Etched Brass Signal Box kit

[ruggedpeak]

I'm a 4mm D&E modeller, with a colleague who is into 2mm. Having seen a review of the T Gauge etched Signal Box kit in Railway Modeller earlier in the year, we thought it would be 'fun' to try this out. Two kits arrived shortly after ordering from Tgauge.com http://www.tgauge.com/product/307/5/signal-box-kit

 

Apparently this was their first etched kit in this scale. As a long time 4mm modeller and ex-plastic kit military modeller with no etch experience, it seemed like a good idea as a first try in etch. OK, I'm joking, trying to build a 1:450 etched kit is clearly not for beginners, but I needed a distraction from work and studying. I didn't photogrpah the build as it was intense trying to fold tiny items, plus my fingers were mostly glued together with super glue!

 

Suffice to say you will definitely need fine tweezers, a magnifier, and a lot of patience. I found that my RB etch bender, despite being designed for small parts wasn't much use as they are just too small. The first task was to take the etch of the signal levers and fold them concertina-style together to create the bank of levers for inside the cabin. It took me quite a few goes over a number of weeks to get them into something reasonable. The object in front of the 1:76 Land Rover is two levers glued together. And that is about 1/10 of the length that had to be folded and glued. And yes, they even have the release levers at the top of the each lever, not really visible in the pic but they are there!

 

 

I did manage to paint the window frames white, so that worked. Also inside is a stove with front doors and it links to the chimney. The interior is assembled on the cabin floor, then the glazing panels are glued together to form an internal shell for the building, then the outer walls are folded and glued. The external stairs and porch is an interesting exercise in folding and gluing. The model has roof ridge tile strips for the main roof and porch, and gable end woodwork for both as well. Folding the ridge tile strip, especially the porch one took some ingenuity given its tiny size. I used the bend insert from the RB tool to pin the part down on my cutting board, then used a scalpel blade to fold up one side to get the bend down the middle.

 

One thing I didn't have was a syringe or something to deliver precise amounts of glue, and it shows. A sharpened match and paper clip didn't work very well. I will paint it at some point as a separate exercise. However I really enjoyed building this kit as it does how the 'wow' factor when you show people because it is so tiny. I am very impressed by the level of detail and if I did another one I know enough know to do a much better job. A useful experience.

 

 

 

 

This is the box in the back of an Oxford Diecast 1:76 Land Rover 107
 

 

And next to a 4Track Model 1:76 garden shed!