7mm Mickoo's Commercial Workbench

mickoo

Western Thunderer
And that, as they say, is that.

Ready for splitting down for paint now, as noted before, some items not fitted due to the paint process or required to remain bright work on the final model.

Just noticed, one of the tender tool boxes (loosely fitted) moved in the photos and is out of line, i hate it when it does that!

The Slaters 12BA screws on the crank pins will be replaced with the correct nuts and pins on the rebuild after paint and the back head is just placed in there, it'll be fitted out after paint as well.

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Time to clear the bench and rock on to the next one, another MOK, this time an Ivatt 4MT 'Flying Pig' I've been looking forward to this one in the pile for some time now :thumbs:
 
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mickoo

Western Thunderer
Very poor week this week, to be fair I've been suffering badly with my left eye failing to focus correctly, despite several different lens adjustments or glasses tests, the upstart is a forced reduction in work bench duties to see if resting will rejuvenate it.

Even so, a few hours here and there finds the Armstrong back head nigh on complete. I usually do these (backheads) at the very end once the engine comes back from paint, it's a sort of closure aspect for me, detail up the back head, fit and send to DCC.

Being advised not to sustain long durations at the bench means that the back head hour here, hour there was perfect.

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It still needs the regulator handle fitting (to be painted silver) and the sight glass painted, not sure which colour is best TBH, and gauge faces also need to be added.

It also needs a good dusting as I can see the fine copper dust left over from trimming the pipework up with the slitting disc, near invisible to the eye (dodgy focus or not) but blatantly obvious when photographed!
 

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Hi Mick,

I sympathise regarding the eye problem, been in a similar situation for quite a while - hang on in there and don't rush any fences:thumbs:

Loco looking great.

regards

Mike
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Hi Dan,
Looks very nice. I'd love to do one of these myself some time. Having build the College Models kit many years ago, it would be nice to enjoy the build instead of fighting my way through it, as was the case with the College kit.

I see you have fitted small brackets to the bottom of the frames at the cut outs to locate the frame cross members. Is that your solution or is it designed into the kit?

Cheers,
Peter
 

Dan Randall

Western Thunderer
Hi Dan,
Looks very nice. I'd love to do one of these myself some time. Having build the College Models kit many years ago, it would be nice to enjoy the build instead of fighting my way through it, as was the case with the College kit.

I see you have fitted small brackets to the bottom of the frames at the cut outs to locate the frame cross members. Is that your solution or is it designed into the kit?

Cheers,
Peter

Thanks Peter :thumbs:

It’s been an enjoyable build so far (albeit, a bit more complex than the Connoisseur O2 tank I built... :))), but workbench sessions have been very sporadic this year, so what you see, is the sum total of progress since I started the kit on 1st January! The brackets fold down from the frames and, I seem to recall, required doubling-up and tapping 14BA as well.

I’m really looking forward to starting the loco, once the tender is completed. :)


Regards

Dan
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
V2 BoB nameplates arrived today, the brass fronts are perfect, the nickel silver stands less so, V3 is now being processed.

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Ignore the test items lower right, the issues on the stands are small but not good enough for public release, I'll make one up to make sure that which does fit, fits, the rest go in the scraps bin.

The brass is much better and now that I have the four sizes mapped out can whizz through the rest of the Battle of Britain names at will.

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It doesn't get much more fitting than this.

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mickoo

Western Thunderer
Fitted the revised Fighter Pilot to the original stand and built the new Spitfire one, couple of tweaks which are now updated on all stands so pretty happy with that and will pull the trigger on the revised artwork.

Had a bash at painting the Spitfire one, not too bad from a rattle can, not too good either, no problem as it'll get dunked in thinners at some point and sent to some one with far greater skill than I to finish off. I'll try and colour match the sky blue for Fighter Pilot and have a dabble with that one at some point.

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Dratted finger prints on Fighter Pilot already, near invisible to the naked eye, yet show up clear as day on a digital image.

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Also made up a little experimental quartering jig. If the math is right, should go up to 6'-9" wheels. It's not perfect and needs a few revisions but for me, as it stands, will suffice.

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Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Just having a think about how you've done the dimension on this, as I need to draw up something similar.

Would I be right in thinking you'd need to have a 10BA and 12BA version due to the offset of the crank pin radius dimension?

JB.
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Just having a think about how you've done the dimension on this, as I need to draw up something similar.

Would I be right in thinking you'd need to have a 10BA and 12BA version due to the offset of the crank pin radius dimension?

JB.
In principle yes, if you wanted to maintain an accurate 90° angle between crank pins.

I've done mine for Slaters crank pin bushes which I bore and tap to 10BA, not that the BA thread size makes any difference at all as it's the OD of the pin that's critical, not the threaded ID.

However, in reality it doesn't matter or need to be that accurate (in modelling terms), especially if you're quartering your own wheels (I.E. not Slaters).

So long as all the axles are quartered the same it won't matter one jot, thus, all 90° or all 89.8° or all 90.23° will all work just fine. You'd also be hard pressed to get a true and ultra accurate 90° from an etch assembly as well, cusp removal, upright etch positions etc can all be out by a fraction. A truly accurate jig would probably have to be CNC machined with accurate slots and tabs etc.

The reason I've done this jig is specifically for Slaters wheels as I've had a few where the centre boss is slightly loose or shifted in the plastic spokes, yes you can send it back and get is replaced, but when you're on a deadline it's far easier to just put it on the jig, re quarter it and seal the joint with superglue and then pin between the two.

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Note 1 mm pin between brass hub and plastic spokes below the crank pin screw.

I spent weeks getting this particular engine to run smoothly before I noticed the wheel (actually two of them by differing amounts) had shifted on the hub, now I'll just drop them in the jig as soon as they come out of the packet at the start of the build, if it's a quick fix and not too loose I'll do it, anything else will get sent back and be returned long before I get to that stage of the build.
 
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mickoo

Western Thunderer
On a positive front, the eyes are okay (the glaucoma had not returned), just a couple of weeks rest and lens change along with the resultant settling in period finds vision restored. I've also managed some desk time with the Ivatt 4MT.

On the negative side I spotted a few more really tiny errors in the nameplates so they're all getting redone at some point, probably after Reading now.

The 4MT came with the frames already built, not too badly in all honesty, other than none of the cusps being removed and some damage from the angle grinder taking off the tabs, it took a while to batter it back into reasonable shape and then it was on with the front end sub assembly.

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There's a few more fiddly bits to stick on but fundamentally the sub structure is done, next up I think is the cab and rear end.
 
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