7mm Mickoo's Commercial Workbench

mickoo

Western Thunderer
The first tranche of B17 casting masters has been completed. These are not be the actual parts that go for casting as this stage is simply about maximizing surface quality, deformation and orientation for printing the production ones.

However they are ideal to stick on the test build etches to make sure everything fits and aligns.

The red oxide paint is Tamiya fine filler primer, it's an excellent coating for casting and an important stage in the process. It gives a lovely smooth finish but most of all shows up the tiniest artifact or blemish; most can be worked out with small files, scrapers and fine grit foams but the worst really need reprinting with a better orientation or support structure.

Sharp of eye will note that the keep plates are all a little bowed, it's not by design but the optimum angle to print and get all the spring detail in puts extra pressure on those two arms and bows them.

You can spend further time exploring different orientations and supports but sometimes you need to be a little pragmatic and look down stream. In the end they will be in brass and it takes a mere few seconds to straighten with pliers before they go in the box.

It's much easier to push the (almost) inevitable bad part of a print into the easiest place to post rectify.

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mickoo

Western Thunderer
The B17 etches arrived on Monday, oh dear Captain cock up and his crew made merry here, usually you get one or two little glitches (the odd missing tab, helf etched rivet missing etc) but in this case 30+ parts were a total fail, bend line fills, rivets, cut outs missing.

After much back and forth with PPD it was found that some of the hatches had become 'associated', that's never happened in over ten years and goodness knows how many etches; the upshot is that during PPD's process the hatches basically do whatever they want with zero constraints.

So this sheet and tool is pretty much junk, but I've managed to build as much as possible from the bits that were okay and modify those that were not where necessary. On the plus side the root cause has been found and resolved.

Most of the bogie was unusable, but then it's almost a clone of the B1 and I know all that artwork is good so I'm not overly stressed about that failing.

Other than the inside cylinder block, everything in red oxide will be cast in brass.

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neaston

Western Thunderer
I have had a similar problem in the past although I am sure Mick uses better software than me. (I use a very old version of Turbocad)
I now "explode" all the drawings so there is no connection between the pieces so to speak.
Then separate into front and back drawings. Delete layers as necessary
Convert to black and white and save a .EPS file.
This is what I send to PPD and have had no problems since.
MIght take ten minutes to do.
Nick
ps I hope "teaching, eggs, sucking and mother" don't arise here
 
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mickoo

Western Thunderer
(Business hat on) Small Finney7 B1 update.

The final casting masters have been done (attached ash pan linkages for some engines) and will be going to the caster next week, @7mmMick has virtually completed (backhead to finish piping out) the test build and instruction walk through and I'll be popping by next week for some studio shots.

Instructions are going shortly (this week) to be cross checked for consistency and approval for printing and we're just finalizing all the wire and sundries required.

It's been a long time coming but the baby has been bottle fed, nappy changed, grazed knee soothed and tantrum qualm-ed and is now ready to leave home.

It's now over to Commercial and the Publicity departments.

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7mmMick

Western Thunderer
Lovely work @mickoo as always and a nice detail to add. I'm not certain on which locos were so fitted Dave but this rocking grate set up appeared on most B1's from build but disappeared mid 50's. Other LNER classes had and lost a similar set up around this time too
 

7mmMick

Western Thunderer
The B17 etches arrived on Monday, oh dear Captain cock up and his crew made merry here, usually you get one or two little glitches (the odd missing tab, helf etched rivet missing etc) but in this case 30+ parts were a total fail, bend line fills, rivets, cut outs missing.

After much back and forth with PPD it was found that some of the hatches had become 'associated', that's never happened in over ten years and goodness knows how many etches; the upshot is that during PPD's process the hatches basically do whatever they want with zero constraints.

So this sheet and tool is pretty much junk, but I've managed to build as much as possible from the bits that were okay and modify those that were not where necessary. On the plus side the root cause has been found and resolved.

Most of the bogie was unusable, but then it's almost a clone of the B1 and I know all that artwork is good so I'm not overly stressed about that failing.

Other than the inside cylinder block, everything in red oxide will be cast in brass.

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Very much looking forward to getting my hands on one of these too!
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
According to RCTS, drop gates were fitted to engines 1000-1035 and 1040 - 1210.

Engines retained them until the ash pan wore out or they progressed though the rebuild program ro rocker grates, typically early to mid 50's but check your chosen engine as I've a hunch some retained them later; Cowlairs were still carrying out modifications in 61.
 
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