Brassmasters finescale rods
I'd made these rods up a while ago when I first P4'd my one 08 shunter. Unfortunately after getting the first one perfect I rushed the 2nd late at night and broke it after i'd soldered it solid and not taken the correct route of stripping and starting again! It went back in a box after that as it won't run properly without the correct movement within the rods. I got it out this week and decided to fix it up and get it completed again. The rod was fixed with a spar
On Friday at the Bluebell 50th I was moaning to Richard from Bachmann about their banana shaped bogies that were really bad news in P4. Some of mine are bad enough that they still rock on the gear after the bearing holes are filed back.
Richard however pointed out a fairly easy mod you can do to get around this problem and he'd done it to his P4 locos. It turns the drive into an A-1-A arrangement but this is perfectly acceptable in my Heljan Western so I have no problem doing it to 37 and 47
By way of a comparison here is the original mineral wagon I built before I kicked off my etching project.
Bachmann body
Palatine models baseplate
Bill Bedford w-irons
Masokits brake gear parts
Masokits door springs
Ambis levers
Smiths hooks
Here is one I completed last night using my etched bits. Note its all a bit finer and I just need to add safety loop between push-rods and bottom door operating catch
Finally the original build, 3rd test wagon and final wagon.
Just a quick step by step I did in pictures about 1am last night! Apart from the length niggle all four of the ones i've folded so far have come out fine with 2 from the 8 thou sheet and 2 from the 10 thou. The 10 has less of a length issue as the folds were really designed for that thickness so it all ends up shorter.
Tools used, the tweezers are the useful bit for the folds while the sharp knife is vital to get it off the fret without distortion. I recommend a good optivisor or similar to
Yay my test etch turned up frmm PPD, not sure if they just did it or if Royal Mail held on to it for a bit.
Anyway, mostly lever etches in both 8 thou and 10 thou to test each, I needed to measure the thickness of each one as their etch of that detail seems to have gone a little awry..
Lever guard made up in 8 thou, no breaks and its square now but the top bit has turned up overlength this time, might need to adjust it again .
These worked well though - posed on top of an Exact
I've not received my levers etch back from PPD yet (not sure if its stuck in a post backlog..) so I haven't done much in the meantime as my workbench is full of unfinished wagons.. I have tried fitting the underframe to a couple of different wagons though just to see how it goes and add some variety to my fleet.
First is a LNER 6-plank merchandise wagon based on the ABS kit for a 9ft wb unfitted example. A bit of filing back of the white metal solebars and once soldered together the underfra
If anyone got etches off me at Scaleforum and I haven't messaged you, let me know what you think of these instructions:
9ft_Wooden_Instructions_partA.pdf
9ft_Wooden_Instructions_partB.pdf
(Thanks Andy for gettingpdf format added to uploads )
I've also uploaded a gallery of prototype shots which i've attached to this entry which may be of use.
Progress continues on further etch work when i'm not building track for the club.
Craig
