DETAIL for Superquick ASH PLANT MODIFICATION
Having obtained a Superquick Ash Plant card kit and commencing to build it, I quickly realised that the instructions and diagrams were somewhat ambiguous, so I have started this post with the intention of helping others who may be struggling or wish to "improve" the kit to make it a little less 2 dimensional.
The first problem I had was with the tabs. Some have to be folded back and glued while others initially just require folding back. Unfortunately I glued back several that I shouldn't have! So I suggest you only glue flaps back when expressly told to do so in the instructions. DO NOT glue back the flaps that will later form the legs!
The little square formers for the legs are not accurately shaped and care should be taken to trim them to size so that the leg channel does not bulge or the card formers do not sit higher than the U shaped channel.
The legs are also a bit weak looking so I inserted some pieces of square balsa into the spaces between the leg formers.
The recommended method of attaching windows is to use Sellotape - I strongly recommend using glue (impact adhesive) as the Sellotape will weaken in a couple of years and your window will detach.
The instructions for constructing the funnel are not really clear but I have worked out that the triangular flaps fold upwards into the funnel, i.e. are not seen in normal viewing. I guess the diamond cover strip covers these but again couldn't work out!
The actual concrete structure is a bit "flat" looking, so I will add thin cardboard strips to the main outline to give it some depth. Have measured these and some are 6mm while others appear to be 8mm wide!
I was also not really impressed by the standard corrugated structure, so I decided to improve the appearance by cutting appropriate pieces of Scalescenes rusty corrugated sheet. This is cheaply downloaded from their website and printed out. I used Copydex to glue this over the existing corrugated pieces.
The results are shown here. Hopefully somewhat better!
On this subject, looking at pictures of prototypes, I haven't seen one with the brick building or corrugated structure! I guess they could be cut off but that would mean more work with the winding hut.
Another drawback of the kit is that it doesn't include the skip that is hoisted up the rails. I intend to build one from Plasticard.
The kit has card for making the rails but I don't like these and have ordered 4mm H section Plastruct to build new rails. So I will have to add another post when these arrive.
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Next step was to cut some 6mm and 8mm strips of cereal packet. These were painted mid grey (a shade too dark I think, so will have to lighten).
The strips were cut to shape and glued on top of the printed outline strips on the concrete structure.
I also scored the horizontal concrete courses on the main structure.
More to follow...
Regards
Ray