Entry posted by Beardybloke
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Superb as the Parkside Penrhyn ‘Lady’ kit is, I didn’t think that a whitemetal dome painted to represent brass would do it justice but I wasn’t quite sure how to go about solving the problem. The subject has been discussed at length on the NGRM-online forum and, following a similar (but briefer) discussion on my workbench thread, Robert Thompson of RTmodels offered to turn me a dome using the original part as a master and made specifically to fit the saddle tank for a very reasonable price. Quite clearly, this was an offer that I couldn’t refuse!
Yet another pause in modelling now occurred as one of the key components was sent to the Welsh Marches. The original dome from the kit will, I’m sure, find a home in my bits box and possibly on a future kitbash or scratchbuild – but I’ve got enough to be going on with for now, without starting something freelance! After Christmas, construction was resumed, and Hafod Las erecting shops began the assembly of Linda once more.
The cab front and tank were soldered up rather more successfully than previously – by this point, I’d had some more practice on the Single Fairlie and had learned from my mistakes – the soldering iron was set hotter, used quicker and plenty of flux was used. I’m still by no means an expert, but I’d like to at least think that I no longer have 10 thumbs when it comes to whitemetal soldering.
I made the decision to remove the cast detail from the cab front with an eye to replacing it. This isn’t because of the poor casting quality, in fact they’re extremely well moulded, but it’s because I’ve acquired some brass whistles (one is coming from the Backwoods kit, and the other is another Markits product) which will look finer and, more to the point, like brass. The spectacle plates have been removed so that I can fit etched brass alternatives, and the loss of the rivet detail on the latter is something that I’ve chosen to live with. The bodywork was placed onto the chassis and the inside of the firebox was thinned out to fit over the flywheel – several test fittings and the scraping out of small amounts of metal at a time with a flat-headed jeweller’s screwdriver eventually produced a well-fitting part that gave sufficient clearance for the flywheel to run freely.
Satisfied, I got up to make a brew and in one smooth, easy movement knocked the firebox from the table and crushed it under the heel of my slipper as I stepped ahead of it. I’m pretty sure that I couldn’t do that again if I tried (and I’m not sure that I’d want to!). Dejected, and furious with myself, I sent a grovelling email to Parkside asking for yet another replacement part, which they kindly agreed to send for the cost of P&P only, without me sending the replacement part. I think that I can salvage and straighten the backhead (which was my ‘Plan B’ if I couldn’t get a replacement) and could use it on a stationary boiler or another kitbash, but the firebox itself was completely crushed – this is how it looked after my attempts at rectification with various tools:
Nevertheless, I pressed on. Ignoring the rather sizeable exposed flywheel on the footplate for now, the smokebox was soldered into place. A check of some recent photos of Linda showed that the bracket-type assembly that covered the hinges and straps on the smokebox was no longer extant (I’m building Linda in her most up-to-date form) and so this was carefully removed with blade and file, then tidied up with a fibreglass pencil and some abrasive paper. At the same time, the smokebox door dart was removed and replaced by an Alan Gibson one, much as for Moel Siabod (well, after going to the effort of doing one, I couldn’t very well ignore the other, could I?). At this point, the chimney and cylinders were araldited in place (I did attempt to solder the cylinders, but with the interior space being so small it was a non-starter) and the loco was mummified in masking tape to allow it all to set. Once it was, the sandboxes were added to the front of the tank:
Whilst the araldite was going off, I didn’t stand idle: I took the opportunity to get the tender built up, which was a fairly simple exercise – I’ve reached the point where even I can solder up a simple box of whitemetal without cocking it up too badly – though the secret is definitely to check and check again, and make sure that it’s definitely well secured in place and won’t move as you try to solder it. After a little bit of head scratching, I think that I managed to work out which side was which for the ‘front’ of the tender, though I may have got them upside down and the wrong way up. Having said that, they look alright to me!
Since the photos were taken, the replacement firebox has arrived and has successfully been thinned out and soldered in place. The next step is all of the fiddly little detail bits (as well as the cab – the sides are simply blu-tacked in place for this photo and the dome balanced on the tank):
No lesson from this post – as any fule kno, don’t stand on parts of your kit…
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