Nick Dunhill
Western Thunderer
This kit has been in LG's range for as long as I can remember. It has it's origins in the old Shedmaster range, and is sold by Laurie as an 'aid to scratchbuilding.' The commission was to build it 'as in the box' with a modest-ish budget. Would I be able to square that circle?
I usually tackle the coupling rods first, but there aren't any, so I moved straight on to the chassis. The frames are long and the top edge isn't straight. I chose to partly chop through the frames in the middle, straighten out as best as possible and solder back up with a strengthening piece on the back. I scribed a straight line along the top edge and filed up to it. I then put the second frame over the altered one, using the driving wheel hole as a datum, and made the top edge of that one straight too. Laurie supplies either brass pillars with screws as spacers or some pre bent stays. I chose to use the stays, although they weren't all the same width, so some correction was needed.
I put stays where they would be needed for bogie pivots and motor mounts, and for body fixings. I then went completely off piste (for me) and decided to stop building the chassis as I didn't know where the smokebox, and therefore cylinder block, would land. I made the footplate (but had to remake the buffer beams as the holes for the buffers were too far apart). The tabs and slots for locating the body sides (body sides are slightly different heights so need a correction) are a bit vague. I looked at the photo and realised that the saloon side ends at the very rear of the footplate, so was able to measure one of the saloon side etchings and scribe an appropriate line across the footplate where the cab rear will fall. The cab front/rear and body sides were assembled off the footplate and then tacked in place. The tank fronts are too low, so I used them as a support for the tank tops and sides.
I made the boiler from the etch in the kit, I did however make extra formers before I rolled it. I had no idea how the smokebox would attach to the boiler. It looked like it was a series of overlays over the extended end of the boiler. I didn't like that idea, so scratchbuilt a smokebox, and cut off the boiler extension. I used the front wing plate in the kit as a guide. I offered the finished boiler up to the body, and scribed a line on the footplate along the rear of the smokebox. The footplate is continuous under the boiler, and I thought it would look better if it was cut away to reveal the chassis, as would be the real thing. That done I attached the boiler to the footplate and marked the position of the cylinder rear. At this stage I was able to add the last spacer to the chassis.
I decided to make the chassis with the driving wheel and the rear bogie as the main supports. The front bogie is sprung. I made the basic bogies (the etching are very basic) and set up the chassis. The rear bogie has a simple 10 BA screw pivot and a nut as a height adjuster. It has a little side-to-side movement and a side control spring. The front bogie is on a 10 BA screw pivot, has side movement and is pressed down by a light spring. The arrangement will zip round a 6'' rad curve, and the ancient Anchorage DS10 motor fits nicely into a very small firebox.
I finished the chassis next. The kit contains some brass tube for cylinders and nice castings for the slidebars, crossheads and con rods. They can all be used with a fair bit of fenageling. A fair bit of the cylinder front and rear has to be ground off when the mudguards are fitted, but although tight, they don't come into conflict with the crossheads. You can see that I added the injectors and sand boxes/pipes at this stage. The sand boxes were adapted from some etched parts that I didn't use on my HR Banker build.
I thought it was time to build the mudguards. The etched sides in the kit were too small so I cut out all the mudguard parts from 0.3 mm NS sheet. To attach them on the bogies I made some simple L shaped brackets. I wound thin strips of insulation tape round the tyre of one of the bogie wheel tyres. This was done until the tape protruded above the flange by about 0.5 mm. The wheel also had 3 layers of tape on the rear.
This allowed me to sit the mudguard on the wheel, position the bracket and solder in position. I moved the taped wheel around both bogies until all the mudguard were attached. Hence the wheel flanges could not short on the mudguards, and the mudguards were as narrow as possible. The bogie wheel sets had minimum end float in the bogies.
Here is a running, functioning chassis. It picks up from phosphour bronze wipers fitted to the rear bogie. You can also see that I have closed up the water tanks and started to add the boiler details. I made a bunker for the cab, and some water tank extensions aside the backhead. I made a backhead from the castings supplied.
Here it is with all the boiler details before I made the saloon.
The saloon was easy to make. You get a front and a rear, but have to make an interior partition. The sides are good, but half etched line intended to allow the top edge to be folded at 90 deg isn't formed properly. I just cut the top foldy bit off. The sides and top of the saloon rear need to be filed to match the width and height of the front. Now perhaps it is designed to go on the ends of the sides and not in between them, but nevertheless is too high. I have to confess that I had stopped refering to the instructions at this stage. The saloon roof was too small, so I cut a new one and added rain strips and fittings. The loco roof panel did fit but I had to make all the rain strips for that too.
I should finish it tomorrow by cutting out all the windows and drawing a desk and 2 chairs for the saloon interior. Mick Davies will hopefully 3D print them, and Andy Stadden is making me a seated model of Drummond for the desk.
I suppose the word 'aid' in 'aid to scratchbuilding' is doing some heavy lifting, but to be fair the kit did make a charming model of the prototype. I found myself freelancing a lot, as there's not a lot of info out there on the real vehicle, and also so I would hit the budget. It'll look very nice, I'm sure, when it has been to Warren Haywood for some colouring in. There's more pics here; the bug
The driver in the top pic looks the spit of my bikey mate Doug!
Last edited:
