A New Bedford O - With Trailer (1/35)

Having had much fun building Roadcraft Models’ 1:35 Bedford O tipper and really fond of the little lorry’s looks, I have acquired another Bedford O – this time with a heavy load trailer. When I will have the time to build the kits remains to be seen... While the trailer isn’t capable of carrying the heaviest of loads it will be sufficient for most normal tasks around Nystrup. My new 1:35 Bedford and trailer are from MMK from the CzechRepublic. I bought my kits directly from the MMK-website and had them on my door step two days later.
 

The kits comes in solid card board boxes. No damage was found when I checked the parts.

 

A few parts: Trailer frame, cab and etch for the lorry. As usual for resin kits, there will be a lot of flash to remove.

As the Bedford is pretty much nothing but chassis and cab it could be a good starting point for a conversion if you should want a Bedford O yourself.  Judging from the parts’ quality it shouldn’t be a difficult kit to build.

I’m looking forward having another Bedford for Nystrup. With a trailer it will no doubt make a good stage when photographing a loco or some skips arriving to Nystrup Gravel. I may have to build a stretch of road for photography of road vehicles in the future. There is not much road on my modules and I’m not currently planning for more modules.

The Bedford and trailer will be marked as from a local contractor. When really heavy loads had to be carried, the British trailer wasn’t enough. A phone call to another contractor with more solid equipment was necessary. It is known that Nystrup Gravel sometimes used the services of contractor Hougaard and his old German army tank transporter trailer. 

A cut from an 1950's advert for contractor O. M. Hougaard and his heavy equipment hauling service. Both truck and trailer are probably 'spoils of war' equipment that didn't made it back home to Germany when Denmark was liberated in May 1945. The truck is a Faun ZR and the trailer a Sonderanhänger 116. The excavator is most likely a model (L2 or L3?) from Orenstein & Koppel.

 

Resin Delivery Van (1/35)

Recently I bought some resin parts for two road vehicles from Brazil. One car is now on my workbench and in the process of becoming a delivery van for a hardware dealer in Nystrup. The kit is sold by a Brazilian modeller, Fabio Melo, and made from home cast hard, brittle resin. The quality is below what you normally get from the resin companies, so there is considerable work involved getting the parts prepared and united into a model. I like, however, to struggle a bit now and then instead of assembling a ‘walk in the park, out of the box-kit’.



The main part in Fabio Melo's Ford van kit. While the resin is thick and there are signs of mould slipping basic shape is good and in places the surface is as smooth as would be expected from one of the major resin companies.

Opening up windows and wheel arches took a lot of hard work with a mini drill. The resin dust and debris was flying and if a safety conscious modeller I would probably have put on breathing apparatus and safety goggles. After most of the surplus resin was removed I had to apply some Miliput to repair a few damages, air bubbles and to fill the indentations for the spare wheel and rear license plate. More sanding followed. While taking a break from the sanding chores I made up a new chassis from spare parts and plasticard. Despite being able to pull out a chassis from the spares box it took some fiddly work to accomplish.

Windows roughly opened up with mini drill. Damage on rear mudguard repaired with Miliput. I have further sanding ahead before I can prime the upper body.

My new chassis for the Ford. I dug it out of my spares box. I think it started as a Soviet armoured car. The chassis was lengthened to fit the body, a spare front axle was fitted and a new floor made from plasticard. The engine top was brutally cut off with a cutting disc in the mini drill. The wheels are from the original Fabio Melo kit.

 I won't spend much time on the interior. Not much can be seen through the small windows. I will fit the two seats and a steering wheel.  For good measure I will glue some boxes in the back to block the view through the car.

 

I have been working with the exhaust piping on my oil loco, but haven't finished anything yet. I have been able to dump two miserable attempts in the waste basket, though.