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Blog- Engine Wood - Building the Roxey 'Planet' - Part 2


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With regard to this project, I wasn't planning on going into loads of detail about what this kit was like to build, as there are already two threads on RMWeb by others who have also done so. One is by Paul G ('5050') and the other by Gordon A ('Steamraiser'). Paul's thread can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/97619-the-next-project-roxey-planet/ and Gordon's thread is on the older version of RMWeb, and can be found here - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=25602

 

I must say at this point that both gentlemen were very helpful when I had some questions during the course of my own build, particularly with regard to the High Level 'Quad Drive' gearbox, so my thanks to them both again.

 

As this project was my first loco build for several years, I thought I would touch upon some of the 're-learning' issues that I encountered along the way, as I had done practically no modelling (apart from the point construction featured on my blog earlier this year) of any kind since 2014 prior to this.

 

I will say at this point that although I was keen to start a loco kit project, it took me a while to decide whether to do the 'Planet' or something else from the 'to do' box. One kit that was also taken out was a Judith Edge Ruston 88DS kit, which is definitely to be in P4. I think, though, that it was the decision to build the 'cameo' shunting layout ('Bethesda Sidings') that swung it for me.

 

Having only used my modelling table for a very limited number of non-modelling related tasks over the previous three years, I found that not everything was where I wanted it to be, and I had to search for some tools and other items. Fortunately, most things were not too difficult to find, but it wasn't quite the same thing as simply starting a new kit build project from an already 'operational' modelling table.

 

Although I'd lost the modelling mojo for over two years, it had been even longer since I had assembled a whitemetal loco kit. I removed all the pieces from the kit box, as shown in the photo in the previous blog entry, and had a good look at them.

 

Due to the outside frames of this loco, the majority of the body and frames could go together as one 'unit', although the Roxey instructions guide you to making the cab and bonnet removable from the footplate and outside frames, something that both Paul and Gordon had observed, but which I failed to spot at the time.

 

I looked at the cab and footplate castings first. The corners of the cab were mitred, which could arguably make for a snug-fitting corner, but in reality I found that I needed to fettle the castings a bit to get the fit that I was happy with.

 

Then came the next realisation. In the past, I have usually tried, wherever possible, to solder whitemetal castings together, and generally I've found it relatively straightforward, although not without its problems. The Roxey cab castings have some nice rivet detail on them, which I realised might get damaged when cleaning up after soldering. I decided to get some photos of all four sides, so that I could replace any rivets removed during cleaning up.

 

In these views, the cab castings are held together with bluetack and placed on the footplate in a 'dry run':

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Having my 'record' photos, I went ahead and soldered the four cab sides together and soldered them onto the footplate. This was to make cutting out the necessary additional material to accommodate the High Level 'Quad Drive' a bit harder, but more of that in due course.

 

Despite having successfully soldered these five components together, plus the two sides of the bonnet, it was rather stressful, as I usually use a mains iron for soldering whitemetal now, in order to deliver sufficient heat quickly. One doesn't like to linger, however, under such circumstances, and when it came to attaching the buffer beams and outside frames, I decided that there was so much whitemetal to bond, that I'd rather fall back and use epoxy glue instead.

 

This is the assembly (taken a day after the photos shown above) with some rubber bands holding everything together, while the 5 minute epoxy set:

 

When the glue had cured (I like to leave it several hours, at least, even with 5 minute epoxy), the loco looked like this:

 

 

 

Notice that I have (purposely) removed all rivets from some parts of the cab, to aid the rubbing down and general cleaning up after soldering. I would later reinstate the rivets using Archers transfers.

 

Before doing any further work on the body, I realised that I had to ensure that the motor and gearbox would fit correctly, which in turn would enable me to work out how much whitemetal to remove from the cab front and the footplate.

 

These are the High Level 'Quad Drive' components (please note that I have already folded up the main motor mount):

 

Looking at the gearbox components, I realised that I didn't really know how the various gear wheels went together. Because this was a kind of 'bespoke' product from High Level, there were no instructions, so it was at this point that I became familiar with the useful information on Paul and Gordon's respective threads. After much consideration, it started to make sense:

 

 

 

More to follow.

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