Duncan's 7mm Workbench - Connoisseur 4F Tender Cab

[Fastdax]

Some nice work going on here Duncan really love the work on the lowmac...

 

Thanks George!

[Fastdax]

SR/BR VAN C / BY

 

It's been a while since I posted but things are slowly moving on.

 

Recently I built a Slaters kit 7C022 SR/BR Van BY kit. I did use the etched Slaters sprung W-irons and hornblocks, but the weight of the van (240g) would have kept the springs permanently compressed (which isn't such a bad thing) but at well below the proper ride height (which is).

 

So I glued one axle rigid and made a central bearing for the other axle to rock on, giving 3-point compensation. The cosmetic springs are fixed to the solebars and W-irons and the axleboxes float with the hornblock bearings.

 

Here it is, with its primer coat:

 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Deeley Dock Tank (Nearly) Finished!

 

I realised I never posted an update on the 0F Deeley Dock Tank.

 

Well it's about finished now,  painted, weathered and numbered as 41528. It's got a Zimo sound decoder in, with Paul Chetter sound. It still needs coal and a crew.

 

 

Here's a quick video of it hauling a short goods out of the station, under computer control.

 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Just to say I started a new thread on a Photo Plank that I'm building.

 

It's a nice, self-contained project and I don't want to break the (very tenuous) thread of continuity here, so I made it a separate thing.

 

Progress still continues slowly on the Kirk coaches. More here soon, I hope.

[georgeT]

On 09/05/2019 at 17:50, Fastdax said:

SR/BR VAN C / BY

 

It's been a while since I posted but things are slowly moving on.

 

Recently I built a Slaters kit 7C022 SR/BR Van BY kit. I did use the etched Slaters sprung W-irons and hornblocks, but the weight of the van (240g) would have kept the springs permanently compressed (which isn't such a bad thing) but at well below the proper ride height (which is).

 

So I glued one axle rigid and made a central bearing for the other axle to rock on, giving 3-point compensation. The cosmetic springs are fixed to the solebars and W-irons and the axleboxes float with the hornblock bearings.

 

Here it is, with its primer coat:

 

 

 

 

You have made a really good job on the Slaters van Duncan, really nice, what colour will you finish it in ?

[Fastdax]

Ex-Southern green 

 

 

Here it's had the base coat of green, ironwork in white and some very basic underframe weathering.

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[John Tomlinson]

On 13/12/2017 at 12:18, Fastdax said:

Ian Kirk Coaches

 

I'll make the roof removable. This will help when detailing the interior and adding lighting (one day!).

 

To locate the roof, I'm following Mike Cawthorne's article in Barlow Works. Mike is from my local Sheffield 0 Gauge Group.

 

I fitted cant rail gutter strips to the top of the sides, protruding upwards to form a ledge to sit the roof in.

 

 

 

Because I hadn't yet glued the floor in, I could trim the roof to width, chop off the bow ends and slide it up to the ends and scribe a line from the inside.

 

 

 

Once I had trimmed the ends, the roof sits nicely between the cant rail gutters.

 

For now a couple of 'laccy bands hold it in place.

 

 

The bogie mounting plates are also packed up by 1mm and epoxied in place. This puts the buffer beam at the correct height.

 

 

It's starting to look like a coach now!

 

That's a brilliant way to fit the roof, thanks for posting.

 

John.

[Fastdax]

On 08/09/2019 at 16:09, John Tomlinson said:

That's a brilliant way to fit the roof, thanks for posting.

 

John.

 

Thanks John.

[Fastdax]

Ian Kirk Coach

 

OK, where did I leave the composite ex-LMS Period II coach?

 

I think it was last seen in primer but now it's had a coat of maroon from a rattle can:

 

 

 

Ends and underframe in black, then brass grab handles and door handles and acrylic glazing (54 separate bits!). This low-angle shot shows how effective the automatic LED lighting is:

 

 

Some basic underframe weathering was added by airbrush from my pot of generic muck 'n' grot colour:

 

<Sorry - photo has been lost to the mists of time>

 

The pale patches on the sides are dried T-Cut. This will be washed away soon. I want a fairly glossy finish under a final layer of weathering grime, as if the sides have been cleaned recently.

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Ian Kirk Coaches

 

While I'm waiting for transfers for the composite coach to arrive, I made a start on the driving brake third while my mojo is still present and correct.

 

I used the assembly jig from last time and built up the segments for the sides on a 13mm reinforcing strip:

 

 

I made both sides with reference to the various source material already mentioned in this thread. For some reason, these panels are cast in a translucent white plastic instead of brown:

 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Ian Kirk Coaches

 

As I did before, I sanded off most of the moulded detail on the sides - ventilators, handles and bump stops mostly. This was in order to make the door mouldings flush with the windows mouldings because they are a bit too thick as they come off the sprue. I tried to preserve the bolection mouldings round the fixed windows this time.

 

Then I used the drilling jig I made for the last coach to drill holes for the T-handle, grab handle and bump stops:

 

 

... followed by the jig for adding ventilators.  I made enough last time to populate this coach as well:

 

 

For the ends, the compartment end moulding was relieved of its cast-on lamp brackets, jumper cable outlets and buffer bases. i will add new ones of these. For the driving end, I kept the buffer beam but cut off the black plastic end panel and replaced it with transparent styrene sheet. This looks white in the photos because I'm keeping the protective film on as long as possible. I intend to make a brass end sheet with windows, blinds and other details on, then apply it to this transparent end.

 

I also started making up the Wayoh LMS 9' bogies:

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Hal Nail]

On 22/11/2019 at 17:31, Fastdax said:

Ian Kirk Coaches

 

As I did before, I sanded off most of the moulded detail on the sides - ventilators, handles and bump stops mostly. This was in order to make the door mouldings flush with the windows mouldings because they are a bit too thick as they come off the sprue.

Just out of interest, if starting both again from scratch, would you just file the back of the doors to the right thickness or would you prefer to replace details anyway?

 

And how did you do replacement bump stops please - I don't think you mentioned on the first coach. I've just done some with brass etchings on one side and just a tiny sliver of rod on the other and Im not convinced the etchings look any better as hard to trim from the fret consistently.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Hal Nail

[Fastdax]

Hal, I did try to scratch-build the bump stops from drilled styrene strip for the bases with rod for the rubbers, but realised how much of my life I would spend getting all 72 made the same size and lined up properly.

 

So I ended up using these:

 

 

A short-cut perhaps, but - rule 1.

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

14 hours ago, Hal Nail said:

Just out of interest, if starting both again from scratch, would you just file the back of the doors to the right thickness or would you prefer to replace details anyway?

 

 

I think I would opt to replace the details anyway. The cast-in items have no grab-rails at all, so those would need adding. The ventilators don't look like the photos of Period 2 stock that I have, and the T-handles have a strange, round base to them which aren't on the prototype (AFAIK).

 

I would certainly attempt to slim down the door panels a bit more though, to minimise the amount of post-assembly sanding required.

 

[Hal Nail]

6 minutes ago, Fastdax said:

but realised how much of my life I would spend getting all 72 made the same size and lined up properly.

I don't know the answer to that but to do 72 without really getting them the same size or lined up properly is about a week!

 

Thanks for the tip for next time!

[Marshall5]

On 22/11/2019 at 17:31, Fastdax said:

Ian Kirk Coaches

 

 I intend to make a brass end sheet with windows, blinds and other details on, then apply it to this transparent end.

 

 

 

 

Duncan, if they are of any use I have a pair of etched brass driving ends (bolection & flat) left over from a Sidelines p.2 brake third/driving trailer.  I've no use for them but if you can use them P.M. me your address and I'll bung them in an envelope.

Cheers,

Ray.

[Fastdax]

6 hours ago, Marshall5 said:

Duncan, if they are of any use I have a pair of etched brass driving ends (bolection & flat) left over from a Sidelines p.2 brake third/driving trailer.  I've no use for them but if you can use them P.M. me your address and I'll bung them in an envelope.

 

Thanks Ray! PM sent.

[georgeT]

Looking good Duncan its all very neat, l am tackling the valve gear on the West Country l am building not an easy task, watching your progress with interest..

[Fastdax]

12 hours ago, georgeT said:

Looking good Duncan its all very neat, l am tackling the valve gear on the West Country l am building not an easy task, watching your progress with interest..

 

Thanks George. I'll get back onto it when I actually make it home! Work is keeping me 150 miles away from my workbench :-(

 

[Fastdax]

Ian Kirk Coach

 

A step forwards and a step back.

 

The backwards step consisted of realising that I'd assembled one coach side wrong. I had assumed (wrongly) that the guard's compartment doors were mirror images, side-for-side. here, you can see that the double doors are mirrored, with the droplight door nearest the driving end:

 

 

This is wrong, as careful examination of some rather grainy old photos showed. The droplight door is hinged on the left on all droplight doors, compartment or guard's. This makes sense as the builders then only had one style of droplight door to build.

 

So I cut off the upper sections of both doors on the "wrong" side (the right-hand side as seen from the driver's seat in the driving end). The lower parts of the doors were too firmly glued to the backing strip to release, so I cut above this strip:

 

 

 

It will need filling, sanding and drilling but now the droplight is in the right door.

 

For a step forwards, Ray (Marshall5) very kindly posted a couple of spare driving end etches to me for this project. There is a choice of plain or bolection windows, window blinds, a driving compartment divider, and various small bits that I haven't sussed out yet (although part 31 may be the driver's seat):

 

 

Many thanks Ray!

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Fastdax
Reinstating photos.

[Fastdax]

Ian Kirk Coach

 

The errant guard's doors have been filled and sanded. Bump-stops have been added throughout.

 

I added cant rail gutters as I did before and fixed the sides to the compartment end panel. This allowed me to measure the gap between the gutters and trim the roof moulding to width.

 

 

In this picture, the sides and roof are held to the chassis with laccy bands and the whole lot sat on its bogies, but it's starting to look like a coach:

 

 

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Fastdax

[Fastdax]

Ian Kirk Coach

 

I've been fettling the ends to fit under the roof profile.

 

As before, it was a case of sliding the roof up to the inside of the end panel, marking the profile with a sharpie, then cutting and filing the panel to suit.

 

 

 

I also marked the roof profile on the brass end. You can see that the Sidelines brass end has a quite different roof profile to the Kirk roof (and is probably more correct). The brass end is also a couple of mm narrower, but a bit of filler will overcome this when it's planted on the outside of the transparent styrene end panel.

 

 

I also started gluing in the partitions, attached to the sides but not to the roof:

 

 

 

[Fastdax]

Ian Kirk Coach

 

As I did before, I made a couple of false dividers to attach the roof to the chassis. One can go right up against the compartment-end panel but the other is against the panel that divides the driver's cab from the guard's space.

 

 

The white strip of plasticard ensures a small gap under the false divider, so that it doesn't bottom out on the floor before the roof is pulled down tight.

 

Here's a quick video of the coach having its first run. The roof is just sat on the sides, which are just sat on the chassis, which is just sat on the bogies. I added buffers and couplings so that it could be moved properly.

 

 

[Fastdax]

Ian Kirk Coach

 

Seats are going in. Not as many as in the composite coach, but still less interesting than watching the proverbial dry. The sides/ends are also glued to the chassis now. The clamp holds a side in place while the MEK dries.

 

 

The false panels got a single under-seat block of JB Weld at the compartment end:

 

 

... but two smaller blocks on the guard's space panel, as a single one would go right through the middle of the bogie pivot:

 

 

I'll disguise these later as parcels or crates.

 

 

[Fastdax]

Ian Kirk Coach

 

Time to make up the brass driving-end panel. I'm using the etch with provision for bolection mouldings so these were soldered on, but first I punched out the half-etched rivets with reference to photos:

 

 

Here are the three panels from the etch. From left to right - plain (non-bolection) end panel, the bolection panel with window surrounds, rivets and sun-visors in place, and the driver's compartment divider with driver's seat soldered in (but not yet cleaned up):

 

 

My GW rivet press makes fantastic-looking rivets with no distortion:

 

 

To fix on the end panel, I first stripped off the protective film from the transparent styrene and replaced it with clear Sellotape. Then I held the brass panel in place and carefully scored round the inside of the window apertures with a sharp scalpel, which allowed me to peel away most of the Sellotape, leaving bare styrene to glue to, whist leaving masking in the window apertures.

 

Then I could glue the end panel on with Vitalbond CA glue:

 

 

Also in this picture, the lamp-irons have been sweated on and holes drilled for the vacuum brake and regulator pipes. Split pins hold the brass and styrene panels in alignment while the glue sets.