Building the MOK "King Arthur"

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
That's looking good, Dad, and the patience with the cab seems to have paid off. I confess to hating nickel-silver for these sorts of jobs...

In terms of annealing, it should be alright if the part is flat and the heat applied evenly (oven, blowtorch). I'm trying to remember, but I think I recall that the roof you did was pre-formed and you were trying to anneal it because the shape was wrong?

If I ever find myself with 'free time' (it's a concept I'm aware of) then I'd be very tempted by one of these Arthurs.

Steph
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Thanks Steph. I agree. I reckon the cab could have been better and easier if I'd have been able to anneal it with any degree of competence.

Your memory is good! The last and only time I tried to anneal anything it was a pre-formed brass roof. It turned in to brass knitting. I'm going to use some of the left over bits of the kit to practice some more annealing.

As for kits and free time.... You have more kits than you know what to do with already - as do I - but this isolation thing is helping me to catch up.:)

B
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Progress today. Doesn't look a lot but is hugely satisfying.

Cab beading and handrails. The beading around the cab cut out on a King Arthur is flat, so this is right. It's not a hugely difficult job except that the handrail has to end up vertical which means a number of tries and mods before the final commitment to the hot stick is made. Ultimately these worked out well.

Then, inside the cab, is the rivetted strip around the cab cut outs and the interior cab sides. That's quite straightforward.

I ended the day with the cab floor and mounted thereon the box seats and hinges for the cab doors - now released from the fret but yet to be assembled.

All in all a decent afternoon considering two interruptions for Skype calls.

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The assembly of the cab doors will need a fair measure of instructions interpretation but I'll get there in the end. Photos will follow.

Brian
 

Peter Cross

Western Thunderer
Thanks Steph. I agree. I reckon the cab could have been better and easier if I'd have been able to anneal it with any degree of competence.

Your memory is good! The last and only time I tried to anneal anything it was a pre-formed brass roof. It turned in to brass knitting. I'm going to use some of the left over bits of the kit to practice some more annealing.

As for kits and free time.... You have more kits than you know what to do with already - as do I - but this isolation thing is helping me to catch up.:)

B
Brian
Try a small tray of sand over the gas hob. Will give a very even heat.
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Now starting to move towards the finishing line.

Today I added a few small bits to the cab floor.

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There's a few odds and ends added to the inside of the cab too. The reverse gear has been cleaned up and I was about to fit it when I realised that it might be helpful to know where the reversing rod ends up within the cab itself so tat an accurate position could be determined It's one of those rare occasions with this kit when the location is not precisely identified. The splasher is now fitted on the left hand footplate. The right hand one to fit tomorrow, and then the dropped front.

There should therefore be more and bigger pictures tomorrow.

Brian
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Hi Brian,

nice work as usual, does the backhead go in before or after the floor? I've been caught out a few times with that in the past:rant::rant:

Stay safe and well.

regards

Mike
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Hi Mike. And thanks John.

I'm hoping that the backhead will actually mount on the floor which will slide in to place. I did that on my "Dukedog" and it's worked well. The screw reverser will fit on mountings thoughtfully supplied as a bend out bit of the cab side, and this sits in place over the left hand staging. so does not interfere with the floor. At every stage of the build I'm sliding that cab floor in and out to ensure that it'll functon as I'd like, but if there's any suggestion of any fittings interfering with the cab floor/backhead it'll have to be a return to a permanent backhead location. It'll go in past the box seats at the moment.......:)

Brian
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
I've suddenly moved on apace.....

Here's an overview of where I am now. Splashers sides and tops done, dropped footplate complete and the steam pipe done on one side.

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That steam pipe looks a bit out of true, but I think it's one of they there photo characteristics.

The steam pipes are supplied as both castings and etches. Like this:

IMG_20200506_170643643_HDR.jpg

I tried the cast one but it would have needed a deal of work. I've therefore chosen to use the etched version. It shapes easily and fits the boiler and footplate more easily. I suspected that cleaning up the solder might be difficult but the use of 100 degree solder and appropriate scrapers followed by varying grades of wet 'n dry did the job remarkably quickly - in fact if the steam pipe already fitted is actually, on further inspection, skew-whiff it'll not be a disaster to remove it and refit.

So here's the loco with front drop, splasher and steam pipe in place. Looks good and straight from here!

IMG_20200506_170103050_HDR.jpg IMG_20200506_170206827_HDR.jpg

And just to update everything here's the fitted cab floor in place. Well, actually just slid in to position as it'll be good if I can fit the backhead to it.

IMG_20200506_170023565_HDR.jpg

I'm mighty close to smoke deflectors and final details. Still a few days of work required, even before the detailing of the backhead.

However, I'm now starting to think about the next project (well, after I've completed a bracket signal for club). It'll be a JLTRT Rebuilt Royal Scot, complete with super detailing kit. I'm also lucky enough to have a set of AGH wheels. I've not used these previously so will welcome any hints and tips. I've only ever used Slater's wheels in the past.

Brian
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Thanks Mick.

I completed much less than I'd anticipated this afternoon due to spending an age talking with someone about the current GOG travails. We'll not discuss that here though.

Following my concerns yesterday I revisited the steam pipes. In fact the one I'd dealt with was good and not wonky as I'd feared. However, looking at that photo I need to complete the run of the solder on that dropped bit of the valance!

IMG_20200507_134759432_HDR.jpg

So I went ahead and fettled the one for the other side.

Next process is to open out the handrail mounting holes on the boiler sides, so nothing to show for that!

I had time to remove the smoke deflectors from the etch sheet. I can't believe I've got this far so quickly! It's by far the quickest build for me to date.

IMG_20200507_171705799_HDR.jpg

Brian
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Simply couldn't resist. As prewarned I did the handrail knobs today and started on the smoke deflectors. This is the dry run. The smoke deflectors have an overlay so what you see here is the core.

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Suddenly it starts to look like the Maunsell engines I remember. Some will say that the King Arthurs and S15s without smoke deflectors were better looking ocos but I don;t agree. IMHO the smoke deflectors gave them a sense of purpose. Anyway, that's how I remember them! More work to do here tomorrow and loadsa fittings and stuff to deal with yet.

BTW, the footplate is not sitting down on the chassis properly here......
 

Peter Cross

Western Thunderer
Simply couldn't resist. As prewarned I did the handrail knobs today and started on the smoke deflectors. This is the dry run. The smoke deflectors have an overlay so what you see here is the core.

View attachment 123553

Suddenly it starts to look like the Maunsell engines I remember. Some will say that the King Arthurs and S15s without smoke deflectors were better looking ocos but I don;t agree. IMHO the smoke deflectors gave them a sense of purpose. Anyway, that's how I remember them! More work to do here tomorrow and loadsa fittings and stuff to deal with yet.

BTW, the footplate is not sitting down on the chassis properly here......
I'm one who prefers no deflectors, but then I also prefer the Urie locos. The SR builds are nice but I don't think they have the presents of the Urie's
Great build I've really enjoyed following it.
Wish MOK did a kit for my period and area of modelling.
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Thanks Paul! And Peter, the MOK kit will make the Urie version as well. In fact it'd probably be a bit easier in the cab department. It's also designed so that it can be built without smoke deflectors. Referring back to Steph's comments earlier, the injectors are (I think) probably more correct for the Urie version.

And last night I realised that I'd misinterpreted one of the instructions so all the handrail knobs will have to come off. The smokebox is clearly a slightly larger diameter than the boiler. In fact I'd tried fitting long handrail knobs to the boiler and standard length to the smokebox but the long knobs were just too long and spindly. They didn't look right. The instructions advise to drill in to the overlay at a clearance size for the handrail knobs being cautious to not drill all the way through, thus creating a counter sink. For some reason I interpreted this as meaning the front firebox overlay - in the earliest locos the handrail went over the firebox door rather than across it. When it came to fitting the handrail knobs I was a bit disconcerted by the step boiler to smokebox and the associated kink in the hand rail, so I overcame it by bodging whereby I didn't remove the slight lip caused as I opened out the holes in the boiler, but rubbed them down on the smokebox. I then allowed the knob before the smokebox to "find its own level" and thus smoothed off the potential kink in the hand rail. It actually seems to have worked, but I know it's a bodge and can be corrected, so it will be today.

That assumes, of course, that I have a drill which is exactly the same size as the collar on the handrail knobs. If I can't it'll stay as it is otherwise the countersink effect will be obvious.

When I realised I said "oh bother" and "I really should have thought that through" to myself.

(I make no excuses for my incompetence, but the situation would have been helped by a few additional instructional words to say that, to overcome the slightly different radii of the boiler and smokebox the knobs on the smokebox will have to be slightly countersunk by drilling through the overlay etc etc.....)

Brian
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
.....and now I'm considering the above actions in detail it strikes me that the smokebox comprises a full etch thickness plus the overlay, so just drilling through the overlay won't equalise the handrails height all along the loco - it'll help, a bit, but won't answer the problem. I'm about to go out to the workshop and will have a look in detail but I suspect my best next move may be to leave the handrails as they are along the boiler but to simply countersink the handrail knobs on the smokebox. Then the little extra height I've gained on the boiler knobs may just match up with the countersunk ones on the smokebox. Don't want to overdo it though as the knobs will look really strange if the bases are below the level of the smokebox surface.

Brian
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Well, I'm not convinced it was worth wearing the hair shirt.

Here's a view from, as near as I could make it, over the top of the loco. There's just a suggestion that the hand rail starts to move out at the third from front hand rail knob, but the situation is far from clear as the footplate has a designed kink inwards at the front.

IMG_20200509_134206567_HDR.jpg
Nevertheless I hoped that the situation could be improved by following the instruction to countersink the front two handrail knobs, and on the left hand side the blower valve. I measured the base of the knobs which scaled out at 1.75 mm. I had a 1.75 mm drill and one of the unused overlays which I drilled out appropriately and the hand rail knob just slipped through - perfect! The blower valve base was a bit bigger, measured at 2.05 mm but had to be drilled out to 2.1 mm for the part to slip through.

IMG_20200509_135737683_BURST000_COVER.jpg

Having drilled out the smokebox overlay I refitted the hand rail knobs. Is it better? From my viewpoint probably not significantly. In this shot the blower valve is still a bit proud so I removed it again and drilled the countersink for this slightly deeper. I'm satisfied that this has ensured the hand rail on the left hand side on the smokebox is straight.

The hand rail knobs on the boiler proper have not been removed so are slightly proud and I think that still helps the hand rail to be level along the whole boiler/smokebox assembly. I'll not be changing it any further now.

IMG_20200509_144711053.jpg

There's a bit of cleaning up to be done around the handrail knobs but otherwise that bit is done.

I've now built up the smoke deflectors and am half way through beading them. More on that (hopefully) tomorrow, but I have three Skype calls so may run out of time.

Brian
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
I'll have to make up for this with more photos tomorrow...... Early this afternoon a tree came down on the road in to the village and we lost all power. Couldn't make my afternoon Skype call, which will now interrupt tomorrow, but more importantly the hot stick wouldn't work.

Work therefore had to depend totally on hand tools today. The handrail knobs and their locations have been cleaned up of any errant solder, the first smoke deflector has been cleaned up, the beading for the second deflector is now bent to shape and ready to solder and the deflector interior rivet detail prepared. The smokebox door has been cleaned up of the considerable flashing and the drop frame steps are prepared for fitting, so lots of soldering to be done tomorrow.

And photos......

B
 

oldravendale

Western Thunderer
Smoke defectors finished and beaded. (There are alternatives including a pre-beaded one, but being etched the beading is flat).

Afternoon work was interrupted by a Skype call postponed from yesterday due to the fallen tree and lack of power.

IMG_20200510_134521900.jpg

The smokebox door almost done. Both are fitted by willpower. No soldering yet.

IMG_20200511_170645745.jpg IMG_20200511_170739146.jpg

Dunno what tomorrow brings, but it's all down to detailing now.......

Brian
 
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