# a new (horsedrawn) spring dray



## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi,

I have been building (still more to do though the basic work is done) a spring fitted dray, to go with the other which has no springs. 

This time I used a good drawing from my copy of the book ‘Great Western Horse Power’ by Janet Russell. There was not much difference between the style of UK and USA vehicles, so the drawing made things easy, the model uses wheels from Hobby’s, and are a scale 3 foot diameter. The body uses scored both sides (the top with deeper scores) 2mm styrene, with 3mm square PVC Sintra board for the underside of the deck, that being made to keep the deck from sagging; the turntable uses a piece of waste water pipe to make it, and it is painted black. The front has more 3mm sq strip used and the steps on it are from drinks cans sheet: handrails are straightened paper clip wire. Paint is from Humbrol. 

The springs have 1 leaf from food tray aluminum, doubled and the other leaves are my usual .020 styrene; the C hangers are from the doubled strip with a piece of drinks can metal for more strength and thickness. 

The figure (without his head and is armless!) is a Chinese copy from E bay; I found that the drawings need to be checked with a figure otherwise his feet have nowhere to rest! 

The crate design is from the same book where it is shown on the frontispiece – mine is slightly different sizes but otherwise to the same design. Its is made from coffee stirrers which I persuaded McDonalds to give me – their present wooden ones are similar but longer & less wide and some wood from my stockpile for the top & bottom outer planks. 

The ‘load’ is polystyrene packaging covered in thin polyethylene sheet, such as that around all the freebies in the Sunday papers supplements, as an experiment – glue it on with frame sealant, as that will not attack the foam. Buried within the foam are a couple of pieces of lead, to give the load some mass. It looks like a thin cover when painted and weathered, as can be seen the ‘rope’ is heavy cotton held in position with superglue. Finally the base has a couple of hefty planks (coffee stirrers) that it sits on and allows it to be easily placed on the base of the crate when loading it. As can be seen the top is loose but is a nice interference fit so I can use it in both loaded and empty configurations. 

The colour is the result of 4 coats of very thin paint to produce a well used colour. Crates were returned after use and I wanted the colour I now have; the deck of the dray follows the same path to get a colour. The rope rings are from 30 amp fuse wire wrapped round a piece of tube and held with a bent over strip of drinks can metal. There will be some bits of wood and some rope (various bits of colored string) scattered about the deck; the carthorse, which is a Papo animal will be fitted with harness and will have a some (mock) leather straps, made from 1.5mm strips of food tray aluminum and reins; the American horse drawn vehicles used this or a curved set of shafts where we in the UK had fabricated wooden shafts. The start of the collar can be seen of the horse already, it now needs the padded ring (more PVC solid foam) and then the hames which are to be from paperclip wire. 

Here are some photos of the work so far









Side view with the (part) figure to ensure that there is sufficient space for him to fit correctly.v










Top view of the deck; four different colors of paint, and the plank joins outlined with a sharp pencil before the last coat of paint..










Opposite side view with the sun at a different angle to show more detai; note the 'bits' on the front of the deck.










The 'crate' dis-assembled; the very creased cover is thin polythene sheet; again this has four different colors of acrylic paint over the wood (mainly coffee stirrers) that it is made from.

The cover was painted first with masonry paint, then washes of dilute ink and left to dry before more layers were added; the rope holding the cover on is heavyweight cotton, fixed with superglue.

The sun is a bit bright really as it looks darker in normal light - I wanted a 'well used' look, which I have got.

More detail work is needed and the first bit of that is that the horse needs his harness and reins - then the driver I think.

Yours Peter.


----------



## jimtyp (Jan 2, 2008)

Very nice Peter! Love everything about it, and the sheet is ingenious!


----------



## SteveC (Jan 2, 2008)

Peter

Another nice one, you're the busy one aren't you?


----------



## peter bunce (Dec 29, 2007)

Hi,

The driver for the spring dray has been started as my wife is asking for some speed to be shown as she wants photos of all my horsedrawn vehicles for a calendar! So it was more 'learning curves to be climbed as I do not have much experience at modifying figures they are a bit small!


So a start was made on one of my ‘Chinese copies’ and it was time for some surgery to be undertaken on one of the males. First off was that the right arm was holding a briefcase – which had to go, a pair of cutters removed most of it and a small bur the rest, the hand is a bit thicker than the left hand some quite a lot of plastic needed to be removed, the photos show the pieces before any work was done to them; after the photo I turned round the right hand as well, to a vertical position. Then I can add a horse whip into the hand.

The left arm was cut almost through at the elbow, and then raised just slightly, the hand was cut off and the fingers bent down a bit, then re –attached – I use a tiny amount of Evo-stik, then properly glue the hands or such with a drop of superglue, placed with a piece of wire, or a cocktail stick.. 

With the arms change, the flat cap he was wearing was cut off (and saved for future use somewhere) I wanted a Stetson instead; a disc was cut from a ‘Fosters’ lager can sheet offcut, normally this is like a wonky washer, but this time it was just a disc; the upper part of the hat is made from 4 layers of .060 styrene, roughly cut out after carefully working out the first , and all glued together; when dry the outside is shaped with a sanding drum, and a depression and finger depression (on the front where the hat is picked up to put on), shaped with a small round burr. When satisfied the top is glued onto the rim which has a slight curl added on both the front corners. 

The feet needed to be re-aligned to my front board on the dray, so they were cut almost cut through with a slitting saw, and a wedge added to suit then the rest of the empty space filled with filler.

The head I decided needed a beard – a tiny piece of .040 styrene shaped like a curved sided ‘V’ was cut to match the chin, and glued on, then the edge filled with a tiny amount of filler, I later attacked the edge which was too ‘square’ with a pointed burr to roughen it up, before painting it. – there is already a moustache in the figure.

Finally the head can be fitted and a hat ribbon added from a small width paper strip, it is easier to add this after painting the hat – pre paint it and a ‘whisker’ of glue will hold it – you will need a pair of tweezers to hold it en route to its location. I took some photos of the work done, and they are added; the photos showed up that I had not finished off the right arm change – there was a chasm between them! Some quick rectification work, and a repaint was done and a new photo taken. The figure has been varnished with a local matt varnish, which is quite good there is no whitening of the colour which is a persistent fault of most matt varnishes I have tried. The figure by the way is 2.5 inches in height, a scale 5.5 feet, and the photos are taken with a close up setting on my camera.


Changing the subject – the Papo horse and the dray, have been fixed to their base, after the horse had his harness made from strips of aluminum foil. In addition some brass .013 wire was used for the loops where required. The collar base is two pieces of black .020 styrene glued on and the under edges filled with filler and painted black. On top is a couple of pieces of carefully bent and shaped strip of 3mm square Sintra board. To these are added the hames – the curved pieces of steel – some were wood. These have a little piece that finishes with the hook for the traces that connect the horse to the dray.

The dray itself has a brake and the operating lever added, and rods (paper clip wire), the brakes themselves are more bits of PVC foam, with a bit more for the cross rod. It also has a skidder on the nearside with apiece of chain and the skidder itself being a bit of aluminum foil, suspended on another bent bit of wire for a hook: whilst the chain was out it also provided a couple of bits for the rear drop flap. 










All in bits - the figure as bought, via E bay.











A new stetson fitted and work started on the feet to lift the front of the boots upwards.



















two more views from a different viewpoint










The figure in position - after this I decided to change the position of the right hand to allow him to hold a horse whip.










The rope store on the back of the front board - I think the rope is kite flying line - stained and coiled and glued, and then glued on the paper clip wire hooks, alsd the 'junk' planks are now in position around the edges.



















The finished figure in a 'horrible' close up' - he is only 2.5 inches high!, and the light is very directional - that's my story, and added to that is that I am only an learning - with a long way (and a supply of figures to (mutilate?) learn on!

Enjoy.

Yours Peter.


----------



## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Another outstanding model, Peter. Wonderfully done...


----------

