Falcon Brass Star Class

[kandc_au]

Hi,
I have picked up a kit of the above.
Anyone here built one?
Pitfalls/inaccuracies to watch out for?
Couldn't find a thread here on it but wonder if there was one on the old site that anyone may have saved!

Khris

[corneliuslundie]

No knowledge of the Star but I have a Rhymney K class built for me by a friend, and let's just say he ran out of expletives before the end. He ended up providing a scratch built chassis.

Let's hope the Star is really a star.

Jonathan

[hayfield]

Not built the Star but a couple of others, there is a thread on here at the moment of a LNWR Claughton which you may wish to follow

 

You may have issues with the chassis, if possible use a modern designed one, also may be worth swapping the boiler for a brass tube as they are very thin etchings. Most see these more towards an aide to scratch building than an easy to put together kit. From memory the cast/turned parts can be very good/high quality

 

Might seem heresy but might be worth exploring buying a firebox/boiler/smoke boc casting from Southeastern Finecast if you don't fancy either the etching or using a brass tube,  

 

 

[Mike G]

Can't comment on the Star kit, but I did build the County. Threw most of it away, had to scratch build the boiler, firebox, smoke box and lets not forget the splashers. The footplate was the wrong length. Used a Comet chassis. The castings were good. As already said a good intoduction to scratch building. But, strangely enough the tender was great!

 

Mike

[Coach bogie]

Ah so ou bought it off eBay. I did wonder myself just for the tender as a friend has been nagging me to build the eight wheleed Collett tender for him. I have built the Saint which is almost the same.

 

First there is NO slot and tab, so it is a more detailed Jamieson style kit.

 

When opening out the frames holes to take the bushes, open out a bit at a time as the frames are not as strong as they look and can twist.

 

The chassis can be made square and run fine but if the body is not quite straight, then the frames twist to meet the body and are no longer square. So screw the body the body to the frames on a regular basis and make sure all the wheels are  in contact with the rails.

 

When punching out the tender rivets, be gentle as again the brass isn't too thick and can distort easily.

 

Good Luck

 

Mike Wiltshire

 

 

 

 

 

[hayfield]

Just as an aside, etched kits have come a long way since the days of Jedinco, though photo engraving had been around for quite some time prior to Jedinco

 

Kit design and etching processes have improved greatly over the years, especially since cad design and production methods have come on line, simple things like tab and slot or bending a sheet instead of but joining two pieces together. Do we have modellers producing kits for modellers, or businesses trying to design out difficult processes, certainly there is a drive to make models easier to build

 

I assume there is a better understanding of materials and their uses, looking at early Wills Finecast/Southeastern Finecast etches against the more modern Southeastern Finecast products, show a better understanding of both design and materials used. Certainly earlier Jedinco chassis were brass, I believe later changed to nickle silver. Perseverance used 0.44 brass for chassis but nickle silver for coupling rods

 

I have just looked at a Jedinco fret and it is 0.29 mm thick brass, a Worsley Works fret being 0.46 mm thick brass and is far more substantial. likewise a SEF nickel silver sheet for chassis at 0.44 mm for one of their newer products

[kandc_au]

Thanks for the responses guys...been great!
All my books are boxed and taped up ready for a move that was hoped to happen on selling of the house!
Alas a week after putting it on the market Covid 19  and it's subsequent restrictions have happened....mutter, mutter

Did the Stars run with a 8 wheel tender??
Didn't think there were many of them around at the best of times, but could stand corrected.

Khris

[Siberian Snooper]

I wish you luck with the build, but to quote the old Irish saying, I wouldn't start from here, I would start with the Mitchell kit, sadly no longer available.

 

There was one eight wheeled tender that ran behind various locos at different times. If I get a bit of time later I will have a look in my books and see which if any Stars it ran behind.

 

 

[Clearwater]

Must admit, I’m keen on an 8 wheeled tender too!

 

David

[Siberian Snooper]

Ok, tender 2586 was coupled to 4043 between 6 February 1950 and  22 June 1950. Four engines ran with Hawkesworth tenders starting in 1948.

 

HTH.

Edited March 29, 2020 by Siberian Snooper

[Miss Prism]

13 hours ago, Siberian Snooper said:

Ok, tender 2586 was coupled to 4043 between 6 February 1950 and  22 June 1950.

 

Thanks for dates. (Now added to Stars page.)

 

Btw, 4 months does seem a peculiarly short allocation time, even by GWR standards.

 

Quote

Four engines ran with Hawkesworth tenders starting in 1948.

 

4062, but what were the other three?

 

Edited March 30, 2020 by Miss Prism

[Coach bogie]

10 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

 

Thanks for dates. (Now added to Stars page.)

 

 

4062, but what were the other three?

 

4058 Princess Augusta withdrawn in 1951 attached to a Hawksworth tender (tender no 4049 if source is believed).

 

Image in Penn and Sword book page 128.

 

Mike Wiltshire

[Siberian Snooper]

16 hours ago, Miss Prism said:

 

Thanks for dates. (Now added to Stars page.)

 

Btw, 4 months does seem a peculiarly short allocation time, even by GWR standards.

 

 

4062, but what were the other three?

 

 

They Stars with Hawkesworth tenders are :-

 

4036  ran with tender 4013 in '48 and tender 4016 in '50

4053 ran with tender 4015 in '50

4058 ran with tender 4049 in June '49 until withdrawal in April '51

4062 ran with tender 4056 April to May '50, 4014 April '52 til January '53 and 4046 July '55 until withdrawal.

 

All the information comes from Star Class Locomotives by Laurence Waters, published by Pen and Sword  ISBN 1473871026.

 

HTH.

 

 

[Miss Prism]

4 hours ago, Siberian Snooper said:

HTH.

 

Excellent. It's interesting to reflect on the newer generation of books recognising and documenting 'the tender'. (The chance of Nock saying anything, let alone anything interesting, about tenders was very small - he treated them merely as an appendage behind the loco.) Info added to gwr.org, since there does seem to be a nascent interest in this area, although it's not my intention to duplicate what is in good books, although I imagine BRDatabase will gradually expand its tender records in the future.

 

[Siberian Snooper]

The book only lists the oddities, no info on 3500 and 4000 tenders, but any information is better than none in some cases.

 

 

[corneliuslundie]

Not a Star but there was a photo of Saint 2914 with the eight wheeled tender in the HMRS newsletter Points, March 2020.

The photo credit is: GWR 2914 St Augustine at Bristol Temple Meads 1931–1935. Photo S Miles Davey courtesy of Peter Davey

Jonathan

[NCB]

Built a couple of the original Jidenco kits. Think they were good for the time. Pioneering the era of etched kits in effect. Lack the aids of the better modern kits such as slot and tab. However, scratch building doesn't use slot and tab so if you regard them as a convenient collection of bits to put together as you would when scratchbuilding then they're fine.

 

Problems started after Jidenco was taken over and became Falcon Brass. Many new kits, of which a fair few had badly fitting parts of the wrong size, and not well thought out. I bought a Highland Clan kit which had been taken over by Falcon Brass and I think was originally designed by someone called Smith; it's probably the only kit which I've given up in frustration and thrown away. Some of the GWR kits were done in 3mm/ft and may have originated in that scale; generally regarded as poor, however I believe the tenders are still available in 3mm and are OK.

 

Think the kits have been through 2 owners since those days, and have possibly been improved, but the current Falcon Brassworks site seems to have little if anything actually available.

Nigel

[57xx]

3 hours ago, NCB said:

Think the kits have been through 2 owners since those days, and have possibly been improved, but the current Falcon Brassworks site seems to have little if anything actually available.

 

That's because they have called it quits and stopped selling the range. There's a thread kicking round RMWeb (probably in Small suppliers section) that will give all the gory detail.

[Michael Edge]

Jidenco (or Falcon Brass) kits are extremely varied and are from a variety of designers. Some build up quite well and some are challenging to say the least - curiously the very first one (L&Y Aspinall 0-6-0T) is one of the best. I have built a few in 3mm scale but I don't think any were designed for this, the 3mm Society was very good at getting stuff specially produced in their scale.