The beaching trolley was an afterthought once I had started this build. It was intended to be a simple structure to rest Jings! on, a sort of fancy display stand.
20170904_180503 by
Robomog, on Flickr
The Initial design you can see In some of the early progress photographs basically a simple square structure sitting on four wheels with some sort of tow bar. The uprights incedently are metal reinforcement retrieved from a discarded laptop keyboard, you find them under the bigger keys. They are installed as is into holes drilled into the plastic frame and fixed with CA.
I quickly found this design wouldn't work, the ex Bloodhound tow bar I intended to use was too wide and the wheels I had chosen too high.
I increased the depth of the suspension but that didn’t help, it was then that I realised I had to make room for the keel fin and rudder. Cutting out a section of the frame I then used a piece of curved plastic from a ballpoint pen body to create what would be in real life (real life?) a protective tray.
This had a knock on effect of how to deal with the steering.
20171006_202151 by
Robomog, on Flickr
In the end I settled on a narrow extension and hit on the idea of having a small twin wheeled steering unit with the tow bar incorporated. I also wanted this to pivot and the tow bar to be loose so that I could pose the beaching trolley It sounded good and looked good on paper but I did open myself up to a whole lot of hurt in construction.
Back In the parts box I found a pair of suitable wheels and attached them to a piece of spruce. I drilled a hole in the top of the sprue to take a metal bar that was going to be the pivot and two tiny holes between the wheels through which I looped some fuse wire that held the tow bar, this was fashioned from a chunk of Bloodhound carrier strut that had a convenient moulding that made a effective towing eye. I fixed the wire loop with a drop of superglue and left the piece to set. A good night’s work.
Two nights later I discovered that I had been a bit heavy handed with the CA, it had leaked through the holes and the whole piece was rock solid!
Which only go’s to prove smugness comes before a fall. (Note to self: get some debonder)
Starts again back at the spares box: This time I found a complete nose wheel and another piece of random undercarriage that would fit the hole in the frame. The undercarriage was too narrow to drill so I fixed a tiny open loop on to it with CA, once set I could thread the tow bar on and close it by bending, no glue involved here!
20171010_204444 by
Robomog, on Flickr
The extension frame still proved to low so out with the scalpel to cut the cross piece out and a new section complete with new hole fixed over the forks of the frame.
I suddenly decided I needed something to tow it so I have dug an old Land Rover (ex Bloodhound kit circa 1973), i’m not going over the top on this one, but I carefully took the roof off and put some glass in it and painted the inside. I have spent quite a lot of time making good my appalling construction of this vehicle and given it a coat of white, i think it will look acceptable when i have finished.
Here is the story so far, the top of the steering needs to be detailed, the main wheels are a little askew but that can be sorted out after painting, and it is still tipped forward a tad which I will adjust later.
20171011_203750 by
Robomog, on Flickr
20171011_203825 by
Robomog, on Flickr
Next, kill or cure, the painting starts ........
Mog