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54mm Scratchbuilt Hansom Cab - buckling down to it


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Well I hope you remember Dobbin, the originally planned motive power unit for the Hansom

You will recall he had problems with his stance and was noticeably overweight for a working fellow so has been put out to pasture and will one day grace the shafts of my Collier's Waggon when he's a tad fitter

Anyway, after much ado may I introduce you to Neddy his protegé

His present colouring is subject to change and your critique on the subject is welcome and intensely willingly anticipated

I have discovered that painting horses in water colour doesn't quite prepare one for sh.... horrid acrylics that pool and bluster onto the model

Ladies and gennulmens

Neddy

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Flash doesnt help make him look any better but when I see him without the flash I'm less despondent

I just cannot find any decent 'net places' that will help me with a: Horses and b: Acrylics so this is all hit'n'miss trial and mahoosive error

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Oh well at least he's here ready to be worked on

Any advice and pointers very willingly welcomed

Bill

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I'm rather unsure whether instant digital photography is a bane or a boon to we model-makers :(

Just noticed that Neddy's left fore is in need of a Swann-Morton Scalpel exercise regime

His left leg betrays the inevitable Frankensteinish nature of any conversions based around the Airfix Collectors Series horses

None of the ones I have seen have identically sized limbs

S'pose that's right really

Oh well, more painting to come now

I'll get some pics soon, when I settle on the final coat colour I hope

:thumbsup:

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coloring looks pretty darned fine to me - way better than I could ever hope to achieve!

even though you pointed out that the fourth something or other on the port side needed surgery, I still couldn't spot the defect.

The only thing I would consider changing (and this is just *my* opinion!) is maybe make the steering gear a bit darker to provide more a touch contrast between that and Neddy's face

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Lol

Hendie mate the 'tack' hasn't been started yet because I need to get the 'horse' bits the right colour first

At the mo' I have repainted the "newer thinner" left foreleg with the base coat of gingery brown (Vallejo Model color 70.984 Marron Mate/ Flat Brown) and later tonight maybe the top dry brush coat of Humbrol 186 will be stippled over it and some of the other parts so I can see what is what

With luck Neddy will appear, as if by magic

Has to be magic, there bain't no skill involved, figures and me is poor bedfellers :(

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Forgive my criticism and it may be the lighting or summat but it looks as though the left front is a bit more, well underneath than the right front?

Right side shot looks nice as does the front 3/4 view but the left side shot looks like the port undercart needs to move outboard just a titch. :shrug:

Again, could just be the viewing angle.

Of course what I know about a horses undercarriage could be put in a very small thimble. :blink2:

Please feel free to call me an idiot. :dunce:

The cab itself looks top hole.

Bravo.

Cheers.

Q

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm no expert Tzulscha, you maybe right but since I trimmed him it looks fine to me

Any draught horse needs kit so he can tow his cargo

His collar is under construct as we sits here

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adding another layer of thick polycard

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forgot to mention this didnt sit right and I'm still working on the collar question :(

As I was testing the collar's fit it kept scraping off Neddy's paint which gave me the chance to get him finished

I have added a couple of layers of Humbrol Matt Acrylic Varnish to toughen the paint and make it settle down nicely on his mane and tail too

So here he is ready for his tack, this is the job in progress at the moment

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his bridle has been picked out with a darker brown and looks fair to me now

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So it gives me much pleasure to show how it is all coming together, even if there is a colossal amount of unknown territory here for me in the future days and evenings

Neddy

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The cab and Neddy

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And may I introduce to you, the presently ghostly Mr Jolyon Welch, cabdriver

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We shall be meeting Mr Welch in more (I hope) detail presently

Finally I got the flash in sorry about the other shots

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The driver is my next and I fear my greatest hurdle, you may be bothered for advice with him from me

I hope I can rely on your skills herewith

Night peeps :thumbsup2:

Edited by perdu
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the powerplant looks great Bill.

Incredibly realistic coloring there. - you can just see the muscle in that engine raring to go.

I look forward to seeing the powerplant finally fitted in place and all the connections made to the airframe (though this particular airframe makes some of those Russian helicopters look almost aerodynamic by comparison!)

In that last shot it looks as if the pilot is about to take a puff on an aged and worn, but comfy pipe so can only assume you're going for some pre-1990's scheme.

oh, one more thing about the powerplant.... it looks like you've forgotten the exhaust tailpipe!

Edited by hendie
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Marvelous work Bill, just found your build thread. As with Hendie, it's not the subject matter but your build process, looking stunning.

Colin

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Thank you Colin, guys for that

I'll take it as encouragement whilst Mr Welch and I get down and entangled

I don't like modern paint types at all, we had it far better back in the day

Even if we were poisoning ourselves with smelly fumes

Humbrol and Gloy, proper paint in them thar days

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I won't presume to offer advice on the cab itself but I'm not completely awful with figures and I'd be more than happy to try and help with Mr Welch if I could offer my humble services...

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Cracking work Bill. And as a fellow user of old school Humbrol enamels, I can safely say a lifetime of sniffing smelly neurotoxins in confined unventilated spaces hasn't done me any harm. :frantic:

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  • 1 month later...

Hi, your horse looks fine to me, as does the whole ensemble. If you still aren't happy with the horse's colouring, my teenaged daughter "repaints" some of her "Breyer" model horse using pastels - all her modelling techniques come off YouTube, though there are books available. She showed me some of the videos, the techniques are fairly straightforward, at least initially. She's very artistic, her reworking of her models look very lifelike. Certainly the pastel technique gives a very natural feel to colour variations.

Reworking model horses seems to be a whole other modeling genre, mainly in the states and apparently more popular model hobby on the female side for once. From what my daughter told me there are whole championships for miniature horses.

Cheers

Will

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I'd like to see some photo's of her work...

Ditto,

Work did slow down on Jolyon and Neddy whilst I finished my Auster but is now underway again

Just been cobbling the street they will be stood on and working on Ned's tack

I'll try to get some pics into photodollop tonight

Thanks for looking in

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OK then

Thanks Roger I will start with Neddy ready (poem alert poem al...) for some harness making

He looks duller in photos than real life so I may decide to give him a slight sheen

I'll look into it

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nearside? view

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II am told that everyone wore a scarf in those days of Dickensian winters, Ned has a scarf to protect his neck from paint and 'stuff' whilst I fit him a horse collar, painlessly

A wrap of cling film will keep the inevitable spatters off when I get it trimmed to size

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The collar was a problem, even cutting the plastic one didnt give decent access to the horse's neck so I ended up with making a collar from Plasticene which was quite easy to shape and fit

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Shaped down and given an initial dollop of acrylic (ModelAir Sombra Tostada 71.040 Burnt Umber) that got a thin wash of Humbrol Clear to neutralise the softness of the plasticene

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This then got a coat of Model air 70.822 German Brown and was allowed to dry nicely

Next I began making the saddle part of the harness, this bit's not for riding on but will hold the reins loop and the shafts straps

Here is the piece of Brummagem cobblestones that he will bestride when at work and Ned lying down

whilst the strapping is begun

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The girth straps need a pair of buckles adding so I cast around looking for useful bits-n-bobs here I have cut holes in a section of 1/8" U section Evergreen ready for the trimming to begin

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The underside of the buckles are trimmed to suit

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The new buckles emerge from the chaos... slowly

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A pair of straps were fabricated and bent with fine pointy pliers

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This isnt a good picture of the strapped buckles, sorry

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Here is the result, I quite like them

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Now the plasticene has dried out and hardened a bit I can get down to reinstating the lost shape on the collar before I add the (plastic) ironworks for pulling a horse with

Next phase, making the upper saddle brace piece

One side on now

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Here the second side of the harness is cemented down and taped to hold it down whilst the glue sets

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And for tonight a shot of Jolyon lost for words again

I am definitely not happy with this character, much work needed, maybe even a new head (or both, I dont like him much at all for what it's worth)

P1110175_zps9vntzcwe.jpg

Err that's all folks

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Excellent stuff Bill, really good to see you back at this one! Superb work on both the collar & those buckles, which look tremendous (& tremendously fiddly to make!) The only slight reservation I have is about the plasticene. I used to use it for nose weight in my aircraft models back in the dark ages & on a number of occasions, after a while, oil leached out of the stuff & split open the nose seams, & left a horrible gooey mess. Maybe though, like your favourite paints, the formulation has changed over time?

Keith

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I've been worrying about that it's true but I'm hoping all the layers of acrylics and copious splodging with Clear will hold back its effects for a few years whilst I get thinking about ways of replicating it from something else that won't atack the paint already on Neddy's neck

It should hold 'til November at least so it can go on the Branch Display at Telford, Best Of British

(like the Auster) ;)

The stuff isnt like real Harbutts Plasticene, more of a 'plasticene light' from (I think) Lidl or Aldi and has less stink of chemicals than the stuff we grew up loving

I used to love the days when 'miss' sent us to the cupboard to get the strawboards and the big boxes of Harbutts, usually days it was too wet for the playground

YiPPPPEEEE

I loved Plasticene

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I used to love the days when 'miss' sent us to the cupboard to get the strawboards and the big boxes of Harbutts, usually days it was too wet for the playground

YiPPPPEEEE

I loved Plasticene

Me too!!

Would Miliput or similar work Bill?

But as you say, it shouldn't give trouble before November!

K

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The horsie and his harness look terrific I must say.

Your driver looks like he has been savaged by his own mustaches however.

Not unsalvageable though, just cut in some skin tones with a fine brush. A bit of a trim as you might say.

I do a lot of face fur with a pencil. A clear coat turns the graphite from silvery to black. It does mean I have a lot of brunette figures...

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Yes it probably would, I'm just having one of my sessions of not quite liking it lately

too many sessions of it not quite setting and the like

but re-inspired I might whip off the plasticene and whip up a dollop of Milli :)

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