Rebuilding Bankes Bakelit (1/35)

I'm currently rebuilding the factory building at Bankes Bakelit. Quite an accomplishment as I never managed to finish the first version of the building. The upgrade from card board mock up to foam board building was planned. Now the building has (due to the unforeseen intervention from good friends of Nystrup Gravel) progressed to laser cut 4 mm. MDF. In fact several friends came up with ideas for improving the building. I really like getting suggestions and advise. I consider it the main benefit of this little blog. Thanks a lot.

Per Møller Nielsen, the owner of Epokemodeller, a small Danish producer of all sorts of useful accessories in scales from H0 to Gauge 1, offered to laser cut both walls and windows. Sketches with the main measurements were mailed and the finished parts delivered only a week later. I paid Per a small sum for the service, but surely the result merits the investment.

The building from Larsen's Toy Factory I'm using as inspiration for my bakelite factory. Workers beside a pile of the wooden toys they were making inside for more than 60 years. Too bad I can only build one end and a single row of windows. I can see that H0-modellers have one advantage over my 1:35 scale...

I assembled the three main parts (front and sides) with white glue. The parts came chamfered and they fitted perfectly together. I added a small rear reinforcement of foam board. The major rear foam board wall of the building will be integrated with the internal structure and interior.

I filed the lower window edge to allow for the mounting of a window sill. On the prototype the sills are quite prominent and I didn't want to leave them out. The sills were fabricated from plastic card and painted a rusty red to match the window frames, although you from the old photo above can see that they originally were white.

The outer walls of the building were covered with a layer of white glue that was worked with a short and stiff haired brush while drying. This gives the wall a three dimensional structure which I think is necessary in 1:35 scale. After two layers of white paint I fitted decals with the company name. I had those made years ago by my usual supplier of decals 'Skilteskoven' in Odense.

Ready for paint. The covering of dried white glue is vaguely visible.

White paint added and decals fitted. Gloss varnish provided a smooth surface for the decals but it still took a considerable amount of decal solution to make the decals conform to the irregular surface.

Foam board interior during construction. Grain of wheat bulbs test fitted - one in the front room right and two in the office left.

Lights on in the front room. I plan to fit the lighting so I can turn on the light in each room individually.

The windows were also laser cut by Per in thin card board. I carefully assembled the windows with thinned white glue. After the glue had dried, I gave the windows a cover of Vallejo matt varnish on both sides to protect the surface and provide a little extra stiffness.

Each window is made up from five parts. Here they are in company with an assembled window. Clear plastic card will be glued on the frames' rear as glass.

The interior is currently being glued up from foam board in the form of a 'drawer' that can be pulled out of the building. Two rooms on the ground floor (office and front room with stove) and a single room with tanks and piping on the first floor.

Land Rover Fire Tender (1/35)

This week saw me standing in line at the local post office (well, actually a corner of a super market operating a post office service). The time waiting was truly worth it. My package contained a long sought after kit: the Roadcraft Land Rover Series 1 fire tender in 1:35 scale!

An understated package. 

The rugged Land Rover was popular in Danish fire and rescue services, particularly in rural areas. I remember seeing one in action from a first floor window in my grand parents' farm. While I was having my afternoon nap ( I must have been about 6 years old) the neighbour's pig stable caught fire. All the noise woke me op, and the first thing I saw when I looked through the curtains was a little red Land Rover fire tender laying out hoses to a small pond.

Whitemetal chassis and resin body parts. This vehicle is perfect for putting out fires around Nystrup.

The kit is made from white metal and resin with etched brass for small and delicate details. I have built a Roadcraft Bedford O lorry and being impressed with its quality, I knew I had to have a Land Rover. The problem is that Roadcraft kits are as rare as hens' teeth. I have only seen them advertised on the Scale Link website. Having left a mail some time ago I was contacted recently and told they had tracked down a few of the rare kits.

Page 1 of the assembly diagrams - and a lot of parts!

Usually a short run multi media-kit will be accompanied by some awfull instructions, sometimes leaving the builder with more questions than answers. This is not the case here! Not only do Roadcraft kits come with nice drawings showing where the parts go, they also have a written up assembly manual. No less than 16 A5 pages of helpful text comes with the fire tender. I'll have a hard time to keep my hands off this kit. But I have other projects to finish first.