7mm Mickoo's Commercial Workbench

mickoo

Western Thunderer
The original B1 boiler in NS was ordered in traditional brass thickness, 18 thou I think, it was near impossible to roll. I ordered another in 10 thou and it rolled perfectly and once rolled is as strong as a brass one.

Basically you need to go one or two gauges lower in thickness when using NS as it's much stronger and thus harder to bend. But no everything can be made a gauge smaller as it'll end up looking too thin, frames for example.

When brass kits are ordered in NS we do advise that bending some parts will be harder than brass.
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Peter, yes it is tarnishing now, not a problem as I plan to deliver it goes paint on Sunday and Warren doesn't like shiny sink clean models, tarnished takes paint better I hear.

The tender is still reasonably clean so far, but ye engine has tarnished quicker, probably as its had more cleaning with the sink cleaner.
 

Yorkshire Dave

Western Thunderer
I put the Stanier tank in the box after the last clean and have a peek every day to see how it holding up away from the toxic atmosphere of the workbench. So far its holding up but that wont last.

I usually place a couple of silica-gel sachets in any boxes I use to store part built kits to aid moisture removal and keep the atmosphere dry. After reopening the box the sachets are replaced with dry ones and the used ones will go into the drying tub for re-use.

I save these from various purchases and are stored in a tub in the airing cupboard to keep them dry until use.
 

Cliff Williams

Western Thunderer
Looking lovely, cracking job.
Keep an eye on the front brake hangars and cross beam, there might be some slitting disc action required especially when you tie on a train to the tender, it fairly pulls the front end about.
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Hi Mick,
Another Dogs Bollards build!

Sooner or later I must have one, even if I have to sell my Gladiator version to finance it.

Cheers,
Peter
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Cliff, cheers, noted and will keep an eye out when it comes back for final assembly, it's tight but running through some Peco set track points present no issues, mind as you note, stick a load on the back and the engine will track differently.

Paul, Peter, thanks :cool:
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Ok out for a little jaunt today to Nick and Warren for collection of future projects and delivery of others; I saw Nicks W1 in the flesh, nice work :thumbs: and the Exxon Valdez spill is no where near as bad in the flesh :))

Warren also had some very nice work progressing across the bench.

So, whats next, well I'm waiting for a new client to finalise some details on a quick out of the box build, I'll post that up once it gets underway so in the mean time it's time for some etch work; I've now got enough bits and bobs to fill a sheet and make it viable for several parties.

Most of the sheet will be for Nick with a set of tank engine replacement frames as the kit ones are, well, past their sell by date and i'm sure he will spill the beans at the relevant time, however, a section of the etch will be for the kit below.

Initially the client asked me to preview this model at a show before purchase and the initial review was it was a good buy, actually the price was a steal and I'm no GWR fan but it's a dinky little thing. The original plan from the quick view at the show was to just etch a new cab roof, clean it up and paint, I would do the etch and send it to be fitted.

However, Warren had a little look and noted one or two other little bits that needed attention, thus a box was wedged under my arm as I left with a parting comment...go work your magic :D

On the whole it's been built quite well and to be honest just needs some TLC and replacement parts, the chassis is all complete and rolls freely even with the MOK motor combo fitted, so no hidden nasties there. I've no idea yet if it has pick ups or runs under it's own power, but a free rolling chassis should not present too much of a problem for further work.

All in all, a basic strip down and clean up ready for Warren to paint. I did notice a bent guard iron and one completely missing. The coupling rods need the cusp removing and the balance weights have blobs of solder on the outside :confused:, the chimney has a jaunty angle when viewed from the side.

There's a few other bits that need attention, excess solder here and there, hand rail knobs, pipework etc, nothing a touch with a hot iron and solder braid can't deal with. The missing cab roof is obvious but it's the cab tops that will need the most work, sadly the cant rail bend isn't as nice as it can be, the firemans side is quite badly deformed. There's no point beating abut the bush, they have to come off and be replaced.

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The cab appears to have an inner shell so with luck I can preserve that, the plan (current) is to carefully cut along the horizontal plate work joint from front to rear of the cab side, peel off the overlay and replace with a new one from my etch work...as well as a new cab roof. This of course means the beading will need to come off, it didn't know it, but it was already coming off to sort some of the bends.

First off though it'll be a complete strip down and a wash with the kitchen cleaner to see where we're at.

All in all, if you add my time, the specialised artwork/etches and other peoples time then it is still a very good bargain :thumbs:
 

BR Tony

Member
Oh dear Mick, I hope it won't turn into another 'County' situation. The trouble with impulse buying - but its in very good hands!

Tony
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Oh dear Mick, I hope it won't turn into another 'County' situation. The trouble with impulse buying - but its in very good hands!

Tony
Don't worry, it's not a scratch on the County :D

It won't take long to clean up and make it respectable, a lot of the crud will come off with shiny sinks et al, the rest with a fibre brush and mechanical cleaning. Once the wheels are off then the motor and gear box can come out and the whole chassis dropped in a bucket of celly thinners for a week or so, or what ever I can lay my hands on to dunk it in :p

Even if it doesn't shine like a button it'll not matter so long as the surface is smooth for paint.
 

SimonT

Western Thunderer
Mick,
this photo might help your decision. This is my 64XX at an early stage and shows how how the roof anf cab side overlays fit. The overlay is the top part of the cab sheeting and the sheeting should be flush inside the cab former. The roof sheet goes onto the twisty tabs adn is made flush to the front and rear sheets. The rain strip disguises the joint at each side.

14XX-1.jpeg
64XX-11.jpg

Simon
 

Mr Grumpy

Western Thunderer
Mick,
this photo might help your decision. This is my 64XX at an early stage and shows how how the roof anf cab side overlays fit. The overlay is the top part of the cab sheeting and the sheeting should be flush inside the cab former. The roof sheet goes onto the twisty tabs adn is made flush to the front and rear sheets. The rain strip disguises the joint at each side.

View attachment 107318
View attachment 107319

Simon
Hi chaps,
The bottom photo is actually my MOK 7400, hence the smaller splashers :)
If you find you need to replace the bunker etch, the bolts for the internal bunker lifting rings need to be re-positioned towards the cab. Mine were a tad large, but looked fine once painted.
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mickoo

Western Thunderer
I'm still trying to work out if the cab top section of the overlay is separate from the main cab sides, on some variations it looks like it might be, on others it looks like it's part of the whole side either in total or in one of the views, just the front section.

Either way the gas torch will solve all :D
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
There's a few ways you can uplift a model, you can faff around the outside titivating here and there, or you can just go Viking with the axe and horned hat.

I did a quick appraisal last night and noted some uglies that would need a little more than titivating this evening. It started with the removal of the boiler/tank top fittings and using the gas axe buckled the laminates, bugga :mad:, in my defence they were not fitted that well anyway and I was pondering the best way to fill the gaps along the edges. Then I looked a the smoke box front and a mass of.....something :eek:......around the firemans injector feed pipes, turns out it was low melt solder, used in a bad attempt to fill the gap between the tank and cab front.

It was about this time that I grabbed the black marker and marked everything that was sacrificial, applied the war paint and just dived in. The important parts survived and once cleaned up will be reused but most of the etch work is in the bin; or it will be once measured and redrawn on a new repair sheet.

The fundamental problem seems to stem from the left tank side not being fitted correctly, this distorted the smokebox front laminate and left a gap at the rear in front of the cab. The feed pipe cover obscured most of it but the rest had been filled with low melt solder, probably poured in from the top as it had run right down and onto the injector fitting.

It also didn't help that I had no idea how the core structure was constructed, but it revealed all with more heat :thumbs:

Anyway the pictures, those devotes of GWR and soft of nature, are advised to go and watch a BBC nature program for the next part :cool: you were warned.

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This is the basic tank/boiler assembly, you can see the mass of solder at one end to fill the gap, on th eleft the smoke box core isn't the best in the world, but some cleaning up and filling of gaps will save it from the bin. A new set of top covers and smoke box front will be etched. I'm also going to make a new tank core, the original is suffice but I want something a bit more Viking...robust.

I've also seen some pictures that show the cover at the front around the chimney has a gap to allow the chimney to poke through, rather than being plonked on top like the kit, the plan is to have a lower level under the main covers for the chimney to sit on, then two half covers at the main level with a gap around the chimney base. The dome and top feed covers might be the same, essentially I'm not going to replicate the original.....for better or worse.

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It's fairly clear now that this isn't an unfinished build, but a high mileage work horse that's had the upper works dipped and paint removed, pretty well actually.

The coupling rod bush holes are seriously worn and the cusps have not been removed, they are also buckled one one of them, rather than tart around with them a new set will be etched, much faster/cheaper. Most of the working motion is slathered in oil and the compensation beams are seized solid, on a plus note, it's fitted with a nice and good running ABC motor gearbox combo.

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The cab front on the left bears witness to the mass of solder twixt it and the water tank. With the tank/boiler removed it's clear to see the model has been painted before, it was these areas seen in the murk that I wanted to clean up and the one of the primary desires in wanting the tank/boiler off.

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The footplate laminate hasn't been fixed down properly so is bowed in several places, I'm hoping that once the fittings are off and some judicious clamping is applied then it'll all pull down and secure nicely.

Given the mass of solder on the cab front it might pay to pull that off and etch a new one, you could get most of it off with solder braid and finish off with mechanical cleaning, but it might be quicker to just etch a new one. I'd also like to get the back head out and being as it's a mass of cast brass then I suspect the cab front is going to buckle and my mind made up anyway.

The last part will be the cab side removal and new ones etched.

A little more work than originally planned and sane people would run a mile, but you know us Vikings, can't use sane in the same sentence, all mad as dogs barking at the moon :p
 
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