Rob Pulham Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 Some pictures of the window grills in place.Today I have assembled the bogies and they turned out to be the most disappointing bit of the whole kit. There is only a representation of brakes at the outer ends of the bogies and while to casting of this is quite good I would have hoped for more. I also added a piece of folded brass to give more area to solder to. the bogies being made up of cast side and end pieces with a brass stretcher that located on a small lip which I didn't think I could get a good enough joint from. They have now become quite sturdy.I have made up some brake yokes from flat brass bar folded at and angle (2 down 6 to go).Next job is to make some inner brake shoes and attach the yokes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 Hats off to that in brass, Rob - I'd have had a crack in plastic but that really is doing it the hard way. You realise you'll have to put lights in it now so they can be seen? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinkmouse Posted January 1, 2010 Share Posted January 1, 2010 After seeing various members adding padlocks to doors etc I decided to add a key to the cash box. having seen this the wife then asked if I could make a key rack and a coat rack so I had a go... Right, a challenge - a 4mm padlock with a key! Cracking work by the way, do the fire extinguishers work? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted January 1, 2010 Author Share Posted January 1, 2010 Thanks guys, funny you should mention light Jonathan Mrs P said just that and I intend to put a question in the help section to ask how to go about it. Al I have to say without you pointing the way with the mini drill cutting table I would have really struggled with this - I can wield a piercing saw but not that accurately Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted January 2, 2010 Author Share Posted January 2, 2010 Some pictures of the window grills in place. Today I have assembled the bogies and they turned out to be the most disappointing bit of the whole kit. There is only a representation of brakes at the outer ends of the bogies and while to casting of this is quite good I would have hoped for more. I also added a piece of folded brass to give more area to solder to. the bogies being made up of cast side and end pieces with a brass stretcher that located on a small lip which I didn't think I could get a good enough joint from. They have now become quite sturdy. I have made up some brake yokes from flat brass bar folded at and angle (2 down 6 to go). Next job is to make some inner brake shoes and attach the yokes. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted January 3, 2010 Author Share Posted January 3, 2010 I spent some time today making up some more brake shoes for the ones that are missing from the kit and thought that I had done really well until I realised that my counting was out and where I had in my head four, I actually need eight. Not to worry now that I have the measurements and the method they are not that difficult. Fortunately I still have some of the 3mm strip that I cut to make them from. Sadly this also means that I need six more brake yokes not the two - I am not sure where my head was when I was working these things out. Other bits completed to day are the fitting of the three buffers (waiting for the last one from CRT), vacuum pipes and steam pipes. I also got the bogies mounted properly the only thing I am not sure about is buffer to rail height so I will have some final adjustment once I have this worked out. After fitting the bogies I also fitted the dynamo. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted January 14, 2010 Author Share Posted January 14, 2010 I have finally finished the coach today - I thought I had finished yesterday but when assembling it I managed to knock off the steam pipe now to crack on with the 4mm version then back to the Q7. I will post some pictures over the weekend when the light is better. I am off to Reading tomorrow so I hope the weather is better down there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted January 30, 2010 Author Share Posted January 30, 2010 I finally got around to taking some pictures of the finished coach but realised that I haven't taken one with the roof on Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Softvark Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 The underframe is looking really good Can you give some more explanation about how you constructed the brake shoes? I need to do something similar. Julian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted February 1, 2010 Author Share Posted February 1, 2010 Hi Julian, thanks for your interest. I started by cutting each side of the brake shoe from a strip of brass 4mm x 12mm. I then marked off an angle 2mm up the 4mm edge and meeting the top 4mm from the end at each side. I used the curved end of my steel rule to draw the curve of the brake shoe. I ground the curve into the shoe using a Dremel and a drum sanding attachment. Next I cut off the small angled pieces leaving a shoe shape repeating two per finished shoe. Next I curved a piece of flat brass bar 1.5mm x 0.35mm around a dowel to give the curved shoe shape and soldered this to one of the side pieces. Using fine pointed pliers I folded this back on itself to go around the outer side of the shoe but passing below the inverted V shape to leave a flange to drill for the rod. See photo below. Next I bent the other end down again to meet at the other end, soldering as I went and finally soldering the end of the strip to the edge of the curved front. Then the other side was added and a hole drilled through both sides of the protruding flange and a piece of 0.6mm rod inserted and soldered. Once two were completed I positioned them up again the wheels to get the correct spacing before soldering the other end of the cross rod. The last job being to solder a couple more pieces of 1.5 x 0.35 strip to bent at right angles to create the mountings. Hopefully this will illustrate what I have said above. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Softvark Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 That's great - many thanks Rob. Julian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted February 14, 2010 Author Share Posted February 14, 2010 Just an update on the next item on this bench. I was very surprised and delighted to receive an MMP LMS Glass wagon as built by Darren Sherwood-Jones in the February Model Rail for Valentines day - I did spoil the surprise yesterday by getting to the postman first So I already had a smile on my face before getting to Doncaster. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted March 11, 2010 Author Share Posted March 11, 2010 The BG is in primer (mostly!!) - I have got the top coat on the body but being heavy handed I will need to rub it back and redo some of it so I am letting it really harden before doing it. The only bit's still to prime are the bogies and that's only because I have been too lazy to mask the wheels off. The next 7mm project is a scratch build of the Shropshire and Montgomeryshire no2 engine the same one that Jazz built recently. Ken was kind enough to let me have a copy of the plan and I have invested in a book hwich has a couple of detailed view that are different to the elevation on the plan. I started this on Sunday when the Q7 temporarily got the better of me. I started by rolling a cylinder, surprisingly to the right diameter first time using my GW rolling bars - first time of rolling a cylinder, I have previously only rolled roofs. Then I marked and cut the firebox and bent a 25mm strip around a dowel before soldering it to the backhead plate as this is the same diameter as the boiler barrel I (following Ken's advice) soldered a curved strip inside the end of the boiler and then attached the firebox to it. The smokebox end was done exactly the same apart from two layers of brass were used to create the larger diameter of the smokebox. Next up is to fit the boiler bands (phosphor bronze strip)and then awaiting delivery of some 0.9mm brass to make the chassis frames before going any further. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted March 18, 2010 Author Share Posted March 18, 2010 As my Q7 progress has been almost nothing in the last week I have made a little more progress with this. Sadly the brass for the frames still hasn't arrived despite my ringing on Monday to chase it up. I have added the boiler bands these will ultimately be partially hidden under the saddle tank so need to be on fairly early in the build. After having to use a garden weed wand to solder the anciently designed Q7 frames together I took advice from some of the 7mm guys on RMWeb and invested in a micro flame soldering iron. While I have used it while building my 7mm coach I hadn't really learned how to use it if that makes any sense. I had heard people say that they just add a small piece of solder and heat from the back and capillary action sucks the solder very neatly into the joint and it does - just not every time in my case. Notice the left hand boiler band in the photo. My mistake it turns out was that when I was unable to apply the heat from the back I was applying it to the joint from the front and either boiling the flux so quickly that the solder bounced of and ran in the wrong place (in this instance on the boiler band not under it) or burning the flux into a stick black mess. Then after some frustration and trying different techniques (on the second band) I discovered that if I heated the metal next to the joint not on it (It does make sense once you have thought of it as it's the same as heating from the back) the solder flows under the band or into the joint by capillary action just as desired - hence the last two bands are significantly cleaner than the first two. The bands are strips of phosphor bronze that I got from my local model shop - I am lucky that we have two model railways shops in Wakefield one of which specialises in ready to run and the other stocks a lot of kits, paints and materials that the in depth modeller needs. I also managed to cut out the footplate buffer beams and some of the saddle tank parts. I don't want to make too much more progress before building the chassis. To this end the motor and gear box arrived yesterday. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
3 link Posted March 19, 2010 Share Posted March 19, 2010 Nice work there Rob and also a very well explained article on the dark art of soldering, which I am sure will be of help to any newbies out there. All the best, Martyn. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
iL Dottore Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 That's some lovely work there, which leads to a question: the photos show nice, shiny brasswork. How do you keep the models so clean? When I'm working in brass, the material gets grubbier and grubbier as the work proceeds (or at least until my final cleanup) Another question: in your post of January 30th there is a photo of the bogie from underneath and it appears to be attached by a spring & screw/bolt combination. Is this correct? Does the combination provide a sprung ride? F (I am always envious of you lads that model in 7mm. I'd love to do so [failing eyesight, old age, etc], but have invested far too much in 4mm to change) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted March 20, 2010 Author Share Posted March 20, 2010 Hi Il Dottore, thanks for the kind words. To answer your questions I use the water based flux from building O gauge online and it just washes of with warm water after the session. I also try to clean up as I go with a fibre glass brush to keep the solder to a minimum although I hope to have less of this to do now I am on my way to mastering the micro flame. The coach bogie rides on a bolster that allows for and aft movement and the spring just allows it move to compensate for vagaries in the track. Which is wishful thinking as all the track I have laid (loosely not pinned down) is 00 gauge but here's hoping for the future. I got fed up of waiting for delivery of the brass I ordered for the frames so I picked up a couple of strips of K&S from my local model shop this morning so now once I have got a bit further on the Q7 I can start on the chassis at last. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon V Posted March 20, 2010 Share Posted March 20, 2010 That's some lovely work there, which leads to a question: the photos show nice, shiny brasswork. How do you keep the models so clean? When I'm working in brass, the material gets grubbier and grubbier as the work proceeds (or at least until my final cleanup) Hi I was waiting for Rob to answer your question (Thanks Rob) before I replied so that it did not look like a deliberate advert. Part of the reason everything is looking so clean is that Rob is using flux obtained from me. See also Christian's A3 build in this forum Link I note your location as Switzerland and I do state on the website that I can only ship the product to the UK and EEC countries but I have a friend who lives in your neck of the woods and we have exchanged many parcels of railway related bits without a problem. As long as I state on the outside of the package what it contains there should be no problem and goods are always packed within accordance of the rules of shipping. Anyway if you have not found your way there yet via Rob's post here is the link for the flux Building O Gauge Online Regards Simon Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
iL Dottore Posted March 21, 2010 Share Posted March 21, 2010 Useful info! The use of the water based flux is something that I'll consider for my first major brass project (a Comet GWR full brake). Thanks for the links Simon F Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted March 29, 2010 Author Share Posted March 29, 2010 I didn't have as much modelling time this weekend so I didn't want to start the fiddly brakes for the Q7 so I cut out and riveted the tank ends for Severn. I also did another couple of firsts for me. I cut out my first scratch built chassis and cut out slots for horn blocks for the first time but I do plan to do this in 4mm on my next loco build. I am quite pleased with the results so far but nothing is soldered yet and I need to work out how to retain the horn blocks in the slots. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted March 31, 2010 Author Share Posted March 31, 2010 I worked on the proof of the pudding tonight - had I cut those horn guides square? Yes!! I now have a lovely free rolling chassis that the horn blocks move up and down on by about 1mm. I still need to retain and spring them, add the other detailing to the chassis, make the con rods, you get the idea. But I am really chuffed that it runs smoothly so far B) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinkmouse Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 So how did you retain the hornblocks in the chassis? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted March 31, 2010 Author Share Posted March 31, 2010 By a wing and a prayer at the moment Al (they are just sat loose and if I pick it up a little quick they drop out. I have it in mind to have a go at making some Springs from Phosphor bronze strip like Christian has done for his A3. the only photos I have don't show any springs but one would guess it has some sort of springing. I believe that Ken (Jazz) has just soldered a piece of nickel silver wire to the hornblock and the chassis (or that's how I interpret it from the photos) and I assume that this both springs and retains it, which is another option. It being my first foray into sprung chassis in any scale I am open to suggestions. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pinkmouse Posted March 31, 2010 Share Posted March 31, 2010 Fair enough! What I do to stop that annoyance in this part of the build stage is just tack solder a length of wire/scrap etch under the axles between two handy frame spacers. If you put it in the middle it doesn't get in the way of rigging any brake gear/motion/springs etc. and is easily removed once the permanent fixing is done. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Pulham Posted April 2, 2010 Author Share Posted April 2, 2010 Thanks for the tip Al. I may make use of that in the future. I spent today making said springs and working out how to attach them. Talk about fiddly I almost said sod it and soldered them on I must have dropped one of the screws 50 times. But I am pleased with the result. Now I am in mind to tackle the fiddly I may have a go at the Q7 frame/brake hangers tomorrow. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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