7mmMick
Western Thunderer
I thought best to start this as a separate thread as it's a real break away from my usual North Eastern builds. That said if I were to choose to build something from another company, the LSWR stable isn't that far removed from all things Worsdell so i'm by no means unhappy. My chosen loco will be number 51 in as built condition in 1905, I have a lovely photo to work from but unfortunately cannot post it as it's from a current publication. The build at this time of the loco's life it certainly building it at it prettiest stage and represents the loco in lovely lined LSWR Livery, with polished steel fittings, copper and brass pipe work. This link should help with an idea of where I'm going;
LSWR ( Nine Elms ) Drummond Class M7 / 2P 'Motor Tank' 0-4-4T 245
So what's in the box? As usual the sturdy box reveals a number of quality etchings, lost wax and white metal castings along with sundry items of wire and brass bearings. I will build the loco with the compensation beams as suggested and for this I'm using the Finney horn guides/blocks. The build will be S7. As with all Martin's kits it lends itself to both F/S and S7 with not a great deal of work to build in either scale. In addition buffers and wheels are supplied by Slaters. The wheels will be reproofed by @eastsidepilot
I always like a good read through the instructions first and doing this gives a complete overview of all the loco's built, some historical notes and explains the changes in the class over the years. The vast majority of these are catered for so it's important to choose a loco and time period and work from a good number of photos if possible. Because i'm waiting for the wheels reprofiling I've made a start on the upper works. First is the footplate which comes as a base plate and a top plate as an overlay, seen here in the etch
You can see on the overlay at the top that the footplate is 5thou half etched. This provides the correct thickness of footplate when fitted, the oval openings to the rear provide an area to flood the joints with solder to attach the footplate. I briefly made the mistake of soldering to the edge, which distorted the thin 5thou, I quickly rectified this and instead soldered to the inside keeping away from the edge. The instructions are broken down into sections and heres the first complete;
At this stage the beginnings of the splashers are also added. These were fitted with no issues and the tops are again 5 thou so easily manipulated into place, making sure they are preformed as close to their finish position as possible. An important part of the loco to get right as this section really forms part of it's face.
The next section is the smoke box and boiler. In true Finney fashion several options are available. I've opted for the boiler without etched boiler bands as the lining process will provide sufficient bands and I don't like etched bands as I think they look over scale. Once rolled there are three formers to fit and a neat little part to join the boiler at the bottom, which incorporates the brackets that would hold the cladding on. This makes the join almost seamless which is ideal and something I haven't seen before;
Once soldered up .45 wire is supplied to represent the remainder of the bracket and the front former is tapped 6ba to allow screwing it the smokebox. Also .8mm wire is attached to the rear former to provide pegs to fit to the cab front
LSWR ( Nine Elms ) Drummond Class M7 / 2P 'Motor Tank' 0-4-4T 245
So what's in the box? As usual the sturdy box reveals a number of quality etchings, lost wax and white metal castings along with sundry items of wire and brass bearings. I will build the loco with the compensation beams as suggested and for this I'm using the Finney horn guides/blocks. The build will be S7. As with all Martin's kits it lends itself to both F/S and S7 with not a great deal of work to build in either scale. In addition buffers and wheels are supplied by Slaters. The wheels will be reproofed by @eastsidepilot
I always like a good read through the instructions first and doing this gives a complete overview of all the loco's built, some historical notes and explains the changes in the class over the years. The vast majority of these are catered for so it's important to choose a loco and time period and work from a good number of photos if possible. Because i'm waiting for the wheels reprofiling I've made a start on the upper works. First is the footplate which comes as a base plate and a top plate as an overlay, seen here in the etch
You can see on the overlay at the top that the footplate is 5thou half etched. This provides the correct thickness of footplate when fitted, the oval openings to the rear provide an area to flood the joints with solder to attach the footplate. I briefly made the mistake of soldering to the edge, which distorted the thin 5thou, I quickly rectified this and instead soldered to the inside keeping away from the edge. The instructions are broken down into sections and heres the first complete;
At this stage the beginnings of the splashers are also added. These were fitted with no issues and the tops are again 5 thou so easily manipulated into place, making sure they are preformed as close to their finish position as possible. An important part of the loco to get right as this section really forms part of it's face.
The next section is the smoke box and boiler. In true Finney fashion several options are available. I've opted for the boiler without etched boiler bands as the lining process will provide sufficient bands and I don't like etched bands as I think they look over scale. Once rolled there are three formers to fit and a neat little part to join the boiler at the bottom, which incorporates the brackets that would hold the cladding on. This makes the join almost seamless which is ideal and something I haven't seen before;
Once soldered up .45 wire is supplied to represent the remainder of the bracket and the front former is tapped 6ba to allow screwing it the smokebox. Also .8mm wire is attached to the rear former to provide pegs to fit to the cab front