4mm Brassmasters Black 5, 45232

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
Although I haven't finished the cab/footplate unit, I've been drawn to doing some preliminary work on the boiler assembly. In the Brassmaster kits, the boiler and firebox are cast in a cream coloured resin and very nicely detailed and finished they are, too. In this kit, the boiler and firebox castings are separate, with the front of the firebox having a cylindrical extension which located the rear end of the boiler. Unfortunately, the fit was rather loose, to the extent that the two items were not effectively aligned. The gap was taken up by superglueing two layers of writing paper on the locating part which resulted in a nice push fit.
The instructions suggest assembling the two parts in situ on the running plate to ensure correct orientation. However, I decided to use a simple jig, consisting of three lengths of square plastic to allow assembly on the bench. Prior to fixing the two parts with a thick grade superglue, I drilled a series of closely spaced holes to enable sections of the solid firebox front and bottom of the boiler to be broken out to clear the gearbox. Just hope I've judged this right or there's going to be an awful lot of extra cutting and gouging, later!
Boiler (upside down) and firebox showing the paper layers and rows of holes, together with pencil cutting lines.
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Two parts plugged together (loose) on the simple jig.
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They've been glued now.
Dave.
 

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
Well, the breaking out of the slot for the gearbox went to plan, I'm glad to say. Quite a bit of very messy sawing to get to this stage.
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Boiler unit just loosely placed at present. A bit more work required on the sand pipe plates to let it fully seat on the running plate.
Beginning to look more like a Black 5, now.
Dave.
 

mswjr

Western Thunderer
Really nice workmanship , Especially in this scale, I expect that with those metal wheels and the cast boiler it will be quite heavy as well.
 

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
I expect that with those metal wheels and the cast boiler it will be quite heavy as well.

Actually, the wheel centres and the resin boiler unit are plastic and not heavy at all. The kit included cast ballast weights to insert into the boiler and smokebox but now I've blocked off the large end of the boiler (with the firebox), that weight can't be fitted. I expect so called "liquid lead" will have to be used. Past experience has shown that the positioning of the added weight has to be carefully arranged in order to achieve the right buffer height with the loco sitting level on its springs. No doubt some fun and games will be had to arrive at an acceptable arrangement.
Dave.
 

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
The cab doors, fall plates, handrails and intermediate buffing block have now been fitted, so the cab end of the footplate unit is complete, except for glazing and the roof. These latter will be fitted after painting.
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Oil pots and various bits at the front end to finish this unit off.
Dave.
 

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
Phew! It's been one of those days when you feel to be battling against the odds.
Since the previous posting, I've been adding details to the footplate unit, including cast white metal oil boxes and sand box filler pipes, etched lamp irons, wire loop grab handles and cast brass vacuum and steam heat fittings. The latter has nearly driven me to distraction.
My layout (if it ever gets completed) is set in late spring/early summer, so generally I model locos with the steam heat hoses removed and just the shut off valve mounted to the buffer beam. In this case, to make handling easier, I part cut through the hose portion of the casting at the oval flange, to leave a handle, so to speak.
After attaching to the buffer beam I completed the cut and started to trim the rearward protrusion but, in doing so, I fatigued the etched mounting tab on the buffer beam and the whole thing came adrift. Oh well, a new mounting was made from scrap etch and soldered to the now very stubby valve portion. However, I manage to attach it to the buffer beam but discovered it wasn't in quite the right position and did not align with the feed pipe, which is part of the chassis.
The valve and bracket were removed from the buffer beam but whilst repositioning it, it pinged from the tweezers. Hours of searching followed, involving completely clearing my work bench, to no avail. Then, thankfully, there it was. Right near the front of the tray but partially hidden under the back of my small vice. Finally, it's been successfully reattached in the right place. Time to go to lie in a darkened room!
Oil pots and sand fillers.
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Vacuum hose and steam heat valve, grab handles, lamp irons and front oil pots.
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Lubricators next.

Dave.
 

LarryG

Western Thunderer
A Black Five that actually worked off Lees Shed ha ha. I don't know how we got it, but the day foreman had a special job for it the following week and so, come Saturday morning, my driver (for the day) and I were told to use it on the Ashton Oldham Road shunt to keep it hidden away! Come dinnertime, we took some bogie bolsters to Park Bridge before returning to shed....
WEB Larry on Black 5 45409.jpg
45409.
 

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
Great memories, Larry. My loco, 45232, was a Newton Heath allocation, so, bearing in mind the antipathy between ex-LNWR Lees and that ex-L&Y shed, I doubt any of their engines would have been welcome at 26F.
On second thoughts. The chance to capture one of their locos and keep it for nefarious purposes might well have appealed.
Dave.
 
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John57sharp

Western Thunderer
The piece on Lees in the very first BRILL remains one of my favourite articles, you two are continuing the tales! Thanks for all this. Enjoying the models too by the way....

John
 

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
A bit more progress has been made, with some of the boiler fittings being attached. This particular loco had an interesting combination of features during the 1950's. It retained the long firebox throughout but received a smokebox that had a door without the support lug, the steam lance cock in the normal lower position but had the late type atomiser cover in the low position, normally associated with the later locos. The top feed cover was also the later "top hat" version introduced by Ivatt. All quite odd and demonstrating that the Black 5's were anything but an homogeneous class of standardised locos.

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After taking the photos, I noticed some slight casting marks remaining on both sides of the dome. These have subsequently dressed off.

Dave.
 

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
Not much progress in almost a week. However, i have been working on the vacuum ejector and its discharge pipe that runs along the side of the boiler. Inspired by some wonderful 7 mm scale modelling, I've tried to represent the gland nuts on the drain pipes on the ejector body and pipe elbow with inserts of fine tubing - 0.5 mm o/d. Fiddly to say the least. In the past. I've represented the drains with 0.2 mm tinned copper fuse wire but the real thing was only 0.375" o/d, or 0.125 mm on the model. Some 0.122 mm soft brass wire was obtained recently but it's like modelling with hair! Not sure if I'll use this or revert to the over-scale copper wire.
Exhaust pipe and ejector trial fitted to the boiler.
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Close-up of the ejector with the brass tube gland nuts just visible on the bottom and the steam pipe nut at the rear. A length of the scale diameter drain pipe wire runs across the image, below the ejector casting.
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Dave.
 

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
Compromise! I decided to represent the drain pipes with slightly over scale 0.152 mm wire. Doesn't look too chunky to me and was easier to handle than the really fine stuff.

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A little bit untidy but I can live with it. You wouldn't believe the number of goes it took to get all three legs engaged in those 0.5 mm tubes at the same time and get them secured.
Dave.
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Hi Dave,
It can be difficult in 7mm never mind 4mm. Well done!

I can't remember if the pipes were part of the casting or if they were added from copper wire. This is the Javelin long wheelbase Ivatt version.
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If you want a real test try adding the square tap to the promise valve. Difficult to see in this view but it is visible in the flesh.
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Stay healthy.
Cheers,
Peter
 

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
You'll have to take my word that it has a square head - not necessarily the right A/F, mind you.
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Had a bit of a setback. In trying to clear the drain boss under the elbow, seen here, which appeared to be blocked, I managed to snap off the tip of a 0.2 mm drill bit which I can't get out. Not sure how to insert the wire representing the drain pipe now.
Dave.
 

Brian McKenzie

Western Thunderer
Dave,
Buy a small packet of Citric acid powder at a supermarket and soak the offending area in a solution for a couple of days, if that's possible.
It worked for me when - I didn't want it to. It ate away the small hex steel bolts inserted in a brass headstock, when I was trying to clean up flux from silver soldering.
-Brian
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Nicely done Dave.

Shame about the broken bit. Good luck getting it out.

It's not clear on the image above but the drain pipe is on mine.
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Here's a couple more challenges. This engine had the atomiser on the running plate with "stop cock" between it and the lubricators. If you include the lance cock that's three more challenges!
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Cheers,
Peter
 

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
Peter,
Thanks for the continuing challenges and the photos of your lovely Black 5 model - another inspiration. Fortunately (for me), the earlier locos had the atomisers between the frames, so that's one less thing to worry about. The steam lance cock is a lost wax brass casting supplied in the kit.
On my previous Brassmasters Black 5, I represented the atomiser shut-off cock by mounting a tiny hand rail knob with the tail sticking upwards on the pipe run along the footplate - not as realistic as yours, but OK in 4 mm. Sadly, they don't supply those items any more and I have none left, so it's likely to be a wrap of wire with the tails twisted together.
On a positive note, I think I've got away with the ejector elbow drain. I first glued the pipe to the resin smokebox, bent the top end to align with the boss and managed to solder the joint with 145 solder. Not perfect but a satisfactory recovery operation, I think. It's rather alarming the distortion resulting from using the macro setting on the camera. It's not like that in reality.
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Large pipe and ejector are now fixed to the boiler.

Dave.
 

Dave Holt

Western Thunderer
Well, progress has slowed, barely credible I know. I see several fellow modellers experiencing increased modelling time due to the coronavirus lock-down. However, it's had the opposite effect on me since my partner can no longer work, resulting in us spending more time together during the week. In effect, I've lost four whole afternoons per week from my modelling time. Still she's definitely worth it.
Nevertheless, some progress has been made, with the ejector and discharge pipe and the hand rails being fixed to the boiler. The injector delivery pipes above the footplate to the lower boiler sides have been formed (0.7 mm brass rod) and temporarily plugged in place. They still require some minor tweaking to get the run along the inner footplate edge a bit better, but the hard part is done. Final fixing will be part of permanently attaching the boiler unit.
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Dave.
 
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