Building the Roxey 'Planet' - Part 4 - completing the loco
Having got to the stage where the loco was running more or less to my satisfaction, it was time to finish the work on the body, paint the loco and weather it.
Part of the cab floor area had to be removed to accommodate the High Level gearbox:
Even though this probably wasn't going to be too visible, especially once a portly driver was installed, I decided to box the gearbox in with plasticard, to represent a kind of 'control desk':
All very basic stuff and it was indeed scarcely visible, once the cab roof was put on and the glazing fitted.
The kit didn't provide an exhaust pipe, and I believe that such provision varied on the prototype, but others had fitted an exhaust, so I decided to do likewise, and used some brass rod and tube to make a rather basic exhaust pipe:
The large industrial buffers were trial fitted:
The cab roof overhangs at the front but not at the sides, and I considered for some time whether to glue the roof on, once the interior had been painted and the flush glazing fitted. In the end, I decided that I wanted to retain some kind of access to the cab interior. The flush glazing was always going to be a simple 'press fit' in the window apertures, so in the event of a piece coming loose, replacing it was always going to be much easier, if the cab roof could be removed.
In the end, I decided to fabricate a brass 'girder' to be soldered at roof height, with a 12 BA nut soldered exactly in the middle. A corresponding hole would be drilled and countersunk in the cab roof, and the screw head hidden on the outside by a small piece of plasticard, representing a roof ventilator:
The 'cab roof ventilator' piece of plasticard is not shown in this view, but the countersunk hole for the 12 BA bolt is visible:
It was now time to paint the model. I had chosen two Halfords aerosols, 'Ford Meadow Green' and a generic 'British Racing Green' as possible liveries, and I wanted to see what they both looked like on top of both red and grey primer, so I made up some trial pieces of plasticard and sprayed them. Here they are in grey and red primer, each waiting the respective top coats:
In the end, I decided to use the red primer as the undercoat (notice the replacement Archers rivets):
I then sprayed the 'Ford Meadow Green' and brush painted some of the other colours, when the green had dried:
It was beginning to look more like a finished loco now, but there was still the question of the cab glazing. At the beginning of the project, I had measured each individual cab window and I later cut individual glazing pieces from a sheet of 15 thou glazing material and ensured that each one fitted its respective window. I then laid them out so that there would be no confusion later, when I came to fit them:
The initial weathering was then done, consisting of spraying a light misting of a 'weathering mix' over the whole loco (Humbrol enamels, including a dark grey, Metalcote Black and No. 62 Matt Leather), and then wiping most of it off using a flat brush, dampened with thinners:
Prior to the final bit of weathering (drybrushing), I needed to fit the sprung buffers. As mentioned in a previous blog entry, these are Kean Maygib steel industrial buffers, and in my view, look better than the smaller, oval buffers supplied with the kit (which in any case, weren't sprung).
I had already glued the brass buffer shanks in place and cleaned out the 0.5mm holes that take the thin spindle of steel that is supposed to go through the shank. You put the small coil spring on first and when the buffer head is in the correct position, you bend the thin shank behind the buffer beam slightly, to 'trap' the buffer and it's spring in place.
This would work fine for a normal loco, but on the 'Planet', the outside frames form a substantial whitemetal barrier, and when I had put the full length of the buffer in place, the 0.5mm steel spindle at the end wasn't visible - it just wasn't long enough.
I found a piece of 0.5mm brass rod and poked it through the buffer hole, and eventually it appeared in the space behind the outside frames and the buffer beam. Unless I decided to glue the buffer heads in place, there was only one thing for it, which was to cut the 0.5mm steel spindles off and drill the back of the buffer heads to accept a longer length of 0.5mm rod, which I would solder in place. This is what I then did:
Once the buffers were in place and working nicely, I then glued the nameplates in place and finished the weathering with a bit of dry brushing.
The finished loco looks like this:
The last job was to make one of my standard design of loco boxes from Daler board:
The loco is now 'in service', and awaits the construction of it's outrageously improbable light railway.
- 15
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