1946 HRG Aerodynamic Options

[Rob J]

Helloooo!!
Graham! I am lost sort of, I'm in Holsworthy in Devon right now, I'm a little bit hungover from too much cider and I've been eating too many pasties. I'm in the local computer shop and i'm going back to bed.
great to see this thread and the work you're doing on the hurg. I went with the rounded front end as per the the photo of the green one that scudbong posted.
I'll check this again later, All the best, cheers, Tom

Glad to see slot-cars haven't ruined your Life, Tom. Enjoy the rest of your trip.
Rob J

[zagato]

No wonder some of you gents know your way around a block of wood!

Well i've been out with a few of em Embs!

But seriously chaps and chappess's, having looked at the plans supplied with the SMEC kit, I have to take my hat off to Tom for carving a great shape. Mac P told me the other night that the wood was a hard variety I think. So to get the shape he has, Tom must have put some serious work into it. Hammers and chisels come to mind, which is so far removed from what I do with balsa, filler and a scalpel blade. I took the liberty (sorry Tom, i'm sure you won't mind) of nicking the plans off his blog for you all to see. I reckon we're all spoilt these days.

Graham.

[Ember]

I think I'll forget about progressing to cars and stick to modelling trees.

[manitouguy]

very neat stuff

thanks!

ember - don't be shy - i stayed away from having a go at carving bodies for many years, but when i finally tried it it came much easier than i expected - i am far off from the league of these boys here but i must say it is one of the aspects of the hobby i have enjoyed the most !! really must get back to some of those i began too

Graham looking forward to your next posts on this - and i hope your package arrives and didn't get lost in space somewhere!! let me know when you see it please

cheers, Ron

[superhornets]

Hi Guys
I,ve actually got a carved SMEC HRG and I,ll take a piccy of it so you can see what a real one looks like
Oddly enough I showed it to tom wysom when he came to visit me last week .
Hope you had a good journey home tom and it was nice to meet you

Cheers tony

[UshCha]

Chaps is it being a philastine to note that all that chipping is now sort on uneccessry. My son (30 yrs old) uses a crowd called Shapeways (google them). They can create a model accurate to approx 0.2mm from a CADDS drawing in about 10 days. They are geared up to modellers and I would guess based on the lads work that the cost would be about £25 (deliverd) for the shell, in a fairly rugged plastic. We use the stuff for wargames. Just draw it and then get it made. With a 3 D model you can move the model and scale it to overlay a photo to check the shape. The cost is a few dollers set up and then abought $1.8 per cu cm of the material in the model. Min wall is about 2mm.

Nice work by the way, great fun reading about the models,

[zagato]

Interesting! However, the chipping and carving is what makes it for me. I think there would be many who would agree with me that these things were originally designed and built by hand and the subsequent model should be built the same way. If we start to go further down the PC line , then these hand crafts could disappear.

Graham.

[tomwysom]

Hello folks,

Graham, I totally agree with that last remark.

Tony, it was great to meet up with you too. You caught me at my scruffiest I'm afraid. I'm looking forward to seeing the pics of the great little HRG on here. As for getting back o.k., well I actually got bumped off my flight, and had to catch the plane the next day. I got put up in a nice hotel though and now I'm looking into compensation for missing my flight, maybe I can wangle another flight for next year. While I was at Manchester airport I completely forgot about checking out the Scalextric track they have in the executive lounge...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/manchester/hi/...000/8783254.stm
Never mind...

Graham, here's some photos I found on the net of an interesting variant. Some "bugeye" type headlight fairings and unusual louvres above the grille:





And here's some pictures of the HRG as it came to me before carving, and some shots of the car and chassis almost completed, (i.e. before adding the great etched grille and other details)...





Cheers,
Tom.

p.s. I don't think the link works for the manchester scalextric track, but it's easy to find on Google...

[tomwysom]

Here's another view I found...



Cheers.

[manitouguy]

tom - glad to see you posting

i like that variant ... and yes your car came a looooong way from the chunk it began as

cheers, Ron

[zagato]

Well that's all I need! More variations! But, I do like the latest pics. I'm not sure whether or not my eyes are on the way out or it's just lens distortion, but the left hand wing looks a little higher than the right. I would'nt be at all surprised as most hand built cars have some kind of none symetry. Astons are famous for it. Interesting.

Graham.

[superhornets]

Hi Graham
you are right about variations i dont supose anyof them were the same
Talking of variations I did come across some pictures somewhere of a closed fastback version of this car
It also has a little niche in history as the first car to use pit ot car radio in the 1947 or 48 spa 24 hour race
Have a piccy soon tom
Cheers tony

[dgersh]

Nice chassis Tom! Very much in the period style (except maybe the front-mounted motor?). But does that little K's move all that brass?

Beautiful job of carving as well, always nice to see a SMEC block take on shape....

Don

[dgersh]

PS: sorry Tom, I spoke too soon, doubting the front-mounted motor - here's one from June 1956!
Don

[tomwysom]

Hi Don,
That's pretty interesting. I think it's the only vintage slot/rail car I've seen with a front mounted motor. I wonder why they weren't more popular? My guess is that it had to do with a reduction in power through the drivetrain when using comparatively slow motors which were really intended for model trains, and traction issues too I suppose, getting the weight on the rear wheels. When I chose to put a front mounted motor on the HRG it was of course because I wanted to have an open cockpit area, and also because I had some neat miniature universal joints that I wanted to use. Although I didn't end up using them.
The motor is a K's Mk2 and it goes pretty fast for a forty something year old motor. It's powerful enough to make the car spin out on corners, however that may be because I'm using Scalex sport track which really should be painted. It's not super fast by any means but it'll do for me. To be honest I mostly just go for looks, I think I'm more into the aesthetics than anything else.
Cheers,
Tom.