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This is a drum cradle that Eric made for a British PNP skip chassis. The wood is stained and distressed poplar. All hardware is steel.
Great care was taken to produce realistic cracks and checking in the wood pieces before assembly.
The wood was glued together with waterproof wood glue but hardware was added to enhance detail.
On the bottom of the cradle there are a few non-scale screws and some pencil marks that aided in assembly. None of this is visible when it is installed on the chassis.
Here is the cradle with a couple 1:6 scale German military drums in place on the shortened PNP chassis.
The start of a new optional top for the chassis. as seen, with pumpkin load, on display in Eric's house for the Thanksgiving holiday.
The skip chassis has been painted gray for contrast from the other rolling stock. Rosie the riveter is the engineer.
On to a different project. This is an early computer model of a chassis that will be water jet cut from aluminum.
The axles and top layer of the chassis frame have been removed in this image. Here you can see how the chassis will be assembled in layers.
Chassis bottom layer only.
Side view of chassis project. When all the layers are assembled it will give the impression of a car formed from c-channel.
Chassis frame top
This is one of the bearings from McMaster.com that Eric intends to modify for use as the axle bearings on the chassis project.
Stock bearing on the left, modified on the right.
Here is the McMaster modified to resemble a skip chassis axle box with bearing cover, retainer bar and oil hole.
The prototype axle box deconstructed.
By Christmas time the bulkheads have been added to the flat wagon.
One barrel was painted to look like a whisky barrel. The other one was temporarily labeled for the holidays.
Here is the bulkhead flat wagon, more or less finished. Some hardware still might be added.
The bulkhead panels have welded steel frames. The stakes that hold them upright are inserted into steel stake pockets on the under frame.
The decking is made from scale 2 x 6 planks cut to a ship-lap profile.
This is the bottom of the bulkhead flat wagon top. Notice the stake pockets and the oval shaped recesses in the corners for bolt heads on the frame.
Eric wanted to de-Germanize the barrels so the rubber bumper rings were removed from between the ridges. This left an indentation between the ridges that had to be carefully filled with body filler.
The raised German lettering on the ends of the drums was filled up with body filler but the 200L marking was left visible. The diesel lettering was done with a cut stencil.
Here are the two interchangeable tops: the bulkhead flat, the drum cradle and the chassis.
A shot of the drum skip with the newly modified drums.
An exciting day! The water jet parts for the chassis project are done. Pictured are enough components to build two chassis. The 3/4" thick core pieces on the left and the outer plates on the right.
Obviously a quick mockup of the parts had to be thrown together and the results are looking really nice.
In the new design there are many tabs and holes to fasten any number of options to these chassis.
Here is a size comparison of the chassis project and the "G" scale LGB chassis that inspired it.
Here is what the chassis would look like with an optional cross member in place.
The chassis scales really nicely with the Maxitrak Planet locomotive.
A string of these chassis will make a really nice base for some classy wagons for the Planet loco.
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