Anavrin Book Nook 1940s Train Compartment

[PeterT]

I got this kit for Christmas and finally started putting it together last week.
https://byanavrin.com/products/1940-train-cabin-book-nook-anavrin

It has a LOT of parts and some are quite delicate - I’ve had to repair a couple already.

Well, that video came out better than I expected. Here’s another couple of pics, and I will post occasionally as/when/if I make progress.

Just to give you some idea of the complexity, these seat brackets have gold overlays, which had to be carefully popped out of the metal sheet, then the backing had to be removed. I found my little hand spike worked well for the 12 pieces of gold, and the 2 pieces on the frames.

[Cliff_Jennings]

That is really clever! Does it come with its own audio & light system? And is it motion activated?

[Rick_Marty]

Now that is a really cool one, I love those book case dioramas.

[PeterT]

@Cliff_Jennings

its own audio & light system

It has lights - and the metal shades to cover them look very finicky.

Still working on the seats, and I spent a while trying to find a couple of parts. On this pic one seat back has 2 sides, the other is missing the front. As I suspect I will be gluing fake leather, I am going to need the parts.

Eventually I gave up searching, and got down my scrap wood box. The piece by the ruler is marked for cutting the wood.

I got out the table saw as it had the right blade on it, and cut the seat piece and two strips for the bottom - again, to support the leather. They need a quick clean-up with the sandpaper.
Above them you can see the seat bottoms, with contrasting leather and pinholes for the sewing. Very impressive detail.

[PeterT]

Right after I cleaned the parts I made and glued them in place. I picked the wooden sheet painted brown to find the parts for the luggage rack.
I was surprised to find the parts I’d been missing.

Who’d a thought they arranged some regular parts on the brown sheet.

[Cliff_Jennings]

Super cool kit you have Pete.

Best Sellers

Maybe a follow-on project here or here. Heck, there’s a lot of them! Really fun stuff.

[PeterT]

@Cliff_Jennings

Maybe a follow-on project

Apparently they are made in Singapore, though my kit says Vietnam. Probably the laser cutting is done there. BTW it is very fine laser work. Tiny cuts and tiny stubs of material to hold it in.

[PeterT]

A visitor saw the table and looked closely at my project. “Quite intricate” he said. What an understatement.

The luggage rack pieces split along the plywood, so there was a lot of gluing back together. Fortunately there seem to be plenty of spare pieces.

Then the luggage rack supports need gold foil applied on each side. A sharp point is needed to peel off the backing.

[capecodtodd (Todd Haskins)]

Wow that is really neat. I didn’t know such a thing existed.

[Cliff_Jennings]

Pretty amazing, Pete. I think your eyesight must be better than mine. Nice job.

So they… Cricut-cut(?) the foil bits, to fit onto the lazer-cut plywood?

I wonder how many hundreds (or thousands?) of pieces are involved?

[PeterT]

@Cliff_Jennings

So they… Cricut-cut(?) the foil bits, to fit onto the lazer-cut plywood?

I wonder how many hundreds (or thousands?) of pieces are involved?

I don’t think it’s Cricut - looks like laser?

Next time I take a photo, I’ll spread out all the different sheets of material! There’s about 4 metal foil, 2 of dark brown leather, 2 or 3 light/beige leather, . . .

[PeterT]

As promised. Several sheets of ‘leather’ in dark, medium and light brown. 4 sheets of metal. Probably 10-15 sheets of plywood.

I think this project is going to be on hold for the summer. I had thought it would fill a few weeks - turns out it would if I had nothing else to do!

[Cliff_Jennings]

Holy cow… An amazing amount of work must have gone into the design and production planning. And will surely go into the construction.

It reminds me a lot of a big dollhouse kit I got for my oldest daughter. It did finally get finished, but two daughters later. Good luck!

[Cliff_Jennings]

My wife saw this at a store in the mall yesterday, “Train Mystery Case” book nook kit.

Found it on Amazon also:

https://www.amazon.com/Fsolis-Miniature-Dollhouse-Decorative-Bookshelf/dp/B0CRR1NMH7

I’d not heard of it, but it looks fun. We’ll try to build it together. At least until one of us shoots the other for suggesting or buying it, and that’ll be when the mystery ramps up I suppose.

[David_Marconi_FOGCH (David Marconi CHHNNG)]

I’ve got $50. on your wife being the shooter

[PeterT]

@Cliff_Jennings

but it looks fun.

At 25% of the cost of my ‘compartment’, it might be 25% of complications. If you are lucky.

[Hines (Bill)]

Cliff, don’t you and Linda have a butler to piece this together? From watching Poirot on these Train Mystery Cases, its the butler who usually dunnit.

[Hines (Bill)]

Cliff, don’t you and Linda have hired help like a butler, to piece this together? From watching Poirot on these Train Mystery Cases, its the butler who usually dunnit

[Cliff_Jennings]

FWIW, this kit isn’t anything like the dollhouse kit I mentioned earlier, which had raw plywood pieces which tended to delaminate and were a general pain to work with.

This kit has MDF sheets, with vinyl (?) printing on exposed sides. So no filling / sanding / painting.

The order of construction appears to be telling the “mystery story,” which we’re supposed to figure out. E.g., the first item to build was a bed with a dead-body-outline and a few bullet holes (a fairly good set of clues). This was followed by a cart having a meal and 1 wine glass on it, perhaps being served (to your point, Bill) a butler (porter, if this is on a train).

The parts fit tightly together, and only rarely involve glue (indicated on the intructions).

It’s been pretty fun so far.

[Cliff_Jennings]

FWIW, we’ve got the first floor done.

Pete, there’s about 12 mdf sheets, 1 sticker sheet, and no leather or foil. So I think yours is maybe 3x as difficult as ours, which is challenging enough!