Entry posted by Jon020
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Having completed work on the underframe, it was time to work on that middle bit... the chassis, which is framed nicely at each end by that concentration of minutiae of detail, the bufferbeams.
The first thing to look at is those buffers. No matter what I did I could not accept that they were quite right. Size wise they looked ok, but..... I spent some time googling replacements but didn’t find any on-line and the next exhibition was a few weeks off... so what to do!? Actually, I think it was easy. First I removed the buffers from their shanks, using a burr tool (is that the right name? I can never get it right in my head when drafting these entries)
I removed the edges of the flattened ends of the metal shaft and then put the springs away very carefully.
I then mounted the buffer in the chuck of my mini drill (not really so “mini”... but it was from Lidl, and cheap)... and with various grades of paper, re-profiled the buffer to remove the centre-flat and rounded edge look to a more prototypical dome.
I used a 0.4mm drill held in a pin vice to “drill” out a small hole in the centre
...and “hey presto” the result is “much better”.
The next step is to adjust the buffer beam surrounds as they’re a little deep. Filing and sanding the profile back a little (not much) achieves a more pleasing result.
Before....
After ....
Due to the change in depth, the side cover plate is filed off; this will be replaced later with a piece of plasticard or metal (whatever I find that does the job).
Then there’s the lower lamp brackets to do. These were represented by simple plastic pieces attached to the bufferbeam surround, which is not the right location. The actual brackets are a complex shape, so I made these using some shawplan lamp bracket etches, folded to the appropriate size with two plasticard slithers to represent the solid base and bracket web, attached with zap-a-gap. Into the lower plastic piece I drilled a 0.3mm hole to take a short length of wire that I’d use to attach the bracket to the buffer shroud.
I made four of these successfully with only a few throw aways along the way and stored them away with some checkerplate that would then be thinned down for the buffer shroud step plate.
The bogie ride was attached next. On this model, the body tended to rock on its bogies. I found the reason for this was the shape of the bogie spigot which sits inside the chamfered hole in the chassis metal work... but not all the way through so it rocks – easily solved by filing off the sides of the larger diameter so it sits properly in its hole. The one of the left is still to do, but the one of the right hopefully illustrates the difference.
Actually, this made the loco look a little low when I did my first assembly, so I added some packer pieces to the top to give a better ride height.
I had another significant problem on reassembly when I found that the bogies at the no. 2 end fouled the fuel tanks... although there was still quite a gap at the no. 1 end. Easily solved... I just moved the tanks, which I’d yet to glue in place. I opened out the holes that the clips sit in and shuffled it along. However, now the clips had moved, their protruding upper parts fouled the metal chassis, so I filed their tops flush and glued it all in place.
A second trial assembly followed and this time it all went together much better.
As you can see, the bufferbeams have been equipped with a selection of the provided pipework with some additions: the vac pipe has a bracket added and the train air supply and steam heat are shawplan white metal items. At this stage, I’d still to remove the revised bufferbeam cowl cover plates that I’d filed from a thin brass sheet fret (rivets punched through) and fit some better shaped ones (now done) and add the bufferbeam steps – again some shawplan parts for the class 56 (thanks Brian).
Then it was back to the body and a replacement to the fan grills which I’d fitted early on and then damaged (they are fragile)! After much fiddling around, I got two on that looked ok and left it at that.
I also replaced the handrails on the serck rad shutters. I looked at photos to see if any other fine mouldings needed replacing but the conclusion I came to was that these were enough. 0.3mm wire through holes drilled in place or scraped away mouldings; nothing unusual about that.
Then I had a thought about the headcode (train reporting panel). This model had been a solid domino panel before, so I’d drilled this all out and filed something to shape. Now I had to sort out the inners. I wanted the backlighting to still work, so I made up a couple of templates for the outer glazed area (which I’d apply once the model was finished) and one for the inner. I then cut out some clear acetate sheet to the size of the inner area and attached this using glue and glaze to a slightly larger sheet that would hold it in place from inside.
Once trial fitted... and held in place it should be ok. Here it all looks clouded, but it’s now dried nice and clear.
And from inside, so you can see where it’ll be fixed
I ordered some backlit Precision Labels headcodes and these are on their way. These will be added to the front of the inner glazing, and then the outer glazing will be affixed with Klear along the inner edges once all is complete... but before that, I’ll need to sort out some primer and then proper paint – so come on weather, warm up please, there are people here waiting to do some painting and we need warmer weather.... please!
So, that’s about all for now... I hope it’s been of interest.
Thanks for reading
Jon
EDIT - and hopefully the images have loaded correctly this time!
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