Finney 7 Drummond

[Petebe]

YAY.  At last it's here, arrived today and the snow is to blame for the late arrival !!!!!!

 

My sane room cleaned and prepped 

 

The package      The blue box

 

So what's inside

 

Got to say the castings are soooo good

 

Right now for the reading of the instructions ( should take a couple of mins lol )

 

I was going to Kettering tomorrow, unfortunately the weather has put paid to that. So I wonder what I'm going to do with myself. Something will turn up I'm sure.

 

Please any input would be more than welcome.

 

Time to get my head into gear

 

Pete

[michl080]

Pete,

 

very impressive, both your new kit and your clean workspace ...

 

Michael

[PAD]

Hi Pete,

Sorry you could not make Kettering. The Duchess ran well on the test track which is less than perfect, so I was well pleased. I can get it stripped down for painting now.

 

The show was very quiet and many many of the traders did not make it. Still I got the various bits and pieces on my shopping list and had a good chat with the guys from Finney 7.

 

You must have been like a kid with a new toy when the parcel arrived. Looking forward to seeing your progress, but don't forget the Duchess.

 

Cheers,

Peter

Edited March 4, 2018 by PAD

[DLT]

I shall be following with interest,

Thanks, Dave.

[Petebe]

Hi all

 

Thanks Mich got to say it doesn't always look like that.

 

Peter I just posted on your Finney build. I'm glad she ran well, Shame I missed Her. Yeah Christmas and Birthday rolled into one. And I could never forget her Ladyship.

 

DLT  Hope I don't disappoint.

 

OK

 

As I started to read the instruction I came upon a word which was reamer!!!!! The only reamers I have are for King pins and the old Mini rear swing arms. The reamer is for the axle boxes.

 

I could always use the old, drill, Strip of coarse emery cloth and a square file method.  I will probably use it again, so onto the Net. Maidstone eng Supplies has one, so a nice little 

 

trip into Kent today. Find somewhere for a bit of lunch.

 

I have made a start but I forgot to down load the pics so I'll do that later.

 

Pete

[Petebe]

So much for my day out !!!!!!! I phoned Maidstone eng supplies only to be told the reamer, although showing one in stock, wasn't there. So lunch was bacon butties and Bargain Hunt !!!!

 

I have located another and have ordered it so it should be here in a few days. Is a 5/32 reamer something every good 7mm modeller has in his tool box?

 

The Bogie.

 

I've just cleaned the bogie sides and axle boxes for now. Going to wait until the wheels and the reamer arrives. I was going to buy the wheels at Kettering. Sorry pic not to good and that's not a scratch!!

 

The instructions suggest making a jig for the suspension and equalising beams, align and solder. Holding it all in my hand I could see this was going to be a bit tricky.

 

Also it would make it hard to file and clean the leaf springs, so I decided to laminate the leaf springs separately then add the beams.

 

After soldering you can see it looks more like a saw

 

Now after a file 

 

Using the same jig I soldered on the beams. This is far easier than the method suggested. 

 

Coupling rods and frames next.

 

 

Pete

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Petebe]

I'm going to model 30053. I know it was around at the time of the layout I have in mind.

 

I was born and brought up in Kingston upon Thames. My Granny and Grandpa used to pick me up (we all lived in the same road in north Kingston) and we would walk into Town, past the Marshalling yard

and into town. We used to get a Trolley Bus home.

So Kingston is going to be my layout. It's got it all for the modeller. Power station, Gas works, sidings, coal yard river and lots more. Child hood memories.

30053 pulled the Surrey Wanderer to Shepperton 5th July 1964. I don't know if it passed Richmond or Kingston on that day but there's every chance she was used on the Loop.

 

So if anybody can help with photos or information or suggest books, internet I would be grateful.

 

Pete

[Petebe]

Hi all

 

I haven't done much lately as I put a hole in my thumb right on the pad. Bloody painful holding things. OUCH I said when I did it !!!!

 

Here are the coupling rods. Straight forward lamination and polish. 

 

On with the hornblocks. I decided to go with the compensation beams, so I also purchased the add on kit. You have to read the instructions carefully as they are on the main

plans and also the instructions within the add on kit. I read them several times getting a building sequence in my head. I have made a bit of a boo boo but I'm not telling as It all seems

to work ok. 

 

and after soldering

 

The instructions tell you to fit the rear hornblocks to the chassis before assembling the frame. Careful alignment with the etched lines is essential, so making the axles to align.

 

Two gripes. 1st. The frame spacers. For scale 7 the widest are used, for finescale the same only you have to file them to 26mm across. That's 0.25mm off each side. I mean really guys, seriously. 

The spacers with nice crisp edges and right angles. I did as I was told.

 

2nd; turn two hornblock alignment jigs from 3/16 steel. I don't own a lathe!!! 

As my grandfather used to say "there's more than one way to skin a cat"

 

Frame assembled 

 

My jig to make sure everything is aligned. When I was happy the front hornblocks were soldered in place.

 

My reamer arrived, so back to the bogie. Soldered up the frame and axle boxes then reamered as per instructions.

 

The completed bogie

 

And with the chassis. The picture taken in such a way so you can't see my boo boo!!!!

 

I have taken a vid of the chassis rolling down an inclined piece of track. Not sure if I can up load so I'm going to try separately.

 

All seem to be ok so far, so I'm now going to finish the chassis and fit the motor and pick ups. I'm going to use the ones I bought for the Duchess, I can easily replace them.

 

Pete.

 

[Petebe]

Ok now for the vid 

 

didn't work. Anyone out there to tell me how. Peter(Pad) has done it, I think through youtube but I don't know how.

 

Pete

[Oldddudders]

The Surrey Wanderer ran out from Waterloo via Twickenham to Shepperton, with 30053 in the lead. 78038 then headed the train to Wimbledon via Kingston.

[Horsetan]

Ok now for the vid 

 

didn't work. Anyone out there to tell me how. Peter(Pad) has done it, I think through youtube but I don't know how.

 

If you have uploaded your vid to YouTube, you need to click on "Share" to obtain the weblink, then copy and paste the weblink to here. The weblink will most likely start with "https:"; remove the "s" from that; it should then play directly here.

[PAD]

Hi Pete,

Nice work so far.

Cheers,

Peter

[jdb82]

Ok now for the vid 

 

didn't work. Anyone out there to tell me how. Peter(Pad) has done it, I think through youtube but I don't know how.

 

Pete

 

 

If you have uploaded your vid to YouTube, you need to click on "Share" to obtain the weblink, then copy and paste the weblink to here. The weblink will most likely start with "https:"; remove the "s" from that; it should then play directly here.

 

Once you have uploaded the video to YouTube and copied the link as per Horsetan's instructions, you can then go to the full editor in RMWeb (click the "reply with attachments" button), click on the "Special BBCode" (third from the top left), choose 'media' and paste in your YouTube link. This embeds the video into your post :-)

[Petebe]

So I now have fitted the chassis overlays which make quite a difference cosmeticly. 

 

There is very little space between the wheels and the frame, and I tried to fit plunger contacts. I didn't want to fit them as per instructions, drilling through the overlays and the thickness of the contact collar, I didn't think

there was enough room. They needed to be as close to the axle centre line as pos but just above the overlay and with a bit of sanding to make the collars thinner gave me the clearance.

 

Unfortunately I hadn't fully thought this through as It will get in the way of the weigh shaft. So I think the only way is to use scrapers. I can fill the hole later when I have worked out how to fit said scrapers.

Need to find out how much room when the body is fitted so I'll put aside the chassis for now and build the body.

 

The instructions are so clear and easy to follow (when you read them properly) so align the footplate and the footplate overlay and solder through the rear etched panels first, the rest is then straight forward.

Luckily there are lots of pic of 30053 so I could pick the correct valences, splashers, bufferbeams etc.

 

The splashers were a bit tricky to do, especially getting the curves right for the coupling rod splasher. Anyway I got there in the end.

 

Then finally the sanding rods.

 

I'm quite pleased with myself, looking good.

 

[PAD]

Hi Pete,

Vey nice clean work. I see you have a slight dink in the running plate edge just ahead of the left hand splasher. If there's one thing I don't like about the Finney kits it's the scale thickness edges. They are so vulnerable during the build and I've lost count of the number of times I have had to straighten the edge on the A3. Personally I'd be happier with a bit more meat on the edges.

Cheers,

Peter.

[david.hill64]

Hi Pete,

Vey nice clean work. I see you have a slight dink in the running plate edge just ahead of the left hand splasher. If there's one thing I don't like about the Finney kits it's the scale thickness edges. They are so vulnerable during the build and I've lost count of the number of times I have had to straighten the edge on the A3. Personally I'd be happier with a bit more meat on the edges.

Cheers,

Peter.

I have wondered a few times whether it would be worthwhile tacking a piece of square brass outside of the valances to protect the edges during assembly.

[ian@stenochs]

Hi Pete,

Vey nice clean work. I see you have a slight dink in the running plate edge just ahead of the left hand splasher. If there's one thing I don't like about the Finney kits it's the scale thickness edges. They are so vulnerable during the build and I've lost count of the number of times I have had to straighten the edge on the A3. Personally I'd be happier with a bit more meat on the edges.

Cheers,

Peter.

No don’t. The scale thickness is just fine unlike the great thick footplates on David Andrews Kits. My Jubilee has been stalled for a long time while I contemplate replacing the footplate and a few other bits for scale parts.

 

I had hoped that the next Finney kit would have been a Jubilee rather than that B thing!

 

Ian.

[Petebe]

Thanks guys you're too kind.

 

And thanks for pointing that out Peter but I had noticed that dam dink after I had posted. It looks a lot worst in the pic, highlighted by the shadow, anyway it's now dedinked. I checked the whole footplate and couldn't find any others.

 

I take your point David, it only takes a small knock but as Peter points out maybe a little more meat. There again as Ian says, it is a scale thickness. Hayho might try and get me some kid cloves!!!!

 

Pete.

[Petebe]

Hi

 

Just want to share something. I have found these printers block spacers sooooo useful. I have had them for Donkeys years.

 

As you can see they will fit where a square wont and you don't have to hold them in place, also they are imperial. Just keep them away from heat or they will turn into liquid within a millisecond.

 

 

On with the build.

 

The smoke box was a bit tricky. I always do a dry run first, so after all the riveting of the front former, I rolled the smoke box wrapper using the riveted one. Something not quite right as the wrapper wasn't going to fit round the front top of fromer

 

then following the etched lines at the bottom inside the former. There is a choice of front formers and a another wrapper with out rivets which had the right profile, so I used it as a template. As you can see from the pics. 

 

 

With all these different parts for different version, a little more info within the instructions would have been helpful. Would have been easier to modify wrapper when flat!!!

 

Very happy with the result.

 

 

The boiler was next. It is difficult to roll with the bands, but with a lot of perseverance I got there in the end. 

 

There is a spacer between the smoke box and boiler which the edge has to be rounded on the boiler side. Nut and bolt though the hole and into the drill, and using a 800 grit paper, carefully formed the curve.

 

The boiler and the smoke box are screwed together by a 6BA bolt after first tapping the ns spacer on the boiler front. 

 

 

The cab so far is straight forward. Everything just fits together very nicely. 

 

Dry run, nothing fixed. And inverted.

 

 

 

And then soldered 

 

 

The boiler now temporarily fitted to see if everything lines up which I'm very happy to say it does.

 

 

So far so good

 

Pete

[PAD]

Hi Pete,

Coming on nicely. I like the printers blocks, but if they can't stand heat then I guess you can't use them for holding parts square while you solder them. I have some short lengths of square section wooden rod that I use when soldering. For just checking squareness in tight space an OO back to back gauge is quite handy.

Cheers,

Peter

[Petebe]

More progress has been made.

 

The rear window grills

 

A lot of cleaning up, not easy with my sausage fingers. Held in place with the old Blu-tack and soldered in place.

 

Then aligned and soldered onto back plate.

 

Next I formed the inner top section with a tricky curve. Forgot to take pic of process. And in place.

 

All looking ok so far.

 

Time to put the boiler assembly in place permanently. I thought about having the boiler detachable but as I'm going to paint her black, the extra work involved was not going to make a difference in painting or anything else.

 

The boiler assembly

 

The rounded ns insert looks good. Well pleased. And yes I have spotted a little bit of solder on the rivets which has now been removed.

 

Now in place and with the hand rails.

 

Everything has aligned beautifully and with very little fettling. Also added the cylinder cover.

 

The cab window surrounds. I drew around the openings to make a plan, and with pins, blu-tack and plastic tube, formed the surround.

 

Then soldered in place. I used a couple of pins just to make sure the hand rails were vertical which they are. It's a shame there painted because I used pins on the hand rails of my Terrier as they are chrome. 

 

On to the side tanks. Pretty straight forward.

 

Using my printing spacer, tack then solder.

 

Then soldered in place.

 

The filler just put in place.

 

Most of the white metal will be painted first and then epoxyed in place. That way I can get a much better finish, and it's much easier to sand/wet and dry.

 

I know how much you Guys like your gratuitous shoots, so here's mine.

 

So far so good.

[david.hill64]

Coming along nicely: you'll need another distraction. I had better chase the caster for the Duchess box......you didn't think I had forgotten did you?

[Petebe]

Thanks Guys

 

As a newby this site makes one feel welcome. A friendly bunch one and all.

 

David at no time had I thought you had forgotten me. After all you are Mr Customer Service. Looks like you have found another Co to cast the fire box. A bit of rotten luck JLTRT went bust. Her Ladyship sits on a shelf above 

my work top always in view.

 

Pete

[PAD]

Hi Pete,

Looking good. Absolutely agree on soldering the boiler. For an all black loco having it detachable doesn't bring any benefit.

 

You mention that:-

"Most of the white metal will be painted first and then epoxyed in place. That way I can get a much better finish, and it's much easier to sand/wet and dry."

 

I don't understand how that can give a better finish. If the parts are already painted and you have to then epoxy them in place, surely you run the risk of damaging the paint, either with stray glue or removing it. Can you explain please.

Cheers,

Peter

[Petebe]

Hi Peter

 

I take your point but with care and using glue sparingly I find it a lot easier. I have always pre painted where possible and have the results to prove. My first loco build the Stroudley Terrier ( just over a year ago ) I completed the build then painted her, I found it very difficult 

 

to hold while I tried to sand/wet & dry after primer and that reflected on the final coat. It's fine as long as you don't get too close

 

I have also noticed in the photos of any Loco you can see where, for instance, the chimney is bolted on and by spraying in situ that line is lost.

 

I have been modelling now for over 50 years ( and still looking good ) and have always pre painted ( except Terrier ) and anyway you can always blend in with an air brush.

 

The Duchess for instance will be painted before I fit the lube pipes so they stay unpainted copper I did the same with the boiler back. Although all the pipes were soldered into their respected units, the units were then epoxyed in place after the boiler back was painted.

 

I guess it's horse's for courses. You go with your own proven method.

 

I hope I've explained myself 

 

Pete