Hungarian boxcar - a Piko rebuild

It sounds as an easy task, to rebuild a Piko German boxcar into a Hungarian one. First I thought this will require mainly a repainting and lettering, as the boxcars are all alike. Thenafter I started to study the Hungarian boxcars and it became more and more evident, the rebuild will be much more difficult than expected first. Worse: even if I work indefinitely long on the Piko model it will never be the model of a Hungarian boxcar. Perhaps watching from a distance, with one eye... But I have already started the job and I wanted to finish it.

The prototype of the Piko boxcar is a very well known German boxcar type. There were so many of them, that after WW2 a decent number remained in Hungary too. Many of them were rebuilt to carry passengers after the war, in the era of the car shortage, but quite a few remained in original state on the Hungarian rails. This happened, however, only after WW2. Before this no German boxcars were available in Hungary with MÁV numbers, just as guests from Germany.

Let's count the differences. First the most eye-catching ones, which must be rebuilt in order the model gives the impression of a Hungarian boxcar. Thenafter those differences that practically cannot be altered, at least not if I want to keep the necessary efforts within reasonable limits.

The slanted reinforcement steel strips on the sides. On all Hungarian boxcars there was a slanted steel band that crosses the side walls from the door opening's lower corner to the carside upper corner. These are constructed from three separate strips, one inside each wall sections, but they are lined up. You cannot see similar reinforcement on German cars. Either there was no reinforcement, as seen on the Piko boxcar, or the reinforcement bar crossed only one sidewall section. These Hungarian steel bands must be modeled.
The window grids. On the German boxcars there were louvres on the ventillation openings, often two different types on the left and right side. On the Hungarian boxcars there were grids made from flat steel strips. The grids were constructed from 5 horizontal and 6 vertical strips.
The corner stiffeners. The German boxcars were equipped with stiffener plates only on the four car corners. these were rather large triangle-form steel plates cut to 40-45 grades. The Hungarian cars show stiffeners at the lower and upper end of all vertical steel bars. These are shallower than the German ones, app. 30 degree. On the corners and on the front wall these are not even triangles, but they protrude downwards, to the lower end of the vertical bars.
Fittings. the German car shows many fittings and the Piko car is equipped with a number of them. They are the handgrabs, light support and other small items. The Hungarian cars lacked these items, thus these must be removed from the Piko model. As the Hungarian car had no brakes all air brake appliances should be removed from the car bottom too.
Roof cleats. All pictures of Hungarian boxcars show crosswise cleats on the roof. These fixed the painted fabric that was pinned on the roof as protection. Their position was determined by the roof internal ribs. As the original car drawings do not show these cleats, it is not clear if the cars were built with them, but they were surely nailed there after a few years. These must be modeled on a correct boxcar model.

These are the changes that are necessary to do, when we want a model that gives the impression of a Hungarian boxcar. Let's list those differences that would require so much efforts which seems unjustified to me.

The length of the car. The Piko model shows a standard German boxcar type G02 "Stettin" with 7,9m chassis length - the model chassis is actually a bit too short. The Hungarian standard boxcars, apart from the oldest ones, were only 7,5m long. The difference is app. 4.0mm in H0. Not very prominent difference and the German car had also a wider door.
Wheelbase. The Piko model shows a car with 4,5m wheelbase. It is not clear, if there was ever a Hungarian boxcar built with this wheelbase. I did not find drawings of such, and no MÁV orders describe such a car. Although, in the Budapest Museum workshop yard there is a boxcar with 4,5m wheelbase, but its bearings and wheel suspension seem a bit weird. One can have the impression that this car was rebuilt sometimes with non-standard components. To change the wheelbase of the Piko model would be a major job, the whole frame should be rebuilt. IMO this effort is not justified neither.
The vertical reinforcement bars. The German cars were built with a relatively wide and flat steel profile, I estimate 100mm wide and some 30mm high. The Hungarian boxcars were all constructed using 70x80mm steel U-profile. These are narrower but protrude from the wall more. This is also hard to reconstruct, as practically all walls should be replaced.

These are the most visible differences that must be rebuilt and the compromises we have to accept. These determine what to do on the Piko model.

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