Jump to content
 
  • entries
    109
  • comments
    358
  • views
    144,940

"Lone Wolf: The rebuilding of a Nu-Cast Gresley P2: Part 2"

S.A.C Martin

Entry posted by S.A.C Martin

848 views

 Share

One of the things I realized about this particular build of mine, is the potential the model has to be either very, very good, or very, very poor. For instance, I have been poring over the drawings to compare the P2s and the A4s as best I can, and one of the things which screamed out to me last week were the differences in the streamlined casing.

 

The exciting thing, however, was finding that there's not enough of a difference to make the use of an A4 front end, suitably cut and shut, unwarranted or unnecessary. In fact, carefully cutting into the whitemetal body and fusing plastic components could produce a more accurate P2 model, by virtue of the layout of the front end's opening doors being identical to the A4s. This also solves the previous problem of the buffers: the Hornby A4 buffers are a perfect match.

 

I've since ordered a few things I know I will need for this build, not least a Romford screw driver for the strange split axle heads that the Romford driving wheels have. The idea is to replace the centre driving wheels with a set of flanged driving wheels I already have, left over from my defunct A2/1 kit of yonks ago.

 

The cab has been cut and shut this weekend gone, but aggravatingly my camera is on the fritz. This I will try and sort this weekend! I will then test fit the cab to the running plate.

 

Flangeless cartazzi wheels left over from one of my many A4 Pacifics has been sourced from the spares box in order to build the new cartazzi frames below the Nu-Cast running plate.

 

It's going to be a long build but I am already much happier about it than I was when starting it. Less of the "what am I getting myself into" and more "I can do this".

 

The next task is to examine if my spare Hornby-made 5 pole motor and gearbox can fit in the body and above the frames, to replace the absolutely tiny Nu-Cast originals!

 

Until next time.

  • Like 3
 Share

3 Comments

Recommended Comments

Matthew Cousins

Interesting view about the front end of an A4 being used - the main stand out difference is in the slope and the length of the chimney which appears a good bit longer on a P2. When I asked my friend Peter Relf to tackle a 7mm P2 kit for me, he took a long time looking at the front end and in the end decided that there was no suitable proprietry casting in 7mm that did the job, so he scratch built one using milliput to get the final detail sloping curved front. With regard to yours being a long build, I've now been waiting 4 years whilst Peter has felt that he might as well have scratch built it from the start!

Good luck with your build, I look forward to seeing the pics.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
S.A.C Martin

Hi Matthew, the idea is to heat treat the Hornby shell into the correct curve after cutting the smokebox front strip from a spare bodyshell (which I had already cut into for the cab anyway).

 

The new chimney I have created using the Isinglass drawings and cutting and shutting some of Graeme King's excellent Resin A4 chimneys.

 

Hopefully once the camera is running again I can produce some pictures to demonstrate! :)

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...