Well-deserved recognition
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Although not intended for the web site I've added a recent success by one of our contributors. He's too modest by half, as they say!
John commented
"I'm attaching a picture of me receiving a first place rosette at the Usk Farmers Show on Saturday. The Marquee was full to capacity of a wide range of model making skills from Meccano, Matchsticks, Boats to proper model engineering in shape of working steam locomotives and heat engines. So to get first was unexpected for me given the diversity and quality of what was on display.
Biggest one day Agricultural Show in Wales and attendance was in the tens of thousands."
Making Model Horse Drawn Vehicles and Implements
As my younger son frequently tells me this hobby is fairly niche. As such you cannot go to the model shop or even model engineering suppliers and purchase ready made parts. It is necessary to make everything yourself.
Let us start with the wooden parts. The originals were built from specific timbers known for their ‘engineering’ properties. The most complex part being the wheels. These would have an Ash rim for flexibility. Spokes of riven Oak split along the grain and therefore good in compression. A hub made from Elm, a close grained timber necessary because a lot of wood is taken away to mortice in the spokes and to bore through for the axle.
This picture shows a jig arrangement I use to assemble wheels and provide the correct amount of dish. I use the same woods as would have been used in the original wheel construction.
The axle on which the wheels ran could be fully wooden (usually Beech) or it could have a metal insert. Usually this metal insert would be a cast stub axle or in the Monmouthshire / Gloucestershire area what was known as a through axle.
Complete wooden axle showing taper necessary to provide correct wheel angle
Wooden axle showing metal stub axles
Wooden axle showing metal through axle
It is important to point out at this time that the metalwork I make is brass. The originals would have forged iron fittings, from a model making perspective I find that too much of a challenge hence my use of brass.
The bodies of carts and waggons would be made from Ash or Oak framing with many joints comprising of mortice and tenon or half lap joints. The former are a challenge for the model maker at 1/12th scale. As you see in the picture of the complete wooden axle it can be achieved with a little patience.
No glue was used in the construction of the original vehicles. Where necessary parts were bolted together using coach bolts and square blacksmith forged nuts. In modelling these vehicles it is necessary to make your own bolts. At 1/12th scale the bolts tend to be 10 or 12 BA size.
The length of bolts varies enormously and I make them from brass rod and square section material. Occasionally I can use a brass rivet which I thread and it makes the process a little easier.
In this cart the sides are held together by through bolts. These run from the bottom rail through the individual side planks (yes they are individual!) and out through the top rail.
In this cart the sides planks are bolted to the uprights which pass through the top rail and are threaded to have nuts fitted holding that rail in place.
These are just some examples of the different methods of construction. This why I find the subject of interest and can bore visitors to shows for hours on the subject!
To me this is a hobby. I have enormous respect for the craftsmen who made the originals in their village workshops without the benefit of the tooling we enjoy today. Everything they did was done by eye without the use of plans, the exception being the wooden patterns they used to cut out the wheel segments.
These craftsmen occasionally showed off their skill for no other reason than they could do so. I will finish this contribution with two examples.
Firstly the Cartwright. In this photo the front rail supports are at an angle, a difficult thing to do and the supports would have achieved the same purpose had they been vertical.
Secondly the Blacksmith. In this picture of a rear support the metal has been twisted into a spiral. It demonstrates the skill of the Blacksmith and would have served the same purpose had it been straight.
All these things make it an interesting hobby for me and challenge me to work out how to build my models as the originals were built.
Hope you enjoyed reading this.
John Tonen
April 2021