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GWR Small Metro Tank (4) - Footplate Detail


Ian Smith

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blog-0377145001412362858.jpgAs they say the devil is in the detail ...

 

The body is now in 3 sub components :

Footplate,

Boiler, Cab & Tanks

Bunker

 

And now comes the slow task of adding the minor components and details to these to achieve a complete model. The first part to be "detailed up" is the Footplate. To this I need to add the springs and axle boxes for the leading wheels, the buffers, the vacuum and steam pipes and finally the lamp irons.

 

I had already turned up the buffers - I make these as 3 separate components, a small square "plate", a turned buffer housing, and a steel buffer head and shank. The 4 buffer housings were sweated onto a sheet of 0.006" nickel sheet, and each of these trimmed out to give a housing on a small square plate just a little bigger than the rear of the housing. In turning the housings, each had a 0.8mm hole drilled centrally down it's length to accommodate the buffer shank. The buffer heads and integral shanks were turned from some 3mm diameter steel rod, and the shank was made a few mm long and 0.75mm diameter. The head/shank will be glued into the housing once painting has been completed. Each buffer housing was soldered in place on the buffer beams.

 

The leading wheel springs sit on top of the Footplate, and to help to get them the same size and shape I drew them up in Inkscape, and the resultant printout double sided taped (probably should have glued it) onto a piece of 0.028" nickel sheet that had two pieces laminated together. The spring shape was them carefully fretted and filed out using the printout as a guide. Once The spring shape was filed to shape and size, the face between the "hangers" at each end and the central strap that holds the leaves of the spring together was filed away to leave these elements standing proud of the spring leaves (I haven't tried to represent the individual spring leaves in 2mm!!!) Once filling was done the laminations were separated to give me the 2 springs. The photos below show these steps :

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The axle boxes were then made up from a piece of milled nickel strip (as used to be sold by the 2mmSA for crossheads), as this was a flat "T" section where the upright of the T being just the right width to fit in the horn guides in the footplate valances. A strip of 0.008" nickel silver sheet was cut to the same width as the upright of the T, and was rounded off at one end. Because the outer round plate of the axle box in my modelling period appears in photographs to be polished brass, a small 1.5mm disc of 0.005" brass was "belted out" of a suitable piece of sheet material - actually, a piece of 1.5mm silver steel was ground flat at one end and used as a punch to stamp out these discs on a piece of lead sheet. These 3 parts were soldered together and the whole thing cut and filed to length. Because there is a small gap at the top of the horn guide when the axle box is fitted, a piece of 0.45mm steel wire was soldered to the back of each axle box to represent the prototype link between the axle box and spring above. the photo below shows the individual elements of these axle boxes (left) and a completed one (right) :

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The Footplate sub-component with the springs, buffers and axle boxes in place (the lamp irons (well sockets - the GWR lamps in my chosen period having a spigot that located in lamp sockets that were about 4" square) have also been attached at this point - these are simply made from 1mm brass rod filed square at one end, and a flat filed into the rod behind these cubic sections to provide the steel fixing plate which was fixed to the Footplate) :

blogentry-12089-0-27381100-1412361340_thumb.jpg

 

This final photo shows how the footplate looks with the boiler/tank assembly bolted in place (the fixing is actually 2 12BA bolts screwing up into the bottom of the sandboxes at the front of the side tanks.

blogentry-12089-0-06125300-1412361379_thumb.jpg

 

The next stage is to apply the detail to the Bunker assembly - this will comprise the bunker coal rails, the cab hand rails, the lamp sockets on the bunker rear and the brackets for the irons. Just how much of this will get done in time for the 2mmSA AGM next weekend remains to be seen :-)

 

 

Ian

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9 Comments


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Coming along nicely Ian, but I think you're cutting it a bit fine for the AGM competitions ;)

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  • RMweb Gold

Of course he'll be bringing it to the AGM, its already finished in North Somerset Light livery!:-))

 

Beautiful work Ian .

 

Jerry

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  • RMweb Gold

The springs look to have turned out really well. I do hope you bring it to the AGM even if it has to wait another year before being ready for the competitions.

Don

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Coming along nicely Ian, but I think you're cutting it a bit fine for the AGM competitions ;)

Andy,

Thank you.  There was never any intention of entering her for this years competitions.  My objective is to get her done for Warley, and I think that should be just about do-able.  It's the Dean coaches that will be entered in the Dreadnought category now that I've got them lettered up (thanks to Nigel Ashton & Nick Cleary for providing and obtaining (respectively) Modelmaster transfers on my behalf).

 

 

Of course he'll be bringing it to the AGM, its already finished in North Somerset Light livery!:-))

 

Beautiful work Ian .

 

Jerry

 

Jerry,

Thank you.  I'm pleased that you like her livery ;-)

 

The springs look to have turned out really well. I do hope you bring it to the AGM even if it has to wait another year before being ready for the competitions.

Don

 

Don,

Thankyou. I think she's starting to look a bit more Metro Tank-like now.  I do have every intention of bringing her along to the AGM (but as mentioned above not for any competition entry).  I was going to pop her on the table with a few photos of her innards to show the dog clutch arrangement therein.

 

Ian

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  • RMweb Gold

Andy,

Thank you.  There was never any intention of entering her for this years competitions.  My objective is to get her done for Warley, and I think that should be just about do-able.  It's the Dean coaches that will be entered in the Dreadnought category now that I've got them lettered up (thanks to Nigel Ashton & Nick Cleary for providing and obtaining (respectively) Modelmaster transfers on my behalf).

 

 

I can't let that comment pass by: Any chance of some photos of the finished coaches on here? I've been stalking your earlier posts but don't think we've seen them with lettering yet? :-)

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I can't let that comment pass by: Any chance of some photos of the finished coaches on here? I've been stalking your earlier posts but don't think we've seen them with lettering yet? :-)

Mikkel,

 

Just for you :-)  ...  I've been trying to get the All 3rd S9 completed before I put any further pictures up (but now they're all done!!)

 

GWR 4 & 6 Wheel Dean Period Coaches

 
Ian
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  • RMweb Gold

Thanks Ian! They look fantastic. Even with the largest version of the image everything is completely neat. I'm even more impressed after fooling around with some 2mm transfers yesterday - tricky stuff.

 

Is that a display plinth they are on, or part of the layout? 

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Thanks Ian! They look fantastic. Even with the largest version of the image everything is completely neat. I'm even more impressed after fooling around with some 2mm transfers yesterday - tricky stuff.

 

Is that a display plinth they are on, or part of the layout? 

Mikkel,

 

Thank you.  It's just a display plinth - I haven't got any ballasted track on my layout yet (I haven't got all of the track either !!)  :-)

 

Ian

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