Thursday, 22 April 2021

The 1950s Lego neighbourhood post office

1950s Lego post office with VW Beetle
It's a lovely evening in late spring, and the chestnut trees are in full bloom. Closed after a lazy day, the little neighbourhood post office basks in the sunset. Tomorrow is another day.

This little building is copied from a glued-together display model which I'd just missed on a local classifieds site. It's another nice example of the rounded-corner style of 1950s Lego architecture. The original had a Scandinavian "Post" sign over the door, complete with bugle, whereas mine belongs to the Dutch PTT (Post Telegraph & Telephone). 

Like the original, it's entirely built out of bricks made from cellulose acetate. But my building mirrors the original because I'd run out of front doors opening to the left. The rear is just a blank wall, but for a display model as well as a little post office that makes sense.

1950s Lego post office rear view

Wednesday, 21 April 2021

Lego Morris 1100 repairs

 Blue Lego Morris 1100 with broken chassis
This blue Morris 1100 turned out to be somewhat of a disappointment when it arrived. The seller had neglected to mention the severely damaged chassis. At first glance the rear axle was loose, but then the front axle was revealed to be glued to a broken front half as well.

Lego Morris 1100 chassis under repair
The Morris is constructed as described in the later Lego patent (see earlier post) with a clear insert clipping into slots in the chassis. The leg at the rear end of the insert looks rather wide and could get in the way of my replacement axle mounts. To accomodate this I sanded part of a window frame down to half its thickness before cutting it up to make mounts. At the front this type of chassis requires L-shaped mounts.

Repaired Lego Morris 1100 chassis which broke again on reassembly
As shown here the window insert fits neatly inbetween the thinner mounts at the rear. To reassemble, the insert is first clipped onto the chassis, and then the body clips over the windows. Sadly the chassis broke apart again at this stage due to the pressure required to do so.

Refitting the wheels to a repaired Morris 1100 chassis
So a better type of superglue was used to glue the broken chassis together again, with the rear part already in place in the body. Using my grandfather's wire stripper, one wheel was pulled off the axle while the other wheel was loosely held in the round cavity of a pair of pliers. As shown in other posts, a pair of plumbers pliers was then used to push the wheel back onto the axle after it was fitted back into place.

Repaired blue Lego Morris 1100 and grey Morris with new headlights
After repairs the blue Morris is straight and functional again. Its grey sibling I've had for over a decade; it has no damage or repairs but recently received a pair of reproduction headlights. 

Sunday, 18 April 2021

The American Lego tower block

 Lego tower block from US town plan set
This tower block is from the US town plan set nr 842, issued by Samsonite in the late 1960s. It's another nice abstract design, unusual in being based on uneven numbers of lugs for the various levels. Building instructions are available on Brick Fetish here.

My version has been built out of such ABS bricks as I had available, where the transparent bricks are of various vintages as is evident by the various degrees of discolouration.

Lego tower block from US town plan set