Seems to be the time for painting this week, thanks to all the advice from Buckjumper (on here and in his mag article) the O gauge Pug body is prepped for primer. I bought some "Bar Keepers Friend" from Amazon (other internet retailers available) and with a cheapo kids electric toothbrush (spiderman) and some work with scrapers, fibreglass brush and wet-or-dry stuck to coffee stirrers we have this:
Next step a few coats of primer, then see if any filling etc needs doing. I'll get some f
So '23 is resplendent in ex-works shiny black
Just the plates to fit, then off to Roomey for weathering.
Narrow Planet's work, painted with white enamel, left 24 hours, overpainted with matt black acrylic and immediately wiped off with a finger. Note two sets - the ones for '021 are for the similar version I am building for a member of this parish at the same time.
Roomey's going to be busy as that's two Crosti 9Fs and my Hornby O1 to deliver to him at the Doncaster show.
Quick snap of '023 in an almost state of readiness for the paint shop.
Just got the undercab footstep to fabricate - I've ordered some Evergreen 1.5mm angle which should arrive next week. The fiddly bits have served as a good practice for the other one I am building for a member and '023 will wait in this condition until I have worked the commission one up to a similar point.
The plan is to deliver both to Dave Roome at the Doncaster Show for weathering, so I'd better get my finger
I managed a few hours over Christmas to get the chassis painted and over the last two evenings I've got it running again!
Pretty pleased with the neat phosphor bronze pickups which should blend in pretty well with some black paint later. The rods are VERY sloppy and there is a bit of a stick due to this. To get an idea of the problem the crankpins (threaded screws) have an outside diameter of 1.6mm. The holes in the rods are 2.2mm! I've found some 1.6mm i/d tube with an o/d of 2.4mm so
Final few shots of the DJH Duke before it goes back to it's owner ready for Xmas day
Pretty pleased with the finish and the Narrow Planet plates look as good as ever. That's the workbench cleared (nearly) ready for the two Golden Arrow Crosti 9Fs to be finished in the new year
Following on from a help topic here the O gauge pug has progressed to the point where the chassis is ready for paint after a bit of a clean up
Now all the paint is off the loco body I think this is an etch, although the chimney is hand made. The chassis is scratchbuilt, you could see the marking out for the axles on one chassis plate and not on the other. The chassis has been detailed with some PH Designs etched brakes left over from the Sentinel project and I've added the brake pull ro
So, the rebuild of the DJH Duke of Gloucester is moving forward slowly. It has emerged from the paint shop with it's BR Green (late) paint airbrushed over the base satin black.
Green is Phoenix Precision P101 thinned to approx 50% with cellulose thinners. Three light coats over two days and now it's resting until next week in a drawer.
Some areas of black to touch up where masking failed or was impractical to do. Once the detail painting is done then I'll move on to the lining
Attention now has moved from the chassis to the body. I've filled in the section of "missing" false chassis ahead of the cylinders with plasticard and fashioned the front sandboxes in the same way as the chassis mounted ones.
I had hoped to pick up some 0.5mm piano wire from Squires at Wycrail, but they hadn't taken any. I'll have to wait until the next order to either them or Eileen's to make the front sand pipes.
Waft of grey primer soon to see how good the moulding is and how muc
After a few productive minutes with some plasticard and copper wire over lunchtime we have a representation of the sandboxes for the Crosti
Next step is to paint it all black and then I can get the Zimo sound chip wired up to the loco and test the fit in the body and of course the sound!
I should have this at least functional for the Weston-on-Trent show on the 10th November
Unlike the last Golden Arrow Crosti 9F that I built and detailed in Hornby Magazine this one's mine (and so is my time) so the standard plain flat sided preheater sections would not do.
Out came the 11mm Evergreen tube, saw and files. Together with some microstrip and a few other bits and bobs I now have this:
I've added a representation of the access door using a circle of plasticard punched out with a hole punch, decorated with microstrip and the "blower" that of course is no
So,
I've started making my second Golden Arrow Crosti 9F, this time this one's for me - a loco drive version using the latest Hornby Railroad 9F chassis. The intention is to sell off my existing tender drive version that although having given stirling service on Summat Colliery since day one, is, after all, tender drive.
To complicate matters the Railroad tender chassis will not do as it's too long at the front and lacking in the details that the current Britannia tender has. Although I
So the crew climbed aboard (driver needed his right leg amputating below the knee to clear the motor) and I've added a little coal around the door bottoms and chassis ledges to simulate spillages during loading.
Not sure how prototypical this is but is made me smile last night
So here's some snaps ahead of the photoshoot for the MR article
So, that's it, on to the next project - rebuilding the L&Y Pug I bought from Scanman ages ago - the chassis is already s
These chaps started to look smart last night - Dart Castings finest "leaning out" figures
I've got their boots to do and then a good dirty wash before installation. I think I will need to build small platforms for them to stand on as the doors of the Sentinel seem quite high. Hope they look ok once installed
The Dart Castings crew turned up this morning, handy that, as last night I finished the weathering. Here's a snap taken in my new 30 quid photo booth with my trusty X-10 Mini cameraphone
Just got to paint the crew and stick em in and it's done. Now for that article for MR .........
So the Duke is back on it's chassis for the first fit with it's new Golden Arrow rear pony. I have had to move some of the under cab pipework to clear the pony swing bit it's not looking too bad. The front bogie is also attached with a new bracket - this had to be shorter than the one from the current kit again suggesting that the earlier 71000s were made too short!
Note I've fabricated the tender drawbar as per the DJH instructions but have not set the length. I'll attach the tender bo
What can I say apart from URG!
The owner is well known for his love of spray oil having quite an extensive collection of Hornby Dublo. I am trying to wean him off it for the sake of his modern locos and their plastic parts .....
A full strip is in order methinks
This is how it's going to sit for a while now. I will be starting on the chassis next. Just ordered (amongst other things ) a correct pattern pony from Chris at Golden Arrow to replace the Triang Britannia one that this loco carried when I received it
Once the chassis is sorted I'll make sure the two bits fit together before continuing with the painting.
This was quite satisfying. Most of the external pipework for the firebox end was either missing, mullered or just plain wrong, so armed with my trusty copper stripped from bell wire and some bits from the Crownline detailing kit I have ended up with this
So to the next problem - no backhead was present on the model, so half an hour with a spare Hornby Evening Star bodyshell and a razor saw we have a passable representation of a backhead
Not much else to do now before pain
I've made a start sorting out all my parts. Prompted by the upheaval of completely re-doing the office/study, including the new desk you see in the photo, I have spent a small fortune on storage boxes.
The one below is one of the larger ones, I will have five of these. Also I have bought nine smaller ones that will fit into one of the new cupboards in the study.
Resolution #1: Never again will I once a kit/project is built keep all the spare bits and bobs in the kit box whilst the e
OK, a couple of hours with the low melt solder has seen the Duke back in one (heavy) lump. I soldered the boiler assembly to the footplate in the end and have filled the gaps around the cab etc with solder. The Crownline detailing kit has been raided for the blower and tunnel as well as the top feeds and pipework.
Just got the pipework around the cab/firebox are to sort now. Will use one of the Crownline castings to represent the blower valve and make the rest up from copper wire. The i
A commission one this, for our local vicar and follows on from the Golden Arrow Crosti 9F that I did for him. The loco was in a very sorry state, it had not been put together very well, although the finish was not bad. Quite a lot of the original detail parts were never fitted (blower tunnel etc) and It had suffered at the hands of someone else who had attempted to add weight and get it to run on trainset curves.
So the brief was to make it look and run as well as my Golden Arrow 71000.
Here's a quick snap of the Sentinel as it stands this lunchtime
All I need to add is the "RA 1" lettering (will have a dig around in the transfers box tonight) and then it's varnish time
I am going to have a go at oil finishing the steel buffers, not done this since school, but I have a blowtorch and some nice dirty engine oil - what can possibly go wrong
Well, I wimped out on using the lining pen and resorted to HMRS sheet 22 - I will find time to practice with the pen sometime, but didn't want to delay this build any longer and I had a spare used sheet lying around ...
Buffer beam red next then out with the satin varnish
Basic rivetting is complete on the 7mm Sentinel and sealed under satin black. I am going to add the extra detail on the cab and tank sides but not today
Next step I suppose is to start to get to grips with that Bob Moore lining pen or wimp out and use HMRS pressfix ...
