PST/Zebrano Gaz-03-30 Soviet City Bus - opening the box

An odd choice of model perhaps, but odd subjects do have a habit of catching my eye. The Gaz-03-30 was based on the Gaz AA truck chassis, which owed its origins to the Ford AA. Production started in 1933 at the Gorky Automobile Plant with the last bus coming off the line in 1950. The body was made from a wooden frame with metal cladding, and due to the poor roads and basic truck suspension needed to be completely replaced every few years. No heating was provided, but it was I suppose better than walking. This model represents a post war bus, after 1945 certain economies were made due to material shortages, hence the simplified angular front fenders (early buses had curved wings). See here for more information, and remember that Google translate is your friend. Information on these is pretty scarce to be honest.

This 1:72 scale kit is a collaboration between PST and Zebrano, two companies based in Belarus. 

Opening the box, the runners and instructions are sealed in a plastic bag;

Four runners are included. The parts look pretty good at first glance, with minimal flash although the detail is a bit 'soft', not as sharp as you would find on, say, a modern Airfix kit.
Here's the chassis and seats;

And the body;

There's no moulded clear parts, just a printed sheet of clear material;

Decals are included, but where do they go? The instructions are very brief and contain no information on positioning them, or even on livery. The exploded diagram does a reasonable job as far as showing where all the parts go though;

This is going to be an interesting build...

(It does strike me that this kit would make a decent freelance railbus in either standard or narrow gauge.)

Miniart make a 1:35 scale kit for this bus, and there are 1:43 scale die-cast models available on eBay. The die-casts all come in plain liveries with no markings.

Paul.

Pinpoint axle bearing reamers.

 Sometimes when your building a wagon kit, no matter how careful you are, the thing just won't run as well as you'd like because the wheels are tight in the axleboxes. This is where bearing reamers come into play;

The ones above are DCC Concepts N/009 type on the left and an Ultrascale OO/EM/P4 etc. on the right. Here's a closer look at the Ultrascale offering;

Note the cutting edge, on one end only. These are as far as I can tell no longer available, but DCC Concepts do stock similar, in both 26mm and 24.25/25.25mm axle lengths.

The two DCC Concepts jobs in close up;

The left had one has clearance for typical N coupling pockets. These have a different style of cutting edge, which is repeated on both ends of the axle.

In use, in this case on my laser cut van (which never has run particularly freely);

They have improved matters, now the van runs quite easily. My thanks to Neil Moss for flagging up the DCC Concepts reamers on the NGRM-Online forum.

These reamers are really only suitable for use in plastic bearings, but should be useful to us kitbuilders as well as improving any tight RTR stock.

Paul.

Military Wheels Lublin-51 - finished.

 I've finally finished this tiny lorry.

After joining the main parts together the last few jobs were to paint the sidelights white and fit the mirror and headlights.

Both the headlights and mirror were made on the lathe. Making the lights followed the pattern described here, I did however paint the rear of the lenses silver (Vallejo) and the outer diameter black before attaching (using canopy glue), the black headlight surround is a small but noticeable detail on the prototype. The mirror was turned from brass, 2.2mm dia., with the reflective side recessed by .1mm using a 1.5mm slot drill before being parted off .3mm thick. This was then soldered to a length of .4mm brass rod which was chemically blackened before being painted and fitted into a hole drilled in the upper door hinge on the driver's side.

There is a slight twist in the chassis, so it doesn't sit flat on all four wheels, and the load bed is slightly tilted towards the rear (which I only spotted once it was glued in place), I will just have to live with that. 

I perhaps should have fitted windscreen wipers, but sometimes you need to say "enough" and just finish the thing!

This has been a pretty challenging build, but worthwhile I feel. As usual I've learned a lot, enjoyed researching an obscure (to us) prototype and I now have a model that, although flawed in some respects, I am pleased with.

Finally, one with the photo and owners manual that I found online;

Not the best photos today I'm afraid, but my little photo plank looks pretty good, and I like the effect of the sun playing on the white paper background. Taken in the garden with my aging point and shoot.

Paul.