Katzhagen - Archive - March 2012
Falsification of plagiarisms
or turning a Chinese into a Ruegen coach
An alluring price and the chance to finally get hold of some 4-axle Ruegen coaches for the 99 4652 entrapped me to purchase four Chinese plagiarisms. These coaches were delivered six months after the order, early in January 2012 when I was busy with another project. Therfore the Chinese had to wait for their naturalization a bit...
The plagiarism prior to the naturalization arrangements - in its drab appearance
A Reko coach of the former Ruegensche Kleinbahn
The Prototype
for a redesign in the look of the former Ruegensche Kleinbahn (now Ruegensche Baeder Bahn) was a so called Reko coach with seven windows belonging to the KB4ip category, which was built in Bautzen during the 1920s.Structural changes weren't necessary, since the plagiarism distributed by Newqida matches the requirements to the greatest possible extent. Just the guide rolls for a Heberlein brake's rope were removed and the plastic axles were replaced by Magnus ball bearing wheels with power pick-up.
In addition to designing and mounting an illumination, a fundamentally new paint was applied.
First a simple paneling made from a white 1.5mm polystyrene plate was designed to carry the LEDs. This was screwed to the mounting points existing ex-factory inside the roof.
Paneling, power supply and LEDs
Final functional check after mounting the illumination
The five warm white LEDs (2500K) are powered by a buffered current control and provide for a well illuminated interior.
The illumination is provided by LEDs mounted inside the roof.
Move the mouse pointer onto the picture to see a sketch with meassures.
A new lettering was required, too. Prior to having related white decals printed by Troeger-2m, the newly created lettering was checked to meet the requirements by printing some test labels.
The new lettering on the test bed - logo, technical lettering and further symbols. Everything OK ?
No obvious flaws found - ready for printing...
Trespassing forbidden - taking movies is not
The seat mountings can easily be overlooked...
Disassembling
the coach for applying a new paint basically proved to be simple, but one can easily overlook the screws at the housing's bottom which provide for a tight fastening of the seat rows (see picture on the left).Prior to the application of a primer for the new varnish the lettering had to be removed. Since traditional methods like brake fluid and pad print remover miserably failed, the lettering was removed by wet-sanding the housing with a grid of 600.
Revell's airbrush primer for enamel paint was used for the basic coat. The result compares to that of Revell's Basic Color from a spray can after adding around 10-20% thinner (the latter provided for a significantly better handling with the airbrush gun).
The window frames and one of the seat rows as well as the chassis' entrance areas also got a basic paint since these parts were determined to get a new varnish, too.
Time warp - a couple of days later: comparison of paints. The result seems to reward the efforts.
Applying the new paint
turned out to be less complicated than time-consuming. While only parts of the chassis required some minor masking prior to its priming, the housing needed two different maskings after applying the primer. This was necessary due to its ivory and green paint and the green stripe beneath the windows.After the new varnish had dried out thoroughly, its surface was sanded with a grid of 8000 in those places where the decals had to be applied in the next step. After the decals had dried the new paint got a clear satin finish to protect the decals and to improve the appearance.
The picture on the right shows a comparison of the entrance areas.
A further comparison - the new colouring gives a significantly more friendly impression compared to the drab Chinese paint.
I fancied exactly this result ! Just the green colour could be a tad darker - or may be not ?
Move the mouse pointer onto the picture to compare it to the Newqida car !
Now imagine the train with four coaches ! A left click will open a bigger picture.
January 2012 | Archive "Current Affairs" | Aril 2012
