AJC
Western Thunderer
Well, a Thomas Hill at any rate. The real things were developed from the 0-6-0 version of the Rolls Royce Sentinel DH (itself developed from the chassis of a steam design produced for Dorman Long*), but with a better, taller cab and improved access to the 350hp Rolls Royce engine for maintenance.
Among all the messy soldering is something that was meant to be a quick build and it was, mostly, and then the Cricket season took precedence over fitting the handrails. I've now run out of wire to finish these so it's back in the box waiting for a length of 0.4mm brass - yes, the difference between that and 0.45 is noticeable... A Judith Edge kit built, unusually for me, more or less as it comes from the box which is a testament to the fact that this is a straightforward, well-designed kit with reasonable instructions and a nice drawing which made working out the motor/gearbox combination easy. Full compensation is designed in and was easy to build and there's even space in that big bonnet for a flywheel on the end of the Mashima 1420 as well as the ballast I've yet to add. There is lots of space under the skirts and inside the body and even in the cavities of the chassis if that proves necessary.
The handrails are not nearly as fragile as they look - I've cheated slightly in the cause of durability and soldered the toe boards to the footplate: there should be a small gap. An earlier Hunslet from the same source suffers soldered joints on less substantial handrails which go 'ping' at every opportunity.
A tip - while the etch was flat, I used the cab sheets as templates to scribe out two sets of windows. The frames will be left until after painting since they were almost invariably left bright aluminium or, in this case, tinned brass.
A bit of filler will be required in the cab/fuel tank joint I think. Almost certainly builder error...
Adam
* Mike Edge has been threatening the steam 0-6-0 for years purely because he likes the prototype - there was an articulated 0-6-0 + 0-6-0 version as well and some rather stylish, but apparently rather useless, fireless locos on the same chassis.
Among all the messy soldering is something that was meant to be a quick build and it was, mostly, and then the Cricket season took precedence over fitting the handrails. I've now run out of wire to finish these so it's back in the box waiting for a length of 0.4mm brass - yes, the difference between that and 0.45 is noticeable... A Judith Edge kit built, unusually for me, more or less as it comes from the box which is a testament to the fact that this is a straightforward, well-designed kit with reasonable instructions and a nice drawing which made working out the motor/gearbox combination easy. Full compensation is designed in and was easy to build and there's even space in that big bonnet for a flywheel on the end of the Mashima 1420 as well as the ballast I've yet to add. There is lots of space under the skirts and inside the body and even in the cavities of the chassis if that proves necessary.
The handrails are not nearly as fragile as they look - I've cheated slightly in the cause of durability and soldered the toe boards to the footplate: there should be a small gap. An earlier Hunslet from the same source suffers soldered joints on less substantial handrails which go 'ping' at every opportunity.
A tip - while the etch was flat, I used the cab sheets as templates to scribe out two sets of windows. The frames will be left until after painting since they were almost invariably left bright aluminium or, in this case, tinned brass.
A bit of filler will be required in the cab/fuel tank joint I think. Almost certainly builder error...
Adam
* Mike Edge has been threatening the steam 0-6-0 for years purely because he likes the prototype - there was an articulated 0-6-0 + 0-6-0 version as well and some rather stylish, but apparently rather useless, fireless locos on the same chassis.