Entry posted by D869
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The full brake is ready for the paint shop, all bar a few bits of fettling.
I don't intend to write a blow by blow account here - after all the kit comes with instructions, so I'll stick to the main places where I have gone 'off piste'.
Unlike David 71's build, I opted for using solder for all of the brass to brass joints. I stuck to cored electrical solder plus Carrs Green Label flux because I find this stronger and less messy than using lower melting point solder pastes.
Footboards were added to the solebars using nickel silver strip. This was done with the chassis upside down using thin card to get a consistent level to the footboards. This helped with the next bit too...
The biggest departure from the instuctions was in the assembly of the main body. I chose to solder the coach sides to the vertical parts of the floor etch. I was a little wary about this but it worked out really well. To get the alignment right, I pushed the thin card mentioned above back into the gap above the footboards. This gave me a nice datum to align the bottom of the sides while soldering, so I only needed to worry about getting them aligned at the ends.
This method of assembly allowed me to really work on the fit of the roof and ends because these could be held in place by a little inward spring of the sides. It also meant that I could see the fully assembled coach quite early in construction, which really helps with the motivation. I added three cross members towards the top of the sides for strength - but leaving enough room for the roof section to fit between the sides. I found that there was a gap between the top of the ends and the roof so I added a 10 thou plastikard strip to the top of the ends. Once this was fully set I tidied up the profile to achieve a good fit.
The kit comes with cast whitemetal corridor connections. These are OK but I prefer to make my own from black plastikard. These are sprung outwards and can be pulled back and held in place with a clip behind the end when not in use. The photo below shows the inside of the coach with one of the gangways dismantled.
The kit provides two etched truss rods and 'V' hangers, but the prototype photos show four truss rods. The 'V' hangers should also be in pairs. Ultima sell these etches separately but I didn't have one. I noticed that the edge of the fret was very similar in thickness to the truss rods, so I cut this out carefully and soldered up a couple of inner truss rods using the etches as a template and some 2mm scale rail as the stiffening piece that is soldered to the floor. I also added the extra footsteps for the guard's door from some bits of nickel silver strip.
The roof is removable. It is a reasonable push fit but is also held in place by small rare earth magnets glued to the cross members. Some small pieces of steel (cut from packing crate bands) are stuck (err... with blu tack) inside the roof moulding to give the magnets something to grab hold of. This is the first time I've tried this and it seems to work well. I was a bit concerned that the magnets might affect the DG couplings or be attracted by the uncoupling magnets but they seem to be far enough away to prevent any problems.
The bogies are from the 2mm Association shop - fold up jobs in nickel silver. These are attached using the mounts that come with the bogies (i.e. not the Ultima ones) plus a captive nut attached to the coach floor.
Interior detail will probably be very minimal because the windows on this vehicle are very small and I have no clue whether the internal corridor sides were solid or mesh screens. I will probably just fit a couple of plastikard partitions at each end of the guard's compartment to stop daylight being visible in the wrong places.
I couldn't find any buffers that looked much like the square shank GWR coach buffers. On a previous model (a Siphon G) I modified some whitemetal 2mm Association coach buffers but these are not available now. Sorting through my bits box I selected a pack of TPM turned brass Oleo buffers that seemed to be about the right length and diameter. Each of these was mounted in the pin chuck and the shank filed as close to a square section as I could get. The end result looks reasonable provided that you don't look too closely.
Painting will be in maroon. I've been practicing with the Bob Moore lining pen and can now produce a reasonable set of lines for maroon livery - at least on a small test piece. Time will tell if I can repeat that on a 64 foot coach.
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