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Using Kibri Vehicles on OO Layouts

Image of WARREN KERFOOT.WARREN KERFOOT shows how to modify these HO Scale kits on a OO Scale layout.

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One of the constant issues that OO modellers face is scale. So much of what we use is actually HO Scale, like the track, wheels and, inevitably, the chassis of our models. This extends right through to buildings, figures, and vehicles on the street scene. But we happily accept this most of the time.

Where we hit a distinct problem, however, is with road vehicles. With the advent of the amazing Oxford Diecast range of OO (so, a proper 1:76 scale) the problem has happily started to subside to a large extent. But if you want specific trucks and light commercials that are only available in 1:87, the problem still exists.

In a previous article, I’ve looked at some of the offerings from Herpa (in our sister publication Forecourt) where just these situations occur with say, a tanker trailer, bulk tank, or cattle vehicle that isn’t available in 1:76 but given that so many trucks and trailers are ‘need specific customer orders’, they can be easily married up or adapted to run with your Oxford 1:76 tractor units.

Just at the moment, I’ve been working on a concrete pump for a construction site. There is only one kit available for one of these that I’m aware of and this is from the Kibri range

On opening the kit box, what strikes you straight away is the quality of the mouldings. No flash sticking to everything and crucially, all straight and not twisted or distorted. I initially set about the building of the chassis and it’s finely detailed in its own right. But it didn’t fit in with scaling up to 1:76 that easily, so I decided to side-line that for the chassis of the truck I was using as a donor unit. In this case it was from the Cararama range, but of course you can use Oxford Diecast models as a base instead.

Building the pump boom and body frame was simple enough with a little patience, especially around the ‘not to be glued’ cranks and pivots. The reward comes at the end when the parts all marry together, and you get the articulation of all those joints.

The body I decided to flare out slightly to make it sit more fully over the back end of the wagon, done easily with 30 thou of plasticard.

Here’s the model so far, with donor cab and chassis - also modified to suit this new purpose with additional wheels, Herpa beacons and raised suspension.

Adding the pump frame and arm to this section meant spending a little time checking everything looked right; the platform top is incredibly full when the boom gets mounted in the collapsed position, which I think looks great but it’s easy to then miss that some items that should sit parallel or vertical elsewhere, especially when you’re making a mongrel as I am here, and not using everything in the kit as supplied!


Here we have it in the closing stages - cab converted to right hand drive, mud splash covers added, decals and number plates, outriggers, stowage boxes, air tanks and crash rails added. It just needs weathering now to make it look like it works for a living.

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If you take a look at the Kibri vehicles range, there are some fascinating body patterns on commercial vehicles which you can adapt as I have here and also some great cranes. All prolific on Britain’s roads which you can build as made, a couple of which I’ll be working on in the coming weeks. Ongoing so far though:


Here's a nice 4-wheel site crane, built straight out of the box and looks just right. Albeit I resprayed in orange from the kit’s yellow. This will be perfect with legs out hoisting steel aloft when fully Anglicised with number plates and livery.

Here we have another one that’s a bit different to the offerings from Oxford where I followed the same plan of mixing and matching.

Same process again here as the concrete pump, by using another Mercedes Actros to modernise the cab, a reworked chassis and the superstructure of the recovery body modified to suit the widened track and wheelbase. This is destined to part of a fleet of light and heavy recovery trucks you find congregating around roadworks.

These all need completing as you can see, with number plates, UK spec hazard markings, and suitable lettering. One day, I hope to show you all these vehicles in context on the railway!

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