A slow way into a Castle...........

[JohnFla]

Thank you Steph, your knowledge is amazing. I am about to embark on a Black 5 DA kit, have spent some time just looking and understanding the Tender build let alone the Loco. I have only 3 kits to my name in 4mm an old K kit hall, a wills finecast A3 and just about finished a DJH D0G which has been a D0G, built but needs painting and lining. My friends love spending my money and have persuaded me 7mm is the way to go, so looking forward to asking lots of questions.
Am just making up a couple of Jig's for the bigger frames one for the frames and one for the Brake Rods, when finished I hope to be ready to start.

Sorry for hijack John, just introducing myself.

John.

 

[John TAYLOR]

Pride restored, having found some pictorial info on that bodged motion plate, which is now sorted !!!!!!!




Cast springs soldered up... and tomorrow will see the front bogie completed hopefully.........

 

[Steph Dale]

John,
Nice job. I had a quick look on t'net for some pics and found a few of Clun Castle under restoration. It appears our protagonist is a fan of ultra-wide-angle lenses, but you'll get the general idea. Start here: http://evergreen.zenfolio.com/p782576498/h2DDBC4C9#h391b63ae
Steph

 

[John TAYLOR]

Thanks Steph.......just what I needed....

John

 

[John TAYLOR]

Bogie completed today. Not as detailed as JTLRT, but what is supplied seems fairly accurate and produces a very sturdy bogie.
Will need further fettling into place once the main body is attached to the chassis......

 

[John TAYLOR]

It`s been a bit of a fiddle and much fettling trying to assemble the cylinders and crossheads. I wanted to make the valve spindles move which is not catered for in the instructions. There are some tabs and other etched parts to use ,probably with the SDK from JLTRT. Anyway, after studying all the information given to me by all you out there, I`ve managed to cobble together a working arrangement.

Hassle No1

Which hole is the right one ????


I decided to wait until the rocker arm and associated gubbins was in place for a line up.....

 

[John TAYLOR]

I hate having to solder whitemetal and lostwax castings on the same piece. I decided to start with folding and soldering the cylinder etch and then attach the lost wax crossheads. Get it all set up on the main frame and fettle that pesky motion bracket.





Hassle No2
The valve spindle shank is at least 5 mil too short. So I used a fabricated motion loop to help strengthen the join.


I made it so I could thread it as a whole unit through the front etch hole so that the white metal parts could be soldered last and after the cylinder cover was attached.



One done....one to go.....

 

[mickoo]

Welcome to DA kits your not expected to make it work like the real thing now LOL, the A3 suffers the exact same problem, there being almost 1mm difference between the front and rear holes from the centre line.

The GA's show (5013 and 4073 batches) that the valve centre line is directly above the main pistons which are 7'.2" apart or 3'.7" from the centre line.

4073 class LOT 224 232 cylinder cross section.


Hope this helps

 

[John TAYLOR]

Thanks for that Mick... I`d guessed from many photos everything was inline. It is`nt possible to be that accurate with this kit unless I make longer rocker arms. I think DA has moved the cylinders out a tad to help us average kit makers with crankpin clearances behind the front drivers.

John

 

[mickoo]

Know all to well what your saying

It's coming along nicely now

Best Mick

 

[John TAYLOR]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152824403701849

Just an experiment folks....... in producing video links.....

 

[John TAYLOR]

Steady progress with just a couple of minor snags to overcome with the footplate assembly...becoming a very enjoyable build.


I hate doing splashers..... so I got these out of the way. The etched beading needed a lot of fettling to look right. 5034 had the original box type front cylinder cover .




The firebox looked as if it might be a bit of a beast to make , but with some annealing all went quite well using the parts supplied.






Then just a bit more fettling to get the GWR curves.......

 

[JohnFla]

Lovely workmanship John.

 

[John TAYLOR]

Thankyou John...

The boiler has landed ............






Just need to fettle the firebox end to get it on the foot plate... and then its back to the chassis and apply all the detailing........

 

[John TAYLOR]

Has taken a while to get the boiler to seat properly onto the footplate. Lost a little on the overall length so there is a little less overhang on the front saddle. I`ve never been a fan of pre etched holes for detail fittings as they are rarely in the right place . The firebox washout plug holes are totally wrong, but easily sorted.

 

[OzzyO]

A nice looking build John, but something looks wrong with the boiler / firebox, it's as though the cone shape is running on both the top and the bottom, the bottom of the boiler should run parallel to the footplate.
One other thing that really looks wrong is the smokebox saddle have you got any parts to make it look something
like this below?


OzzyO.

 

[John TAYLOR]

Oh Dear ! I was hoping to get away with my indifferent boiler seam soldering. Actually the central coned boiler was the only part that came ready rolled but the lower edge is parallel to the foot plate with the exception of an inward dint thanks to me...........










As for the saddle etc Ozzy your photo is of BR modified version, whereas I`m modelling 5034 as built 1930 totally square style..........




Regards

John

 

[OzzyO]

Hello John,

I will agree that my photo shows the later front valve cover but it also shows how the smokebox saddle looks. It should look a bit like this.


Or a bit like this in later life,


HTH

OzzyO.

 

[John TAYLOR]

Hi OxxyO,

I`m undecided about the smokebox saddle 5034 had when built as I have only found three blurry pics of her in the 1930`s and one in 1950`s.
Unfortunately not all square fronts had your style of details,

not to mention the front cylinder covers having two styles...flange front or flange back.
Dave`s kit is limited to either a rounded top or square top but both have straight rivetted flanks.......





Regards

John

 

[Scale7JB]

Hi john, I think ozzy is referring to the smoke box saddle rather than the front of the steam chests. If you have a look behind the main steam pipes leading to the cylinders, there's an add on to the sides to the smoke box saddle....

JB.