It's been a while, so it's time to start a new thread. The Hurricane is nicely displayed in a show case and even before starting the model, Diderick den Bakker of Zeist Bouwplaten asked me if I would be interested to do a test build for a not yet published model, the famous American F7A diesel locomotive. Just like the previously issued A4 Pacific Sir Nigel Gresley, the model's scale is 1:48, or O-scale.
I gladly took up the offer and somewhere in January, when still happily working the Hurricane, he sent me the files, and as time progressed, quite a few updates followed by mail. Standard procedure according to Diderick but I almost got lost
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Designer of the model is Cor van Haasteren, who is currently designing the DC-4. The ins and outs of the design process can be followed in an interesting thread on this forum.
It's a test build so some surprises may follow along the way, including problem solving with the designer and publisher. Never mind, that's the charm of it but the build may progress with an irregular pace. In any case I will not bother you with too many side steps but certainly already a few hurdles have been taken in the mean time. Anyway, let's start.
I printed the pdf files on 160 grams A4 size paper (0.2mm thickness), but the sheets are also suitable for printing on letter size.
Some of the parts need to be reinforced with cardboard. Ensure you use board of thickness 0.8mm, then the total thickness will be 1.0mm.
The model can be built with interior details or without. I chose the interior version, which shows a lot of details of the cab but basic details of the diesel engine. Not much of a problem as the engine will be hardly visible through the four port holes, two on either side.
In fact, the building instructions start with the nose section but I deliberately decided to start with the interior first. The nose is somewhat complicated and I felt more comfortable to start with something "light and easy".
Here you see the ground plate with formers and engine parts in between. The cab at the front will follow later. The model will be approximately 40cm long, so not particularly small. To avoid skewing of the ground plate I put paint jars on either side to keep the bottom flat during drying of the glue. Pretty much like building a ship model.
Cheers,
Erik