jdb82

I think I'd be tempted to tilt it 45 degrees on both the x and y axes - that should help

Yes I'm aware - the one I'm doing is in 7mm scale. And yep.....I had forgotten Barclay is modelling in 4mm scale. Clearly the grey cells aren't getting any better.....

Your model of the F class is gorgeous (as all your locos are). This might be a little far in the future for you, or you might be looking to scratch, but I've done/doing some etches for an Old Class i. I'm currently playing around with 3D printing the castings straight onto sprues (in a castable resin) ready to be cast in brass. This afternoon I have been playing with some parts I printed for working inside motion for it, although this is proving to be a very tight squeeze.... So a long way from being ready for anyone other than me currently, but they might be useful for you at some point - once I've built one to see if it actually works! I've just received the etches back a few days ago, and so I'll start a build thread on here. If you have followed my other builds, you'll know not to expect rapid progress though

My questions keep (slowly) trickling in for the i-Class. Does anybody have any information or photos which sheds light on what kind of firebox doors they'd have had? Round, square sliding, hinged etc. Just by way of a disclaimer her, it should be noted that I keep emailing Statfold Barn who I believe hold the Manning Wardle drawings now, but so far I've had no response. Ta very muchly :-)

Not sure if this is any use? It might be a bit too basic...

This build has been glacially slow, but 3 years almost to the day since starting this kit (way back on page 9), Bamburgh is finally done. Ish. I think the painting and weathering is as good as I'm realistically able to do; she's depicted towards the end of her days in a somewhat unloved state, in contrast to most of her time on the Norther Sunderland railway where she was actually very well looked after. The loco runs - not perfectly though, mostly due to me bending a coupling rod (page 10) from which it never properly recovered. One day I shall scratch build another, but at the moment I don't think I could build one any more accurately than the one I've already got. Given I have no layout to run it on, she'll do for now. Weathering in the end was achieved with a mixture of the oil paints described above, and good old weathering powders. Incidentally, it seems as though the powders have a certain amount of metal in them, as the powder is drawn to the magnets in the cab roof, forming annoying circular 'clumps'. I only noticed this after looking at photos I took of the model afterwards, and it's easy enough the spread back out with an old brush. Once again, big thumbs up to Pete Stamper when he owned Agenoria models for designing such a beautiful and easy to put together kit. Now onto the the next project - a manning Wardle Old Class i which I've had a go at designing my own etches and casting for. Let's indulge in some photos :-)

Progress has been a little slow recently.... not really anything to report on the inside motion, other than it doesn't look likely the tough resin will be up to the job of moving parts. It's strong enough for most parts, but the thin eccentric rods, which are only a millimetre or so thick, are still a bit too flexible. In the mean time, I have been teaching myself how to use Blender. This is another 3D modelling program, which I think a lot of gaming, jewellery and 'minis' creators use as it's really good for sculpting. I'm currently putting sprues together for the castings, which will be printed in a castable resin before being sent off to the casters. Fusion is brilliant for modelling the parts, but I find Blender much easier to arrange and place items on a sprue. Just one of the sprues below and I'll post some images of the others once they are done. Then I'll attempt to print them (just in grey standard resin first) to see if I can work out how to support them before moving onto the expensive castable resin. On another note, I can of course ask the casters, but if anyone knows where best to place the 'feeders' then let me know. Never having done it before, I've just gone with my best guess.

Very nice indeed! Would love to know what those techniques are so I can magpie them! John

OK, I promise I won't share every bit of the loco I weather, but I thought I'd share a small moment of joy this evening. Lets say I'm still developing my artistic eye - the only other loco I painted was the first one in this thread, the Hudswell Clarke canal tank. Parts of the weathering looked OK, and other parts looked awful. I was happy enough for a first attempt, but the aim for Bamburgh was to step it up a level or two. Over the last few weeks, I have been playing around with different ways of getting the effects I'm after - nothing new and innovative, but I just haven't done much of it before. I've used the airbrush, washes, weathering powers - all of which have their merits, but none that I was completely happy smothering my carefully crafted loco in, that's been 2 years in the making and travelled half way round the world! Today I experimented with oil paints (+thinners), as advocated by Neil Podbury in a video that was part of the O Gauge Guild virtual show a couple of weekends ago. A lovely medium to work with, which are very 'workable'. Nothing earth-shattering, but I was quite pleased I put an un-weathered wheel next to the weathered one to show just how much the green is toned down. A couple of sand boxes too. Now for the rest of the loco......

Nope...... my bid wasn't high enough. Shame really, because even the final selling price was quite reasonable

Oooo......now then..... Edit: You weren't wrong about needing to be quick. When I clicked on the link there were 9 seconds left

Had a session grubby-ing up the cab yesterday evening. Rather cruel closeups......whilst I don't claim to be any kind of whizz with a brush, it doesn't look quite as rough in reality!!

These look brilliant Phil! I nearly bought one of these loco kits from Mercian a couple of years ago, and decided against it in the end as I didn't/don't feel I have the necessarily skills to either make them half decent. It would have sat around in a cupboard for a few years. Now your builds have got me thinking again!

Dave, absolutely love all the locos and layouts you produce. Right up my street. Out of interest, how do you go about weathering your locos? Weathering powders? Air brush? Dry brush? Or all of the above?!

An outstanding example of scratch building. Beautiful work.

Finally the lining is done, wheels have been repainted green and the whole thing has had a coat of varnish. I ummed and arrred as to whether to varnish or not......I did various test sprays before deciding whether to give a coat to the model or not, as I found it quite difficult to get a good finish with the gloss varnish. Eventually settled on a good ratio of varnish to thinners, though next time I'll just use a gloss paint to start with. To be honest, I think a lot of the shine will be dulled down with some light weathering anyway, but I reckoned that out of the paint shop it would have been shiny anyway. Weathering next - at the speed this project has slowed to, it will probably have naturally weathered itself by the time I get round to it!

These were my supports and settings - rather over supported, and excessive exposure on the bottom layers, but it adhered and printed very well (Mars Pro).

Superb Rob!

That makes sense then - Elegoo's website gives the tensile strength of their ABS-like resin as 32-50mpa, and e-Sun's tough resin is 55-60. It may well be that the e-Sun resin still isn't strong enough to cope with constant motion, but I'll give it a test and see.

Disclaimer first......I'm no scientist, so I may be completely wrong, but my understanding is that it should have a higher (tensile??) strength and therefore have a greater ability to withstand the external forces applied when in motion. I think the hardness refers more to a resistance to scratching, but I'm sure they are probably proportional to each other somehow. If it is the case that the Elegoo is stronger (as well as harder), then I shall certainly have to have them cast, as there is no way the eccentric rods are strong enough to withstand the forces using the Elegoo resin. I guess I'll find out at the weekend when I try printing them - I do like a good experiment!

The parts in the photos above are printed with Elegoo's standard ABS-like grey (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FD84353/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1). This resin was used purely for me to play around to get the best orientation for printing, as well as to check they'll actually fit in the model, rather than any kind of 'working' use - it just doesn't have the necessary strength or rigidity. I find I just haven't got enough experience of printing yet to automatically know what will work (best) and what won't, and I'd rather play with the cheaper(!) resin first so I don't waste the more expensive stuff. Now I've gone through that step, I'll be trying out the e-Sun high-strength resin I mentioned (https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B082VRZ572/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). This will probably have to wait until next weekend now though. John

Here are the first test prints for the inside motion for the Old Class i. For those of you familiar with resin 3D printing, you'll understand how critical getting settings and supports for the prints exactly correct for them to print correctly (or at all). I prefer to print in standard grey ABS-like resin first, as it tends to be the cheapest, meaning failure are less costly. The next phase in their development is to print it in a 'tough' resin (made by e-Sun). I've never used this before, so there will be a lot of experimenting with settings. I'll be interested to see how 'tough' it is, and whether it could be used as a final material for the model, or whether they will need to be cast (which is where I originally envisaged it going). Time will tell. Slide Bars Connecting Rods - the eagle eyed amongst you will notice that the big end needs to be in 2 parts to allow it to be fitted to the crankshaft......doh . Cranks Crosshead Eccentric Sheaves Eccentric straps (2 printed fine, but the other 2 I tried printing in a different orientation, and didn't work). They are a bit bent - this resin isn't really strong enough to stand up to handing/sanding, as the rod is only about 1.5m thick. Expansion Links Balance weights One half of the motion mocked up for a picci

Any updates on this build Rob? I've been enjoying this so far. Also want to get a peek at the expansion link & valve rods, hopefully with all the waggly bits waggling one day

Hi Bob, I'm going for the older wooden brake blocks - they only had 4 of these; no brakes on the middle driving wheels. I think I have the info I need at the moment. I have the Colonel Stephens drawings pinned to my wall. Could look at them all day :-) Currently, I'm fiddling with the inside motion 3D modelling to try and get the correct size, and for it all to work. Nearly there now. Originally, I'd assumed the expansion link was rear of the motion plate, but having seen a drawing from another user on Western Thunder, I've realised it's actually forwards of it, so I've adjusted the CAD model. Hope to print the parts on Friday, with a view to then doing a mockup with scrap brass frames, and then getting them cast. John

Here's the rest of the crank motion - the benefits of 3D modelling this first is that I can check everything fits! And it seems to work so far. Valve gear next.