Within this section, therefore, you will find a wide variety of tried and tested techniques. Some will necessitate the use of lathes and special tools. Some, on the other hand will make use of the minimum of tools. All, however, will allow the modeller to make precision models and to develop additiional skills.

Brush painting – By Joe Cartledge

Preparation of the area to be painted is most important. I have always used P800A wet and dry paper. At all times I use this dry, and make sure that the paper does not get a build up of dust on its surface or scratching will occur. Keep wiping the surface of the paper with a soft cloth.
It is best to buy fresh tins of paint for each model. I always use Humbrol or Revel paints and brushes. Stir the paint well before using. Apply a thin first coat. Allow every coat applied to dry for at least 24 hours. Use of the airing cupboard can be helpful. Flat off before applying another coat. Use a soft bristle ½” paint brush to get rid of dust after flatting off. A good blow with your mouth can help clear awkward places.
Try to paint in a dust free area by picking a room that does not have a lot of movement through it. When painting, do not brush over an area you have just painted, you will find that the brush will drag and pull the paint surface.
If you find that certain areas of paintwork are not up to standard do not worry. Just flat off and repaint the faulty area only. Five or six coats give a wonderful finish. DO NOT BE IN A HURRY; allow the paint to dry before you touch again.

Spray varnish technique – By John Elwood

The problem of the perfect finish is always present for the modeller who wishes to paint passenger vehicles and carriages. The coach builders spent many hours of careful work applying undercoats, base coats and varnish, usually applying many coats of each with a finishing polish using a silk handkerchief to produce a perfect finish with a magnificent depth of colour.. For the modeller, therefore, although many coats of gloss paint can be applied and rubbed down, no matter how carefully the painting conditions are controlled, there are always several tiny specks of what appear to be dust which ruins the final finish. A suggested solution is, therefore, to use a good base coat, well flatted using 800 wet and dry paper followed by several coats of matt paint of the selected colour to build up a good surface. Allow several days for the final matt coat to cure and then apply several coats of a good quality acrylic spray varnish to produce the first gloss finish. Allow this to cure over several days and then apply a good quality automobile paint restorer to ensure that the surface is burnished and properly flat. The final finish is then achieved by using a good quality car polish. This is a technique used by model boat and aircraft builders with great success.

Make a wheelbarrow - By The Chairman (Brian Young)

The wheelbarrow is a prime and ancient example of man's ingenuity, where simplicity creates a functional structure that stands the test of time and even the availability of more modern materials. At rest the barrow stands firmly on rough ground because of the triangle formed by the wheel and the two legs and the single wheel allows the barrow to travel down the narrowest track. In use it is an example of a second order lever, where the load, closer to the wheel than the handgrips creates a mechanical advantage for the lifter who lifts with his leg muscles, not his arms. The liability of the barrow to tip when lifted, is overcome by the operator whose straight arms are able to maintain its balance.

Why not use my Plans? à Wheelbarrow plans

Test your skills now! Make this wheelbarrow without the drudgery of years of apprenticeship. The original plans were drawn to 1:12 scale. It can be made from any kind of wood, or even card if you have no woodworking tools. If you have no access to metal, then remember that many of the wheels were unshod. I have purposely omitted detailed instructions to test your ingenuity and skills The wheelbarrow is a prime and ancient example of man's ingenuity, where simplicity creates a functional structure that stands the test of time and even the availability of more modern materials. At rest the barrow stands firmly on rough ground because of the triangle formed by the wheel and the two legs and the single wheel allows the barrow to travel down the narrowest track. In use it is an example of a second order lever, where the load, closer to the wheel than the handgrips creates a mechanical advantage for the lifter who lifts with his leg muscles, not his arms. The liability of the barrow to tip when lifted, is overcome by the operator whose straight arms are able to maintain its balance.

.Apprenticeship Certificate
When you have finished the barrow, send us an e-mail with your name, age and address, and attach a photograph of your work. We will then send you a certificate of Apprenticeship to the Guild of Model Wheelwrights. Bring your model and Certificate to one of our Exhibitions and talk to us about your next modelling project.
(Click here)

The two small pictures above show a selection of 1/12th scale wheelbarrows made in a number of different types of wood. The larger picture shows all the various pieces laid out before being assembled.

Model Accessories - By The late Bob Beach

Fittings such as drag shoe and roller scotch brakes, shaft harness, carriage lamps, harvest ladders and so on, greatly enhance the appearance of a model, but be careful. Make sure that they are the correct size and that you do the necessary research to use the correct design for the period, and traditional type for the area. If overbearing they will detract from the model. Fittings are often as great a challenge as the model itself, so don’t begrudge the time and effort that must be spent upon them.

The argument, “to paint or not to paint,” applies as equally to the making of accessories as it does to decisions about finishing your model. BUT, if you are set on realism and want to depict the social story of a vehicle at work, then accessories can add to, and even transform a project.

The first step is to collect old rubbish by developing a “magpie” eye for what might be of use at a future date for a diorama model, scraps of carpet, cloth, polystyrene and clear plastic sheets, leather and so on. They could be described as "rags to riches."

Background materials Examples:

Wooden cotton reels are ideal blocks from which they can be turned. A larger scale may demand a former on which thin staves can be shaped and applied, particularly for buckets and open casks. Bayonet lamp caps can be made into metal buckets.

Crates are easily constructed by applying thin strips onto a wooden block. Alternatively 3mm hardboard can be scored to represent the boards (to the selected scale) and stuck to a prepared block of scrap wood. Hardboard bindings can then be glued onto the finished crate.

A rub down with fine sand/glass paper and a coat of matt varnish gives a "used" look to the crate.
Hurdles can be woven as in full size practice.

Model Corrugated Iron Sheet - By Brian Simpson

I recently decided to model a Shepherd’s Hut from Acton Scott working farm. The biggest problem was the production of corrugated sheeting that clad the sides and roof. One of our members had used the corrugation on pet food tins, which is OK for 1/12th scale but I work in 1/8th scale. I tried catering packs from a local hotel but they did not flatten out satisfactorily; therefore, I decided I would have to make my own.

I found sheet aluminium 0.5mm thick, which proved to be ideal, at my local DIY superstore. All I had to do now was make a jig.

The profile of the full size sheeting was 3 inches from peak to peak which in 1/8th scale would be 3/8th inch. Each sheet needed to be about 10 inches long by 4 inches wide to allow some waste for final shaping and fitting.

Using a 2ft.by 4 inch length of Lime, I marked out the positions of the troughs and routed them out to the correct depth with a 3/16th bull-nosed router bit. This left the peaks with square tops. I used an appropriate sized wood carving gouge upside down to round over the peaks. (You need to grind a small internal bevel on the gouge for this to work properly. Alternatively you can use a proper back bent gouge). I then sanded the peaks and troughs until I was satisfied with the finish. The Lime was cut in half to produce two half jigs 12 inches long. These could then be interlocked as male and female parts. Register pins were glued in so that the jigs always located together correctly.

The aluminium sheeting was placed in the jig and it was clamped in a large woodcarving vice. Unfortunately this would not apply enough pressure to create a fully profiled corrugated sheet. I decided that 4 inches wide required too much pressure to shape the aluminium so I reduced the width to 11/2 inches and it worked. The secret is not to try to form the full depth profile at one go. It is better to form it in several passes.

Because the jig had been reduced in width I could not form the 4 inch wide sheet as one. I had to fully profile 11/2 inches (the width of the jig) then simply move it forward in the jig keeping the last formed peak registered in the jig to maintain parallel alignment of the corrugations.

The roof sheets had to be curved; if done very gradually in the bending rolls this was possible without crushing the corrugations.

Modelling Techniques - By John Elwood & Other Members

FRAME CONSTRUCTION. See Also: SUGGESTED TOOLS.

Why use glue to make a cart or waggon frame? There is a quick retort, why not? If it looks right, does it matter? No, the point being made concerns the achievements and frustrations of the wheelwright, when glue for him, was not available. If you wish to follow in his footsteps, then you must emulate his ways to find out how it was done.

Here, we are restricting ourselves to his mortise and tenon joints which are superior to gluing two pieces of wood at right-angles to each other, and are so easy to cut at 1: 16 scale, and even easier at 1:12 and 1:8 if those are the scales that you prefer. The secret, if there is one, is not to pre-drill the mortises, which makes it difficult to stop the chisel from slipping into the hole.

Although the width of the mortise is traditionally just over 1/3rd of the width of the timber, the final width is governed, not by measurements, but by the width of the chisel, mortise gauges are set to the chisel, though they are unnecessary at model scales. Using 1/16 and 3/32 inch flat swan-necked gouges or a 1/8 inch bevel-edge chisel for 1:16 scale, will cut equivalent 1 inch, 1½ inch and 2 inch mortises.

The last chisel gives the game away; the back, as in all mortise chisels, is ground off so that it is not as wide as the face, in order to clear the hole and prevent it from sticking. Tiny flat gouges can be ground off in the same way. The sharpened angle does not need to be blunt like that of a mortise chisel, as long as you realise that it will not be as robust and you must be careful not to snap it.

At this scale, no mallet is needed, for the chisel can be pushed into hardwood. Neither is it necessary to mark out the joint conventionally, just mark a centre line the length of the hole, and straddle it with the chisel. The grain of the wood keeps the hole straight. Wood with a straight grain helps. At 1: 8 scale, oak can be used for framing just as the wheelwright did, but at 1:16 scale the finer grain of Ash gives much better results.

Hold the wood in a vice. Begin by making a cut at each end, with the face of the chisel facing outwards; then in order not to crush the ends of the hole, do not touch these cuts until the very end.

If you push little cuts with the chisel all the way down the line at 1:16 inch intervals, the grain collapses, and the little pieces can be levered out from time to time. Do not force, and break the chisel. When the depth is approximately halfway through, turn the wood over, and work from the other side after ensuring that both holes will coincide. Soon you will go right through, and the pieces will fall out.

Finally clean up the ends where you made the first two cuts. It is simple! Stopped mortises are not more difficult, but require a little more patience

The tenon is cut to fit the hole. The end of the wood is held up against the mortise, and marked from it using a sharp pencil and your fingers to form a thickness gauge, ready for sawing outside the line. With a square, mark off the haunch end in the usual manner.

A method developed in the Northumberland shipyards for sawing tenons has stood the test of time. Hold the wood vertically in the vice with the cutting lines at right angles to the length of the bench. Start the saw-cut on the back edge of one of the lines, and work towards you, and down, so that you can see what you are doing. Leave the far edge uncut to hold the saw in place Do the other line, turn the wood round and make two more cuts in the same manner; then saw down horizontally, using the previous cuts as a guide. This method reduces all errors.

Then turn the wood horizontal and cut the shoulders so that the waste falls away. On a good day simply hammer in the tenon, but on an irritating one; ease it in with a file.

Always make a through tenon a fraction too long, to clean off flush, or to leave protruding as they usually are on a vehicle. If you have your own method, that's fine.

The model will be much stronger, and look more realistic for your efforts, and you will have the satisfaction of working as a true wheelwright or joiner.

An exception is preferable when mortising naves. Here the hole must be in exactly the right position and must run in accurately to the centre, so a dividing head is advisable. Start with a ring of vertically drilled holes at the back ends of each mortise. Then set in the angle of dish on the front ring of holes. Note that the back ring is always drilled at right angles to the axis of the nave and the tenon tapers.

A mortise and tenon is a sophisticated joint that has stood the test of time for builders, carpenters, wheelwrights and shipwrights. It gives great satisfaction both to the maker and user. Once you have tried it you won’t want to glue the pieces together again.

Suggested Tools for Model Horse Drawn Vehicle Constructionn

BASIC TOOLS
All tools may be purchased from Proops, Squires, some from Hobbies or good model/toolshops. Large tools only can be purchased from Super DIY stores.
Tools marked * are optional

Drawing Horses - By the late Bob Beach

If you can write, you can draw. Those who teach themselves to draw or paint need never be bored and practice makes perfect. While our ordinary members finish up with models of horse-drawn vehicles, many of which have a beauty all of their own, some of our associates are content to seek out old carts, waggons and carriages and the animals that pulled them, as adjuncts to their landscape painting. Indeed, this was the method used by John Constable.

Here we offer you some examples and tips to get you started. Use our sketches as outlines for your work. Many of these pictures have actually been drawn on a computer with a graphics pen. Talent has nothing to do with it, except to give pleasure to others. One's own reward is an increased awareness of life's elegant forms. The blank page is forbidding only for those afraid of being embarrassed by their results. What does it matter what others think, if you have enjoyed the exercise? This encouragement is therefore aimed at students of all ages. Once a student always a student.

Everybody thinks they know what a horse looks like, knows that is, to recognise one from another kind of animal. To draw one is different; then you must start to observe closely. Anyone can do it, it is not difficult, neither is it easy unless you are prepared to spend the time and effort.

The first time someone draws a horse, they make the hock joint bent, almost at right-angles. Horse breeders call it sickle hocked, or "hocks in the next county." When you look at a horse, see how straight his hocks are if he is to carry his own weight properly. Your next task is to draw the hock and fit a horse onto the front of it. Arm yourself with an H or HB pencil and a putty rubber, and don't be afraid to use both vigorously. It doesn't matter if there is a horse in front of you or not. When the paper turns dirty and scuffed, place a sheet of greaseproof paper over it and trace up. Then place a piece of drawing paper over that, hold it against a well-lit window and trace up again. If you can't see the outline properly on the greaseproof paper, ink it in with a fine felt tip pen. Don't be afraid to "worry" the lines, and always leave your drawing from time to time. When you come back to it, refreshed, you will be able to see your mistakes clearly. It is often possible today, to enlarge or reduce the size of a drawing using a photocopier. If you can't do that, use the age old method of the artist, square up, that is, put a grid over the original drawing, and draw onto a larger or smaller grid on a fresh sheet of paper.

Using short straight lines to delineate the major planes gives a drawing greater strength than continuous curves, which weaken the outline and make the horse look sloppy. Range over the whole animal rather than trying to finish one part, but examine each detail with determined observation. Photographic fussiness is neither possible nor desirable. Most of the detail is suppressed, but what is depicted must be accurate. Concentrate on diagnostic characters to produce almost a caricature, and you will have made a simple, but powerful statement.

The bodies and legs of geldings can be fitted into a square. Stallions are a little taller and hold their heads higher. Mares have a longer back and a more delicate head. Draw an outline of the animal standing still first. Then redraw the action, using a compass to swing the limb joints into position, starting with the point of the shoulder and the hip, remembering that the length of the bones does not change. The set of the head and neck is critical; when active, head up and neck arched. When docile, the head is lower with a straighter neck. Eyes are high up, ears on top of the head, noses dished, straight or Roman.

When pulling a load, the forehead is in front of the nose, and one foreleg braced well back. Unlike the ox, perhaps the greatest indicators of power are the hindquarters, so avoid an inverted pear-shape. In heavy horses the Vastus muscles are said to be "well let down", that is touching the muscles of the second thigh. From the rear the impression is of a box. It is desirous for the back to be short and straight in a real animal, but a dip and exaggerated belly make the animal look more natural. The Trapezius muscles form the withers, the point at which a horse's height is measured. They are like a tapered scarf onto which the neck is fitted.
Art teachers might quibble at my instructions to make an outline. They point out that a horse does not have a line round it, which inhibits the use of "broad strokes". Have a look at sketches drawn by great masters! There is plenty of time for broad strokes displaying the muscle blocks. Draw in the muscles and then add the skin.

Don't read any more of this advice until you have actually drawn a horse. Don't wait, DO IT!

The attitude of the stance of the horse can be used to convey action. The forelegs of many horses are very close to the front of the torso, but portraying this tends to destroy the feeling of any forward movement; move them back a fraction. I use two positions for the walking gait. In the first, the knee of one front leg is flexed, and the more it is raised, the harder the horse seems to be pulling. The other foreleg slopes well back and is rigidly braced, forcing down the fetlock. The hind leg on the same side as the bent one is forward. In the second position, one hind leg has just been moved forward so that the hoof takes the place of the front hoof on the same side, which therefore has just been lifted. In both of these positions, the horse is standing on three legs. In order to maintain balance, the front leg on the ground is directly in the centre line. Normally I only use one position for the trotting gait; here one front leg and an alternate hind leg are raised. Once again, the legs on the ground are in the centre line. The appearance and set of the head on the neck is crucial, not too long and not too short. The neck muscles are difficult to portray because they are constantly changing. With heavy horses they bulge where they join the back of the skull, and there are hollows immediately below and under the crest, especially in stallions of some breeds. Just under the head, the windpipe stands clear of the muscles but is encased in them lower down. The so-called " knees" are box-like, more than halfway down the foreleg and a little closer together than the elbows. They are directly above the hooves which are slightly turned out and broader than the hind ones. At the top of the leg, triceps and biceps bulge out over the extensors and flexors, and the pectoral muscles between the forelegs are often very prominent. Hair on Shires and Clydesdales, but not on Suffolks, Percherons or Cleveland Bays, masks the bumps of the fetlock and coronet of the hoof. These drawings can be used equally well as cartoons for sculptors, working in clay on a wire armature, or carving or whittling in wood, which is how I use mine. I am my own fiercest critic, apart from an old Oxfordshire horseman and a young Yorkshireman, both of whom have a critical and experienced eye. Criticism always hurts, but is essential if one is to improve. In despair when carving, I have cut off a horse's head and planted on a second, sometimes transforming the unfortunate beast. Do not let criticism, especially if it is uninformed, put you off. The only criterion is whether you wish to make the effort, and enjoy it as much as I do.

Carving Horses - By the late Bob Beach

Having read what I have to say about drawing horses, you will realize that an accurate outline is essential before you can consider sculpture. After the carving starts, it is the only datum line, which remains. This outline can be used to make a wire armature for clay modelling, or for carving base-relief, or in the round. In my case, I carve in the round, finishing the work with a whittling knife, after obtaining the accurate silhouette with a coping saw, and roughing out the contours with a gouge.
When whittling, choice of wood is important. It must be close grained so that the knife will cut at any angle, with or across the grain, and soft enough to pare off the wood with one hand whilst holding the carving in the other; also it must be firm enough to retain every ridge and hollow. Lime is the ideal wood for the job. It is bland in colour and is not therefore suitable for an oiled finish which brings up the grain, but if, as in my case the animal is to be painted, it has no equal, though Jelutong is a poor stringy second choice.

If an oiled or varnished finish is desired, complete with some staining to enhance features, then I suggest woods such as English Walnut, Sycamore, which is beautiful but rather hard, Olive and the fruit trees, Apple and Pear. It really all depends upon what you are trying to achieve, as does the scale of the animal.

This exercise is the carving of a horse to make it look as realistic as possible, and as I have pointed out in the drawings, using measurements of an actual animal is the best way to get it accurate from the start. The grain of the wood must run down the small parts, in our case, the ears and the legs, though bent knees and hocks seem to survive when the joint needs to be flexed. At 1:16 scale, an 18 hands Shire horse requires a block of wood, 7 inches wide, 2 inches thick and 5 inches long, but it can easily be made up from several pieces which are doweled and glued together. I actually prefer to make the horse in two pieces, the joint running lengthways, which makes it easier to saw out the legs. If the head is to be much turned from the centerline, and this usually enhances the appearance of the animal, then it is best added as a separate block. In any case since the head is almost never directly facing the front, it is always necessary to set out its symmetry separately from the body. Lime blocks are usually purchased rough-sawn, and you must dress off the surface on which you intend to draw the side elevation with a plane.

Your final outline should be drawn onto a piece of greaseproof paper. This is placed on the surface of the wood, and the outline is pricked down with a sharp point, so that the little holes may be joined together with a sharp pencil. It is best to mark in the head, but to leave an eighth of an inch all round to allow for it to be redrawn when turned. Because of the stance of the legs, you must make two drawings of the horse from the near and the off sides, though of course the trunk is the same in both. If you are using two pieces of wood, then both drawings are used, one for each piece. If you are working from a single piece, then do not use the second drawing until you have finished sawing out, except for the legs of the other side; these are more accurately marked out and cut from that side.

It is of course possible to use a band-saw or mechanical jigsaw to cut out the shape, but I prefer to use hand-tools. In this case, it is a coping-saw, with the block held securely in a vice, which for me is a little metalworking vice, mounted 44 inches from the ground, much higher than an ordinary woodwork bench. Don't try to hurry, let the saw do the work, and concentrate on keeping the cut at right angles to the surface of the wood. Remember that the far end of the saw will always try to lag behind and cut corners. The blades of coping-saws may be inserted to cut on the push or the pull stroke. I prefer to push, but inevitably more blades are broken this way. It is essential to cut accurately, just skimming the outer edge of the pencil line, and this is a make or break stage in the carving. Make sure also that the ground line under the hooves is cut off absolutely square with a tenon saw, or the model will never stand firmly. Don't forget to cut the second pair of legs from the other side.

So far so good, the trunk should look like a horse, but the head is hopeless, and the tail and each leg run right across the body. Attend to the tail first. You cannot mark onto the wood from your paper because of the curved surfaces, so all the drawing on the ends has to be done freehand. Draw in a centerline for the whole animal; this is not normally straight, but in plan view is a shallow "S" curve to take in the set of the head and the positions of the legs. You can now draw the outline of the tail from the rear, and start to cut down to the contours. Hold the model firmly in the vice, because YOU MUST HOLD THE GOUGE WITH TWO HANDS, and work round the buttocks from both sides, across the grain, removing surplus wood with a screwing motion, to leave a rough outline of the tail. This should give you the necessary practice to start on the legs. If you have used two pieces of wood, which is much easier, the legs already begin to look right and you can dowel the two cut surfaces of the wood together as I have shown you in the diagram, but do not glue up. Use temporary metal rods in the dowel holes, when it is easier to hold each half separately in the vice while gouging out the contours.

If you are working on a single block, and the animal is standing on three legs, you have the advantage that the single leg can be drawn fairly and squarely in the mid-line. Now draw in the legs on the ends of the block, and saw them out as well as you can, though the front and rear legs do get in each other's way, so that you will find yourself finishing the removal of the pieces of leg not required, with the gouge, or by drilling a row of small holes to weaken the parts which you need to break off. A flat or bevel-edged, 1/8 inch or 1/4 inch chisel is useful for cutting off the ridges left by the gouge, and some finishing work with files will trim the silhouette into shape except for the head. This should now be tackled, making sure that its symmetry is in line with the direction in which it is supposed to be looking. Most of the cutting can be done with the saw, including the taper of the neck, which in plan view is not as great in heavy horses as most people imagine.

Now hold up the horse against the light, and check that all is well, so far. It is still possible to hold the model in the vice until it loses all its flat surfaces, and in this manner, the rough contours can be cut down with the gouge, once again working across the grain, and with TWO HANDS ON THE CHISEL. During this time, concentrate on the chest barrel, which is not round, and make the chest a little narrower behind the forelegs, with a slightly exaggerated swell to the belly. Don't attempt to finish any one part, but move onto the withers and neck, the hips and buttocks, all the time attempting to delineate the major muscle blocks. This means that you should refer constantly to my anatomy drawings and photographs of the actual animal you are carving.

By now, it should be clear that the model looks like a horse, though it is still very clumsy with square legs. Mount the horse upside-down in the vice and mark out the underside of each hoof. Turn it slightly outwards, and make the front ones broader and rounder than the rear ones. You are ready now to begin whittling with the knife. Start with each hoof and coronet, and work up the legs, making sure that they join the body naturally, part way up, and do not look as if they have been stuck on underneath it. It is unlikely that you have come this far from the sawing out in one session, but in any case, now is the time to put the model away, and to come back to it after at least 24 hours have elapsed. Then you are in a position to give it a long, critical scrutiny, holding it up in every direction, with the light in front of it, but especially behind it. It is remarkable how easy it is then to see the faults, which is the time to correct them and then put the model away again.

We now have the essence of a horse, which needs refining to finish it. Start with the head; I use Dentists' burrs mounted in a pin-vice so that I can scrape out grooves for the eyes, ears, nostrils and mouth. (I can't get on with the burrs mounted and turning in a flexible shaft). When I think I have got the shape right I finish off with little rat-tail files. Manes and tails and feather over the fetlocks, are easily carved in with a "V" gouge, and a little waviness in the long hair doesn't come amiss. All the time, you will be holding up the model to the light and turning it round and round. People will think that you are admiring it, but actually, the reverse is the case, and you must learn to criticise your own work. However, it must be constructive criticism, for nobody carves a horse which is as good as the real thing, and you should never, never give up because you cannot achieve perfection. Never claim to be a perfectionist.

Just before you stop carving, give the model two coats of decorators' emulsion paint. This fills and raises the grain and is then burnished with a wire brush. But it also shows up all sorts of imperfections, and it now looks as if the horse were made of alabastine china. Correct your mistakes and then make a conscious effort to stop before it becomes overworked.

By far the best paint to use is artists’ acrylic resin; I use it straight from the tube for the first two coats, mixing it on the animal. Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna and Yellow Ochre are the essential colours for Dark Bay, Bay and Chesnut horses. After that, it is necessary to use Black and White for shading and I mix the paint on the plastic lid of a margarine carton. This is the stage at which you can really make the model look like the actual horse you are copying, with all its markings.

Useful tips
• Think three times, measure twice and cut once.
• When there’s a pair (left and right hand) you’ve got to beware.
• Sharp tools are dangerous, blunt tools are very dangerous. (You have to push too hard, and they are still sharp enough to cut your finger when they slip).
• Never hold a tool in one hand and cut towards the other. (There is one exception with the whittling knife).

Tools and techniques
I assume that you know how to use a coping saw and chisel and gouge, but the knife is more unusual and perhaps some advice would be helpful. I use an Xacto No5 handle, and a short, curved No 101 blade. Although the blade is replaceable, I sharpen it and have used the same one for years. The knife is mostly used for paring; hold it with the thumb pressed against the back of the blade. Hold the model in the other hand with the thumbs touching each other, and roll the blade away from the hands always keeping both thumbs together. This gives the necessary power as the blade slides through the wood, and keeps the hands safely out of harms way. Almost all the whittling is done with this paring action.
There are two other movements that are occasionally useful with the knife; in the first, it cuts groove lines down onto the wood, but be careful because this is when it is liable to slip. In the second, the knife hand pushes the blade straight towards the other hand, but its thumb sticks out to act as a stop. This is marginally less dangerous than it looks, but all whittling requires continuous concentration or you will learn the hard way, and your animal will become bloodstock.
I have a collection of old gouges, but one round and one V' gouge of the Xacto series which fit the same handle, are all that is required. Medical scalpels are not strong enough for woodcarving.

Making the harness
The harness is intricate and time consuming, but is essential to show a horse at work. Make sure that it is accurate for that part of the country from which your horse comes, and check the position of each strap with care. Because the horse is made of wood, the leather, blackened with Indian Ink before fitting, can be nailed on with brass panel pins. At this scale the only piece that needs sewing is the collar, stiffened at the front with a piece of copper wire. It is semi-eliptical, but narrower at the ends and in the centre. After marking the positions of the stitches with some pointed callipers, to keep them even, the stitch holes are pierced with an awl. Sewing round the wire is done with two needles on the same thread just as the saddlers did, and the collar grows in your hands.

Then, as in real practice, the collar is slipped over the head upside-down; only, because the ears are not flexible it must be a very tight fit. Metal hames are tapered in the lathe, hammered into shape and then drilled before soldering in any wires. Padding to go under the collar and cart-saddle is made up and rammed into position with Blue-tack. Horse brasses are formed from washers, which are drilled and pinned. Harness buckles are made from copper wire.

These methods could be used just as well at 1:12 or 1:8 scale. In many ways, the larger the scale, the easier the task, but then there is also a need to show more detail if you are to maintain the necessary realism.

Nothing could be much more satisfying than creating a sturdy horse in action, and I wish you joy. I repeat that anyone can do it, and all that is required is patience and dogged determination. As I said with the drawing, don't let criticism put you off, the only criterion is whether you wish to make the effort, and enjoy what you are doing.

Bending Rolls - By Brian Simpson

The problem with being a Model Wheelwright is that you have to make wheels! This entails making tyres, strakes and nave bonds. I found bending round tins a bit of a problem so I decided to try to make a simple set of bending rolls to do the job. The rolls are the pyramid type.

Each side consists of two hardwood strips 51/4 inches x 7/8 inches x 13/16 inches glued and nailed between two 6 inches x 3 inches x 3/16 inches plywood sheets. The strips are set so that there is a 5/8 inch gap between them but the plywood sides have a slot cut in only 3/8 inch wide x 31/2 inches long making a square channel in which a hardwood bush, which carries the top roller spindle, can slide. (See Top View of One Side on plan and Photos)

Two holes are bored 3/8 inch diameter centred 13/4 inches apart 33/4 inches down from the top to take the spindles of the two bottom rollers. The best way to make sure that all are aligned is to sandwich the sides together before assembly to the base and drill and cut the slot and holes through both at the same time. The base is a piece of ply 3/4 inch x 6 inches x 3 inches.

The bushes (you need two) are made from hardwood each 1 inch x 7/8 inch x 5/8inch with a 3/8 inch hole bored through them centrally.

The rollers are made from 30mm mild steel tube each 31/4 inches long with wooden dowels glued inside with epoxy resin. These wooden dowel inserts need to be drilled out centrally at 3/8 inch diameter to take the spindles which are glued in. The spindles are made from 3/8 inch mild steel rod. The spindles for the two bottom rollers are 61/4 inches long but the top spindle is 81/2 inches long.
The mechanism by which the top roller is adjusted is made from two lengths of 3/4 inch angle iron. It is drilled and tapped to take a 10mm threaded rod and then screwed to the side panels 11/4 inches down from the top. The adjusters are made from 10mm studding with wooden handles drilled and glued to the top.

One problem I did find is that the adjusters tend to waggle a bit because the angle iron is thin and therefore there are not many threads in the hole to support the threaded bar. One solution would be to silver solder a 10mm nut to the angle iron.

To Assemble:
Screw one end to the base. Put the spindles of the two lower rollers into the holes then fit the other end onto the spindles and screw it to the base. Screw one end of each adjusting mechanism to each side but leave the other screw out and pull them to stand vertically. Now slide the wooden bushes onto the top roller spindles and slide the bushes into the channels in each side. The roller will drop down to rest on the bottom rolls. Position the adjusting mechanism horizontally and insert the other screws to fix them in position. Your rolls are finished. Cost-about £10.

Using the Bending Rolls
The rolls are used held in the bench vice.

The top roller moves down under gravity but is restricted in its upward travel by the adjusters. The motive power is provided by simply pushing the material through.

To use the rolls it is important that you set the top roller parallel with the bottom rollers each time you make a tyre etc. If you don’t you will not get a perfect ring. It will be a spiral.

With the top roller resting on top of the bottom rollers screw the adjusters down until they touch the top roller spindle. Then with a felt pen mark the wooden handles with a radius line each in the same direction e.g. at the 12 o’clock position. You can then unwind the adjusters and provided you turn each one the same number of turns with reference to the felt pen lines the top roller will be kept parallel to the bottom ones.

Start by setting the rollers using the adjusters so that there is a gap between the top and bottom rollers such that when the top roller is lifted by hand upwards to butt against the adjusters you can just see daylight between them. Push the material through then reset the rollers tighter by screwing the adjusters down a little making sure that you turn the same amount on each adjuster using the felt pen line for reference. Each time you adjust the rollers by screwing the adjusters downwards the material will bend further until you have a complete ring.

The problem now is to get the tyre off without spoiling the shape. To do this un-screw one of the angle iron bracket screws on each side and rotate the angle iron and adjuster out of the way. This will enable you to remove the top roller and extract your tyre. Because you have to remove the screws each time you make a new tyre it is better to use crosshead screws as the heads wear less than slot heads. In fact it might be better to alter the design so that bolts and wing nuts are used.

It can be a little tough on the hands but I find a pair of gardening gloves a help. As expected thin material is easier to form than thicker stuff is. However, I have bent bright mild steel 1/2 in wide x 1/16 in thick but it made me sweat a bit!!

To use again replace the top roller, reposition the angle iron brackets and replace the screws. You will then need to reset the top roller parallel to the bottom rollers by repeating the step detailed at the beginning.

You will find that you get a flat section at each end of your tyre. There are two ways to get rid of this. You can cut them off provided you use a length of metal oversized or you can hammer them into shape over a round bar.

I know this all sound very confusing but it is easier to do than to describe and I am sure the photos will help.

I am sure the ingenious among you could adapt this idea to incorporate gears and a winding handle to make it easier. Off the shelf gears are available from Muffet Engineering, Tunbridge Wells at a reasonable price. They have a Web site.

There are sets of plans available in model engineering books to make more professional looking miniature bending rolls but for those who do not have access to a metal working lathe and milling facilities I hope the above method will help.

Holding Panel Pins and Rivets - By Bob Postlethwaite

Holding pins and rivets for converting into model bolts can be a problem. I have used panel pins of 1.0 or 1.6mm. diameter when I needed square headed bolts.

Soften the head by heating to red and allowing to cool down. A bar of steel with a 1 or 1.6mm hole drilled in it has a saw cut made into the end down to and some way past the hole. This is a suitable device for holding the pins while shaping the head. (Fig 1.) The pin is placed in the hole and the bar griped in the vice closing the saw cut. This will hold the pin very tightly so that the head can be hammered down and filed into shape. (Fig 2.) The device can also be used to hold pins for threading and there is no reason why several different size holes should not be in the same bar.