Thursday, July 30, 2015

Bulldog roof

 
I'm not sure why the prototype Bulldog has a canvas roof not unlike a convertable sports car, but it does and therefore so my model must have one too. It's quite handy as in The Book, I wrote a cab in to the story.
 
Anyway, I don't think the roof is removable, at least not easily. When I started, I didn't know how I was going to make it. Since you can see both inside and out, the material had to be thin. Proper modellers would build a prototypical structure and drape gossamer thick cloth over it. More practical people would make a master and vacuum form plastic over this.
 
I'm not clever enough for the first and don't have the tools or equipment for the second.
 
Instead, I made the basic shape out of 0.75mm thick plastic sheet. In the top there is a single microstrip rib, sanded to shape. The rest of the roof is three coats of Deluxe Materials filler sanded to shape. While the sanding stick was out, I rounded off every corner and thinned down the edges slightly.
 
The result is OK. Yes, it's far thicker than it should be but then I doubt the real material is much more than 3mm thick. The only place it's really obvious is in the roof and you can't see under that can you?

2 comments:

Chris Thomas said...

Hi Phil

I’ve been enjoying your progress with the Lanz Bulldog. Fitting the mudguards and the cabin in such a small scale is quite an undertaking.

You must know quite a lot about the Lanz, so I’m probably teaching you to suck eggs when I say that it has cult status in Germany, a bit like the grey Ferguson in this country. A German model railway layout set in the fifties has to incorporate a model of a Bulldog, by law. As well as Kibri, Wiking, Maerklin and Brekina have made models – Brekina offer a version with mudguards and a cabin. This is known as an Eil-Bulldog, an ‘Express Bulldog’ in English, which I believe was fitted with a different drive ratio to make it suitable for road use. It still was not exactly fast, but it was usable with a two-axle trailer for things like urban delivery, by coal merchants for example. The Brekina reference is number 39360
Lanz Eil-Bulldog.

I was surprised that one was to be found in this country, as they were quite idiosyncratic things. I have tried to understand the principle of the hot-bulb oil engine that they used, but it remains a bit of a mystery to me. I look forward to seeing your model finished and painted. Will you fit the front wheel centre to your model, to hide the clip fitting for the wheel that is currently on display?

Chris Thomas

Phil Parker said...

Chris - This is fascinating. Truth is, I knew none of it.

The Bulldog name came from seeing one in a tractor collection. I thought it sounded good and wrote it into my novel. Now that I know there is an "Express Bulldog", this fits the story perfectly and I'm really grateful for you tell me.

And yes, I will fit the wheel caps but only after painting. I want to be able to take the wheels off for this.

Thanks again.