Today, I actually got something model-horse-related done. It still needs paint, but I finished building a tongue for my Traditional scale fire engine.
The engine itself is actually a Jim Beam bottle, so the tongue had to
be removable. In the end, I just cut a notch in the tongue with a
round file and made a hinge with a piece of brass strip to hold it in
place on the axle.
The doubletree is a piece of the same 1/4 inch square strip as the
tongue, but I used the table sander to cut it down to half the
thickness. This isn't really a good idea - I sanded two fingernails off
- but hey, I didn't have to use a saw or go out and buy another pre-cut
strip of wood. It's held on by two small nails and a piece of aluminum sheet.
The
singletrees are made with 1/8 inch strip, and were rounded off a bit by
hand-sanding and an X-acto knife. The rest of the hardware is made of gold wire and jump rings. The holes were drilled by hand with a
pin drill. I don't use power tools for model horse projects much,
because hand tools are usually easier or better suited for what I'm
trying to do. Not safer, though. My worst tool injuries have been with
hacksaws, hammers, and X-acto knives. Just because it doesn't have a
motor doesn't mean you can let your guard down!
The front end of the tongue was carved and sanded down to a smaller point. The round piece that goes side to side is aluminum tube, pressed flat on the ends and center. It's held on by "nails" (cut-off sewing pins) on each end and a brass strip that goes top to bottom, also attached with sewing pins. Instead of trying to drill a hole in the brass strip, I hammer a small nail in just far enough to punch all the way through. The sewing pins then fit nicely into the small hole. Two mini lanyard clips are attached with jump rings to hold the collar chains.
The wood will be painted red, and the silver metal will be either black or gold. Now I just have to finish the hames for the harness - I can't put them off any longer!
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