Duckets, and back to the fray

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Duckets, then. If you’ve ploughed through the thread, you’ll recall I had a bit of a to-do with the plastic duckets in the kit. I had failed to realise I had selected the oldest kit in the set, which was before Slater's saw sense and provided etched duckets. The other brake kits have the brass bits, so I had acquired a suitable etch from the maker for the older one.

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Soldering iron deployed. Much better.

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That’s much better. I’ll get those glue in and the edges filled. What’s next? Hmm, not sure.
 

paulc

Western Thunderer
Hi Heather , always enjoyable watching how you build kits and the little things that you use to make the job easier. I would never have thought to use masking tape to hold the sides and ends together so i purchased some magnetic corner squares that hold everything in place whilst you tack solder pieces together .
Have you found the errant buffer housing yet , its about time it showed up .
Cheers Paul
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Have you found the errant buffer housing yet , its about time it showed up

It did, while I was seeking yet another errant part. It had landed inside a drawer unit and nestled in such a way it couldn’t be seen without taking the drawer out completely!

I think I need to invest in those magnetic doodads. There are lots of brass coaches heading my way in the coming year. :eek:
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Hmm, has anyone invented the brass magnet yet? :))

Slow progress on the Composite coach has seen the seats assembled, the bogies completed, and the roof and side halves joined together.

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Happily, the plastic used in this more recent boxing doesn’t delaminate while being worked on. I’ve cleaned off the passenger communication gear and the lighting connectors, and drilled out all the relevant holes.

Now I need to think about the ventilator positions and detail up the roof accordingly.
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
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Compo sides and roof parts joined and a brief tidy. All the holes in the roof have been done, obviously, but I will leave the vents for now. Rain strip to add, and a "short shot" where plastic didn’t quite reach the end of the mould on one corner of the roof needs repairing.

Thoughts, aside from roof fixing solutions, are turning to suitable coupling systems. I fear another underframe will be needed for experiments. The Brake Third already part done isn’t suitable as that happens to be the "extra" coach, and will probably end up with plain links rather than knuckles.

Anyway, Best Beloved and I are out for an annual club event this evening. More progress should be done over the weekend, I hope.
 
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Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Some steady progress over the past couple of days. Not a lot to show, but still.

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The mis-mould on the roof was plugged with scrap styrene. When it had set sufficiently, I set about it with sanding sticks.

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A little filler to finish up and we will be good to go. Next will be the rain strips.

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Meanwhile, I couldn’t see any good reason why the body shouldn’t be assembled. The instructions imply the compartment assembly helps keep the body square to the floor. That’s as maybe, but who follows instructions? I want to be able to paint things, and still get in to glaze stuff later, so the compartments, currently sans bogs, remain loose.

Once the body has set properly, I shall fit out the end details. Base over apex again, but I felt it safer to fit the plastic parts together without delicate detail work attached. Then, I suppose, I should consider making up another underframe quickly to work out couplings and between vehicle distances and stuff.
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
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The list of things I still need to do doesn’t seem to shrink. I’ve just remembered I haven’t installed the buffer collar hooks on the compo. :rolleyes:

Still, I added rain strips and cant rail gutters to both coaches. Then I worried about the bogies and ride height. Well, it turns out two of the thick washers provided by Slater's is sufficient for bogie swing, and gives an "about right" gap between the top of the bogie frames and the solebars. The coaches even roll fairly well on my short test plank.

So, before I get too carried away, I think another underframe should be assembled so I can really sort out couplings. At this point, I won’t need another pair of bogies, as I can borrow them from the brake third. I feel progress on important things outweighs a week spent assembling a pair of bogies at this point. :p
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Some things with these kits just seem to take for ever.

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Third underframe essentially assembled. Still the gaps in the solebars. :rolleyes:

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Then filing and fettling the three-part buffers. Casting flaws hither and yon! One buffer head lost its shaft. The question of whether to invest in a set of four direct from Slater's was set aside since I could mend it myself. I drilled out the rectangular section to take some 0.9mm brass wire and soldered the latter in. I really don’t need the threaded end to make these things work, after all. Then little blobs of metal inside the various 'oles, which needed tedious cleaning with very small files in order to make a "smooth sliding fit".

I decided to fix the collar hooks into the main bodies with solder while they weren’t fitted to the underframe. The holes were drilled through and 0.5mm brass wire soldered in and trimmed back a bit. Then I bent the hooks to shape with fine pliers, and dressed the rears back so it allowed things to fit in the plastic headstocks nicely. I suppose they should be fitted to the underframe now.

Enthusiasm. Anyone seen mine about?
 

paulc

Western Thunderer
Hi Heather , could you put some close up photos of how the buffer assembly's are arranged as I'm having trouble getting my head around your second paragraph.
Cheers Paul
 

paulc

Western Thunderer
That be clever that be , fiddly but clever . Does it work any better than just a single spring ?
Cheers Paul
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Does it work any better than just a single spring ?

The only reason for the fiddle, I think, is to allow the prototypical working of the extension collars. At this scale, I doubt anyone is going to actually swap the buffers about during operations, so it seems a lot of complexity for what it achieves. That never stopped Slater's before, though. ;)

My feelings are, if the coaches are being used in a fixed rake most of the time and using the buckeyes and gangways as they were on the real thing, you could fix the buffer heads in place and not notice. If you wanted to use the hooks for coupling, then the big spring would work on its own, with the buffer head fixed into the rectangular shank piece, and glue the collars in place. It wouldn’t half save a lot of filing, too!
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
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For once, my filing and storage system seems to have worked. Even the partly-built coaches have survived without obvious damage, so that’s good.

I have one brake compo pretty much ready for paint, with a compo in a similar situation, pending ideas on fitting roofs so they are removable. One brake third has a floor and frame started, if memory serves with a view to decide on and fit coupling systems, while a second brake third remains unstarted. A review of coupling ideas, therefore, seems to be the first task. The prospect of two pairs of brass bogies to assemble doesn’t appeal just at present, so they can wait a while. Some thinking about interior decor is also on the cards.
 

Heather Kay

Western Thunderer
Mini magnets to hold the roof on?

I was just thinking exactly that. Should be fairly easy to engineer.

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Instead of finding excuses, I decided there was no time like just after lunch to make the remaining four brass trusses I’ll need. Now that's out of the way, the rest should be fairly straightforward.

I probably won’t be back to it until later tomorrow now. I have an excuse: Best Beloved has got his first Covid jab in the morning. :thumbs: I’m not old enough, so I expect my vaccination won’t be offered until the spring at the earliest.
 
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