Centerbeam Kits

Hello all,

currently I'm assembling one of those centerbeam flatcar kits from Robert Ray.

I assembled the kit until the point before I had to insert the lead weight in the bottom, and let it sit for a few days. Today when I wanted to go on I saw that there was a slight twist to the car body, that would have caused the car to stand on three (or better 6) wheels.

Fortunately I could force this slight twist out of the car by making sure that the lead weight was perfectly flat and fixing the car in a small vise/vice (with just enough pressure to hold the car) while letting the CA glue set.

Is this something that happens occasionally with those kits, or did I do something terribly wrong earlier?

Until now I can just say that I love to assemble this kit.



Side note: this is not a kitbash, but is assembling a kit like this already called scratchbuilding? Until now I thougth that scratchbuilding is when you create something from scratch... without any prefabricated parts like in a kit? Then we would need another subforum...

I usually just twist the underframe by hand get the twist out. I never use CA glue for assembly, because it dries stiff, where regular white glue stays a bit more flexible.

Once the twist is out of the frame, you can add the center beam and bulkhead ends, then when the glue is dried, add the top of the center beam part, and put a weight on the car while the white glue sets hard overnight.

The twist comes from the 1/32" plywood part in the underframe. What I found out is happening is that the wood takes humidity from the air, and warps slightly.



Those Center Beam kits are one of my first designs, and I have just finished updating the design for easier assembly using peel & stick Lazerboard construction, but I still use the 1/32" wood part of the underframe, because it fits the lead weight thickness.

-Robert

Uwe, I like to use a heavy flat weight to pressend on warp parts. Once the wood its dry, it stays flat. I dont have problems with Robert's kits, but I had warping when assembling other manufacturers.

Hello Robert,
pray59 wrote:

I usually just twist the underframe by hand get the twist out. I never use CA glue for assembly, because it dries stiff, where regular white glue stays a bit more flexible.

So I didn't do anything terribly wrong...

I only used CA for the lead weight, and white glue for the rest so far.
I assembled the centerbeam, the bulkheads and the top of the centerbeam first on the floor according to the manual. But as I wrote with a little care for the lead weight it is no problem. I will see how this works out in the long run.

@shamoo737: I thought that the wood was dry, since I have it laying around here for some time before I could start assembling.

I'm looking forward to assembling the other kits I have. A few more centerbeams and a bulkhead flatcar. Also some other kits for buildings are still waiting to be assembled. The current work is a start in laser kits at all. So far I love it. It's so much more natural to work with wood instead of plastic. Somehow it feels much more realistic.