big deal, hopefully. 

[aydingocer]

A good news today is from Amati. They have just dispatched  the missing part from the box. It is a brass L profile for the sides of the body structure. Because of the lack of it I couldn’t proceed as planned, I had switched to building the bogies in the meantime. Now the bogies are almost ready and the package should arrive sometime next week, just in time to resume the body work. 
Thanks Amati. 

[Egilman]

1 hour ago, aydingocer said:

I use acrylic paint hence removing it off the metal surface should not be a big deal, hopefully. 

You only need to remove it from the rolling surface and inner flange, the rest of the black should make a good primer for the very dark oxidized rust coloring....

 

My suggestion would be to use a sharp blade and cut it off along the rolling surface edges then use a rubber eraser to remove it from them, it should peel right off

Edited October 15, 2021 by Egilman

[aydingocer]

BUILD DAY 8: 4 hrs (TOTAL: 27 hrs)

 

Figure 112 : A close-up to the brakes. Not all 16 of them came up this neat 🙂. This particular one in the photo has been my best installation of the inner-side brake shoes. At least with my skill set, even after so many done, it still feels pure luck to put those tiny nuts and bolts correctly. 🤣
 

[aydingocer]

Figure 113: Parts layout for the wheel control system, on the manual...

 

Figure 114: ... and on my workbench.

[aydingocer]

Figures 115, 116, 117: Some pictures showing the progress.

 

 

[aydingocer]

Figure 118: Preparing for airbrush paint. This is a nice  tool I bought on Amazon. I had been missing something like this for my paint jobs. Very handy indeed. It also has a storage, you can store the sticks in it when not in use. The crocodile clamps come with removable rubber covers (removed for this purpose) for grabbing sensitive parts without harming.

 

[aydingocer]

Figure 119:

Alright, I have now installed the control system and repainted the bogies with my airbrush. Installation of screws and nuts did not go perfectly at every spot, e.g. sometimes I had to use superglue where I couldn't fit the nuts, but I am overall happy with the result. As per the discussion about the paint on the wheels touch surface, I don't know yet if I will remove the paint on those surfaces or not. At least this way, they are compliant with the instruction manual.

 

I guess I will stop now for a few days. The missing L-profile, which acts as a support for the body work, has been dispatched by Amati and is on the way. It should arrive during the week. I need it in order to continue. I am also rather busy with other daily work.

That's all for today!
Thanks for watching! 

[wefalck]

Yep, I was about to make the same comment on the tires and the inside of the flanges should also be bright, as the wheel touches there the rail all the time. Whether the rim would be painted or not, would depend on the livery of the company.

 

Another thing I wondered about, when I saw you folding all those etched brass parts: you always fold them with the etched groove to the outside of the bend. Is this per instruction ? I would have thought it should be the other way round - the etched groove allows to make sharp corners.

 

An interesting and unsual subject in any case.

 

Some of the coaches of the Orient Express have been preserved and restored and are now operated by a company based in the Czech Republic. Some years ago I was invited to a 'dinner-cruise' out of Vienna in one of the dining cars. Some of cars are fitted out in Art Noveau (pre WW1) decoration, while others are furnished in Art Deco (post WW1) style.

[aydingocer]

30 minutes ago, wefalck said:

Another thing I wondered about, when I saw you folding all those etched brass parts: you always fold them with the etched groove to the outside of the bend. Is this per instruction ? I would have thought it should be the other way round - the etched groove allows to make sharp corners.

 

I follow the instructions. Most of the time I fold them so that the grooves face inwards (instructions call them "the cut lines"). Some are bent inwards, some outwards, and in some cases a part can be bent both ways (i.e. one edge of the part bent opposite direction to fold of the other edge)

 

Here (Figure 21) they are bent inwards: 

 

 

Here (Figure 83) they are bent outwards:

 

 

[popeye the sailor]

nice!  great job so far on the train car     the trucks came out great!

[aydingocer]

Figure 120: The missing piece has arrived from Amati. Build can continue!

[aydingocer]

BUILD DAY 9: 1 hr (TOTAL: 28 hrs)

Figure 121, 122: Hooks on either end of the wagon