Building a "O" scale Brisbane FM Part 11

No new photos of the model but it is often the little things that make a model look just right. Brisbane trams had a fitting just behind the front kerbside door to hold a flag. One at each end. The Brisbane city Council owned and operated the trams and periodically raised funds from the residents of Brisbane by means of a "City Loan" Flags advertising that the loan was now open were flown from the trams and a photo of a couple of the old flags, somewhat worse for wear, are shown. I hope to eventually make replicas of these.

Building a "O" scale Brisbane FM Part 10

Mounted the side frames to the Black Beetles today. I also fitted the plates to the floor for the trucks to be attached to. And as usual managed to make a mistake that required it to be redone.

Firstly I had chosen some styrene that was the same thickness as the height of the bearing surface on the truck. I did this because I felt the maximum thickness I could use would add extra strength. After all all the weight of the body is carried on these plates.

Secondly, I set the floor up to the correct height and shimmed and glued the the styrene plates in place but forgot the trucks were sitting on their flanges and not on their treads. Problem, I couldn't add a spacer under the floor to lift the body height. If I did I wouldn't be able to tighten up the locating screw on the trucks. The styrene was too thick. So it all had to be removed and redone.

The kit appears to have been set up for the wiring between the two trucks to run across the floor. I realise this may be the only option because of where the connections are made to the black beetles. But just in case I can get away with it I have put a sub-floor in below the centre section floor to carry the wires and keep them hidden. It will also add a bit more strength to the floor.

Building a "O" scale Brisbane FM Part 9

No photos of the model today but a couple of photos and some details I have been chasing up of the route number boards. Sadly No 494 is missing it's boards and the photos attached are of the setup on No 554. The top of the bracket is level with the top of the door opening. Historical photos of 494 show that it's boards were mounted in the same position.

The numbers themselves are painted on both sides of metal plates and held together with metal rings at the top. The set of numbers were pulled out and then flipped over to make the selection.

The overall dimension of both numbers together is 310mm x 220mm. The frame is slightly larger as in the photos and is angled forward with the rear standing out 45mm

Building a "O" scale Brisbane FM Part 8

The roof steps supplied in the kit looked oversize so a quick check on several FMs at the museum was in order. The first photo is of the steps on FM N0 400 but all the steps appear to be exactly the same.

The actual size of the treads on all the trams were the same at 505mm x 120mm x 20mm. This works out considerably smaller than the ones that came with the kit. As they are a fairly fragile item and sit up there on top of the model I decided that rather than cut down the steps provided I would make completely new ones out of brass and solder it all together before placing it on the roof. They still came out a little heavier than I would have liked but I figured that when they were painted nobody will know.

With the steps in place it was time to try and finish the painting on the roof. I decided to airbrush the roof with acrylic paint so I masked off the sides and sprayed the roof with "Tamiya Mat Black" When dry I over sprayed the black with "Tamiya Deck Tan" The tan was only misted on and deliberately left uneven. The aim was to give the roof the appearance of a sun bleached black with a patchy coating of city dust and generally an untidy appearance.


The Black Beetle (powered and unpowered) have arrived so I shall be able to start on the floor. Not far to go now.

A Card model of No 400 in "O" scale part 2

The only photos I have so far is of all the pieces cut out of cardboard and the current photo of the model approximately half built. My card models are built using the overlay method with each layer slightly different where necessary so the end result is a three dimensional effect. Again, I'm not a rivet counter and if the model looks good from a metre away I am very happy. But I can't stand a poor performing model so I may make a few deviations from the prototype from time to time in the interests of reliability.

The model needs the seats, the roof steps and a few other small items fitted and then on to the painting. The roof steps will most likely be brass as I can't see any way of making them in card. Shellac has given the model the odd colour in the second photo. I use shellac a lot with card modelling. It softens the card so curves can be formed and I always use several coats of shellac to seal the surface before painting but a lot of care is needed while they are wet as they mark easily. The safety rail across the windows are made from brass wire and are sandwiched between the two side laminations.

A Card model of No 400 in "O" scale Part 1

A slight pause is necessary building the Transitclassics FM while I'm waiting for some parts to arrive so I am back on my model of No 400, the class leader of the FMs, that I started a year ago.

The original was built in 1937 and was a one off. Built with a rather an odd roof and riveted construction it was a test car to gauge public response to the new design. Future FMs had the improved roof line and were of mainly welded construction. These early models had wide centre doors and canvas blinds to close off the doorways in wet weather.

The construction of my model hasn't been well documented up to now but it has been assembled using my favourite building material, cardboard with a balsa wood roof. No 400 is currently under restoration at the museum. The first photo shows the car in service in the 1960s climbing Cornwall St with the Ipswich Road Tram Depot in the background. The second is at the museum while it was being moved into the workshop before the start of restoration. The other side of the car still carried the Johnnie Walker Scotch Whisky ads that appear in the first photo.

The third is a copy of an old Brisbane City Council drawing for No 400.

Building a "O" scale Brisbane FM Part 7

The model has been painted all over with light grey. This will be the final colour for the sides and the portion of the roof that was canvas covered in the original. In the photo the floor is still unpainted and the fibreglass ends that contain the destination boxes have to be painted darker grey.

I fitted the trolley poles and found I had to modify the kit as my home made poles had a high base of their own and added to pieces in the kit the poles just didn't sit right. I needed to bring everything down closer to the roof. It looks better now.

The job I hate the most is applying masking tape. Put it on too firmly or leave it on too long and you risk removing paint along with the tape later. Don't put it on firmly enough and the paint gets under the tape and ruins what you have already done. I spent hours cutting and fitting the tape over all the doors and windows from the inside. The only problem I ended up with was a small amount of grey on one of the seats.

I thought I had everything smooth and even the etch primer looked good but it was surprising the number of flaws that showed up after the gloss grey went on. Fortunately it will only be a full gloss until I get the decals on and then it will be over sprayed with a clear semi-gloss finish with the roof being weathered and finished in mat.

Time to start thinking about the windows. I would like to show the windows open as this is how I remember them. 494 and I suspect all of the trams in this group were fitted with counterbalanced windows. The spring mechanism was concealed behind the panelling under the window. The glass had a chrome strip glued to the top with a lip so you could raise or lower the window. Open there was always about 150mm of glass still showing so I will have to experiment with reproducing the chrome strip.

The photo of 494 while still in service shows the driver's window and just one of the side windows open. Only the four sets of four windows and the driver's side windows could be opened. The driver's windscreen, the glass in the doors and in the two windows between the centre doors were fixed.

The last photo is an interior shot of 494 showing more detail than anyone would ever need for a model. Also shown are the end mirrors so that the conductor could see if anyone was boarding through the end doors from anywhere in the tram and the timber panelling on the motorman's bulkhead.

Building a "O" scale Brisbane FM Part 6

It's a TRAM! Well it's suddenly starting to look like one now. I have glued it all together with two part epoxy. I joined the sides and the ends first as I figured I could sand the roof to fit it it wasn't quite right later. I ended up using the dremel to cut a gap between the edge of the front seats and the sides to provide space
for the nose overlap to slot into. The overlaps on the nose pieces and the mating areas on the sides were bevelled using a sanding disk with regular dry fitting to insure that these pieces lined up correctly. The beading around the door has to stand proud of the side.

I always do the final assembly on that rather large piece of "C" section aluminium in the photos. There is nothing worse than assembling a model to find it rocks from corner to corner. That makes fitting trucks under it difficult and can end up with unreliable running. The aluminium is my "flat" surface plate. It also allows me to turn the model around to work on a different part while the glue is still setting elsewhere. I rub over the aluminium with candle wax before I start as this prevents glue from sticking to the plate.

The roof had to be shortened by about 1mm and then it too was glued into place. Again, it was done while the model was on the plate to make sure I didn't get a twist in the body.

The floor had to have small notches cut to line up with where the sides and ends meet so it could drop into place. This was the only work needed on the floor. Following the instructions I drilled the six holes for the self tappers to hold the floor in. With the floor screwed in place the model suddenly stiffened up and I'm now confident that no more strengthening will be needed.

I decided to photograph it now as the next part will take quite awhile. There are a few small gaps to fill. The important ones are the join lines on the roof. These are the first ones people will spot if not done properly. So, filling and sanding and filling and sanding for awhile. Now where is my box of Milliput

Building a "O" scale Brisbane FM Part 5

A lot of work but their doesn't seem to be much to show for it. Both sides and ends are painted internally and all the seats are fitted.

I decided to go with the brown on brown for the interior to represent the condition of 494 when it left service in 1969. The lighter colour is supposed to represent the lighter polished wood that was used in the interior above the window sill. When it dried it turned out to not be not quite what I was hoping for but I will live with it. The seats are green to represent the dark green leather that was used on these trams. I used one of those silver felt tip pens to represent the chrome pipe frame across the top and down the side of the seats. The solid backs of the split level seats are in brown as was the original.

The floor has been cut out for the Black Beetle trucks but I am waiting for them to arrive from Steam Era Models before I finish and paint it.

Having glued in all the seats I realised I had created another problem for myself. I needed to file a gap between the seat and the wall for the nose piece to slide into. Now I will have to notch the edge of the nose piece to fit around the seat. As I have cut out the front doors this is going to weaken the whole thing until it is glued together. I shall have to procede with caution.

The prototype photo shows both the solid panel above the front seat and the glass panel wind break above this. These trams were very draughty because of the angle of the front and rear doors and the fact that the doors were never closed except when it was raining.

Building a "O" scale Brisbane FM Part 4

The only thing about this kit to give me any concern was the solid roof casting. It mates accurately with the two ends but being solid it was very heavy. As I intend to have a powered truck at one end only, a black beetle, I want to keep the finished model as light as possible. I have also found in the past that a top heavy model tends to be unstable and wobble excessively.

As I had the roof piece I decided to try to hollow it out. The roof of a FM was double skinned and the ceiling cavity was 6" in the centre and 8" towards the sides. So a final thickness of around 3mm to 4mm sounded about right. I set up the stop on my drill press to stop the drill 3mm above the table and then proceeded to drill dozens of holes with a 3/8" drill until the underside looked like a piece of Swiss cheese. Rocking the roof section all the time making sure that the roof was always supported directly under the drill bit. For the next stage I went outdoors with a sanding wheel in the dremel and removed all the web left after drilling then smoothed it off with a rough round file. This last part was very messy.

It's weight is now one third of what it was before after having removed 100 gms of polyurethane. It is now close to the prototype roof and it hasn't distorted with all that work. So I'm very happy at the moment. Everything seems to be going well. The interior roof photo is of FM 400 which is currently under restoration at the museum and has had the lining removed.

Building a "O" scale Brisbane FM Part 3

There was a working party at the museum today so I took the opportunity to look at FM 494 which is one of the trams covered by this kit. This tram is stored at the museum in "as is" condition and has been used as a store for tram spare parts for decades hence it's condition. I also found a Brisbane City Council drawing of this group of trams. The first photo was taken a few years ago when we needed to pull it out of the shed one day.


Reliable sources tell me that these trams were built with brown stained timber above the window sills with the darker brown paint below the sills. Later in life when being refurbished, the stained timber was painted over with the cream colour as described in the instruction sheet.

494 is still in this original condition as shown in these photos although the motorman's cab has the cream above the window sills.

494 also has the canvas portion of the roof painted in the same light grey as the sides with the ends being in the darker grey . I have yet to decide on which interior colour scheme I will follow. The cream is tempting as it will be easier to do..