Hi all. Trying to work out how to make a hinge for engine house doors. Have this old kit which I picked up at a club sale day. The instructions say to either have the doors closed, or split the door and use card board for hinges or have no doors like John Allen did. Looking for ideas for hinging the doors. I know I can either glue the doors open or closed or no doors at all. View attachment 243583 View attachment 243583 View attachment 243583
I'll take a stab at it. Back in early 2012 I had a 'hanging HCD' layout that folded up when not in use.... I had a homemade 'cell tower'. It was to tall to fit when the layout was closed up... It had to fold down...to work.... I took and old spray 'straw' from a can of WD-40 and cut it into 3 pieces. I glued the 2 outside pieces of the 'straw' to the base of the cell tower. I glued the middle piece to the top of the layout. I slipped a small piece of wire through all 3 pieces.... BAM !!! a homemade 'hinge' that really didnt look to big for N scale...and worked ! .
If you do not model a VERY cold area you can forget about the doors, or like me I modeled a rolling shutter (fixed in an open position).
I've used model airplane aileron hinges on an operational pusher arm but they are oversized for your application. For yours I would maybe cut very small pieces of cloth and super glue them to the door and the wall.
The use of the tube is good if it's used a lot and needs to be strong. But, for a barn door I would go with the cloth.
To add clarity to NtheBasement's idea: https://www.towerhobbies.com/product/hinge-nylon-small-15/DUB119.html These are the "small" size. The length of the hinge is 7/16". You can easily cut down the long size but I see you can only cut "one-third" of the hinge before it no longer can function as a hinge.
