A few new ones

Had some time to put a few new pieces together. I seem to be stuck in the 30's for some reason but it has nothing to do with depression. I just recently had a short but very nice visit by Fred Oxner and his wife and received quite a few more Roco Zis 5's so it doesn't look like I'll be getting them out of my system for a while. I have to add that I'm really itching to do something modern soon however.
But that is not the case with these latest builds. The one pictured above is the Ford Model AA by Busch that has been transformed from a van to a canopy express wagon. These were often used by fruit and vegetable hucksters. My grandfather's brother used one (an old Chevy in his case) back in the 40's and 50's that he filled in south Jersey and would serve suburban Phila. neighborhoods. It was a simple matter of cutting the van side openings and adding the roll down canvas sides. I also opened the engine compartment and use the 4 cylinder from Jordan. I should remember to dust things off before photographing them.













And now it's back to Zis 5's for the next two. As promised, I finally got to build a barrel truck for Fred and was pleased to present it to him when he visited. A pleasant surprise gift from Fred in addition to the Roco pieces was the Rio Grande cast metal mixer unit kit . A subtle message there I'm sure. The piece most recently finished utilizes the mixer barrel from SSLtd. which is also cast metal.


The last of this post is something I saw in a photo of an express truck on a historical site. The body is actually one of the body configurations that come with the Roco model. I cut the front half out and added a wood floor, interior partition and the bars int the openings. The crooked looking horizontal piece was supposed to represent a leather strap but I'm not sure it's very convincing. The rolled up canvas side curtains are tissue paper. This turned out to be a personal favorite. Been playing around with camera settings here, be forewarned, these are large files if opened (but worth it).

Roco Zis 5, all gone.

I have mentioned the Roco/Komo model of the Zis 5 Russian truck. To quickly review, several U.S. truck manufacturers banded together in 1927 and transported all the tooling necessary to build what most closely resembled the Autocar truck of the day. The model is a good representation of U.S. trucks spanning almost a decade. It sold originally for around $5.00 but recently has seen prices break the $30.00 mark, NIB. I have been asked if there existed a place where one could see all the variants of this model I have created so here 'ya go. My first Zis (above) was just a paint job.


Because the first few that I bought were rather cheap (I remember first paying around $6 each) I used them to practice thing like weathering. The one above was just that, with a bare chassis I tried out several rust techniques. I was really pleased with the way this turned out.





More rust with a simple wooden flatbed and gas engine powered pump for a load




















The two above are attempts at making the Zis 5 a highway tractor. In both instances, it was simply a matter of adding a fifth wheel. The flatdeck trailer with the granite block load is scratch built from wood and styrene. The lowboy is a cast metal and wood kit from Rio Grande. It is hauling a Bucyrus Erie steam shovel crawler from Vintage Vehicles. Now newly released by Jordan Miniatures. Please don't hesitate to click on the photos for enlarged versions.























I've gone through a period of making tow trucks. The tow units on these are made from styrene and watch parts.













Then I really became intrigued with the whole boom/cable thing. I saw this set up on a historical website from Wisconsin. It's a telephone pole/piling setting truck. The unique feature on this truck is that the cable goes under the bed of the truck from the winch to a sheave in the front of the bed and then up to the boom sheave. This is all made from styrene and watch parts.




I should mention now a very nice man by the name of Fred Oxner, who has been buying many of my trucks. Fred was kind enough to send me several of the Zis 5's that you see here. Many thanks to Fred, may he live long and enjoy his models. Fred has wanted one of these barrel trucks since I first built this green one but I haven't been able to get the parts together yet. I have not forgotten Fred! The mixer unit on the back here is modified to fit the truck from a cast metal kit by Rio Grande Models.















I had to give the open door trick a try and came up with the mini scene above with the driver inspecting what the bump was. Surprise! The skunk is a piece of painted brass foil. After seeing it, I had a request for another stake bodied truck which is what you see on the right. Both sport the stake bed from Jordan that comes with their Model TT Ford.






















Not done yet with these. Jordan has this great little tanker unit that comes with the Model AA Ford. Couldn't resist the opportunity to pair it up with the Zis for the kerosene truck. And the tanker unit on the yellow one in the middle, is a resin casting made specifically for the Zis 5 by a Czech company. This was another chance to use a weathering technique. That of chipped paint. The third all red tanker was a scratch built thing with brass foil stretched over a wooden dowel.





The last I have to show is made from one of the bed configurations that come with the original model. It's a wood sided bed with a canvas top. I cut one of the sides to the open position, discarded the plastic canvas and made hoops and a canvas top from tissue paper. I imagine it as a vegetable hucksters truck.

Well that's my affair with the Roco Zis 5 so far. I hope to have more. I suppose it's apparent that I like modeling it. Thanks for looking.

Where the heck have I been?

Well I've been right here at home in Maine for the past few months but personal life has taken me through a few detours from my modeling. First and most important is that my wife has undergone a major surgery and I had to make some changes in schedule. Cleaning house, preparing meals and general care giving has replaced sitting at my model bench and the computer. To set minds at ease, my wife is recovering well and will be back to her energetic and active self quite soon. The other chief reason for my hiatus is the lack of heat in my office/work area. Trying to model in 1/87 scale is next to impossible when shivering from the invasive Maine winter cold. My solutions to this have been temporary and expensive. OK, so much for my excuse list and now on to what I have been able to accomplish.



I was able to complete the module for the Springfield show and got some terrific response to it at the show. It was great to meet and speak with all those there and discuss 1/87 scale modeling for the three days. I added a small rural gas station to the module which is constructed of the same Evergreen styrene clapboard as the farm house. I would invite you to view some photos of it as it was displayed at the show on the new Route 87 web site that was created to give modelers a chance to participate in this endeavor. Many thanks to Andy Madden for his work on this site.


I've had a figure of a lady carrying laundry for quite some time and had to work her into a scene so I made a clothes line and some hanging wash for the back of the farmhouse. The shirt and pants are painted tissue paper. There were several new vehicles made that I placed on the diorama that include a Model AA wrecker with a little more accurate version of the Weaver Auto Crane than what I have done before. This is of course the Jordan Ford as the base model. I also built a wrecker bed and wrecker unit for the Sylvan '47 Ford cab over out of styrene. And lastly, what would any respectable farm be without a decent truck for hay, grain or livestock transport? For this I used the Sylvan '50 Chevy cab over with a metal sided body suitable for any of these duties. I went to my model building friend Ralph Ratcliffe for the great set of wheels for this model.


Aside from all that, there are some pieces on the workbench ready to be finished and lots of unbuilt kits sitting in the shelves at the moment. Hopefully with the advent of warmer weather I will be back in full swing soon. Thanks to all who have written with their concerns and well wishes. More to come.....

Getting ready for the big show

First of all, I'm sorry to have taken so much time off from doing these blogs but getting ready for winter has been a real time suck this year.
One event that I look forward to each year with great enthusiasm is the train show in Springfield, Mass. at "the big E". The Amherst Railway club takes over the Eastern States Exposition annually to present what I've heard is the largest train show in the east. Last year several officials from the event offered to work something out with the 1/87 Vehicle Club in order to introduce the train crowd to what vehicle modelers in HO scale are up to. They have been gracious enough to give us several spaces in order to do so. A core group in the club have organized to make a presentation and one of the ideas is to make a system of modules that can be coupled together much like the way Free-Mo rail modelers do. The difference being that instead of coupling track, we will be using a roadway surface continuity between the modules. The details and specification have yet to be ironed out.
I have chosen to do a New England farm scene that will enable me to display a lot of agricultural vehicles. This will mean I have to get to work on several pieces that have been sitting in boxes for some time now as well as scratch building most of the module itself. In my exuberance to get started, I've built a small farmhouse out of styrene that resembles some of the old center chimney capes I am familiar with. My own house is just that built in 1830 and my model structure is a slightly scaled down version of it. OK so here's where I'm going with it and I will be doing a lot of step by step progress in this entry.
I began with Evergreen styrene clapboard with a .040" spacing. After drawing the building on the computer and printing out templates on Manila card stock, I cut out the walls of the building with window and door openings. Some time ago, I purchased a collection of Tichy injected molded plastic doors and windows so I have a large selection to chose from. To the gable end walls, I glued .060" square rod to make up the corners and added a rake board of the same rod.












Many of the old farms here in Maine across New Hampshire and over into Vermont are connected affairs that enabled the farm occupants to go from house to barn without having to venture outside. For my little farm, I constructed a connecting el, also of styrene. This time I use a .060 spaced clapboard and scored the courses vertically to replicate cedar shakes. I have not found a suitable commercially available shake pattern in the scale and decided to give this technique a try. And while it is time consuming and a bit mind numbing, I like the results so far. The shed el will have a standing seam roof that I fabricated from thin brass foil scored on the back for the seams. The small window will have an open sash that I have omitted for the present since I'm sure I would break it off in the build process.














The chimney is a large square affair made from Evergreen brick pattern mitred at the corners. a few bricks have been added at the top to support a large flat stone for the chimney cap. The mortar which will remain a bright white similar to the white cement, lime and white sand mix used years ago was done with artists chalks and alcohol and when dry I simply wiped excess away with a finger. This still needs to be flashed to the shingles. I will be trying to do this with scotch tape painted. The roof shingles are asphalt imitators from GC Laser that are a black felt paper and a ridge cap will also be added and then all will be painted.



The next photo shows the shake pattern stop part of the way across the wall. This will be where the barn wall will start and make up the connection. So far I have drawn a fairly large barn that will be constructed of wood but have not begun construction yet. I want to finish the glass in the windows and some kind of window treatment like drapes so I can fasten the house roof. This will complete the house until it gets "planted" on the module.



I've really got the itch to get going on the barn so I'm trying to get the farmhouse to the point where there's nothing more to do until I plant the structure on it's base. So I glassed in the windows with clear acrylic and added some curtains. They are 1 ply tissue dipped in 50/50 white glue and water. Using the tissue gave me an idea to use it also for the chimney flashing that I would like to have look like lead. So I cut out the pieces I would need and brushed some of the water/glue in the appropriate spots on the chimney and set the pieces. Painted when dry. The capstone on the chimney is a piece of Vermont slate. This material has a grain to it much like wood and can be split very thin. I still have to finish capping 1/2 of the ridge but the individual ridge shingles are a pain and I needed a break.












This may be all I do for a while on this project and anything further I may post as a part 2 (these posts get too long and adding photos get's a bit time consuming) So that's it for now but keep looking back for more soon.





Well I couldn't leave well enough alone and decided to add some color to the clapboards of the structure. I used a powdered paint product called buttermilk paint that I use in my business for reproduction furniture that is mixed with water. I made a wash of this paint substituting alcohol for the water. The roof cap has been completed and there is now a brick foundation making the farmhouse ready to be planted on the module and waiting for the construction of the barn. I'm also anxious to get started on some vehicles for this project. After all they are what the focus of this whole project is in the first place.

Lurking in the shadows

I like the idea of displaying the interior of buildings but could never quite get thrilled with the whole concept of having to remove the roof to see what's inside. To try to solve this dilemma, I though I might just do an interior and then not bother with the outside of the structure. I've built this old barn interior from my memory of the countless old one's I've been in and worked on over the years. Several of them my own. Now while this structure is not entirely accurate prototypically, I was more interested in conveying the feel and ambiance that one gets inside some of these massive old buildings. What I came up with is a shadow box diorama that will totally encase the exterior and force the viewer's perspective. I simply built the barn interior cut on a diagonal to get the most viewing area.


I started by cutting some clear white pine strips to scale and half lapped all the joints on the structural members. Then I boarded it all in with individual boards including the floor. I used a Titebond waterproof glue for reasons that will be apparent. To show where this is going, I made a frame of cherry wood that will be the front of the box.


Now the reason for the waterproof glue is that I wet the entire structure with water and shot it with my airbrush loaded with RR tie brown and grimy black mixed 50/50 and thinned with Windex to go through the airbrush. I wanted to make sure that I got good coverage and didn't want it all to be too dark. As it was, it did come out a little too dark. So when cleaning the airbrush, I shot it again with the dirty water mix, drained it off and without moving it for fear of it falling apart, dried it with the hairdryer. This was the result of that, and the glue did a great job of resisting all the wetness. Everything is very solid. I also brush painted with some white acrylic craft paint, the back corner to simulate the old milking parlor.


The windows are Tichy injected molded plastic. I constructed the box which will have a satin black finish and while waiting for it to dry, decided to complete the hay loft and add the details to the interior. The straw is shaved hemp rope glued to blocks of wood and strewn around. What I believe will be the vehicle I end up using is a 1937 Chevy pickup from Sylvan Scale. Most of the details are cast metal pieces from the parts box, pieces of old watch parts and whatever I could dream up that I could make from scratch. Further coloring has been done mostly with artists chalks. At this point, I am wiring the box with 3V LED spots that look great to the naked eye but photograph poorly so I won't be trying to show the finished product interior here. I still have some molding to go on the front to surround the cherry but essentially what you will see below are finished photos of the interior. Please don't forget that clicking on these images will bring up a larger photo. Thanks for looking and enjoy.