Adding Air Brake Lines to AMT's 1/25 scale Van Trailer
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2024
- Air brake lines on model trucks are similar to brake rigging on model railroad rolling stock: A subtle detail but one that helps a model look "complete".
Compared to trucks, trailers are much less complicated and are a good "first project" for adding air brake lines and related detail.
I am using AMT's Fruehauf 40' van trailer in this example, assembling the kit mostly stock with the exception of changing wheels to 5 hole steel disk and hubs to a different style of oil hub. The basic "foundation brake" parts provided in the kit are well done and consist of air tank, brake valve, slack adjuster/pushrod assembly and brake chamber.
Reference photos of the 1:1 subject being modelled are a great guide, and I remember photographing a trailer years ago (back in 2014) which was pretty much a dead ringer for the kit, shown at 0:30.
0:45 even that oddly shaped piece AMT calls "air hose bracket" is is present.
0:57 Adding two .020" brass wire pins provides a better attachment point than the plastic projections molded onto the part. Short pieces of 1/16" dia. aluminum tube, cut approx. 040" long, are glued in place to represent metal fittings on the brake hoses.
Kit's air tank is accurate and brake valve is reasonably well done but missing a couple items as seen at 1:12 - port for two air lines coming onto the valve, and a rounded contour on top instead of the hollow kit part. At 1:35 a similar valve on a different trailer is shown with rounded top visible. AMT's four lines out the bottom is accurate, one goes to each brake chamber.
2:00 kit part with chrome removed and modified with 1/8" styrene rod domes top (drilled out hollow area with 1/8" drill) and .060" x .060" styrene strip for two air lines into valve. This is not 100% accurate but looks convincing enough when assembled. All air line locations receive .020" brass wire pins and 1/16" aluminum tube "fittings".
Installed on air tank. Kit brake chambers also get brass wire pins and aluminum tube "fittings". Two short pieces of .030" styrene rod were added on either side of brake chamber to simulate the bolts which clamp two halves of chamber together. At 2:40 one of these clamp bolts is visible on brake chamber, as well as air hose coming into the top of chamber. Some brake chambers have the hose going to centre of chamber and this trailer actually has two of each style on it as seen at 3:04.
Note that this single hose brake chamber has no provision for parking brake, and starting around 1975 trailers were required to be fitted with the "piggyback" style brake chamber with spring parking brake, visibly different by being longer and with two hoses going into it as shown at 3:32. Most of AMT's trailers were tooled in the early 1970's when the single hose style brake chamber was in use however their 40' flatbed trailer kit does have spring brake style chambers.
At 3:47 kit supplied air hose material is installed. You can also create hoses by stripping insulation off suitable gauge black electrical wire.
At 4:04 a bolt head casting and small piece of .010" x .020" styrene strip simulate drain valve on bottom of air tank.
Underside view of suspension at 4:20 shows routing of air hoses. These can be installed now and painted with rest of suspension, or removed and reinstalled after painting. Using the brass wire pins makes this option easier.
4:42 shows how the hoses connect to trailer air lines that run along floor at centre of trailer. Clamp that attaches hoses to tension spring was made using 3/32" styrene tube and .030" rod as shown at 5:07. Tension spring is coiled from 32 gauge craft wire and air lines along floor are represented by sections of .032" dia solder cut to fit between crossmembers. These, along with pieces of wire to represent electrical cable, are glued in place and provide a visual representation of lines running along trailer floor.
A last item to create, if desired, is the connections at front of trailer. 6:49 shows real trailer's air and electrical connections and 7:02 is a view of the molded in detail - accurate in every respect, just very shallow in relief. This was scraped off 7:16 and trailer plug receptacle drilled out. 7:35 a plug cover is made from .010" styrene sheet disk with one side filled flat, bent plate at bottom of trailer replicated with .016" sheet aluminum, and .032" solder "wire" runs from plug down to bottom of trailer. .020" brass wire pins will receive air hoses. 8:02 swiveling glad hands were the most work, and are aftermarket resin "air glad hands connected" (Plaskit) on elbows soldered from 3/64" brass tube. These mount to channels made by cutting down 1/8" styrene square tube. 8:30 hoses are the easiest part, kit air hose material with .032" craft wire springs.
Give these air brake related details a try on your next model!
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#scalemodelling
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Great video as usual just a tip if anyone has trouble finding the AMT air hose tubing you can use fly fishing fly tying tube it usually comes in 3 sizes the smallest of which is good for electrical lines and the largest is good for air lines
Thank you for the tip, that is something I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Even when kits have air hose material I have seen some difference in sizes and a wide range of flexibility from very flexible to almost too rigid to work with.
YEAH 👍 YOU DID THAT LOOKS good nice 👌 Detail very nice for competition KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK 👍 10-4.
Thank you for posting this. Trailer detail is quite under rated and can really bring out that "Wow factor". I really like how you covered each aspect from the brakes themselves to the glad hands (and everything in between). I now plan on retro-fitting brake lines on an existing trailer.
Pleased to hear you found it helpful, I agree that trailers are just as important as the tractors and equally interesting when you start looking into the smaller details.
I'm always looking for detailing instructions, and that is great stuff. Thanks and keep putting out those videos 👍
You’re welcome - more videos planned as time and modelling progress permits! (I will be away for a week or so end of this month so new uploads may be nonexistent for that time period, will be back as soon as possible!)
Fantastic details.!
Nice video. Very cool mods. Thanks for sharing. 😎🇨🇦
Thank you!
Great video of a seldom ever mentioned (but important to me) detail...at least in 1/25 scale.
Definitely keeping this video in my reference library.
Remarkable you found the actual prototype trailer that matches the AMT version....the photographs were great.
And the Bill of Laden holder/bracket is basically a tube with the rolled up bill of laden sheet rolled up inside?
Thanks for posting.
There have actually been several "lookalike" trailers to the AMT kit that I have seen over the years, most if not all of course long taken off the highway and parked up for storage. Only major difference from the kit I have seen on many of them is roll up rear door instead of the swing doors.
I forgot to mention in the video that after 1975, trailers had to be built with spring brakes but there was no requirement to retrofit them onto pre-1975 trailers. The non-spring brake equipped, pre 1975 trailer brake systems were similar to a railroad freight car's brake system in the they "parked on air", and when the air leaked down the brakes released.
Yes, document holder is exactly as you describe: A tube (aluminum usually) with end caps, rolled up papers are placed inside.
Very nice👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 love these detailed videos
Always rare and nice to find the exact same vehicle used by amt for reference. I saw one of these trailers a few years ago as a storage trailer but it disappeared shortly after before I could get pictures. There's a scrap place down the street so that's likely where it ended up. I try to photograph old trailers when I find them, it's very hard to find any reference on trailers.
I've made that same mistake in the past, thinking that something (truck, trailer, even building) that had "always been there" would always be there, and then when I did decide to photograph it - gone!
@@brsnorthernhorsejourney3579 I even saw a trailer that matched the AMT tanker, same story. Now I make a point of going out to get pictures.
I'm a huge fan of model truck content and you are doing a great service to the model community. Would you by chance have any information on how to get Dave Natale's resin conversions? I went to KeyStone and I understand that he bought it, but now there is no kits that Dave made. Any information would be appreciated.
Currently, my knowledge on Dave Natale’s conversions and parts is the same as yours regarding purchase by KeyStone. I was hoping to find out more at the Fulton show back in November but wasn’t able to make it there on reschedule date of Dec 4 as I was travelling back from a course (original November show date was cancelled due to weather)
Dave had many unique items available and I do hope they become available again.
Thanks 🙏🏽!! That’s help me a lot!!
I’m planning to build a 40 feet trailer with smooth sides. I’m not an expert on scratch build so I’ll will take a while to me to start. Question: what thickness did you use for the sides and doors of the trailer? ( hope I explain my self well) I have .040 and .060. Styrene sheets.
Thanks for all your help!!
B & R's Northern Horse Journey
11 minutes ago
For a scratch built van trailer model in 1/25 scale I would recommend using .060" styrene for plenty of strength. (This model was built using the kit supplied parts for sides and and doors which I believe are around .040", I also added plenty of bracing along the inside floor to side joint.)
40 scale feet is about 20 actual inches long, Evergreen does offer styrene sheets in up to 24 inches long. Depending on the trailer you are modelling you can use rivet decals to represent fasteners or, if it an trailer with FRP (fiberglass reinforced plywood) sides, the slightly rough texture of FRP panel can be simulated by applying primer with a small roller.
What kind of glue did you find works best for attaching the rubber airlines and electronal underneath the trailer between the cross members?
I have had the best results with medium CA (cyanoacrylate, aka "super glue"), the one that seems to be available at the hobby shops most accessible to me is "Insta-Cure+", I use their "Gap filling medium 5-10 second cure" which has purple label and cap.
Other hobby CA brands I have heard of are Bob Smith and Zap CA.
@@brsnorthernhorsejourney3579
Thank you...