Tuesday, March 29, 2016

Inside the box

Phone box interior

Oh dear Peco. What have you done?

What we expected from a firm as traditional as you inside our phone box was a Button B interior, like this:

Old telephone box

What we find in the kit is a modern(ish) phone more suitable for a 1980s scene. Even the post Button B version with a black plastic phone would have been good. Instead we get one made from stainless steel.

Ho hum. I've painted it up anyway. You'll notice the short lived blue handset and black plastic buttons. The later were quickly replaced with metal versions when it was found that addicts were setting light to them and sniffing the fumes.

What you can't see properly in the photo, but is there in real life, is glazing sheet stuck inside the windows. Peco have been generous with this with 2 sheets, enough for 3 boxes in the kit. I've stuck it in with a couple of drops of plastic cement and then flooded the top and bottom with liquid glue, letting capillary action take it everywhere required.

Another mystery though is why no floor is provided. Cutting a piece of 2mm thick plastic isn't a problem and there are even suitable slots for it to lodge in, but nothing on the sprue.



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I believe the issue with the style of interior has been mentioned to Peco before, after the first pre-production illustrations was made available. Obviously they felt the cost of tooling two different mouldings rather than one to give a choice of fittings wasn't worth it. Unfortunately I have seen excellent 1950s / 60s layouts spoilt because the builder had failed to realise how comparatively 'modern' this style of fitting is and it is noticeable in 7mm scale.