Renault Station Wagon

When I ordered the Chenard & Walcker van I also bought a 1:18 Renault Juvaquatre model 1951 station wagon. The station wagon was only introduced in 1950 a considerable time after the sedan Juvaquatre was launched in 1937! The model is made by French company Norev. As a metal diecast model it is quite heavy and makes a very sturdy impression. In this large scale diecast models can be made quite detailed and while small scale diecast models often have unrealistically soft details I don't think it is too obvious in 1:18. The car has interior detail, three opening doors and the bonnet opens too, revealing a detailed engine. 

A French model of a French car: the Renault Juvaquatre station wagon.

The car has good ground clearance and with the ability to carry some extra cargo in the rear compartement I thought the car would fit in as the local veterinary's vehicle. Being located in a rural area a veterinary would have enough work to do in Nystrup. 

Open driver's side front door showing interior detail.

 As opposed to the Chenard & Walcker van the Renault has no French features to be removed to fit in around Nystrup. Only the license plate will have to be exchanged with Danish ones. A slight toning down of chrome parts, and a light weathering of underside and lower sides as well as a few bags in the cargo area and the car should be ready for service.

As part of my testing if 16 mm scale is a viable scale for me to work in I have ordered a figure. In my view figures are a weak point of the scale, and the majority of the figures in the scale would never make into my ownership. I'm looking forward to see the figure as it may be a deciding factor if 16 mm scale is going to be a future scale for me.

British Skips for Nystrup Gravel

Nystrup Gravel bought brand new skips a few years after the 2. World War. The old skips had taken a beating during the occupation when traffic on the little gravel line had been very heavy. The new Hudson skips came from Great Britain, in those years the primary supplier of things mechanical to Denmark. After the war it was difficult for Danish businesses to get permission to import goods from abroad. Nystrup Gravel must have been lucky to be allowed to buy new skips.

Two new skips. Here seen in the state they had developed to after a few years of service.

The new skips are to 16 mm scale and quite a bit larger than those I have previously built in 1:35 scale. In an earlier blog post I finished the basic work on the frames. While working on the frames I had decals made that matched those on the 1:35 scale models.

The skips in the garden before I started the painting proces.

The skips from Binnie Engineering are basically sound models with a potential for adding details. The edges of the skip bucket seemed rather wide to me, so I sanded them down a bit and rounded off the corners. I shaved off the rivets on the end edges and added a plastic card reinforcement strip. The rivets were glued back on again with AC glue. It was exiting if I would be able to keep the loose rivets from disappearing and I managed to reuse all but two.

On the frames I added bolts to the brackets holding the axle boxes to the frame and the grease bolt on the front of the axle boxes. I used bolts from TichyTrain. The coupling horns are modified nails bent appropriately and with the heads filed in shape.

I primed the skips with my usual black primer and decided to apply decals and weathering directly on the primer. The weathering was applied in several stages consisting of acryllic and oil paint, pastel chalk and graphite from a soft pencil.

Skips with decals and preliminary weathering applied.

The two Hudson-skips with buckets tipped. The holes drilled in the bottom of the body is barely visible. Any sensible skip owner drilled holes to allow rain water to seep out.

Nystrup Gravel skip 50 in 1:35 and 1:19 scale side by side.