How to modify A/C motorblock sideframes to Climax type sideframes

[vsmith]

Hello all

This is a quick and dirty (my favorite way) way to turn a Aristo Centercab motorblock into a resonable facsimale of a Climax type truck. These are going to be used on my Class A Climax kitbash I have been planning for a while now and will make two more for my Dunkirk engine. I had a cheapo HLW flatcar/gondola laying around and I got to wondering if I could modify the archbar trucks for use on the Dunkirk engine. Side by side comparision revealed that they both had the same wheelbase and that by adding a styrene L I might be able to reuse the stock mounting.

Here is the basic HLW archbar truck I used..


HLW and A/C sideframes side by side


Aligning mounting holes in 4" long x 1/4" styrene L


L before placement after trimming archbar top flat


Bending the .40 x 3/16 strip styrene end bars


glued end bars in place


adding cut tube and wire to represent nuts and bolts


Completed sideframe mounted to the block.




This takes about 20 minutes from start to finish for each sideframe. Be sure when you drill the mount holes to either drill for the alignment studs or trim them off the block. I kept mine. Now I gotta find another flatcar and do the Dunkirk, cant wait to see how they look on that engine. If you want brake arms can be mounted to the L angles or to the end bars more prototypically. As I said this is a quick and dirty bash, but it beats building it completely from scratch and looks pretty good even if I do say so myself! [8D]

[Anonymous]

Very nice Vic.
I'm a firm believer in "get a move on" modelling !
I have a great respect for the people that do the perfect thing, but I just want to play with my models,not look at them.
Regards,Troy

[Anonymous]

Buy that man a drink, - make it two [:)]

Annie [tup]

[Anonymous]

Perhaps a bottle. Quick , simple, looks good!

mikadousrp

[van buren s l]

Vic
Very nice work indeed! Have you considered scratch building a flat car for the Climax body? If you bashed a flat car you would have to cut and file off all of the unwanted details and dodads and cut gaping holes in the floor to mount the power block. By scratch building you could simply build the necessary features in. Are you going to model the slant two cylinder engine? If so, I'd love to see a picture of it. If I were modeling the Climax I'd probably fake the engine with tubing and rods and make sure it was well hidden by the super structure.
Those Aristo power blocks are certainly versitile little critters. I've built two locomotives using them. As soon as I conquer Twenty First Century technology I'll try to post some pictures.
Keep up the good work.
Bob

[Anonymous]

Vic, very slick idea indeed! Thanks for sharing![:)]

[vsmith]

Bob

No, I'm going to use an HLW flatcar as the chassis. I already used a dremel to remove the bolsters and frame pieces in the way and have mounted the trucks to it. I am doing this as sort of a demonstration on cheap kitbashing and will be reviving my old thread on kitbashing a Class "A" now that I have the truck problem licked. [8D]