Bridges for 1/18 scale

[aferguson]

i've been doing a bit of digging into bridges that may be useful for 1/18 scale.

I've mostly been looking at G scale railway bridges and have found two decent candidates, although they arent cheap.

this LGB one is not bad. It's about 8 inches wide, 12 inches tall and about 4 feet in length. Price is around $200.

http://www.reynaulds.com/products/LGB/50610.aspx

A nicer one is by Pola. It's 5 1/2 feet long, 10 inches wide and 15 inches high. Best price is around $350 though.

http://www.dragon-gscale.co.uk/pola-330 ... 4767-p.asp


Anyone know of other candidates that are cheaper and or nicer?

[[CAT]CplSlade]

How much would it cost to make one yourself? It seems both are simple steel girder construct so all you would need to do is find a supply of plastic components of similar shape, measure-cut-assemble-paint and you're done. I haven't been in a train section of a store in years, so I don't know what scenery materials are sold nowadays, but I seem to recall Evergreen or someone made sheets, tubes, rods, etc out of styrene for the modeling crowd.

But I guess it all boils down to skill and patience.

As for me, I could not justify that much for a bridge when I could get a 1/32 B-25 Mitchell for less and a bomber is much cooler than a bridge. Unless a balrog is astride it. The bridge, not the bomber. A bomber with a balrog astride it would be coolest of all, outdoing sharks with frickin' lasers by a mile.

Seriously, though, lot of money for a bridge when there is so much more to lay that $ on.

I bet flyboy could make you one for less. It just has to be sturdy enough to hold a static 1/18 vehicle or two, right? It doesn't need to hold up to the stresses of having a model choo-choo barreling over it over and over.

tl;dr it myself

[flyboy_fx]

I was about to say, I could make a correct style stone bridge to scale for about $200 (This would be a Big bridge). I think that sounds about right. Stone work can take FOREVER! But it would be a nice bridge and would totally be able to hold up a few tanks.

I bet something like this would only cost around $60 http://www.scalehobbyist.com/images/pro ... 28_0_l.jpg

It would be about 8"x1.5'. Around those dimensions, not entirely sure though.

I would love to do a bridge. Maybe I'll make one once I've finished everything that is waiting on me.

For a truss bridge. Like CAT said, you can buy styrene I beams and all that. You probably don't have to make a big bridge. IMO, stone bridges seem the best for Europe. Truss bridges look nice in America. lol But I'm partial to stone architecture.

Do you think plans for an HO bridge could be found and scaled up?

[15tango]

They are both nice looking bridges and would be impressive but if I recall G scale is around 1/27 scale. Personally I'm too picky about everything being the correct scale to spend that much money on something that isn't correct.

I agree that stone bridges would look a little more accurate for Europe but a steel truss would be easier to make. Of course if your going to make a steal truss bridge you might as well go all out and build a reproduction of the one at Arnhem like in the movie A Bridge Too Far.

[flyboy_fx]

Yea, if you start now, you might be done in 5 years.

Actually, stone bridge would be way easier. I carve it from foam. Here's my first ever attempt at stone.

Just apply that to a bridge and BAM!

[aferguson]

it is a steel truss bridge i am interested in at the moment. There were plenty of them in europe. I think it would be a very difficult scratch build.

i started this thread in the hopes that someone knew of better bridges or at least much cheaper alternatives to those posted above.

[pickelhaube]

$200 is $200. $300 is $300. But what price do you put on your time? The steel bridge is not that complicated but I would say that it will take you 2-4 days to complete.

Then the styrene. Styrene is not cheep. Yes you can get all of the shapes and in gray plastic. I do not know exactly how much girders are in that bridge but 3 feet long. There will be a bunch. Possibly $50-$100 worth . Then the CA glue $12. If you do not have the chopper I have to cut your angles another $50 or so.

So if you put all of that stuff in perspective $200-$300 for a fully built bridge is not that bad.

As far as scale goes , there are things that could be done to make it more accurate. Of course more time and money.

Just my 2 cents.

[TankAce]

The bigger 10" wide bridge seems to me is the better choice.Because the widest tank in 1/18 is the tiger and it measures 8" wide.I imagine that the bridge is measure from the outside.the the actual maximum crossing with will be 8"-9"

It looks big, but for those of you who bolt shelf's to the wall to display the tanks,
This seems like it will make a good display without sacrificing to much space.
Just bolt it to the wall of your hobby room and stick at least 4 tanks inside for display.
I hope it comes disassembled because that will make i big impact on the shipping cost.

[aferguson]

my thinking right now is: i dont really need a 5 1/2 foot long bridge. 4 feet would be fine. I just want something to put armour on, put charges under, have guys clearing off those charges etc. Bridge stuff.

So my thinking is to get the smaller one and widen it. It would be easily done, i'd have to make some kind of roadway for it anyway. The only drawback is that you'd have to leave off the connecting cross pieces along the top of it (or make new ones).

It would be nice to have a bridge like this, but it's work and a fair bit of money to get it and it won't be totally great when i do.

i've wished power team would come out with a bridge segment like this. 18 inches long or so, that you can buy multiples of and connect together.

[parrish333]

Oh aferg...this is one of those sources of perpetual sadness for me when I remember what could have been:
http://www.sshqdb.com/18/thumbnails.php?album=543

I've looked into a lot of options since then, and have basically found what you have with there being some decent, albeit expensive options in the model train world. The one drawback to the train bridges is they are flat, so you'd have to build little hills on each side for the road/track to climb up to make it a real "bridge" over/across anything, plus usually adding the piers/risers for the track to sit on. That's why I loved 21C's bridge since with an arch bridge you don't have to worry about all that.

Hearing flyboy say he could build something like that is brightening my day - get him some cheap labor (anybody have kids that need "community service" hours?) to finish all those other projects so we can get him building bridges!!!

[parrish333]

One other option I forgot to mention is there are some decently priced bridges designed for outdoor garden use, for example: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Garden-Bay-Brid ... 3cc4082738

Something like that at least provides a decent base to work with. But for steel truss-type bridges, the model train world is obviously the way to go. There are some truss-style bridges built out of wood which can run a little cheaper.

[flyboy_fx]

http://www.sshqdb.com/18/displayimage.p ... =543&pos=2

[[CAT]CplSlade]

Doo eet.

[Razor17019]

Go FLYBOY GO!
Razor