Invalid Car 4mm Scale Model - Part 4

Paul Bartlett's photo (ref. part 3) posed a dilemma for me. It shows a pre-1963 car with side mounted indicator lights. Cars from at least 1964 onwards had the indicators integrated into a cluster with the brake lights on the rear. Which should I model since I don't know the year they changed the design? The location of Paul's photo is unknown, may not even be the Southern. I opted for the later period since I have photos of the cars ready for dispatch at Broad Clyst in 1964. Unfortunately, the 1962 photo of the train conveying the car is too distant to show its details. (ref.part 1). So, here is the finished item, all trussed up ready for transportation. 

Fittings: 

• Headlights: Bodged fence post from an old Airfix kit.
• Front indicators: 0.6mm wire 
• Door handles: 0.6mm wire 
• Rear light cluster: material as headlights. 
• Petrol cap: mushroom vent from a coach kit 
• Number plates: black paper - too small to add registration details 
• Wing mirrors: dressmaking pins with a bulbous end that is filed flat(ish) 
• Exhaust Silencer: cocktail stick 

 The window glass was particularly tricky to cut and fit. I declined to fabricate the single windscreen wiper, which would have to be a hair at this scale! 

To first posting in this series

Invalid Car 4mm Scale Model - Part 3

When I started this project I could not find a photo of the real car rear end. Thinking laterally, knowing that I would be placing this model on a lowfit wagon, I popped over to Paul Bartlett's wagon page on the (very) off chance he might have a lowfit with an invalid car load. Imagine my amazement when I saw his first photo in the series was this exact AC invalid car on a lowfit and showing the rear end! Further more the retaining method of car to wagon is clearly visible. So I'll be modelling that as well. Isn't the Internet a wonderful research tool. 

Unfortunately, I cut the rear window aperture before seeing the photo - it is a little too high. The wheels were reclaimed from an old Triang Minix car and super glued into slots carved into the base. Not finished yet. More details to add.

Part 4 

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Invalid Car 4mm Scale Model - Part 2

Bodywork is made from four pieces of balsa wood; lower body, canopy and two windscreen side struts. Carving was achieved with glasspaper, files and knife. The cockpit and rear window apertures were first drilled and then finished off with file and chisel. White wood primer is applied overall. 

The model is 39mm long (117 inches at 12 inches to the foot) and scaled by reducing a photo of the real car. The chair was left over from a coach kit. It was installed in the car after painting the cockpit in the characteristic sky blue paint and before fitting of the windscreen struts. 

Bodywork looks quite rough in this oversize photo. Looks acceptable at normal viewing. A lot more detailing to be applied.

Part 3

To first posting in this series

Invalid Car 4mm Scale Model - Part 1

In 1964 Broad Clyst station in Devon on the Waterloo-Exeter mainline was a loading/dispatch point for invalid cars. They were carried on open Lowfit wagons and would have been a common site on the main line. I have a photo of a mixed freight train (1962) with one lonely invalid car, probably on its way back to the factory for repair as the train is travelling towards Broad Clyst on the down line in Somerset . This train I can re-create in 00 gauge but I need an invalid car. 

There were many manufacturers and styles of invalid car over the years. I tried tracing the car manufacturer from the Broad Clyst area with a view to identifying the actual 1960s car model, but to no avail. After close examination of railway photographs, showing the car in the distance, I have chosen the AC model from 1965 as this car had a distinctive curved underbody at the front, which is visible in railway photographs of the period. 

Trawling across the Internet revealed a number of good images. Here are two: invalid carriage register and flickr. The bodywork of my model will be carved from balsa wood.

Part 2