7mm Mickoo's Commercial Workbench

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
Were any two of the different name plates the same size?

If so you could rearrange the mounting arrangement so the triangular fillets could support two different nameplates to form a 'open' triangular nameplate - turn it around to have a different name on view!

I presume 000 Squadron can read 216 Squadron.
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Dave,

Yes you could make the base a sort of mirror profile and them double up the plates for one on each side. It'd probably pay to increase the angle or each plate to reduce the base width, currently 40° so maybe 50° might be better.

The sizes are not all individually unique, they are in batches or groups.

For example Tangmere, Hawkinge, Croydon, Manston, Hurricane & Biggin Hill are one size.

Both the Squadron plates are one size and yes 000 can be any three digit Squadron as can 00 be any two digit Squadron.

Lord Dowding, Fighter Pilot and Sir Keith Park are a common size.

Fighter Command, Winston Churchill and Lord Beverbrook are also another size.

Kenley and Spitfire are also grouped.

I'd need sight of all the others to see if there are further sizes, but these are the five groups I have drawings for.
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Back to the 1501 for awhile.

All stripped down (that which needed to be) and built back up, in the end I wasn't happy with the original tank wrapper, it had a couple of creases in it that would not be hidden by the plate overlays, plus, all the holes for domes and handrails were in the wrong place; it was simpler to split it all down and simply make a new wrapper.

The same could be said for the lower half, due to the kit trying to be six of one and one of none the lower half had length issues so I kept the boiler belly and binned the rest.

The instructions are scant on how you're supposed to join all this together, there are no slots or tabs (probably due to the six variants the kit can build) so you're pretty much on your own. If you join the two sections then you cannot get inside for sound or DCC, in the end I modified the front end so that the whole top can come off for easy access to the DCC board and speaker.

The six course tanks are from the earlier batch and there are other details not modelled in the kit, the most obvious being the six big sand bins on the footplate/cab and the flared front to the smokebox, the latter was easy to fabricate, the former will all have to be hand built/fabricated in due course.

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Next up the bunker, it may be quicker to scratch build one than work with the etch I have here, there are half etch rivet patterns for all six variants on the inside, all would need filling to make smooth unless you filled it totally up with coal.

There's also the matter of the cab floor, a white metal offering which fails to pass muster in detail, size and quality. Still, nothing too untoward to resolve.
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Slow progress, the bunker was, well in polite terms :shit:

You shouldn't have to put up with this sort of crap in this day and age, I spent an hour or so trying to make it work....even when I knew that it wouldn't work when I set out....but try I did before it went in the scrap metal box.

The rest of the day was spent making a whole new bunker and cab floor (not supplied....that which is, is in white metal and totally wrong) and it came out alright.

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The rivet etch holes along the top and as far down ad I can reach will be smoothed over with Milliput in due course.

The hand brake stand was too short by 3 mm, why was I not surprised, a suitable piece of tube was soldered to the floor to jack it up to the right height.

There's only three pieces of etch left (negating the saddle tank wrappers being etched as replacements) , the cab roof, cab front riveted joint strap and balance weights, two are correct, the other four are totally wrong so new scratch built ones will be added.

The rest is all castings, 95% white metal, lordy lordy :rolleyes: the remaining is brass.
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
Just looking at the photos - So once the backhead is fitted there is no access to the boiler or tanks for retro-fitting decoders, speakers and weight??

Or is the bunker bolted on allowing removal and access to the screws in the cab rear - behind the backhead?
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
That is a very good point, one which I had just deduced myself :rolleyes: :oops:

There's a couple of alternatives.

Modify the saddle tank rear bulkhead to have a shelf like the front with two nuts on it, a corresponding shelf attached to the cab front will allow the screws to be fixed from below up through the firebox.

Or, leave the saddle tank fixings as is and attach the back head to the cab floor and then make the whole bunker and floor assembly a bolt on unit.

I prefer the first even though it is more/harder work as there will be pipework from the back head to the cab front.

A side alternative to that would be a second skin inside the cab front, also attached to the floor. That might be a better option as the glazing can then be fixed to the inside of one of the cab fronts after paint.

Something will need to be done as neither...yes you guessed it...of the round top fireboxes fit over the current screws, which I hasten to then add, were fitted by the previous builder...exactly where the kit put holes for.

In short, not the builders fault but one of kit design.
 

paulc

Western Thunderer
I am in the process of finishing a build on an old Eric Underhill kit of a Webb special tank . The boiler assembly which on your kit is brass on mine is a one piece resin unit with a whitemetal piece for the lower section of the boiler and was never designed with DCC in mind .
I opened out a slot from where the motor fits up through into the firebox through into the boiler and with long leads posted the decoder into the cavity , connect the leads to motor and pick ups with with plugs and sockets and then assemble feeding the wires into the slot as you go . You can slide the decoder back out of the slot with the aid of tweezers
No sound so no speaker to worry about .
Cheers Paul
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Another week, another update.

Slowly slowly catchy monkey as my Chinese friends taught me :)

The six course tank wrapper arrived and was duly fitted, but before that, the rear fixings were moved internally so that the back head can be permanently fixed in due course. The relevant/available fittings were then added; there's no chimney or safety valve bonnet in the kit, presumably lost, which is probably no great loss as it would either be the wrong era or just a shockingly poor cast affair. I'll need to scour the usual 3rd party after sales departments to try and find suitable replacements.

New smoke box door and sand boxes all round were added, still need to blend the bases of a few once the adhesive sets. Also need to add the smoke door hinge shaft, again, once the adhesive has set.

There's a couple of steps to add to the tank sides and a feed water pipe along each side before heading into the cab and finishing off there; mainly back head, roof and a wooden floor.

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Some pictures would of been handy :eek:

Seems the forum monster ate the last lot :))
 
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warren haywood

Western Thunderer
Mick,
Use a suitable width brass strip rather than wood for the floor. Mr Dunhill and myself have come to the conclusion that brass is better than wood strip. The grain is too coarse and it drinks paint like you wouldn’t believe. Looks great before paint but not so afterwards :(
It may look ok if stained dark and fitted after painting.
I think Nick Bains also said at Telford that he had stopped using it for the same reasons.
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
I've got some very tight grain thin ply, 1/64th I think, from a model boat supplier. I'll stain it and it can be fitted later after paint.
 

7mmMick

Western Thunderer
Mick,
Use a suitable width brass strip rather than wood for the floor. Mr Dunhill and myself have come to the conclusion that brass is better than wood strip. The grain is too coarse and it drinks paint like you wouldn’t believe. Looks great before paint but not so afterwards :(
It may look ok if stained dark and fitted after painting.
I think Nick Bains also said at Telford that he had stopped using it for the same reasons.

Noted pal, I was intending to use some on my A2 build but will not rethink that. What about plasticard, with the put in with some coarse sandpaper?

Mick
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Noted pal, I was intending to use some on my A2 build but will not rethink that. What about plasticard, with the put in with some coarse sandpaper?

Mick

Mick,
I used plasticard in my L1 cab and it looks fine. I put veneer in the Stanier 2 6 4 after seeing Nick's efforts, but that was before Warren pointed out the drawbacks when it comes to painting. I might take it out before it goes for painting to save a few gallons of his celly. ;)

Cheers,
Peter

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mickoo

Western Thunderer
Okay end of play today, about as far as I can reasonably go until the replacement parts arrive, namely chimney, safety valve bonnet, whistle and full back head kit. The kit back head and fittings were all white metal, just hopeless :headbang:.

As noted yesterday, there's four tank steps to add, a couple of pipe runs under the tank to complete the upper works.

The chassis requires brakes (I'm pondering alternatives already as I don't want to get sucked into another wasted day faffing around with this white metal :shit:), static motion, pickups and running in.

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On the face of it, it only looks like the cab roof has been added, not so, lots of little bits tidied up and a few more details added, so it's getting there.
 
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