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TFW’s workshop


CF MRC
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Well, no actually, David. I may be arrogant, but hopefully not that bad. Cruel enlargements.

 

Tim

 

Not arrogance at all, Tim, just brilliant skillsmanship on your part, perhaps your dental training had a part in it. I know I couldn't get close to it these days and I am not at all sure that I could have done several decades ago even though I could achieve things then (or so the photos tell me) that would be out of the question today.

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At last the brake gear is complete and rigged (representative, rather than accurate).

az9lrb.jpg

 

The close up shows it filling in the bottom half of the chassis

zumwoy.jpg

 

It scarcely shows in the general view, as it is currently too black.

5u49g.jpg

 

Lord President is almost complete on the LHS. There is a gubbins on the front of the Cartazzi frame extensions that ought to be modelled, but I don’t have a decent image or drawing of it. And of course the whistle and safety valves: a nice little turning job in non-tarnishing alloy.

 

Would be nice to get some good photos, before LP enters the paint shops.

 

Tim

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I turned up the whistle from my first wife’s original engagement ring. The feed pipe is 0.3mm diameter

dg2dde.jpg

 

After removing from the collet, the vertical mouth was gashed in with a slitting file.

av3qs4.jpg

 

Finally the whistle was Araldited into the smoke box. There will be a little bit of clean-up of the adhesive needed after it has set.

23krbew.jpg

 

Tim

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The whistle now cleaned up and looks better without a clag of Araldite.

140w5c9.jpg

 

I also made the Flaman speedometer bracket and drive this evening. The A frame was made from nickel silver strip and a piece of brass tube: the whole assembly was silver soldered for strength and to make it easy to attach to the running plate with soft solder. The drive shaft is 0.3mm pivot steel, located in the ashpan support and also under the cab. It gives a good deal of stiffness to the assembly.

2zdre6f.jpg

 

Afraid I bottled out of putting the return crank on the rear crank pin. The ashpan linkage is next - that will be a bit tricky to insinuate around the speedometer drive.

 

Tim

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I thought that the ashpan linkage would be simpler if it was made out of a single piece of nickel silver, so I bent up a strip of 20thou nickel silver. The bend needed annealing to prevent work hardening and fracture.

2s7fbpc.jpg

 

Inside this shape was a linkage trying to get out after some filing. It’s beginning to take shape.

2wc3ax1.jpg

 

After a bit more work the forked joint at he pivot was filed in to the thick N/S and the rear pivot bent into place.

s3m5i1.jpg

 

It was then bent again towards the Cartazzi extension frames to gain support at that end.

12480nd.jpg

 

The frames were notched to take the inward extension piece and, with it soldered both ends, it is nice and sturdy.

awvo8z.jpg

 

It clears the speedo drive, just, which is good because otherwise the sparks would fly!

2z8c7jq.jpg

 

So, six years to the day from starting, Lord President is complete and ready for the paintshops. Most of the work has been undertaken in the last two and half years and written up on RM Web. I’ll probably check it out in the next few weeks on the MRC test track and maybe start painting after the Missendon Abbey weekend. So not so many posts for a while....Hope you’ve enjoyed it, as much as I have.

35kj4g2.jpg

29626td.jpg

 

Tim

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Tim came down from his garret long enough for me to photograph a freshly sand-blasted P2.

 

Here's a taster.

post-7249-0-84707100-1519399597_thumb.jpg

 

The blasting has evened out a lot of the witness marks which were evident in the close-up shots.

 

It also made the loco easier to photograph. Not quite "workshop grey" but pretty close to it.

 

Mark

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It’s grit blasted with 27um alumina at 2 bar pressure using a commercial dental laboratory device, Brian. Can be quite gentle and obviously used very carefully on the white metal. The handrails were removed before blasting and the polished gold whistle protected by some soft liquid masking film. The airbraded surface gives a good key for painting.

 

Tim

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First introduction of the P2 to the airbrush. Red oxide ‘cellulose’ primer from a rattle can dispensed via the air brush. A few blemishes to sort out, but better than I expected - although matt colours are very forgiving of course.

infn0m.jpg

My Doncaster Apple Green cellulose was last disturbed 15 years ago when the 8’ single was painted: it had become very thick, on opening yesterday. Re-constituting it with thinners and lots of stirring has slightly improved it, but for sure it will need filtering.

 

Tim

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After filling a couple of silver solder porosities in the Wooten firebox and a very light rub down, the P2 has had a second coat of primer. The photo picks up two witness marks filed in to the top of the boiler cladding to show where the boiler bands will go. On a conventional round boiler, I turn very minimal grooves to achieve the same result.

mw9njm.jpg

This will again be rubbed down with very fine abrasive paper before the apple green is sprayed.

My tin of green had become very gloopy.

2pt0z29.jpg

It was therefore strained through a nylon stocking into a glass jar.

wb2vtj.jpg

oa9gue.jpg

Looking at the sediment that had accrued, there was no way that was going to go through a deVilbiss air brush and give a decent finish. Time will tell if it’s been successful. I often strain paint in the big scale stuff that I do: it’s surprising what comes out sometimes.

 

Tim

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Well the paint filtering worked well. After a careful rub down of the primer, a first light ‘tack’ coat of apple green was sprayed onto the tender. This was left to dry off for a few moments (don’t forget that cellulose paints dry very quickly).

9azsc1.jpg

 

A large volume of cellulose was then applied so as to give a ‘wet’ surface. Paint runs are less likely to occur because the ‘tack coat’ will ‘hold’ the paint.

20h8v8m.jpg

 

If there are any blemishes then the new paint surface can be flooded with another heavy spray coat of thinners that will soften and then flatten the surface. There was, indeed, a hiccup in spraying the engine and so this flooding technique was applied here.

2ccmpad.jpg

 

By it’s streamlined nature, the P2 is quite easy to spray because there aren’t many awkward corners to catch overspray. After a day under the lamp, both tender and engine were rubbed down again to give a smooth finish before the last top coat.

i3sc5f.jpg

 

The blue leatherette mat is useful for supporting the model whilst working on it, being slightly compliant and not damaging the paint. The lack of a securing bolt for the mud hole doors is a great advantage at this stage, when rubbing down the firebox area. We’re back to the brown in some areas, where the paint thickness allows a better finish to be achieved.

25014km.jpg

 

The final top coat has come out OK and will be improved by gentle T-cutting when hard. The final photo shows the disposable plastic pipettes that I use for dispensing the thinners (non-blooming) and the paint. The two are actually mixed in the spray cup. The air brush is run through with thinners alone quite often to keep it clean and flowing nicely.

2u3z0r4.jpg

 

The problem I have is that the last painting and lining I did was on a 3/4 ton model, so this is quite a steep learning curve! Many of the above techniques are well explained in Ian Rathbone’s excellent book on painting and lining.

 

Tim

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Quite a successful session spraying today.

 

1zzj6eo.jpg

The engine and tender were firstly masked using Tamiya 6mm tape, which is jolly good stuff.

 

2na4kth.jpg

Most of the large black areas have been made black. I have discussed with Ian how to paint and line the front end and a cunning plan has evolved....

 

Tim

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The front curved junction between the smoke box black and apple green is quite subtle on an A4/P2 front end. The line passes through the second handrail knob and is then straight back to the chimney rear. The curves at the front end feed back to the corner of the blast pipe and streamline casing and then do a jinx round this. The problem is that if the smoke box black is masked and put on first - not a trivial exercise - then the lining has to be made to accomodate that. So, discussing this with Ian Rathbone, it became clear that the trick is to do the lining first. Even so, determining where it should go is tricky and making some marks with a dark green permanent marker gave me something to aim at.

68ro6g.jpg

15ude9.jpg

 

A twisted straight edge was made out of styrene sheet to guide the bow pen on the straight bit: the photos shows it in place after use.

2ypdw5x.jpg

 

The white (actually grey) Humbrol gloss line was put on.

2cwln49.jpg

 

There will obviously be errors, but these can be reduced by judicious use of a cocktail stick, dampened with lighter fuel.

zblg2.jpg

 

The black border was then applied in Humbrol gloss paint using a long thin brush, laying alongside the white line until it came down to an acceptable width.

28any82.jpg.

 

With it all dried off under a lamp overnight, the apple green and lining were masked off with Tamiya tape and a really useful masking solution from Japan (Google U.K. suppliers)

15fsz84.jpg

 

It is water soluble and can be painted with some finesse using a fine brush.

rkuh02.jpg

 

It can be used to make sure that the ordinary tape is also well sealed.

2mhv5vn.jpg

 

After spraying the tapes and masking solution are peeled off very carefully. This is within 20 minutes of spraying the cellulose: better to remove the tapes before the paint becomes hard and brittle. Very nerve racking: a bit like a plastic surgeon removing post-op bandages!

2jg6yph.jpg

 

The weathering varnish will tone down the whole assembly when complete.

2ptcdus.jpg

24zj4zo.jpg

 

If it were a blue’un, the engine would be painted and lined by now....

 

Tim

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Amazing work Tim - it looks amazing! 

 

Are there any sources of cellulose paint these days? I've leafed through Ian's book before, but been put off by the fact that a lot of his methods seem to revolve around cellulose, which I haven't ever actually seen for sale. I can't imagine you'd ever be able to get the hardness and durability that you need to do the rubbing down and cleaning up that you'd done there if you'd had to use enamel apple green?

 

Justin 

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All paints can be rubbed down Justin, it’s just that oil based paints take longer to harden. I always put the engine under a lamp when finished to accelerate the drying process. Colin Wesson sells some colours in cellulose.

 

Tim

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Amazing work Tim - it looks amazing! 

 

Are there any sources of cellulose paint these days? I've leafed through Ian's book before, but been put off by the fact that a lot of his methods seem to revolve around cellulose, which I haven't ever actually seen for sale. I can't imagine you'd ever be able to get the hardness and durability that you need to do the rubbing down and cleaning up that you'd done there if you'd had to use enamel apple green?

 

Justin 

 

It's available but you have to go to specialist paint suppliers and you may find you have to buy in much larger quantities than normal.

 

Here's one supplier:

http://www.craftmasterpaints.co.uk/products/automotive-cellulose/

"Please note we can only sell Automotive Cellulose for use on Classic Vehicles."

The elfin safety brigade have a lot to answer for.

 

A far cry from when you could pop into pretty much any car spares place and buy a small tin of cellulose "Brushing Belco".

 

Enamel paint will harden but takes a lot longer.  As Tim says, heat helps, but it's a different technique.  Giles Favell uses enamels and gets some stunning results.  The Garrat in this thread has a very realistic finish.

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/96274-denton-brook-7mm-industrial/

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If you put a model under a lamp to help harden the paint, be very careful that there are no plastic parts. At best the heat from the lamp will soften them, at worst you will end up with distortion or even a total melt. Guess how I found out?

 

A fan heater might be better if there are plastic parts involved.

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If you put a model under a lamp to help harden the paint, be very careful that there are no plastic parts. At best the heat from the lamp will soften them, at worst you will end up with distortion or even a total melt. Guess how I found out?

 

A fan heater might be better if there are plastic parts involved.

Got the tee shirt on that one David.

 

Tim

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