On Heather's Workbench - right out of the box

[Heather Kay]

After building a triplet of JLTRT Mk2s for Richard Carr, I was asked by Laurie if I would build one of their Mk2B SO kits for the exhibition stand. It seems no-one got around to building one for the stand before!

This thread is to document a straight "out of the box" build of the Mk2 kit. No extras, no scratch-building, just the parts that are there when you open the iconic white box. Along the way I'll note construction hints and tips that are glossed over in the instruction sheets.

Let's get started. For a change, I thought I'd kick off with the underframe, rather than my usual battle with whitemetal castings for the bogies.



First, here's a collection of parts. The battery boxes, heater system and air brake reservoir are resin castings which need to be carefully removed from their sprues. The part that looks like an eccentric vacuum cleaner is for coaches with air conditioning. As I'm not building one of those, it can join all the others in my Mk2 bits box. They may one day find their way into some industrial doodad for a lineside feature or something.

Lots of whitemetal castings for the various boxes and brake actuator mechanism, and brass castings for the air brake valve assembly.

Items that need holes drilling or cleaning out get my attention first. JLTRT recommend drilling out with a 0.7mm drill. Experience tells me this can sometimes be a little on the tight side, so I tend to use a 0.8mm bit. Holes are opened out in the air brake reservoir, the brake actuating cylinders, the brake linkage support brackets, the end of the heater exchange cabinet (to take the cast motor thing); larger holes (2.5mm) are opened out in the box that fits inside the cage structure, in order to take the flexible hose castings without fiddling.



Next, I take small sharp blade (actually a very fine chisel) to the corners of all the recesses where parts are to be glued. The resin moulding leaves slightly radiused corners, so just digging these out means things fit snugly in place.



The bogie fixing bolts are next. The brass knurled nut should fit straight in the precast hole, but in practice the hole needs to be drilled out 5.5mm diameter. Then the nut is a tight fit up to the knurling, and with one of the M4 bolts in place a few smart taps with a small hammer pushes everything into the hole snugly.

The instructions tell you the nut should not protrude into the upper face of the floor - it would foul the floor fret and make life difficult for the internal detail. What you are not told is the bolts need to be shortened as well. The M4 bolts will not screw neatly to the bogie bolster, allowing enough movement in normal use, unless you chop them down to 20mm long.



Here's the nut and bolt as viewed from the internal floor side.

After cleaning up the whitemetal castings - little flash this time, and most things in register, which is nice - assembling a couple of sub-assemblies and replacing odd parts for the brake linkage that were miscast with brass wire (quicker than getting Laurie to send me replacements: I don't want to spend weeks on this build!), it's time to fit all the underparts in place.



In this view you see the heater unit and the recess it's to go in. I've scored the mating surfaces to give a key for the cyano. A couple of blobs of glue on the floor, place the part, press and wait for a few seconds. Job done. I was sceptical on Richard's build that the cyano would be up to the job. On Mk1 kits, I've often pinned parts with brass wire and used epoxy for strength. Amazingly, the Mk2 parts remained fixed in place during all the subsequent handling, so I'm happy to just use the cyano alone.



And here are all the main parts in place. From sorting out the bits, cleaning up and glueing everything down, we're looking at maybe two hours maximum. I still need to add the air brake pipework and valve parts. Oh, and there's a part missing! Quelle surpise! The draincock casting slap bang in the centre of the floor was not in the bag of bits. I got all the parts for a brake coach, mind...

Once I've done the pipework details, and fitted the buffer beam dangly bits, this floor can have a nice coat of black paint squirted all over it. The missing part will be fitted later - when it arrives.

Next on my list is to undercoat the sides and ends, and hopefully get the first proper paint coats on. I was secretly hoping the livery would be more interesting than the regular blue/grey, but Laurie wants it standard BR livery. Hey-ho. I'll start on the seat painting while the first body coats dry off.

 

[Dog Star]

You can always fit the coach with S7 wheels... on the basis that there were none in the kit .

 

[Heather Kay]

You can always fit the coach with S7 wheels... on the basis that there were none in the kit .

Actually, I acquired a set of Slater's FS 3ft 1in plain disc wagon wheels for this job. I'll have to let Richard know because that will obviate the need for the etched wheel inserts to convert the 3-hole wagon wheels.

I know it's supposed to be painting next, but I will be bending up the pipework for the air brake bits. There's no information in the instructions about lengths or where to make bends and so on, so I'll document what I do for posterity.

 

[Heather Kay]

The instructions refer to bending the 0.7mm wire provided in the kit to make up the air pipes around the brake reservoir and valve equipment.

It would be nice to have some kind of scale bending template on the instruction sheet, but all that is available is a couple of photos that show the completed prototype kit build. You have to make it up yourself.

It's not an onerous job, but it might help to have some basic dimensions handy if you're contemplating creating the pipe runs.



Let's take it as read I have drilled out the holes in the brass casting with a 0.8mm diameter drill, to a depth of about a millimetre or so. The pipe between reservoir and valve is a U-shape, with the leg that fits in the reservoir shorter than the other. I forgot to measure the finished shape , but I can tell you the width between reservoir and valve is 9mm. I don't suppose it matters much how long the pipe stuck out, frankly, but from what I can glean from photos of the real thing it's less than a foot or so. I used a pair of round-nosed pliers to get the curved bend. I have a tendency to use the smallest end of the pliers, when in fact the pipes need quite a large curve. Let's just say what you see in the photo was the second attempt.

The two other pipes emerge from the valve casting, sit at an angle and then "lose themselves" into the floor somehow.



The key measures can be seen in the photo. Again, this is based on the instruction sheet photos and reference to the real thing where it was visible. I can't guarantee any of it is correct to any degree.

Note the two remaining air pipes sit at an angle. What you see here is second or third attempt at getting things to fit. Trial and error is fine, but can waste material. Just a simple template, lines on paper, to guide the bending would be helpful, but we have to make it up as we go along - probably like the chaps in the workshops who built the things in the first place. They had a GA of what was supposed to go where, probably a detail drawing or two for pipe dimensions and fittings, but they probably just made it to fit and each coach was slightly different.

Today's task is to undercoat the sides and ends, get undercoat and black paint on the floor subassembly, and begin the task of painting the seats. I already have a completed roof in stock, as the Mk2C BSO I built for Richard originally had a Mk2B roof moulding and I'd completed it before I spotted the error.

 

[Heather Kay]

This doesn't feel right at all. I don't normally finish anything to museum standard squeaky clean...





Thoughts turn to the insides of the coach. As you may (or may not) know, JLTRT use a laser cutting system to produce internal partitions and seats. It seems to be the luck of the draw as to what is the colour of the plastic sheet dropped in the machine. In this case, it's white, which means I'll have to undercoat and paint a couple of coats of wood veneer colours on top.



The plastic sheet always has one glossy side and one matt side. Before I do anything else I scrape a scalpel over all the edges where the laser has left a melted ridge, and matt down the gloss side with an abrasive rubber. This will help paint adhere to the surface.



In this case, I also had to cut through parts where the laser hadn't quite cleanly cut the material.



You can see the matted down surfaces quite well here. Since photography, I've given it a coat of red acrylic primer on both sides, which should give a reasonable base coat for the wooden finish. I will paint the partitions while they're still attached to the fret, and while paint dries I'll have removed the table components and begun the task of assembling them.

Things are coming together nicely, I think. With a fair wind, I'll have the bulk of the model finished by the end of the week. There'll be a pause while I await a delivery of transfers from HMRS - I had a good think about which transfers to get, and decided I preferred the Pressfix/Methfix style. While the Fox transfers are nice, I felt the carrier film would show around the Inter-City branding on the coach sides.

 

[Heather Kay]

I'm out all day on Thursday, and I realised I needed bogies. So, instead of working on the inside details today I set about the B4 bogies.

Before I start, can anyone tell me what these parts are and what they're supposed to be for? There's no reference to them in the instructions, and I can't see anything remotely resembling the structure in prototype photos. Every B4 bogie I've built so far, I've left these bits out, since I can't figure out where or how they are supposed to fit. ]



It does seem to be luck of the draw as to how much flash you get on the B4 castings. I was quite lucky this time. While there's a little bit of misregistration on parts, most of the bits were quite clean.



It's important to clear out the slots between the main frames. The axleboxes and secondary suspension units slot into the space, so a few minutes with a sharp blade and fine file is worth spending.



As it's important to try and build the bogies square, I cleaned up the inside face of the frame castings to get them as flat and true as possible.



On the central bolster casting I pass a fine square file around the locating lugs that fit in the side frames so they are good interference fit. I assemble these bogies with low melt solder, so once I'm happy a side is square to the bolster I tack it in place. When the second side is fitted and tacked, I assemble the stretcher parts and end frames, and then go around all the joints again to firm things up.

The rest of the assembly is pretty quick - it's the cleaning up flash before you start that takes time.







Amazingly, both ended up pretty square. They're in the paint shop now, having had a squirt of primer. Hopefully before I hit the sack tonight I'll get the black paint on them.

I may treat myself to a first coat of wood veneer on the partitions this evening.

 

[Locomodels]

Coming along nicely Heather. They do look rather good, your previous experience obviously helps.

 

[Heather Kay]

Coming along nicely Heather. They do look rather good, your previous experience obviously helps.

I think you're right, Paul. Having some idea of what's in the box and how it goes together always helps. With this set of B4s, I now have a total of seven pairs behind me. I think I've got the measure of them now.

 

[Steph Dale]

Those bogies look great, apart from one thing: The complete lack of brakegear is an immense personal irritation...

Steph

 

[Dog Star]

The complete lack of brakegear is an immense personal irritation...

E45?

 

[Steph Dale]

E45?

Antihistamines

 

[Heather Kay]

Those bogies look great, apart from one thing: The complete lack of brakegear is an immense personal irritation...

I agree. I wonder at the omission by JLTRT, or the lack of a "detailing kit" from them. Perhaps there's room for an after-market kit?

The locations for the brake arms and shoes is cast in. It just needs a plastic shoe arrangement and perhaps a simple yoke etch to complete.

 

[Dog Star]

I agree. I wonder at the omission by JLTRT, or the lack of a "detailing kit" ... Perhaps there's room for an after-market kit? The locations for the brake arms and shoes is cast in.

Same thing with the Gresley cast bogies... the transoms are present for supporting the fulcrum lever for each pair of brake yokes.... no brakes, no yokes (please... ).

regards, Graham

 

[Ian G]

I have a few photos of brake gear on a B4 bogie at home, taken at the Bucks railway centre a few years ago.

Ian G

 

[Simon Dunkley]

Antihistamines

Canesten.
Used to have a colleague who we called "Canesten Kev", because his name was Kevin, and because he was an irritating ****.
(Apologies to any ladies reading this, but my wife did meet him once, and agreed with the sobriquet.)

 

[Heather Kay]

While I spent much of the day out in the fresh air, photographing in some detail the National Heather Collection at the RHS Wisley Gardens - don't ask, it's a long story - I managed to get some paint on the internal partitions while I waited for my transport to arrive.

I mentioned before I leave the partitions attached to their fret for painting. It's easier to handle them without getting too messy, and they only need a quick touch-up after they're popped out and cleaned up.



Here's my weapon of choice, a size 10 flat sable brush. As you can see from the photo, I've popped out the table parts for construction to take place.



Here are all the table parts, having been primed and had a fine file passed over the rough edges. I'll spend a happy hour or so gluing the tops to the "legs", with additional plastic strip reinforcement.



The first stage in the painting was to take a brush load of Humbrol Matt 26 Earth, Matt 33 Black and a dash of Matt 60 Red, mix it all together to give a reasonable darkish wood colour and coat both sides of the vestibule partitions and associated doors.

I left the parts to dry thoroughly, overnight in this case. I took the Matt 26 Earth and used the flat brush to dry-brush on the grain. By dry-brush I mean I dip the brush in the tinlet, and then brush it on some kitchen towel until most of the paint is gone; then gentle strokes down the surface, sometimes a couple of times over the same area and always in the same direction to simulate the veneer panelling. The earth colour dries to a light brown. It looks a bit rough, but bear in mind you don't really see it once inside the coach body. Again, this is left for an extended period - in this case all day while I was out snapping away at various varieties of heathers.



The final stage is a coat of satin varnish. This really brings out the colour and gives the finish some depth. On the left you can see the unvarnished finish, and on the right the varnished one. Some difference, eh?

The central partition, just visible on the right here, was given a coat of matt black and then varnished. The door and window edges will be picked out with aluminium, using a bow pen.

I still need to paint those seats. I guess that's my job for Friday.

 

[Phill Dyson]

Following with much interest Heather

I really like the wood paneling effects you are achieving. Do you find these kits have derailment problems? ...I have a Kirk Syphon G which ran fine until I fitted some whitemetal bogies, but will not stay on the track for long now without further attention & I wondered if you have had any issues with whitemetal bogies?

It would also be interesting to see how many hours you think there is in building one of these kits straight out of the box?

Cheers Phill

 

[Heather Kay]

Do you find these kits have derailment problems?

I put each bogie through extensive testing on our test plank before it's fitted to the coach. Then the coach is tested on the same plank. The test plank has a couple of minimum radius reverse curves and deliberate humps and bumps to catch things out, and if the coach passes the test at speeds in excess of normal use I deem it fit for purpose.

The coach I'm building now will probably never run in anger. It's designed to sit of a shelf and look pretty.

Self-portrait?

Very distant relatives, a branch of my family that split away several billion years ago.

 

[Heather Kay]

I had hoped I might have got paint on the body sides by now. This hasn't happened, so when I bring the coach to Brightwell tomorrow it'll be in workshop primer and not have any windows.

 

[marsa69]

Very distant relatives, a branch of my family that split away several billion years ago

I bet that makes tracing the family tree fun