Smallbrook Studio 'Cardea'

[Lord_Woody]

A few years back I bought a Hornby 0-4-0 chassis with the idea of motorising a Tomy tram, to make a little 0-16.5 railcar. This proved beyond my limited capabilities and the chassis has hung around for ages, I couldn't even remember which chassis it was. Luckily I asked Michael at Smallbrook, who thought it was a Hornby Bill and Ben and kindly sent me a footplate from one of his kits to check the fit. It was a perfect match for his Cardea loco, so I ordered the complete kit and here I am, I don't know how many years since I built a kit, having a go. At this point I've assembled the footplate, with steps and buffer beams, glued the rear of the cab in place, glued all the glazing and detailed the drivers controls. The picture with the cab front and sides is just propped there, to encourage me! I've found superglue perhaps a bit easier than I expected, the worst thing so far has been gluing in the glazing, the suggested evo-stik being a complete disaster, placing strands of glue across the glazing, so I bought some fractionally thicker glazing from Model Junction ( great model shop) in Bury St Edmunds , plus some acrylic glue specifically for glazing and it went in ok. I'll keep this thread updated as I progress! I am aware that the loco on which this is based is an 0-6-0, but I was so pleased to find any body kit that fitted my chassis that I'm prepared to overlook that small detail. I'm aiming for something which looks half decent and runs well, historical accuracy is low on the list at the moment!

Edited January 1, 2020 by Lord_Woody

[Lord_Woody]

I've moved on a bit now, with all the main body parts in place. The hardest part was attaching the sides and front of the cab. I tacked the left side with glue, just where it met the rear cab moulding, then did the same with the other side, but once I attached the front I realised there were some fit issues and I had to take the front and sides off the cab, remove some excess plastic before making a second attempt to get everything in place whilst checking it was all as square as possible. There is some bowing and fractional distortion to some of the parts, and this has to be allowed for and amended whilst gluing. I fixed the radiator grille flush with the buffer beam as per the instructions but once glued I realised the bonnet was fractionally short. My attempts to unstick the rad. and move it back a fraction was unsuccessful so I decided to leave well alone and the subsequent gap at the rear will be filled with milliput. Before I fix the roof I'm going to fill any gaps and rub down a few glue marks, then I'll start adding the grab rails and smaller body details, before adding the roof last of all, as I'm a bit nervous about getting the curve right and getting it on square. The photos are rather unforgiving as there appears a lot of excess glue in places, especially in the front cab corners, but a bit of fine sandpaper has already improved these greatly, so I'm reasonably optimistic for a passable result finally.

Edited January 3, 2020 by Lord_Woody

[Lord_Woody]

I'm adding details now, horn and air filter are affixed to pins to give them strength, front lamp was just too small to attach via a thin brass rod so I glued it directly to the bonnet top, the brass hand rails worried me a bit but despite a couple of heart stopping moments when wire popped out of the tiny supports, it's all glued in place, I'll wait until tomorrow to trim the wire ends. Next worrying task is bending the cab handrails out of brass and getting them all the right length.

[Lord_Woody]

Finally at painting stage now, I know the rainstrips should be at the edge of the roof, but dealing with micro strip not much bigger than a hairs width and getting it in the right place was just too much, at least they're equally spaced on either side, I ended up realising that was the best I could expect. The door handles took about 4 attempts to fix, 2mm long .5mm brass rods, bent at right angles, and then glued at the end and placed in a tiny hole,just love to take flight, never to be seen again. There are 4 windscreen wipers to add but I decided they would be better fixed after painting and weathering, so I can get  clear access to the glass. I've done a test strip of glazing masked with watercolor liquid mask, took two coats but worked well, so tomorrow I'll give the body a good clean, then mask the windows and have a go at it with my Tamiya grey primer, which is probably going to be the body colour, with black footplate and steps. That's the plan anyway!

 

[Lord_Woody]

Got the paint on, as usual showing all the imperfections in the photo, but overall looking ok for a first attempt. I've uncovered one of the masked windows to check it worked ok, and I've got a bit of black overspray on the bonnet but as I'm going to weather it anyway I'm going to leave that. I'm going to touch up a few bits on the black, let it dry overnight then have a go at weathering tomorrow.

 

 

[Lord_Woody]

For anyone still awake, finally finished and chassis fitted. Photography is rather unforgiving and there are a few visible flaws, but overall I'm quite pleased with the result. I've added some lead sheet to the underside of the footplate so it feels quite a weighty little thing, and despite some small Hornby chassis having a reputation for poor low speed running this is a great little runner at all speeds. The body colour is Tamiya primer which initially I weathered quite heavily, but decided the effect wasn't good enough so masked it again and resprayed, with just a small amount of the original weathering showing through, and a little bit heavier on the black areas. The rainstrip on the roof became detached when I washed the loco prior to painting and resisted all attempts to refix, so I trimmed it down equally and left it as is. I've enjoyed my first kit, and am already eyeing up my next one.

[Lord_Woody]

When I view this on my phone, it looks OK, on my big monitor, the flaws look greatly magnified! Just wanted to add it looks better in the flesh than on screen, honestly!

[Mountain Goat]

Hello. I have just joined. How is your loco coming along? I have just seen this thread. I happen to have a similar kit in the latter stages of construction. I origionally bought a new Toby the Tram for the donor chassis, but then I decided to adapt the body and fit a slightly shortened Lima 09 chassis instead. It took a lot of work to do, but I did eventually get it to fit.  I get modelling spurts where I do lots and then I live in dreamland for the rest of the time, so I have many half finished projects on the go. This one is awaiting the smaller details and the roof has not yet been fitted as I want to add some locomotive crew to it. 

Due to the way the pancake motor needs to be hidden  and crammed into the body, the motor sits under the bonnet. Many alterations to the kit were made in order to get it all to fit, and also fit within the loading gauge width of my 7mm narrow gauge loco lift (Built from a Peco loco lift). It is all good fun!

 

I am experimenting with this site so I hope the photograph works. 

Edited June 3, 2020 by Mountain Goat