7mm Mickoo's Commercial Workbench

mickoo

Western Thunderer
It would appear the original kit parts make rather expensive templates thereby effectively doubling the price of the model.
Not quite doubling, sheet brass isn't overly expensive and it is my choice to change to a thinner material because I cannot bend thicker stuff.

Breaking it down, only four parts so far have needed to be changed, the front and rear bulkhead, the coal space floor and rear tank top, all the other parts were fit for purpose. The tool box could of been used if you were not worried about it under the floor.

Even so, taking all that into account it's now quite clear that this tender was modeled on the narrower 8'-0" version fitted to Castles and Halls, which is logical as that's all there is in preservation.

The spoilers are the narrow bulkheads, fire iron tunnel shape and tool box door shapes, all of which match the narrower style of tender.

Didn't get as much done today as I'd of wanted, this and that, chores etc.

The bulk of the fire iron tunnel is in, no issue bending this but one or two with the shape, adjusting the taper to suit the County required new parts to be made and they are slightly different to the kit, just a case of best guess, try and trim until you have one that fits.

IMG_9826.jpg

IMG_9828.jpg

Tool boxes finished off, two tops, two doors, two handles and four hinges.

IMG_9829.jpg

More anon.
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Just a quick update.

Front end virtually done plate work wise, just the angle strip across the top of the front bulkhead. The coal doors are all new as the kit ones are a bit vanilla, only took a couple of hours but worth the little effort I think. That'll just leave the front handrails to fit.

IMG_9830.jpg

In the coal space, some webs and the remaining vent up stand, domed covers coming later.

At the rear, tank filler finished but lid not fixed yet. Rear of fire iron tunnel boxed in and vent up stand fitted, the whole fire iron tunnel is new to the correct shape for a County.

IMG_9832.jpg

Two webs to add to the filler deck, drain hole bars to be fitted, rear hand rails and steps plus lamp irons will finish that off; leaving only half round beading to fit all around the upper edge.

Oh, just noticed the two front step middle tread plates are still missing, will fabricate those up and fit.

Castings are on their way so not long before the body is done and the running chassis won't take too long to complete, then onto the engine.

MD
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
How do you get it to stay together without solder? Or have you been stealing Richard's invisible stuff?

LOL, you give me too much credit :eek:

I can solder badly, trust me I'm probably one of the worst and not in the same league as Richard. My solution is simple, time and elbow grease to clean it all up, though to be fair it's getting better but know where near as good as I'd like....consistently.

Brass doesn't help, sometimes the solder just refuses to run no matter how much heat you apply, probably too much in hindsight as the surface probably becomes tarnished or dirty before the solder can run.

The Warren Shepard kit uses a much heavier gauge that I'm used too and often as not the 80W ESRA at 400°C will struggle and the solder will blob and not run. So, I've been forced to learn to use a micro flame, I'd say 95% of the model so far has used the micro flame, this helps with solder marks as you haven't got that great big iron tip loaded with solder trying to transfer the heat.

I also try where possible to solder from the inside which helps the visuals outside.

Anyway, onward and a small update.

Rear deck area nearly done, just needs the two side wall webs and some tank lifting brackets fabricating, some cast ones would be nice but I'll try and fabricate some from sheet. The rear steps had no tabs or methods for locating so it was a case of careful measuring the GA and discretely marking the rear wall to locate them. They are simple butt joints and have not been cleaned at all, quite frankly the best four joints I've ever done, neat, solder free (virtually) and square.

All four were folded up and the joint face made perfectly smooth and flat (zero cusp), then the joint edges was tinned, I added the merest extra blob of solder in the corners so it wicked into the etch fold and then placed them onto the rear wall with some flux. Using the micro flame I heated the wall first until the flux started to sizzle/spit and then dabbed the flame on the step, the result is that some of the wicked solder in the etch fold runs down and meets the rear wall and suddenly the rest just flashes over to make a perfect joint. Just wish I could do that more often :D

IMG_9855.jpg

Still to add are the vertical handrails, lamp irons (on order) and buffer beam pipework.

IMG_9856.jpg

The scoop dome is a to die for brass casting, beautifully round and pretty smooth out of the box, it didn't take much to clean it up at all and I did spend too much time polishing it rather than getting on with the rest. The drain hole debris bars came out nice, most kits seem to put a solid bar across here, the GA shows two small round bars but I've as yet to find a good view of this on the real engines to clarify. I don't suppose it matters, so long as it stop debris falling into the tank or the fireman wringing his ankle.

In the coal space, still to add the second tank vent and side wall support webs.

Up front small progress.

IMG_9857.jpg

Nice intermediate buffer castings, round where they should be round and flat where they should be flat, hand brake and water scoop handles are just posed; there needs to be two small square plates fabricated for them to sit on, on top of the locker spaces.

The kit supplies complete stands, that run all the way to the footplate; so one needs to trim these back for tenders where they are fitted through the lockers, as opposed to free standing.

Still to add are the front vertical handrails and finally the D shaped beading all around the top and leading edge of the side/rear sheets. I need to find a water gauge casting to add to the upper left bulkhead above the scoop stand; there should also be two water valve handles and linkages on top of the tool lockers, none are supplied in the kit and being as this is supposed to be a simple build out of the box...may not get fitted.

Finally two shots showing solder.

IMG_9858.jpg

The far side wall and coal space wall just would not solder with the micro flame, despite both being tinned, no idea why and recognising my rising frustration I just grabbed the ERSA and blatted it at 400°C with a big blob of solder, it ran then ok!

However, the end result is a lot of cleaning up, smoothing, cleaning, scraping, cleaning. What's left is the faint staining solder leaves, so it still needs more cleaning to get back to bare metal. Does it matter, in the end not one jot, so long as it's smooth the paint will make all invisible but it looks tardy when taking build photos.....so it has to come off!

IMG_9859.jpg

Internal view of the rear end, compared to the first image above you can now see where all the solder is ;) :cool:

Best MD
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Hi Mick,
Not bad considering you can't solder. ;)

Like you, I end up with more solder to clean up than I would like. After reading good things about gas jet irons by Richard and others I bought a Solderpro 120 recently. Not had a need to use it on the 4MT but will be giving it a try on the A4.
Cheers,
Peter
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Peter,

Cheers, that's a fair assessment :cool:

I also asked around about micro flames and like all recommendations is highly subjective and personal; some people can model with a bent nail and smoldering stick, I can't. Expensive tools don't always make a better job, but I've yet to find one that didn't make it easier and thus, more importantly, enjoyable.

So I started out with this.

IMG_9862.jpg

It's a micro flame, it has a flame that is controllable and self ignites, so does what it says on the tin, but it's crap. Primarily the flame is way too long on even the lowest setting and unless it's more than 70° to the vertical cuts out. Being a south paw the flame control on the left is a right pain, especially if the right hand is holding a delicate part in place ready for soldering. It has been relegated to lighting the wood burner to save burnt fingers from matches and for that it is truly an exceptional tool!

Having struggled for months with the above I gave in a opted for what is probably the most expensive hobby micro flame around.

IMG_9863.jpg

I simply love it, well balanced, well engineered, ambidextrous flame control and when near full will solder at all angles, even upside down, without cutting out. The flame on the lowest setting is very small and compact, about 25-30mm to the tip of the cone, though that gets longer as the gas level drops as you need to ramp it up a bit to maintain the smallest flame.

Other peoples mileage may vary of course.

So onto flame soldering and here's how I do it, or have been doing it.

This is a small part and probably about as hard as it gets I'd imagine, there are no half etch guides or slots and tabs to help location and squareness, a simple free standing butt joint.

The first step is to tin the joint edge of the web.

IMG_9860.jpg

I've also marked on the top of the tender side with a black marker and scribe line my initial fixing point, it's opposite the other already fixed in place web, it's hard to see but it is there.

The hardest job with a web like this is getting it square in two planes, vertical and transverse across the tender, so to help this I tack it at the very tip near the top and to do that I use the big ESRA set to 400°C and on the 'outside' of the tender.

IMG_9868.jpg

Make sure the inside of the tender is well fluxed and you'll just see the solder at the top turn shiny, that's the clue to take the iron away, we only want a few mm soldered at this point.

It also helps if the iron is 'wet' with solder, this will leave a solder mark on the outside but it's way easier to clean it off that big flat surface than from the inside once the web is in place.

You can see the mark on the left outside from the previous web fitting and yet to be cleaned.

Once the part is held we can tweak it to make it nice and square and then do the final solder with the micro flame.

IMG_9870.jpg

At this stage the web will support it's self so the clip above is a photo prop.

Cut a very small sliver of solder, remember the edge is already tinned and if it's all square and clean should be more than enough, but I prefer a bit more mechanical grip. The larger the blob of solder the more you have to clean so gauging the exact size is personal preference. Place the sliver of solder in the heel of the joint and flux well and set the flame to the lowest setting.

Now the hard part, getting the heat where you need it and not unsoldering your tack joint....or anything else in the vicinity! This is where you need to take stock of your heat loads, small heats very fast, large very slowly, yes I know, the bleedin obvious....but frequently overlooked.

I know that underneath my tank well deck along the side is a large support strip so that is going to be my largest heat load. The well deck is thin but a large expanse so the heat will take time to travel out to anything important. My lowest heat load is my tack joint at the top tip of the web so I want that heated last if possible.

In the end I centred the flame at roughly where the sliver of solder has been placed in the above photo, for the actual joint the solder sliver would be right in the corner, the heel of the joint.

As you heat the area the flux will spit and sizzle and that has it's own issues, sometimes the spit will be right under your sliver and it'll ping off at hypersonic speed, in which case I stop, remove all the old pre heated flux, clean and start again....keeping the original tack in place though. The safety flux I use is a kind of one shot deal, if the joint doesn't take first time then next time the heated flux seems to form a barrier and much swearing will evolve.

You'll soon see when the joint makes as the solder should flash along all the joints and it should end up looking like this.

IMG_9871.jpg

You can see it has formed a nice fillet weld along all the edges, you can also see that my heat source was well away from my lowest heat load, this is visualized by the solder fillet between the deck and side which has run toward the rear of the tender by a good 10 mm or so, my flame centre was near that brown dot on the deck.

All that's needed now is to clean up, there will be a larger blob in the heel and depending on the finish you want will depend on which tool you use.

For a nice clean cut square no fillet joint you need one of these, a stabby sharp pointed thingy.

IMG_9872.jpg

This will remove all of the fillet, the only problem there is that the more fillet you remove the weaker the joint, on the tank side it's not important as there's a massive fillet and support strip underneath, but for the web then it might be a touch too much. Besides the real thing is welded so for that I use the tip of a pair of needle tweezers.

IMG_9874.jpg

Here we're not removing much material, just smoothing it really, perfect for leaving a small fillet and simulating a welded joint. I've also got some old screw drivers and often use old needle files with damaged tips to scrape away as well, whatever you can get your hands on really and works best for you.

If your sliver of solder was just the right size then you won't need to take much off at all :thumbs:

Right one down, four more to go :D

MD
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Nice demo Mick,
I like the mini tack applying the heat on the outside, where it's dead easy to remove the solder left by the iron.

I wonder if I could have done something similar on the webs of the A3 tender, which I found awkward to solder and a pig to clean up. In the end some of them had more solder left than I would have liked, but I was loosing the will to live. Not sure if the A4 corridor tender has the same webbing on one side. Still I'm sure there will be many places in the build where the gas flame will be more suitable than the iron.

For cleaning up I make extensive use of mini drill with a steel wire brush where possible, but of course the best option is not to overdo it in the first place. Like you I like to get back to bare metal, even though it brings no benefit in terms of the painted finish.

Cheers,
Peter
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
I wonder if I could have done something similar on the webs of the A3 tender, which I found awkward to solder and a pig to clean up. In the end some of them had more solder left than I would have liked, but I was loosing the will to live. Not sure if the A4 corridor tender has the same webbing on one side.

Cheers,
Peter
Peter, cheers.

I know what you mean on the A3 streamlined tender, fortunately Martin added slots for the base of the webs to fit in and that's where I soldered them, then I did the soldering on the outside trick for the top and solder wicked down a little. In effect they're only held in two places but there's not much load or forces there so it's all good.

IMG_0280.jpg

IMG_0285.jpg

One of my cleaner projects :cool: ;)

A4 corridor, you're in luck, no internal webs to worry about :thumbs:

IMG_0440.jpg

IMG_0441.jpg

Models look so much better in primer grey :D far easier to photograph and really show all the detail much easier....and faults :eek:

Whilst it's not important to remove all of the solder I.E. the stain, it is important to make it smooth, especially if the painter is laying down thin smooth coats, then solder ripples and puddles really show.
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Hi Mick,
Superb work on the webs in the A3 tender. Makes mine look crap in comparison. In fact the whole thing is superb!

The corridor tender doesn't look too shabby either. You are right about the primer showing up all the faults. I can count at least.......erm.....erm....... Let me look a bit longer and I'll get back when I find one.
Cheers,
Peter
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Okay, last update for the weekend and nearly there with the body.

Rear end, excuse the drying suds lol.

IMG_9875.jpg

Still to add the Vac pipe and bracket, it's not there yet as it hangs lower than the steps so is target #1 for damage until the chassis is on wheels. Just needs lamp irons (on order) and beading (in progress) to round this area out.

One of my biggest bug bears is painting the buffer beam once the steam heat pipe and stand is on; ideally it needs to be added after painting but the normal buffer beam clamp cannot be soldered once painted. For this tender I opted to add a dummy bracket up underneath.

IMG_9879.jpg

Not pretty down here! It's currently only holding the casting with a small blob of solder, but is already very strong and can easily serve as a single fixing point. The plan being to take it off before painting and then add it back afterward, the solder joint then needs a small dab of black paint to cover it.

IMG_9880.jpg

To complete the illusion I'll add a dummy pipe to the inner chassis frame work that drops down to just behind the bracket; from low angles it'll look like one continuous pipe. I'll do the same with the Vac pipe.

Side view with the complete coal space and webs.

IMG_9876.jpg

I say complete as I've still got to fabricate the tank vent cowls, the kit would have toy try and form them from quite thick etch, mmmm, me thinks not. The plan...Plan A....is to make them from Plasticard but with a substantially thick base that will poke down inside the rectangular slot and be glued. Plan B is to drawn some up in CAD and 3D print, maybe not worth it for two tank vent covers but I might as yet have to make new 3D axle boxes and springs if I cannot find another replacement source.

These are the now #1 priority, finding replacements, the kit ones are not up to scratch and two have broken already just attempting to clean up and straighten. Brass would be ideal, but I'll take white metal if they are clean and crisp and fit for purpose, failing that, as noted above, a quick hour or so in CAD and some new ones will be printed.

Moving to the front.

IMG_9877.jpg

Handbrake and water scoop stands fitted and square mounting tabs added as bases. Left side hand rail now in, showing how effective the extend to floor tool boxes are at holding the lower end, one small strip of half round beading is added. That was more of a chore than it should of been, simply because I failed to realise it's coated.....or appears to be....which will be a right chore to take off to allow soldering.

Rather than try and do the whole lot in one go I might try and break it down, the upright to front cut out is a natural joint and pretty easy to hide, the others may not be so accommodating.

The top of the hand rail requires a bracket fabricating, it needs a 90° twist put into it, not sure if it's a clockwise or anti clockwise twist so opted for a anti clockwise as it seemed to flow better in the location; the bracket also needed a kick as well from the side sheet. The real deal seems to be straight but then the base of the handrail is much closer to the edge of the side sheet, which in model form would require a hole to be drilled virtually in the end of the side sheet.

IMG_9878.jpg

It doesn't mimic the real bracket, but it's as close as I can get with what I have here and it's insanely small size, still, a nice smug git moment when it all fitted and lined up :D

Best MD
 

adrian

Flying Squad
One of my biggest bug bears is painting the buffer beam once the steam heat pipe and stand is on; ideally it needs to be added after painting but the normal buffer beam clamp cannot be soldered once painted.
You could always try the @Isambarduk method of fixing the pipes by way of a 12ba bolt. So they can be removed for painting, it's something I'll look at on my next build.

I can't find a direct link to the photo but about 1/3 way down on this page should give you a clue. LMS 8F class freight locomotive No. 8105
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Adrian, thanks for the link, I'll peruse and plagiarize ;)

I did think about making it removable with some sort of more technical method than a blob of solder, but it was too late in the day when the thought broke surface :D

MD
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Nearly there now, up top beading added and just requires lamp irons and vent covers to finish.

Down below, not such a nice ride, couple of issues raise their heads, the inner chassis is a supplementary etch, it's too long, of course you only notice that once it's all bent up, bearings added, yada yada yada. Second it doesn't match the fixing screws in the body. The rear one can be made to work by slotting the hole in the inner chassis, the front one is a no chancer so you need to make another, then add a strap inside the tender with the retained nut....once it's all built.

The trick here is build the inner chassis first, in my defence the instructions do say build it the other way around and for once, I did read and follow the instructions.

The other issue is the brake gear, you've basically got two choices, make the best of what you have or build all new....everything. I opted for the former and there was many a time I wished I'd opted for the latter, but time (to develop ones own etches) or cost (to buy ready built) are not commodities I'm blessed with right now.

Still it comes out okay, so long as you're not expecting Lee Marsh quality.

IMG_9903.jpg

The biggest issue is the pull rods, due to the design of the clevis brackets and thick spring planks, you're forced to use a massive thick rod, in addition all the parts are etched in a rather thick material which means that detail small parts are woefully mis-etched. All of the pins are 1.5 mm which means the links are perilously thin around the pin holes, 1.0 or 1.2 mm would of been better.

The long clevis halves are simply not long enough to pass over the planks and join to the rods, which means that the 1:1 and 1:2 levers are not straight. The 1:1 and 1:2 levers are the wrong size and shape, but that's not noticed once you have the other oversized bits added on top.

Brake gear is big and it's heavy, but this all feels 1:32 scale in reality. Having said that, it isn't one of those cookie cut laminate two half etch jobbies, so if you can forgive the slight over sizing, it actually looks quite good.

IMG_9904.jpg

The front end brake beam and linkages is, well it isn't. It's odd in that it seems mirrored or reversed, but not all of it, only certain parts, in the end I cut it into four parts, flipped the necessary bits around and soldered it all back together in roughly the right order, it's not 100% accurate but at least the relevant bits are in the right places. The final problem is the brake shaft height, it's much too high, it needs to be 5.0 mm lower, in fact the axis is in line with the lower step.

The above height issue also concerns the brake hanger pivots, they're too high by several mm, there's not a lot you can do about that as the hole is as low in the inner chassis as it can go, you'd need to add extension plates to drop the pivot points.

Water scoop, watch this, the instructions place the casting on the top of the inner chassis, which is about 12 mm too high, luckily I had some suitable tube and extended the scoop feed pipe down, it now actually looks like the real thing which is also extend ed like this. I think the scoop casting is designed for tenders with a well tank if I'm honest.

Still to add is the brake cylinder pull rod and linkage to the main brake shaft, none are supplied or cast onto the shaft and then work up a simplified set of water scoop linkages. There's also two large flat plates that go across the tender just above the brake gear, so I'll add those and support them with thin wire droppers.

I've still not worked out how to spring the middle axle as yet, I've a couple of ideas but they use far more clever engineering than needs to be applied here I think.

IMG_9905.jpg

Give the above trials, it does at least sit level and at the right height, though I think I need to add some spacers betwixt inner chassis and tender footplate as it sits at 31.5 mm high on the rims and it should be 31.5 on the treads (rail head), you can just see the axle centres are a little high in the broad side shot.

IMG_9907.jpg

Of course height is dependent on load, no idea what the deflection is on GWR tenders, on LNER eight wheelers it can be as much as 4" between loaded and empty, possibly more. As you can see in the side on shot there's virtually no brake gear showing below the tender, jacking the body up by 2 maybe 3 mm will give better brake visuals, drop the brake shaft closer to the right axis and raise the footplate to nearer the right height.

All of which I've just worked out whilst typing this :thumbs: A quick comparison with a Finney7 tender on some track will show exactly how low the buffers are and the required jack up required.

Nearly time for paint, thank goodness, brass is terrible at tarnishing as you work with it.

The final task is to still find some replacement axle box castings, the kit ones are okay if the rest was built out of the box, but with the extra work I've put in it's only fair to drag them up to a better standard.

Brass replacements would be ideal but I'll take white metal at this later stage in the day. Despite looking around the usual suspect I've found very little in the way of GWR tender axle box fittings, LMS and LNER, some SR but very very little GWR. If I don't get a hit in a week or so I'll whizz some up in CAD and get them 3D printed and stick them on.

MD
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
And so we come to the end, well nearly, only axle boxes to add and these'll be stuck on with epoxy of some description, I've a couple of irons in the fire for replacements so not overly concerned at this juncture; either way, all the hot work is done :thumbs:

Inner chassis showing new transverse beams supported by thin wire.

IMG_9917.jpg

Of course muggins here forgot that the water scoop and linkage passes through the hole in the middle, making it impossible to add....unless the moving scoop and linkage was separated....which it duly was, through the good fortune of my not soldering it all up solid :rolleyes:

IMG_9918.jpg

Both pipes at the rear end now have their posts and fake pipework diving into the inner depths, the steam pipe isn't added yet,a spigot just drops in the hole once it's all painted and held with a dab of glue.

All assembled rear end view.

IMG_9922.jpg

Nice Laurie Griffin cast lamp irons finally fitted. Steam bag slightly adrift but only just poked in the hole.

IMG_9920.jpg

Vent covers from Plasticard, not to the skill and detail of that barking mad chappie Mr Insole ;) but sufficient for purpose, the peg drops down into the hole formed by the sides and front walls. They look better in the flesh than the photo which is a bit washed out.

IMG_9921.jpg

IMG_9926.jpg

Underneath view.

IMG_9929.jpg

Despite the ugly wires holding the transverse planks and other smoke and mirrors, it all actually looks like a real tender once assembled from this view, I didn't realize until the planks were in that they widen where they meet the frames (real ones) it irked me .....for all of about 2 seconds, given the rest of the compromises in the kit I figured one small extra one wouldn't go amiss ;) To be fair, the widened bits are in fact only L shaped brackets so it wouldn't be too hard to retro fit them, it'd add some strength to the joints betwixt beams and support wires.

MD
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Right, onward!

Frames sorted, cleaned up and bearings fitted, no excitement here, same old process seen dozens of times all across the globe.

IMG_9930.jpg

My only difference is to mount the bearings on each side before final assembly, I've seen some people make the chassis up first and then fit the bearings, I prefer to do it this way round and solder the bearings in on the flat. The frames didn't come with the correct size slots so these had to be opened up accordingly to fit the Slaters bearing units.

Once both sides were done I just stuck some wheels in and left the sides loose, wasn't worried about squareness (that'll come later) but was concerned about height after the tender issues. Sure enough just holding the buffer beam onto the ends with tape....lining up the top edges where the footplate would be...showed something was amiss; the buffer beam was too high by a good 2-3 mm :headbang:

There are no markings on the frame for bearing location and I'd just lined the axles up with where the slots were originally, so out came the rule and GA ans some quick calculations showed that with the bearings sat on the fixed pegs in the hornguides the axles were in the correct location....which was fortunate as I wasn't really looking forward to taking all the hornguides out and opening up the slots.

If the frames were right and the axles in the right place then the problem must be the buffer beam, so out came the valance to a quick frame check.

IMG_9931.jpg

Ah ha! there you go, the front step on the frames does not match the valance and checking again on the GQ revealed the valance to be correct; there's also an upper frame section above the footplate that runs past the smoke box saddle and drops into this area, it matches the valance.

Having made the cut it was time to do the same on the other frame, but the height difference was not the same.

IMG_9934.jpg

Simply because the other frame is nothing like the first at the front end :eek: Anyway, the dropped section was reduced to match the valance and first frame and the wheel arches over the bogie axles trimmed to match. The rear isn't as bad as the frames have tilted a little, but are exactly the same height and shape past this point.

Final step today was adding the cast springs, the bearing retention strap is held in with 14BA screws, the springs by 12BA, all screws are on the inside so it should be possible to remove them with a stumpy screw driver to allow maintenance in the future. Though to be fair, given the simple motion it'd probably be easier to drop the rods off and simply take the wheels off the axles, but the option for both is now there.

IMG_9936.jpg

There are some simple frame stretchers but no tabs or marks as to where one should place them, the only fixed point is the cylinder block, so that will go in first. Then I'll probably have to make the basic footplate up and then work out where to put any stays to allow for fixing the two together. The rear drag beam is also part of the footplate so I need that to work out where to place the rear stay height wise for the tender drawbar fixing.

Before final assembly I'll add the sand boxes, the rear is a nice cast one, solid brass so will take some heat to fix and doing it now before anything else is added will reduce the risk of heat soak loosening something smaller later. The front is a scratch build affair, nothing is supplied in the kit.....as far as I can tell.

The kit comes with a nice photo of the etches which are all duly numbered, though those numbers are not referred to in the pictorial assembly diagrams or the text but are given a description next to the photo. Problem is the list goes to 18 and there are 28 parts on the etch, some parts are obvious but others I've no idea what they are :eek: Oh well, boring this isn't :cool:
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
The kit comes with a nice photo of the etches which are all duly numbered, though those numbers are not referred to in the pictorial assembly diagrams or the text but are given a description next to the photo. Problem is the list goes to 18 and there are 28 parts on the etch, some parts are obvious but others I've no idea what they are :eek: Oh well, boring this isn't :cool:

Didn't you realise you have to hold parts 18,19 and 28 together and solder these whilst joggling part 27 in...... Just like building an item of furniture from Ikea..... :rolleyes: ;)
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Dave, no I didn't :rolleyes: Next you'll tell me IKEA is the Swedish translation for Warren Shepard :eek:

Anyway, steady progress this week, usual two steps forward and one step back; not as many replacement parts just yet, but the lack of tabs and obvious features does get you down. Such as, no footplate to chassis fixings at all, you kind of have to half build each bit and then work out where they'll go and then add them whilst you fabricate and build the rest. Still it's done and now we can get on with the rest.

Overall chassis view this evening.

IMG_9959.jpg

Only thing to be wary of here is the massive brake cylinder, it's mounted to a plate that fixes into the rear of the cylinders, too low so it'd impact the rear bogie wheels, so it got moved up to the correct location.

Front end.

IMG_9960.jpg

The original frame extensions above the footplate were too thin and even more so the slot between the flat centre and the two outer curved bits...to allow the outer parts to be curved. So new thicker upper frames were fabricated, even then they only just cover the slot.

Smoke box saddle front and rear were too narrow, so new ones fabricated here also, still need to add the sides, but will do so when I have a smokebox to offer up and make sure nothing else needs adjust as yet.

Rear end.

IMG_9961.jpg

An odd design of footplate, the cab floor folds up from the footplate and just hangs in free space, the curved footplate sections are soldered to the one piece valance and then it's a case of holding the cab floor, two footplate sections and the rear drag beam and solder....in the hope it'll be square.

The instructions show two inner walls between the footplate and underside of the cab floor, which strengthen it and allow it to be constructed more easily. They're not in the kit, you have to make them yourself, but with no guide and everything else flopping around it's very hard to come up with a part that fits accurately.

Mark out, cut, file, check, file, check, bin, mark out, cut, file, bin, .....you get the idea :(

There are no spacers except the motor ones and the cylinder frame work, I've not yet decided where the motor will go yet so will leave any further internal spacers until later.

Side view.

IMG_9962.jpg

Still if you persevere you end up with two spacers which hold all the rear end nice and square :thumbs: There is no rear end fixing so the footplate just drops down at the rear end onto the frame tops and sits the height of the floor too low, more spacers and gubbins finally level it all up.

Buffer check.

IMG_9963.jpg

Checked.

Footplate level check.

IMG_9965.jpg

Checked, but oh dear, something not quite right with the steps, turns out the tender steps are totally wrong.

I'll have to go back and cut them off and try to work something out. Which is a pain as they are part of the tender valance, so cutting them off cleanly now will be a bit of a chore and then soldering them back inside the valance even more so.

Overall views of the work so far.

IMG_9967.jpg

IMG_9968.jpg

Time for some supper and then crack on.

MD
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Nice work Mick,
Shame about the tender steps, which look as thought they will be tricky to get off. I assume thd corrections needed cannot be made to the existing steps.

Having stated your preference for fitting accurate internal detail on frames, they look a bit naked af the moment. I know nothing about this prototype, so is there more detail to come in that area? Also there is no rivet detail on the frames. That was also the case with Warren's 45XX kit, and as I didn't have a rivet press at the time, right of wrong I ignored it.
Cheers,
Peter
 
Top