Have workbench, will travel
Entry posted by GWMark
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Last weekend saw the Autumn railway modellers weekend at Missenden Abbey, this also coincided with Daniel's 15th birthday a few days before, therefore we both got the weekend of modelling as a birthday present for Daniel and an early Christmas present for me. So the workbench was relocated from the kitchen table to a seminar room in Missenden Abbey. This is the 5th time of going to these events for me, and the 3rd for Daniel, the chance to have a complete weekend, Friday evening until Sunday afternoon, of modelling without any distractions or pressures to do anything else is just great. Add to that the benefits of have not just the tutors to call on, but also the other modellers assembled in the various rooms, and it is a great environment to make some real progress on those difficult projects you have in mind.
This year we had a collection of items to work on, we took the pair of 72xx models, I had a Mallard Models Duke kit to start and Daniel his GEM Prince of Wales, the chassis of which he built at the spring weekend - with some aid from Tim Shackleton.
Daniel wanted some advice on the running of his 72xx, it turns out that the verdict was it was pretty good and just a few tweaks would probably get it as good as could be expected. My 72xx has presented me with a problem, the refuge for the rear lamp bracket, often mentioned as an omission in the PDK kit. It turns out that there is a mystery white metal casting that comes with the kit, the idea being to cut out the bunker back and fit this casting. My problem with this was two fold, how to do it without making a mess of the bunker back, and would the casting look right? This never really got resolved, as expected almost everybody had a different opinion on this one!
Daniel had a issue with the running of the Prince of Wales chassis, it would lock up when going backwards but was really fine going forwards. A number of people looked at it, it ran smoothly with the motor removed, so maybe it was a gearbox issue. Bob Alderman eventually found the problem, the back and forth play in the motor shaft was such that the work would move enough for the collar and grub-screw on the work gear foul the gearbox, moving the worm slightly on the shaft and it ran fine. A 30 second fix that took 30 minutes of other peoples time to find!
My Duke kit gave me an opportunity to play with my newest purchase, an Avonside chassis jig, a little bit of overkill for the drivers on an 4-4-0, but it did a great job of keeping everything square and it has to have been the quickest, most problem free chassis construction have done. A really nice kit for it's vintage, lots of Nickel-Silver and multiple overlays. I spent a very therapeutic time adding all the rivets on the footplate and soldering the overlays on footplate and cab. I was particularly pleased with the way the splasher turned out, after playing with my mini-rollers.
As for Daniel, he made spectacular progress with his Prince of Wales, getting the wheels on, motor running and much of the superstructure of the loco body built. It needs a fair bit more detailing and fettling before he builds the tender and gets himself a good looking loco.
As to the Missenden weekend, clearly we are hooked after all these visits. The question I have been asked is how worthwhile are they, well, the fact I have been so many times says a lot. Sure I don't learn huge amounts of new things each time, but it does mean I get a solid weekend of model making and having experts on hand is a great bonus when it comes to tackling things you have not tried before, when you need a second opinion or reassurance.
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