millimetre1067

Thanks Bucoops. Will get a Slimliner and Slimliner Compact to play around with.

Looking for some suggestions for a gearbox or worm & gear combination for a scratchbuild. I’m building a ‘Colonial mogul’ (2-6-0), not the first I’ve done, but in the past I’ve used a Roco gear and worm. I can still get the worm, but the gear appears to no longer be available. The loco is HO scale, but running on 10.5mm gauge track (HOn3). The drivers are 11mm diameter with a 2mm axle. Seeing as as there are some amazing models produced and displayed here, I was hoping someone could point me in the direction of a supplier that could assist. Couple of photos attached of my previous builds. Thanks, Adrian

Thanks Bob. It certainly tested my eyes to the point I had to buy a magnifier lamp to do some of the work. It runs well on my test track and I managed to jam a heck of a lot of lead into it to get it balanced. Real test will be when the group layout gets put up next! Cheers, Adrian Crimes.

Some 20 years ago I began to scratch build a model of a South Australian Railways Wx class. In the 1950’s, these were the smallest locos operating on the SAR system. I don’t know why, but I could never gain much enthusiasm for the project and many other projects were gladly pushed ahead of it. However in early 2017 I’d run out of projects that needed completing and set a goal of having it completed for the local modelling convention in September of that year. Unfortunately I missed that target, but it was completed in time for the 2018 convention. It is HO scale, built to run on 10.5mm gauge track (a local quirk, as 12mm track is much closer to the scale 3’6” gauge that these actually ran on) and mostly built of brass. A few photos attached of what I had starting in 2017 up to completion. The pile of bits I started with. Chassis gains cylinders and motion. Tender ready for painting featuring the lovely rivet decals that are available these days. There is a Swiss ‘Minimotor’ branded motor squeezed in the tender to drive the loco. Loco taking shape. The wires poking out from behind the smokebox are for the feed to the headlight & marker lights. Finished loco.

Wow, that is stunning! The Anycubic Photon is the first 3D printer that has looked worth investing in. The wagon looks like what I would like to make in 3.5mm. I figure I could print the bodies and cast the chassis components in whitemetal off a 3D printed master.

I machine my domes in a lathe, file the underside of the dome to the boiler profile and then using some thin brass shim rolled to the same profile, solder the dome to the shim (with plenty of solder) to get a nice radiussed joint. Then cut/ file the shim to shape.