Building a G.W.R. Castle + more in 7mm OF from a JLTRT kit restarts on P.88 by OzzyO,

[ozzyo]

Hello all,

 

new nozzles on order four for about £12 so not to bad.

 

Anyhow back to the build, the first time the loco and tender have been coupled, nice and close and will still go through a Peco point.

 

The inside of the flare after gritblasting. I may do a bit more cleaning up on it before the primer goes on.

 

The front of the tender before and after gritblasting, this area I think shows the benefit of gritblasting the most in this build.

 

Just to complete the picture one side and rear view of the tender. As you can see on the tender side, the freshly gritblasted sides pick up the grease from your fingers quite quickly, but a spell in the ultrasonic cleaner will sort that out.

 

Now on to the frames, these have been painted with the black etch primer. All that has to be done now is to get it off the wheel treads, that could be fun.

 

OzzyO.

[billbedford]

Yes, all that would be fine if you were scratchbuilding but not exactly "normal" practice for the kit build. I think the suggested addition of wire as described above is far more appropriate.

The technique I described was for forming the flare, and can be used on kits were the flare is etched separately from the tender sides (You could use it, with care, where the sides are etched in with the flare, but you will need three hands). Using wires to form the corners is probable the easiest way of forming round corners in the flare.

[richbrummitt]

The technique I described was for forming the flare

 

That is the easy bit because it is a plain bend. The discussion was about the corners, which as you admit are much more awkward.

[PenrithBeacon]

You don't need to two pieces of wood for the press tool. You have one piece of wood and a length of steel rod slightly smaller in diameter than the flare. Then you hammer the rod into the wood to form a grove and finish by hammering the annealed brass into the grove using the rod as a former. Care is needed to ensure the flare is even, but it is impossible to over bend the brass.

 

Thank you for that Bill, when I finally get around to finishing my example of the Aspinall 25 kit which I started 30yrs ago I'll try that technique, but I'm not sure about flared rounded corners though. Anyway, it's all academic for me, I doubt if I'd ever be so adventurous.

 

Regards

[ozzyo]

You don't need to two pieces of wood for the press tool. You have one piece of wood and a length of steel rod slightly smaller in diameter than the flare. Then you hammer the rod into the wood to form a grove and finish by hammering the annealed brass into the grove using the rod as a former. Care is needed to ensure the flare is even, but it is impossible to over bend the brass.

The technique I described was for forming the flare, and can be used on kits were the flare is etched separately from the tender sides (You could use it, with care, where the sides are etched in with the flare, but you will need three hands). Using wires to form the corners is probable the easiest way of forming round corners in the flare.

That is the easy bit because it is a plain bend. The discussion was about the corners, which as you admit are much more awkward.

 

 

Hello all,

 

I like this as we are showing that there are more than one way to skin a cat.In Sandy's thread I suggested to use a half round brass tube with a length of brass rod. Same sort of thing but using different formers.

 

For forming the flares on G.W.R. tenders I use this forming tool, and bash gently form the flare around it using a rubber mallet. In the photo it is set for a 4000 gal. tender body. For the smaller body's I just measure the top of the sides to make sure that they are parallel to the top of the tool. When I'm doing the tender side's I keep the flare that I'm bashing forming to shape inside the vice jaws.

 

A lot of flares were not at 90degs. but at something like 65 or 75degs.

 

OzzyO.

 

PS. I've been thinking about the corners and would a press tool work for them. ie. using some brass tube of the correct Dia. of the bottom of the flare work. The trouble would be to not spit the top of the tube as it was pressed into the former. Annealing it may? help, I don't know. Then it would be the fun part of cutting them out.

[N15class]

 

PS. I've been thinking about the corners and would a press tool work for them. ie. using some brass tube of the correct Dia. of the bottom of the flare work. The trouble would be to not spit the top of the tube as it was pressed into the former. Annealing it may? help, I don't know. Then it would be the fun part of cutting them out.

 

If you use an oversize anealed blank it would form without spliting. It would work well, the punch and die would have to be very accurately set, or your shape would be wrong and the die or punch would damage.

[steve fay]

Shes looking blooming lovely Mate, Look Forward to seeing her in a few weeks.

Grit blasting makes one hell of a difference.

[ozzyo]

Hello all,

 

this is going to be another long one so put the kettle on or open a bottle of beer.

 

The wheels cleaned up, this took about 10 mins. scraping and polishing per wheel. So I think that it's safe to say that the etch primer did its job. For black locos I think that you could use it as the top coat as well as it dries to a nice satin finish.

 

Four views of the tender after U/S cleaning, I don't worry about the staining all I want is for the body to be clean.

 

When I was checking the body I notice these, this some times happens in the cleaning. So I thought out with the low melt solder and all will be sorted.

 

Anyhow how wrong can you be! The lot went.

 

So it was back with the wire and start again.

 

And cleaned up a bit.

 

Onto the the second side first time on this one.

 

Now this is where the fun begins, while cleaning the inside this happened. I said oh dear me (or words to that effect and gave up for the day and went and had a few beers).

 

A new day a new dollar, so after the head had cleared and the hands stopped shaking. I cleaned the gap up.

 

The wire support soldered in place. The idea was right but the execution was wrong. More on that later.

 

After a lot of faffing about the infill in place, this was from my spares box and came from J.L.T.R.T. these are a bit bigger than the ones in the kit so I could fit them into place a bit better.

 

From below after the fist clean up.

 

The first clean up of the top.

 

Starting to clean up the inside and getting the inside finished. Up to now this has taken about an hour.

 

Job done or so I thought. The two corners didn't match.

 

So out came the second corner, I used the same method but did all the fitting work before the wire was soldered into place, time about twenty Min.

 

Then I found this! I don't know what it is but looking back though my photo it was not there just after U/S cleaning but has appeared after all the work on the corners.

 

OzzyO.

[N15class]

It is so annoying when these things happen, but so nice when you get it right and is actually better than the first attempt.

[Kenton]

Full praise for persistence. Some others may well have given up. I still like the idea of a wire to form the top corner but wonder if the cleaning was a little too aggressive? The problem was definitely the excess filling with the low melt solder which itself seems to lead to a more aggressive and difficult cleaning. I wonder if a standard filler (Milliput/other) might have been more workable to form the flare from the etched corners? Alternatively a fine wire/brass mesh that could have been formed to shape and then filled?

[ozzyo]

Hello Kenton all,

 

I think that some of it was down to wanting to get the job finished as I have a delivery deadline to meet. I have had to do the refill a few times before and this is the first time this has happened, it's just one of them things in this hobby. Looking back I think that the first clean of the solder may have took a bit more brass off than I thought and the breakthrough was the result. But it's now sorted. So I'm now on with the small lump that had appeared at the front on one side.

 

OzzyO.

[JeffP]

Just reading through this after being away for a while.

 

Can I backtrack a little and suggest a method for "finding" small parts out of a carpet etc?

 

I once lost a bit off an N gauge kit and resorted to the following: I placed one leg of an old pair of tights loosely over the end of the hoover extension PIPE, not the nozzle, holding it around the end of the pipe. I then turned the hoover on and went over the area.

Once I'd had a good clean at it, I switched the hoover off, removed the little bag that had formed inside the pipe, and turned it inside out over a bit of white paper. There, amongst the fluff and dust, was my missing part.

 

Also, this might make a few folk smile, when I used to build mountain bikes up from parts, I came across a mention in one of the magazines of one of the most powerful forces known to man: "Fridge suck"!

 

It is a force that apprently attracts any small object dropped, immeidately sucking it under the nearest large immovable object.

[Kenton]

I placed one leg of an old pair of tights loosely over the end of the hoover extension PIPE

 

Now where can I find an old pair of tights .... the images conjured up are not too pretty ... I presume substitutes are available for those of us without

 

and I'm not sure what being seen with a hoover, let alone one with an old pair of tights hanging out of the pipe, will do for my credibility .

[JeffP]

About the same as it does for mine........."Hoover? What's a hoover? Oh, you mean that thing for finding small parts....."

 

Doesn't go down too well......the next word is often, "Ouch!"

 

And don't even think about the wife finding her tights full of fluff, or, God forbid, a small brass etching.

[steve fay]

Well done on the persistence mate.

Definitely better the second time round.

I will look forward to seeing her very shortly.

Due you know if she's going green or black?

[ozzyo]

Hello Steve all,

 

plain unlined green, no polished brass or copper.I don't think that she will be in B.R. but in the last G.W.R. livery.

 

OzzyO.

[ozzyo]

Hello all,

 

I've just received some photos of the 44xx that I did a while back. The paint job is by Conrad Cooper, and the weathering is by Fred Lewis.

 

 

OzzyO.

[Sandy Harper]

Fred is a real Wizard!

Sandy

[Mike Huxley]

Outstanding skill and work by all. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ozzy, Conrad and Fred for providing me with what I feel is a masterpiece in terms of model making.

 

The dedication to producing the best is shown by all three. I feel very proud to have this in my possesion.

 

Thank you ;-)

 

Mike

[craigwelsh]

Glad its not just me who lost a tender flare during cleaning! Good work rebuilding it.

[ozzyo]

Hello all,

 

it's another long one so be prepared.

 

Getting the base of the safety valve bonnet to fit the taper of the boiler.

 

After that I like to mill away about 10 thou. of metal from the inside so I only have about 0.5 - 1mm around the edge.

 

The first fit of the safety valves, as you can see the back valve has had a bit of damage to it ( in a top of the market kit I'm surprised how much use of white metal has been used).

 

Replacement fitted.

 

Safety valve bonnet fitted along with the mud hole covers. In the kit these were also W/M. so into the spares box.

 

Setting the front hand rail in place. IIRC this took about four goes to get the bends in the correct positions.

 

I think that I'm going to have to do something about this?

 

Maybe a bit of filling is going to be required?

 

Cutting the joint pieces for the A.T.C. conduit.

 

For the brackets for the A.T.C. conduit I made this little jig.

 

The first one off the jig, it's a bit to angler but we will see.

 

The second on on the jig after cutting to size.

 

The size!!!!!

 

For the firebox brackets I soldered five thickness's of 18 thou. brass together and glued on the shape of the brackets.

 

Starting to cut them out, and the finished job, as you can see one is a bit out! But I only need four.

 

Now in place.

 

Four views of the body after U/C, as I have said before the staining does not matter.

 

One of the conduit joints and bracket.

 

OzzyO.

[steve fay]

Lovely job, I like you are a little surprised by the use of White metal for certain castings.

It's a good job you have such an extensive spares collection.

 

[Western Star]

Hi Paul,

 

What are you using for the bolt on the ATC clamp? I think that this is a Scale Hardware item... if so what size please.

 

regards, Graham

[ozzyo]

Hi Paul,

What are you using for the bolt on the ATC clamp? I think that this is a Scale Hardware item... if so what size please.

regards, Graham

 

Hello Graham,

 

yes they are from Scale Hardware from the U.S.A. The size that I used was 0.8.5mm A/F (approx 1.437") I would have to liked to have use the ones with the 0.7 head (1.219"), but I didn't have any in stock.

 

OzzyO.

[Western Star]

Thank you. I agree, the smaller size might have been more appropriate.