An Ebay bargain transformed

Bargain!

I bought two old Wiking HO scale trucks for a song on Ebay this week and spent a couple of hours transforming them to something useful on the layout.  One was a very shiny, bright red Deutsche Post lorry with bonus opening rear doors.  The other was a rather nondescript military support wagon of some sort.

Post lorry

I dismantled this completely taking care not to break anything important.  I took the radiator

off the bonnet and cut and filed away the central core with the Mercedes badge on.  I replaced this with an etched metal street drain cover cut down to fit and backed with black paper.  The door latch was filed down a bit and the body was masked and painted and had some packages glued inside. I cut down and painted an old Airfix figure for the driver, picked out the central windscreen frame in silver and reassembled. I built a new front fender from plastic.  A thinned paper logo for a trucking company and some weathering completed the conversion.

Military truck

This was destined for Dan's auto scrapyard.  I dismantled this completely keeping the body and chassis filler for spares. I cut out the driver's side window and put a bullet hole in the windscreen.  I cut off the radiator for my scrapbox, distressed the body work with my Dremel and lifted up one side of the bonnet (hood).  I made an "engine" and battery from scrap and fitted them.  A lot of dust and rust completed this little model.

Hiatus

Just to say not much going on at the moment. Arthritis and morphine don't make for great modelling motivation so I'm just pottering when and where I can. I've made a start on a Jordan plastic hi lift truck kit and an old Wheel Works white metal pickup kit as I can't cause too much damage with those! 

Correcting a mistake

A while back I built a model of a roadside diner using an old Eggerbahn 009 coach body as the eating area.  It was a cute model but on the layout, whenever I looked at it I wanted to rip it out and start again.  It was just too much of a pastiche even for me!  So today I did rip it out of the leyout and rebuilt it to more realistic proportions.

The original model

 I took off all details and then separated the rear kitchen shack from the coach body.  I cut out the central window and fitted a Grandt Line door.  Primed and then painted with acrylic. I matched the fence with more pieces and painted these white and weathered heavily.  I didn't want the vestibule roof overhang so sawed a chunk out with a razor saw.  Then I made the deck from Evergreen V groove siding and fitted the fencing.

The components

Underside of deck 

Completed deck

Underside of roof with first layer of tissue

The roof was joined and filled roughly with plastic and covered with layers of tissue glued on lengthwise.   3 foot wide strips were then glued on perpendicular to the first to represent tarpaper.

The shack was reunited with its diner front and the signs refitted.

Complete

Trying for size

A different view

I thought I'd place the camera at or near ground level while I had the space for a different perspective.

A vignette from Dan's Autos

 There's always good advice to be had.......

A few trees make a lot of difference

More on the corner

Lots more landscaping work done.

The value of photographs! Can't see that white plaster seam from the normal viewing angle!

Dratted dog!