Building custom Emerald Night

[Eaglefan344]

Building a custom Emerald Night and have the following substitutions to get the price down. I plan to build 2 or 3 carriages. 

Sub the 2 x 3 x4 slopes with gold trim to slopes with no trim - plan on buying aftermarket stickers for that

Sub the train base to a train base with 2x2 cutouts rather than 1x2 cutouts

Sub front dish with studded dish

Sub train windows with newer style Hogwarts Express type windows

The one part that is going to cost a ton are the two hoses. The large one is going for around $20. Any ideas on which parts to sub these with? Possibly a longer variant that I could cut? The color options aren't really ideal.

[BrickMusher]

Hei,

 I once bought a vacuum hose from an industrial pneumatic shop at ebay. Since I am metric, the hose was 3mm in diameter wich actually is a little bit to small.

 

An other time, I found a similar hose in a chainlubrication kit for motorcycles that was 3,2mm in diameter. I guess that is somewhat like 1/8 inch?? However, that one fitted very well with the original Lego clips.

So maybe you can find something like that more easy at your place (US)? Only minus, all hoses have been glossy. But that probably could be fixed with some fine sandpaper or fleece?

 

It is a pain that TLC does not produce the round Windows anymore. I allways preferred them to the angular ones like in the actual Hogwarts....

[TheL390Man]

19 hours ago, Eaglefan344 said:

The one part that is going to cost a ton are the two hoses. 

I have a similar problem with the doors of cafe corner (which I am bricklinking) - one is fairly easy to replace, but with the main door I’ve decided to just buy one anyway.

With your hose, you’re in a better position. I took a look on BL, and if you aren’t too purist, there are some longer ones like these that you can buy and cut for a lot less (in the right colour, too).

I guess nobody wants to part out such coveted sets!

Good luck! 

Edited June 6, 2019 by TheL390Man

[Eaglefan344]

23 hours ago, BrickMusher said:

Hei,

 I once bought a vacuum hose from an industrial pneumatic shop at ebay. Since I am metric, the hose was 3mm in diameter wich actually is a little bit to small.

 

An other time, I found a similar hose in a chainlubrication kit for motorcycles that was 3,2mm in diameter. I guess that is somewhat like 1/8 inch?? However, that one fitted very well with the original Lego clips.

So maybe you can find something like that more easy at your place (US)? Only minus, all hoses have been glossy. But that probably could be fixed with some fine sandpaper or fleece?

 

It is a pain that TLC does not produce the round Windows anymore. I allways preferred them to the angular ones like in the actual Hogwarts....

Yeah if they still produced the train windows I would have this by now. I will probably just pass on it. The square windows just don't look right.

[Roadmonkeytj]

1 hour ago, Eaglefan344 said:

Yeah if they still produced the train windows I would have this by now. I will probably just pass on it. The square windows just don't look right.

Another member on here used some nice decals on the square windows and got a nice effect

[Eaglefan344]

Decided to go ahead and order the parts for this in earth blue. I'll post pics once everything is up and running.

[Eaglefan344]

Very pleased with the end result. Took a while to get it running smoothly but I think I have it running pretty good. It could be a little faster but it's good enough.