k22009

Thanks Ian, Next time i'm on the phone to Colin i'll ask him, in the meantime i'll try to make something that looks the part.

Does anyone know of a supplier for LMS/GWR style mud hole door covers? These are usually positioned at the corners of Belpaire fireboxes. Colin at Gibson's sells what i believe are the LNER type (4M814), but i've not seen anyone selling the LMS/GWR version in 4mm. Malcolm Mitchell used to include some nice copper ones with his kits, and i'm pretty sure i've seen white metal versions on Finecast kits. If i can't find any i'll try knocking some up from thin copper sheet, i'll make a recess in some hard wood and try pressing some out from thin copper sheet. Dave

Egg + Bacon Banger + Mash Bread + Butter Fish + Chip Bubble + Squeek Salt + Pepper Mild + Bitter

Hi, I'd be interested if the offer is still there. Dave

An old General Merchant warehouse which was across the road from the terminus at Blairgowrie. What looks like an old gas lamp still secured to the gable. The guttering is shot now and it's only a matter of time before the water leaking down the walls rots the mortar. And the view of the rear which sits above the river Ericht.

Magnificent

There aren't too many parts left on the frets but i've been busy making all of the fork joints for each of the valve gear components. These are all made up from the main rod and a short half etched piece that makes the forked end, most of these are only 2-3mm long. They are all pinned eventually with 0.5mm rod so i've pre drilled all of the holes with an older 0.5 bit and rubbed the emery cloth over each to remove any burrs. I then blackened a short piece of 0.5mm rod and stuck it into a wooden block, the 2 parts were then slid over this and soldered.,i'm using 180 degree solder for these. The pins will then be soldered to make the joint when 2 pieces are offered together with 145 degree solder so i'm hoping it will all stay in place. Among these remaining parts are the 2 in 1 lever and front valve rods. The 3 front valve rods are made from 2 small etched ends and a short length of 0.8mm dia rod sandwiched between, the one end is again forked (you can just see this on the one rod i turned onto it's side) to fit over the levers. Thge lever is made from 3 parts and a smaller equalising lever, the 3 parts are soldered together once again using rods to align it, the equalising lever is then pinned to the end hole. The 3 valve rods are then pinned to both ends of the equalising lever and the end of the 2 in 1 lever. It all fits into the front of the cylinder assembly and pivots about a fold down part which i will probably drill and tap to allow a screw to act as the pivot.

Thanks Mike, yes of course. I've asembled the cylinders, slide bar bracket which is now attached to the slide bars and the radius link bracket onto the frames. They are all tied together with the extended ejector pipe that i've continued into the cylinders so i probably don't need to provide any other ties to keep these as a lift out assembly.

I've made a start on the valve gear, i must admit i'm apprehensive as there are lots of very small parts and very few spares (non in most cases). The radius link bracket was first up, some of the locating slots needed opening up with a scalpel blade to enable a good fit. The reversing crank laminations on the right won't be needed for a little while but they've been removed from the etch anyway. Assembled together and with a 1mm dia rod running through each side. In the instructions it just says solder a short length of rod into each hole so that the radius link will pivot on them. Soldering 2 tiny pieces of rod here would be tricky, so, i decided to just solder in a length between the 2 locations and using a disc cut a gap in them which can then be filed down once the radius link is made and i can be sure the protruding rods are long enough. And with the pivots cut The next assembly is the 2 radius links, these are made up from 4 laminations, some 0.3mm wire to locate them and then act as bolts and the radius rod itself made up from 3 parts. To start the 2 inner laminations must be sweated together, i used the 0.3mm rods drilled holes through into a wooden block and placed the 2 laminations over them before sweating together. Sorry not a clear photo. Once this is done the radius rod must be attached. This is completed by placing the rod under the 2 laminations on the block and fitting the outer radius rod lamination over the top of the link laminations and again sweated to the other side of the radius rod. Great care must be taken to not solder the rod to the link as they must move freely once assembled. With this done you know have to pin the radius rod to the 2 link laminations with some 0.7 dia rod, once again only allowing solder to penetrate the radius rod itself. Once this is done the radius rod should then be free to run along the slot in the link laminations. The outer radius link laminations can the be added to encapsulate the radius rod, the 0.3 rods can be cut off and filed down. With the radius rod free to move into any gear position, i'm not quite sure yet how you are supposed to retain them in one position, so more thought is required there. Making all the fork joints for the rest of the valve gear next.

No new updates just yet, mince pie munching has stopped work temporarily. Everyone have a good Christmas. Cheers Dave

https://scalescenes.com/product/r029-oo9-structure-set/ Looks like a new set of very useful items, just in time for the Xmas break to have a dabble with.

I have just received a few etches (Claughton's, Kirtley 700, Flatiron, 1134 saddle, MSWJR, 4P chassis, 3F chassis) if anyone is interested please message me. Merry Christmas to all. Dave

I've added the handrail pillars and want to add some boiler bands at this stage. I do sometimes just use magic tape but i have some thin copper sheet from Eileens that i have cut a few 1mm wide strips off. Once cut they curl and wriggle all over the place so they need straightening. With 2 pairs of pliers just grab each end And give the strip about half a dozen pulls so that it twangs, and now should be pretty straight. I do this with coiled wire too. The bands are positioned by the band clips on the underside of the boiler. They're thin enough to not look to pronounced, i realise scale bands would be wafer thin and each to there own everyone has different views. I might cut the footplate assembly out of its cradle/jig next so that i can carry on with the chassis and valvegear.

Now that the main assemblies are assembled it's time to add some of the smaller detail items. First up the mechanical lubricators which are made up from 3 or 4 parts, the unit, base, mechanical lever, and handwheel. These are all tiny items but have gone together ok, i've even managed to make the levers moveable (not that they need to), sandbox filler caps on the left. I've also been adding the 0.35mm dia copper wire to the pot lubricators for the feeds, not the easiest of jobs to get them through the apertures in the valve cover and into the lubricator, but being copper it flex's a little bit more. All done though, soldered from the rear of the pots and once the footplate jig is off i'll cut the wires flush to the footplate underside and dab a spot of solder on them to keep them fixed in situ. With the lubricator feeds done i can also fix the smokebox saddle in place as i don't need access for anything else. I'll add the handrail knobs to the boiler/firebox assembly along with the pipe brackets for the ejector exhaust pipe and the pipe itself next.

The cab roof is made up from the parts shown, the cradle is a fold up item and incorporates the front and rear roof stiffeners which will later be cut away from the frame. Both the roof and the ventilator parts need rolling into a shallow curve before fitting. With the front and rear stiffeners positioned it's quite a simple operation to solder everything together, there are a selection of vents with both open and one closed so i've gone for the later option. With the jig cut away and a test fit onto the cab.

Thanks Chas, the design of the kit does also help with cutting out some of the potential innacuracies that can accumulate. It's not the sort of kit that you can plough on with though, at each stage you need to not only think about what your doing now but also what's coming up, especially as a lot of the assemblies i'd like to be removable to make the painting a bit more straightforward. On with the cab, internal beading has been added to the cab sides as the rear edges need forming and this will be trickier if i do it the other way, the door hinges are also part of the internal beading, at first i thought they were tabs and nearly cut them off. The floor is a simple fold up unit with a half etched overlay, the lower washout plugs are incorporated into this too, you can just see the square bar protruding from the cab floor sides. Getting a good curve on the rear cab sides is tricky as there's not a lot to work with, but once done these fit into recesses in the cab floor (you can see these in the bottom of the cab floor above) so you can check that all is well. I wanted to add as much to the cab sides before they are assembled to the cab front as it'll make life easier than the other way around. The windows are a 5 piece unit, the first part to fit on is the lower of the etches below, this aligns with the cinder guard holes which need fitting at the same time, the cut out is in the inside corner and the roof slots into these. The 2nd down etch is then soldered over the top, at this stage you can really fit no more to the windows. The single frame fits into the 2nd etch that i mentioned and is allowed to slide backwards and forwards with the top etch fitting over this encapsulating it in place, with paint to go on though the sliding frame and cover will need to be done afterwards. The backhead will need detailing and i want to paint this seperateley so i have soldered a bit of scrap etch to the bottom, drilled a couple of holes through the cab floor and the bottom flap (making sure i can get at the screws with the chassis in place). The nuts soldered onto the cab floor allow the cab unit as a whole to be removable, the cab front will be screwed to the firebox. The castings are for the raised floor sections either side of the firebox hole and fit snugly into the recesses. With the cab sides, handrails and front fitted to the cab floor unit i test fitted it all onto the footplate. The backhead needs detailing, there are a host of tiny castings and etches for this so i'll do that another time. The bucket seats are also yet to be fitted although the support frames are in place.

Looks like a well organised work bench there Ian 😁

Hi Ian, Thanks, it's great to see how your getting on with them, more than happy for you to continue, at least when other members search it'll be in one thread. Cheers

Hi John, This company in the Czech republic offer various rivets for different scales mainly for planes/tanks etc however they do plain sets too. The delivery is about a week from order, the link below is for single line 0.15mm dia at 0.8mm pitch they are quite small so if you were to try them i'd suggest trying a range of scales. No link just a happy customer. https://hgwmodels.cz/en/172-scale/540-single-lines-rivets-080-mm-172-722013.html

Thanks Doug i have been watching your duo of V2 builds over on the Scalefour forum. I rolled both the smokebox and tapered boiler sections, again they are half etched and form very easily. There is a neat joining plate that fits inside both, it incorporates the boiler band tensioning brackets that fit through etched slots in the boiler/smokebox bases (i've folded over the small brackets in the photo to the smaller section). Once you have the smokebox or boiler soldered up with the joint strip then you add the formers at each end, the open ones are fitted first enabling the solid ones to be soldered from the inside then. Two short 0.7mm dowels fit into locating holes between the firebox and tapered boiler and the smokebox to tapered boiler have a central hole where you fit a 10ba screw between them. It all fits without the need for any fettling of any kind. The only awkward piece to fit was the former at the firebox end of the tapered boiler which because of the locating dowels needed positioning very accurately. The brackets pinned with0.3mm wire.

The firebox is supported by an etched cage, i added a couple of pieces of scrap etch over where the cab/forebox locating holes are. Martin suggests using a rod here to locate the boiler assembly to the cab front but i think i'll screw it on, so the extra thicknesses will allow me to tap the holes. The firebox is very thin as its half etched so needs to be handled with some care, it has the the mudhole doors on seperate strips that fit to the rear, the clamp handles will be fitted later. The mudhole doors aren't the easiest of things to line up as once you have them laid down on the inside of the etch you can't see the etched hole locations, so a small tacke first until they are correct. The washout covers will be added afterwards from the outside (i need to add an additional one each side) along with the handrail knobs. With the cage inside there's not a lot of room to solder the rear and front formers from the inside

Hi Jeff, I have a 240v Proxon that i use for the drilling, the castings that came with the kit are quite hard (maybe a brass alloy?), i'd guess using a pinchuck would be possible, though it may take some time and even the slightest movement with a 0.3mm bit would break it. Ideally the use of a drill stand would be the way to go but i don't have one. Just trying to see what your drilling was the most challenging thing.

Cheers Lez, yes it went very well, i wanted to drill them through so that i can solder the copper wire from the rear of the lubricators when i get to that stage, it's an easy clean up operation then especially as it's not seen.

Splashers have been added, these are quite a neat design with the footplate fitting into a half etched recess on the splasher front, the tops have a flap that needs rivets pressing out before this is located into a half etched recess on the footplate. I'm wondering though that the lip (about 1mm) that now sits below the footplate may well foul the wheels so this may need to be removed at a later date. Also added were the valve guide covers, the tops are an overlay that sits onto a frame that is soldered to the footplate first. We were then into small part country, the hinges for the access covers on the front of the footplate and the pot lubricators needed adding. The lubricators will have some thin 0.3 ish copper wire soldered into them at a later date for all of the feeds to various locations under the footplate (copper wire will bend easily), but before this i needed to drill each of the 8 pots 3 times with a 0.3mm drill to suit the copper wire. The magnifying headband i bought donkies ago was very useful here as i could hardly see the ports that the drill needed to start at without it. I was expecting a battle but they all went ok with just the one drill bit. On the bottom of the pot lubricator support legs are approx 0.4mm dia locating lugs (the castings are very good indeed), there are locations marked on the valve covers for the positioning of these but the holes needed drilling to locate these into (something not mentioned in the instructions). Once drilled they provide a good sturdy locator so that with the pots support legs tinned they could be soldered to the valve guide cover top from the rear. The hinges for the access covers likewise were tinned before holding in place with fine tweezers and soldering in situ. The copper wire thickness below is 0.3mm so that gives an idea of size.

Hi Mike, I'd guess all told it was probably a couple of hours, but some of that was adding more plasticard seperators to a small box i had to make enough compartments. It has however made me look at the parts and they are organised now so i can find them a bit easier.