Dikitriki
Flying Squad
Hi,
I'm taking some time off from my 7mm scale commitments to build a laser-cut (mostly) 1/32 LNER 4 compartment BTK to diagram 114. The kit is from KA lasercraft, and is well thought out and pretty comprehensive, including underframe, bogies and wheels. I'll go through the components in more detail as I come to use them. It's a very new kit - there are no D114 instructions available, but there is plenty of information on the web-site to assist.
The first thing I did was to start on the body. You are supposed to dry fit everything together, including the sides before gluing anything. Not a chance if you want to retain sanity. It's a 3-hand job even so. I reckoned that the kit was so accurately cut that it could be built up in stages with the sides attached last. This belief was well-founded, but more anon. I started by gluing the 3 pieces forming the corridor together, and then dry fitted the corridor, compartment partitions, flat roof former and roof bar together. Once these all self-locked, I glued the compatments to the floor and just worked round with dabs of superglue. It ended up all square and flat. The corridor doors were added last using wood glue.
I generally don't like using wood for coaching stock, but in this case, I see it as a bonus due to the nature of the real thing. If I can keep it clean enough, I hope to finish it in post-war varnished and slightly tired teak when I can use the grain (which is all in the right direction) to advantage.
Richard
I'm taking some time off from my 7mm scale commitments to build a laser-cut (mostly) 1/32 LNER 4 compartment BTK to diagram 114. The kit is from KA lasercraft, and is well thought out and pretty comprehensive, including underframe, bogies and wheels. I'll go through the components in more detail as I come to use them. It's a very new kit - there are no D114 instructions available, but there is plenty of information on the web-site to assist.
The first thing I did was to start on the body. You are supposed to dry fit everything together, including the sides before gluing anything. Not a chance if you want to retain sanity. It's a 3-hand job even so. I reckoned that the kit was so accurately cut that it could be built up in stages with the sides attached last. This belief was well-founded, but more anon. I started by gluing the 3 pieces forming the corridor together, and then dry fitted the corridor, compartment partitions, flat roof former and roof bar together. Once these all self-locked, I glued the compatments to the floor and just worked round with dabs of superglue. It ended up all square and flat. The corridor doors were added last using wood glue.
I generally don't like using wood for coaching stock, but in this case, I see it as a bonus due to the nature of the real thing. If I can keep it clean enough, I hope to finish it in post-war varnished and slightly tired teak when I can use the grain (which is all in the right direction) to advantage.
Richard
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