richbrummitt Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 They're finished, maybe, assuming they can be printed and cast. The flare had to get thicker. I'm told it's unlikely to cast below about .25mm thickness. 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold queensquare Posted April 24, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 24, 2020 Splendid, well done Rich. A slightly thicker flare isn't a problem as castings are only ever a starting point and always benefit from a bit of dressing. Jerry Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nick Mitchell Posted April 26, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted April 26, 2020 A little bit more progress to report. Working out the order in which to do things can be quite tricky when going "off piste" with a shrunken model like this. In order to make the boiler part of the chassis, I need parts of the "upper body" to line it up with. To make the upper body fit round the chassis, I need parts of the chassis. So, to put off making up my mind, I thought I'd solder the brake shoes to the brake hangers while the latter were held in place on the etch. That went well, until I tried drilling the holes at the top and bottom of the brake hangers. In the reduced size version of the kit, there just isn't enough metal around the hole. Even a 0.25mm drill broke through: Casting around for an alternative, I espied my first ever attempt at a 2mm loco made at least 15 years ago - a Poole-era Farish Jinty conversion using the Association kit of the time. It featured PCB frames screwed onto the (much hacked about) Farish chassis block. What is it about Jinties? Since that conversion kit there has been the Bob Jones chassis (of which I have two), the Chris Higgs chassis, and now the all new Association conversion components which I also bought... though given the quality of the latest Bachmann body, this one looks most likely to ever be finished now. Yet with all of these, you still end up with an over-scale model. I wish one of the many obviously Jinty-mad people would come up with a proper etched kit to 1:152 scale! Anyway, it turns out that the spacing between the top and bottom holes on those particular Jinty brake hangers is a dead match for the Hunslet, so the poor creature (which I never did manage to get running the way I wanted) was dispatched to the scrap yard for dismantling and parts recovery. A nice set of 9mm driving wheels, a DCX74zD decoder and a 30:1 worm gear set will hopefully have a more useful second life... Unsoldering the brake shoes I'd just soldered on to the too-narrow hangers inevitably resulted in one pinging off into oblivion. I heard it rattle against the wall at the back of my bench, so knew it wasn't in the carpet. Several hours later I found the thing hiding in a tray of bits for another half-built loco. One side-benefit is that I now have a very clean and tidy work bench! The Jinty brakes needed the paint scraping off, and their own fold-over brake shoes (which weren't the right shape) unsoldering and snapping off before the Hunslet shoes could replace them. I toyed with the idea of keeping the fold-round top parts of the brake hangers, which spaced them off the frames, but this would obliterate the tiny triangular frame overlay pieces included in the kit. When one of the Jinty spacers disintegrated whilst dismantling it, the decision was made for me. Here's the "new" hanger with the shoe from the Hunslet kit soldered in place, alongside the hanger it will replace: Procrastination complete, it was time to attack the footplate. The rectangular aperture in the middle was extended backwards just over 2mm to clear the end of the gear tower, then the buffer beams and valances were soldered on. The front buffer beam was fixed first, then the side valances. There is a half-etched lip round the edge of the footplate, which they butt up against. The valances are only 0.4mm deep, and consequently very delicate. They had quite a bit of cusp at one end which needed careful filing away. Fortunately my watchmakers vice is able to grip along the very edge of such tiny strips. I only smoothed one edge in the vice, soldered them in place, then smoothed off the other edge in situ. I could then file the rear end of them back flush with the half-etched rear overhang, and finally solder the rear buffer beam in position. If building a 4mm version of the kit, the cab is assembled round a 2-layer floor, which is then bolted to the footplate. (Same for the smokebox). I didn't think that would work in 2mm, so I soldered the cab floor directly to the footplate. There were some modifications to do beforehand, however. Firstly, a notch was filed out of the front edge of both layers to match the enlarged hole in the footplate. As designed, the chassis screws to the body with a captive nut inside the bunker. I want to use this area to house a Stay Alive, so I had to move the fixing point into the centre of the cab floor. This involved drilling a 14BA clearance hole in the footplate, and then a hole wide enough to bury a 14BA nut in the cab floor layers. The nut was soldered to the top of the footplate using my usual cocktail stick trick, with the stub of the cocktail stick left in place for subsequent operations. The original fixing holes in the bunker were all opened out to form the beginnings of a slot for the capacitors to poke up through. Taking a tip from Stephen Harris' wagon kits, I opened out the four would-be bolt holes in the corners of the cab floor to 1mm, and lined up the layers using top-hat bearings. These were soldered to the underside of the footplate first, then the cab floor layers sweated on one at a time. This is the underside of the cab, showing the alignment bearings. The flange of the bearings is slightly deeper than the valances! Here's the view from on top. I've filed the tops of the bearings and the nut flush with the floor. The slot at the rear will need making a bit wider to fit the capacitors through, but that will have to wait until the bunker is in place. I'll have to think of a different strategy, as the holes for lining up the smokebox base are in line with the frames. The plethora of rivets in the front buffer beam don't show up in the photo below, but the coupling hook surround is really nice. The driving wheels have just arrived from Shop 3, so construction will soon be on a roll... I had a moment of panic as I thought the wheel flanges might scrape against the bottom of the footplate, but there is clearance - just! 9 8 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nick Mitchell Posted April 29, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted April 29, 2020 I could have filed down the "wide" spacers that came as part of the kit, but it is easier to use some of the ones on the Nigel Hunt etch that are 6.5mm in width. Most of the holes are etched just under clearance diameter for 12BA. I am going to use the two spacers to the left with the rows of small holes, opening out the ones required to 14BA clarance. Below you can see the PCB insulating pads fixed to the frames. There will be a sizeable L shaped spacer at the front and the back. To the left if the gear tower, another L spacer will fold upwards to support the motor. The pad for this boiler support spacer covers a slot in the frame. The small square pad covers another slot. In a non-split frame chassis, the footplate support brackets stretch the whole way across the loco. Eventually, I will chop these up and solder just the outer ends into the slots in the frames. Between the small pads, I may well insert a representation of the motion plate and the tops of the slide bars. Also, the counterweight attached to the weighshaft for the reversing gear is quite prominent between the frames... but that is getting too far ahead of things! To position the front and rear spacers, I used the footplate as a jig. The spacers were bolted to the footplate (with a 14BA washer in between, to lower them slightly from the top edge of the frames). One of the frames, which are currently a snug fit between the buffer beams, can then be positioned against the spacers for soldering as below: Once the two spacers were fitted to the first frame, the second frame was added using the Association assembly jigs held parallel in my vice as normal. This is as far as I have got at the moment. I think I will add the cab front (at least) to the frames next, and butt up to that the cosmetic firebox sides. With the chassis bolted to the frames once again, I will be able to line up the boiler support spacer so it looks like the front of the firebox, and mark off its position. I will probably solder the spacer in place with the boiler already attached to it, so I can pack the gap between the bottom of the boiler and the top of the frames with shim to get the height correct. 8 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
richbrummitt Posted April 29, 2020 Share Posted April 29, 2020 6 hours ago, Nick Mitchell said: Below you can see the PCB insulating pads fixed to the frames. There will be a sizeable L shaped spacer at the front and the back. To the left if the gear tower, another L spacer will fold upwards to support the motor. I've seen this type of thing done plenty of times but how are they soldered: Do you tin and sweat these from the non-PCB side? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nick Mitchell Posted April 29, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted April 29, 2020 1 hour ago, richbrummitt said: I've seen this type of thing done plenty of times but how are they soldered: Do you tin and sweat these from the non-PCB side? Tin the PCB. Tin an area of the frame slightly larger than the PCB. Tinning needs to be done sparingly so that you don't have big lumps of solder. Add a little more flux and position the PCB - holding it in place with a cocktail stick or similar. With a little more solder on the iron, heat the tinned area adjacent to the PCB on the same side of the frame. You will see the flux bubble out and the solder flash round. If it is a big pad, you might need to introduce the iron in a few different places. With the Hunslet, I had filed the bearings flush on the outside of the frame, so there was no danger of them being disturbed by soldering on the PCB. In other situations, you may need to be careful not inadvertently press a bearing out of the frame. You can watch me doing this in Part 8 of my Jubilee insomnia cure videos. 2 1 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post Nick Mitchell Posted April 30, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted April 30, 2020 (edited) My "lockdown loco" is progressing well - if slowly. I have been taking my time in tackling the difficult bit of attaching the boiler in the right place. First task was to make the boiler. With saw cuts and filing, a length of 8mm tube approx. 22mm long was hacked in half, and the firebox spacer attached to the underside. The position of the spacer was measured from what will be the front end of the tube. I decided to leave a section of the boiler near the firebox end as a complete ring, to hold the motor. If it doesn't work out I can always remove it later. The height of the spacer was a bit of a guesstimate. I had a window of about 1mm height adjustment if the horizontal section was to land on the PCB pad on the frames. I soldered the spacer to the boiler from the firebox side before bending over the horizontal part. The bend was then reinforced with more solder. Outside sheds on preserved railways up and down the country you see upturned boilers under restoration just like this... well, sort of! The height of the boiler needs to be set by the mesh of the worm, so the gears need mounting on muffs and the worm attaching to the motor to get everything set up. I forgot to order a worm shaft adaptor from Shop 3 when I ordered the wheels, so I made a 6mm long one on my lathe from axle steel. Taking a leaf from Anthony's book (well, blog) I epoxied the worm/adaptor to the motor shaft and left the motor running while the glue was setting. The motor stuck itself to the steel case of the controller, and after dangling nose-down, a perfectly concentric worm mounting was the result. While I had the axle steel in the lathe, I turned a pair of 3mm stub axles for the intermediate gear shaft. One end of each was chamfered to ease fitting into the muff. These won't be used until the gear is finally fitted. For now, I'll be using a 1.4mm drill shank for temporarily fitting the gears. The mesh of the spur gears was very tight - in fact they were jammed together. I obviously hadn't drilled the additional hole in the frame extensions accurately enough. Substituting the 21 tooth spur gear with a 20 tooth gear (fortunately I had one in my spares box) has resulted in another fine mesh. To set the mesh of the worm, I experimented with various shims between the frame tops and the boiler, with the motor resting in place. Best results were achieved with a 0.75mm gap. This should leave 0.5mm between the top of the footplate and the bottom of the boiler, which is perfect. I won't need to worry about adding any kind of wrapper to the boiler bottom. The boiler was clamped in place with an aluminium curl clip, while the spacer was soldered to the frames from underneath. The prongs of the clip were bent to be roughly parallel, and more shim used to adjust the rotation of the boiler tube so that the bottom of the spacer was level. The front of the boiler tube is aligned with the rear of the front spacer (which itself was lined up with the gap in the footplate where the rear of the smokebox will be). Here are a couple of shots after soldering and with the footplate slotted over the top, to see how things are coming along. The firebox spacer is actually holding the tube quite rigidly, but as some stage I plan to solder a support at the very front of the boiler, connecting it to the front spacer. The footplate and boiler need to remain parallel, or as well as looking wrong, the worm will come out of mesh. I re-fitted the gears and motor to check the mesh was still OK before moving on. Here's an action shot to prove everything is running nicely. For now... Edited May 1, 2020 by Nick Mitchell 11 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nick Mitchell Posted May 3, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted May 3, 2020 Having established the height of the worm, I was able to measure and mark the opening necessary in the front of the cab. It has to clear the frame extensions as well as the worm itself. Once the opening was filed to shape and checked for fit, I could assemble the cab around the base already fitted to the footplate. I started by adding the front sheet, using the end of a steel rule to make sure it was central and vertical, then added the left side sheet. The sides overlap the central section, so I could push the side up against a piece of wood held across the cab front to get it in the right place. The bottom part of the cab rear was added next, then the bunker back. To get the bunker back to fit nicely, I filed a chamfer along the inside of the bottom edge, so that it fitted vertically against the back of the cab floor. The cab right side sheet came next, then the top part of the cab rear. Some work with fine files can then disguise the butt joints. The cab sides have a support piece across the doorway. This is a really neat touch to avoid the cab side distorting during assembly. Later on it will need to be cut away. With the cab in place, I could open out the hole under the bunker to enable the tantalum chip capacitors to fit through it. Front to back, the hole is the maximum possible dimension, and there isn't a lot of wriggle room. Two 220uF capacitors will fit comfortably as can be seen below. I could possibly make the slot wider and fit 3 capacitors, but I would rather not weaken things too much. Also, with just 2 capacitors, the other components of the stay alive circuit can fit at the side of them. If 440uF proves to be insufficient, I can always revisit this decision later. The capacitors will need to lean backwards to avoid the ledge in the back of the cab. They don't come up to the very top of the bunker, so a false top and a convincingly shaped coal load ought to be possible. On the chassis front, I have been playing with wheels. Having cleaned the burrs/flash from between the spokes, when I came to solder in the crank pins from behind I noticed that several of the wheels didn't have much of a boss on the back. One of them didn't seem to have a boss at all. Most had the thickness of the spokes reduced at the rear, but only at the very outside edge. There were 2 problems with this: 1. Having filed the frame bushes flush to the frames, there was a danger of the back of the spokes rubbing against the frames; 2. Soldering the crank pin to the rear of the wheel could leave a protrusion to bind against the frame. The second problem could be mitigated to an extent by countersinking the hole where the crank pin will be soldered (which I do anyway), but the first problem was more serious. Anyway, I soldered in the crankpins, but on the wheel with no boss at all, the solder wicked round the axle and left a blob where the boss would have been. To remedy this, I had to put the wheel in the lathe to turn off the solder (filing it wouldn't have left as smooth a bearing surface). While it was there, I turned the back of the spokes down to be level with the back of the tyre, leaving a nice boss. This made such a difference that I did the same for all the wheels. Of course I now had to go over them all again removing all the new burrs I'd raised on the spokes! Hopefully the new Association Mk. V wheels won't need any of this sort of remedial work. (I have plenty of Mk IV wheels in my gloat box for not-yet-started kits, however...) With the balance weights glued on position, the wheels now have their first coat of paint. I have been agonising over how to turn out the locomotive. Should it be in scruffy NCB condition? Or should I try to represent the Beatrice I know and love in active retirement, all shiny and beautiful? My wife's opinion is that since I went on Ian Rathbone's lining course at Missenden, I jolly well ought to do the fully lined "as preserved" livery. Whether I can manage it remains to be seen - there is edge lining and panel lining - even the sand-boxes on the frames are edge-lined! I might end up with a simplified version. So... green it is, but what shade of green? It is quite dark, but lighter than GWR/BR brunswick green. I considered Humbrol 80 Grass Green. I had a (very) old tin that I had been given, and also a much newer unopened tin. Out of curiosity I opened the old tin, and to my surprise the paint was absolutely fine... but the two greens seem to be completely different colours. The photo doesn't show the actual colour, but does highlight the difference: In the end, I opted for a different green anyway - Humbrol 3 Emerald green. If I'm going to attempt all that lining, I really want a gloss base. The wheels will need another coat of green, and the tyres need painting black. I've got a bit of detailing work to do to the frames before I can paint behind where the wheels will be and wheel up the chassis. 14 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nick Mitchell Posted May 9, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted May 9, 2020 (edited) It has been almost a week since my last post, and on the surface not a lot looks to have happened. I've been obsessing over lots of very small fiddly details that will probably not be too noticeable once the model is complete. Having spent so many hours up close and personal with the real thing, rag in hand, I want to go to town with the detail. Normally, I would paint the frames behind where the wheels will be, get the chassis working mechanically, and then add further details. With this loco, I have decided to try a different approach and put as much detail on the chassis as I can, and paint it fully before fitting the wheels. Partly this is because there is quite a bit of detail in the kit to put on, and partly because the chassis is going to be painted on a nice shade of dark red rather than the usual "grot" colour. This is where I'm up to with the chassis: After adding a front support for the boiler (soldered to the boiler first, and then to the front spacer whilst the boiler was packed to the correct height), additional details have been added between the frames. The ability to attempt this sort of silliness is one of the things I like about this method of chassis construction. Working forward from the rear, these start with the frame stretcher in front of the firebox front. This was made from a re-shaped frame spacer. I took two attempts at fitting this. The first time had the folded "leg" of the spacer pointing down, but I wasn't happy with it so re-fitted it this way round. Next came the reversing gear counter-weight and weigh shaft. The weight is made from a lump of PCB sandwiched between two layers of nickel silver, with the weigh shaft in two halves, located in holes drilled in the nickel silver but not through the PCB. There were holes etched in the frames in line with where the weight shaft should be. I don't know if they were intended for the weigh shaft, or were part of the compensation arrangements. Either way, they were about a millimetre two low down on the frames for my purposes. I drilled them out to 0.5mm, soldered in a short piece of brass rod, then filed this flush with the frames to "delete" them. New holes nearer the top edge of the frames were then marked and drilled to take the weigh shaft. On the first attempt, in my excitement I managed to fit the counter-weight backwards! On the right side, the bottom end of the crank that attaches to the reach rod has been added and filed flush with the top edge of the frame. Functionally an additional frame spacer, there is a suggestion of the motion plate, with the top slide bars and valve spindles attached. The slide bars are chopped up spare bits of the fret, and the valve spindles and trunk guides represented by 0.45mm rod and 0.8mm tube. The slidebars and spindles were lined up and stuck to a piece of paper with Pritt, then the top half of the motion plate (another re-shaped frame spacer) held down and soldered at right angles. Another bit of frame spacer was soldered at the front end. Here's a view from underneath, showing more clearly the details between the frames: With these additional spacers soldered to the previously installed PCB pads, I could solder the footplate support brackets into the the slots outside of the frames without fear of pushing the PCB pads out of place. The brackets as supplied had to be chopped up to make 4 separate brackets. Side pieces - little strips with rivet heads on - were added separately afterwards - some of the tiniest etched parts I have come across. Also added on the outside of the frames are the little triangular plates where the brake hangers will poke through. These were provided in the kit, as were the guard irons. The triangular plates were lined up for soldering with a broken 0.3mm drill. I have plenty of these... On the body front, I have attacked the smokebox. There are 3 wrappers on the etch. I have just used the first half-etched wrapper. The instructions say the other two are to "thicken" the smokebox. I don't know whether that means they should go inside or outside the wrapper I have fitted. As it stands, the smokebox is the correct size and quite robust, so I shan't ruin things attempting to install the additional wrappers. As with the cab, I disobeyed the instructions and attached the smokebox "floor" to the footplate first. I aligned it with lengths of 0.5mm rod, which were subsequently removed. I had to add the wrapper to the smokebox front separately, then file the bottom edges of the wrapper flush so that the smokebox could be fitted to the footplate around it's floor and soldered from the inside. Finally, the rear wall of the smokebox was soldered in place using the hole in the smokebox front for access. Because I have used a tube for the boiler bottom which is too narrow (so it fits through the footplate) there is a gap left which will be visible under the tank, and needs to be filled. It is quite noticeable in the picture below... I'm not sure how I will tackle this yet. One lesson learned is to not trust drawings. I worked out (eventually, after things didn't quite add up) that the 4mm drawing in Railway Modeller is about 10% over scale. It also has some errors, including the positioning of the balance weights on the driven axle. Obviously I only realised this after I'd glued them in the wrong place and painted them! These have now been corrected. The photo below shows one set of wheels just placed in the bearings for effect. That re-positioned centre balance weight is thicker than the other two (1.5 layers of etch) and stands out further than the wheel tyres. I think the difference is noticeable and worthwhile. It means that I will have to space the coupling rods further off the wheels. I've still got a few bits to add before I can paint the frames - Simpson springs, buffer beam brackets and brake hanger rods. Possibly also the rear brake cross rod. These latter will be cut through at a later stage. I'm itching to get to the point where I can get the gears and wheels in and test the chassis... Edited May 10, 2020 by Nick Mitchell 6 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold queensquare Posted May 10, 2020 RMweb Gold Share Posted May 10, 2020 Another brilliant post Nick although I can say with some confidence that I shan't be bothering with a good proportion of what you've done This will be a real little jewel of a loco. Jerry 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bécasse Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 Drawings being printed to the wrong scale (although usually less than 10% out) in model railway magazines is an occupational hazard brought about by printers not realising how important precise scaling is. I always check, the wheelbase is a good guide on locomotive drawings as it has usually been published somewhere as a dimension and is long, and visible, enough to be measurable with some degree of accuracy, but a quick check on height is advisable too as it is possible that "stretch" has taken place in one dimension but not another (and this will often be the case with photocopied drawings). With respect to the balance weights, I would be surprised if any of Don Townsley's Hunslet drawings were incorrect in this respect, given his professional background, but don't forget that the 16" Austerities were built by a number of builders and that, whilst they were all to the same spec, there are minor variations. Could this be one of them? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 2 hours ago, queensquare said: Another brilliant post Nick although I can say with some confidence that I shan't be bothering with a good proportion of what you've done This will be a real little jewel of a loco. Jerry I stopped at the weighshaft and top o the motionplate on mine, and that's in EM. Superb work, Nick! Adam Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nick Mitchell Posted May 10, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted May 10, 2020 2 hours ago, bécasse said: With respect to the balance weights, I would be surprised if any of Don Townsley's Hunslet drawings were incorrect in this respect, given his professional background, but don't forget that the 16" Austerities were built by a number of builders and that, whilst they were all to the same spec, there are minor variations. Could this be one of them? I don't wish to challenge Mr. Townsley's authority on all things Hunslet, but all the photos I can find have the balance weight anti-clockwise from the crank pin as you look side-on at the loco. There were some differences between the first-built 16" loco and the ones that followed, but I don't believe they extended to the balancing. I must be misinterpreting the drawing. As far as I know, all the 16" locos were built by Hunslet themselves. The Austerities were much bigger and had 18" cylinders (although not all 18" Hunslets were Austerities). To illustrate the difference between these two classes of engine, below is a photo I took from the footplate(s!) a few years ago at Bolton Abbey. The Austerity (on the left, masquerading as a J94 to confuse things even more) is one of those not built by Hunslet (Robert Stephenson in 1943 iirc). 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Michael Edge Posted May 10, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 10, 2020 All the 16" 0-6-0STs had the balance weights in the same position, as far as I know right hand lead was normal Hunslet practice. The 18" Austerities were the only Hunslet design built by other builders. Always check the scale of printed drawings in both planes, the worst offender in this respect was Don Townsley's 15" drawing reproduced in Model Railway Constructor with a noticeably exaggerated vertical scale - this has led to quite a few inaccurate models over the years. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Higgs Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 On 17/04/2020 at 16:53, Hendreladis said: I just stuck a 2mm 03 diesel chassis under mine. It ain't pretty but you can finish the loco in a couple of days that way. Great kit by the way Mike. I enjoyed putting it together. Interesting choice. Any reason why you didn't go with the J94 chassis given it has at least the correct wheelbase? Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
2mm Andy Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 16 minutes ago, Chris Higgs said: Interesting choice. Any reason why you didn't go with the J94 chassis given it has at least the correct wheelbase? Chris The 15" Hunslet (which is what Andrew's model is) has a 5'0" + 4'6" wheelbase. The J94 wheelbase is 11'0" overall (same as the 16" Hunslet). Andy 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hendreladis Posted May 10, 2020 Share Posted May 10, 2020 What Andy said. I used the 03 because I had made one up on a whim but had no real use for it. The chassis in the Judith Edge Hunslet kit is really close to the 03 but I may well have reversed it to make it fit??? As Nick points out you can make the 2mm pb bushes fit the frames in the kit but I wanted a quickie - primarily because I wasn't sure if building the kin 2mm was practicable (by me at least). Turns out it goes together really well and the others I have 'in progress' do use the original frames. Different approach to Nick's and, needless to say, far from elegant. Andrew Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Popular Post Nick Mitchell Posted May 23, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Popular Post Share Posted May 23, 2020 Only a small amount of progress to report in the last couple of weeks due to a huge pile of exam marking, but things are heading in the right direction. The kit provides some very nice strengthening brackets which fit to the frames behind the buffer beams. They're half-etched, with rivet detail. I intend to solder these to the frames only, but there are a few things that need to happen first. To maintain electrical isolation between the frames and body, I will have to fit a layer of insulating material to the buffer beams. The frames themselves will need to be shortened slightly to accommodate this. Also, the buffers will have to be soldered to the beams and filed flush at the rear before the insulation can be fitted. Only then can I solder the brackets to the frames so they fit tight up against the buffer beams and don't look silly. So, to the buffers. I found some in my collection which had square bases, were the right length, and had appropriate diameter housings. Alas, I have no idea as to their provenance. I modified them in my lathe to remove the lip from the end of the housings, and also to reduce the diameter of the heads. Here is the "after" photo - I didn't think to take a "before. The spigots are 1.0mm diameter, but unfortunately the holes in the etched buffer beams are 1.2mm. I will need to turn some collars before I can fit them. In other news, the saddle tank has been delivered ready for fitting: When Mike said that I had all the etched parts from the 4mm kit, I'm not sure if that means the 4mm kit doesn't have a wrapper for the tank, or I had one and lost it? Nevertheless, I am without what the instructions refer to a part 18, and needed to make my own. Taking note from Jim Watt, this was made from 5 thou. brass sheet. I had wondered about using some tube for this, but thought I'd try the rolled sheet method first as an experiment. Either I had beginner's luck, or it isn't as hard as I was worried it might be... I'm pleased with the result at any rate, and won't be needing to order some tube. By measuring the etched tank formers, I was able to calculate the size of the brass rectangle. I rolled the centre section first, but mostly this became un-rolled again when forming the tight bends at the bottom of the tank. Still, having something of a curve there helped restore the correct profile afterwards. The tight curves were formed round lengths of 1.5mm axle steel held in the vice as shown below. I marked the extent of the flat section at the edge of the tank first, so the bend would start in the right place, and I could see that it was parallel to the edge of the tank. I didn't need to anneal the brass to do this. It was then a case of soldering in the front and rear ends, using spring clips to hold the wrapper tightly around them. The rear end (seen below) features 3 lugs to locate the tank onto the cab front. The front end has an additional overlay with rivet detail. In the following pictures, the tank is just resting in place against the smokebox. It is quite flexible at this stage, and I will need to do some tweaking and adjustments before soldering it in place. The tank will give the footplate rigidity, but I need to make sure it is straight and rigid, not bent and rigid! One part of me says I should paint and line the tank before fixing it, but another part (which will certainly win the argument) says solder everything up solid first for strength. 15 9 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Michael Edge Posted May 24, 2020 RMweb Premium Share Posted May 24, 2020 You should definitely have had the tank wrapper, it's one of the biggest pieces on the etch. You seem to have made a good job of the replacement though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nick Mitchell Posted May 24, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted May 24, 2020 13 minutes ago, Michael Edge said: You should definitely have had the tank wrapper, it's one of the biggest pieces on the etch. You seem to have made a good job of the replacement though. Thanks for the clarification. It is a while since I bought the etch, so I guess the part must have got separated and found its way into a different hiding place. One sure-fire way of finding a missing piece is to make a replacement. I fully expect to discover a mysterious rectangle of Nickel Silver in a strange place some time during the next few days... at least I'll know what it is when I find it now! 1 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nick Mitchell Posted June 28, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted June 28, 2020 I Haven't made much progress with the Hunslet recently as I have been busy with other things (mostly work). While I had my airbrush out to paint the Coal Tank (as described here) I took the opportunity to prime and paint the frames. To get ready for this, all the soldering jobs on the frames have been completed - buffer beam brackets added, Simpson springs fitted, brake hangers fitted. I made a decision to leave off the sand boxes for now, as I thought they would interfere with lining the edge of the frames. As with the Coal Tank, I primed the frames with etching primer, then cast about for a suitable paint for the top coat. A purplish brown is called for. I had an old tin of Humbrol paint No 107 which isn't in the current listings. From what was spilled round the top of the tin, it looked about the right colour and gloss. When I sprayed it, however, it was much paler and matt. I intend to make an attempt at lining the frames, so really wanted a gloss surface. In the end, I mixed up a shade which I think looks about right from gloss paints I had. I used 6 drops of Tan, 6 drops of Red, 2 drops of black and 1 drop of blue. These were mixed together with approximately the same amount of white spirit for spraying. I masked the bearings inside and out with small blobs of Blu-Tak, and used Tamiya tape to cover the Simpson springs. I didn't worry about getting overspray on the underside of the boiler, or on the inside of the frames. The inside of the frames and the balance weight will be brush painted bright red eventually. This is where I'm up to: I'm now plucking up the courage to attack the lining before I can fit the wheels... There will be a black edge with a thin red line. 12 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nick Mitchell Posted July 3, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted July 3, 2020 Courage suitably plucked, I've had a go at the edge lining on the frames, using a compass bow pen to off-set the lines. Below are some very cruel close-up views of the left and right sides. The red lines look a little thick, but viewed with the naked eye they're barely visible. I couldn't continue the line across the brake shaft bearing, and it looks a little wobbly where I've touched it in... but it will end up behind the cab steps. Off-setting along the bottom edge, there are also gaps where the spring hangers are. These gaps will be covered by the wheels, so I have left them alone. While I had the red paint out, I brush-painted the inside of the frames. While I had the black paint out, I painted the wheel rims. Here are three of them placed in the frames for effect. The lining on the frames looks very subtle in this context, and I'm pleased with it. The wheels should also have a red-lined black circle on the axle ends. I'm not sure how or whether I'll be able to tackle this. With the crank pins in place, using the compass won't take me all the way round the circle. Making some transfers would be one way, but aligning them centrally would be difficult. Having them off-centre would look worse than leaving them plain green. I've made only a little progress on the body. I managed to solder a false back into the smokebox to fill in the gaps mentioned in an earlier post. The buffers and the firebox sides have been fitted, and I've started drilling holes in the tank for the handrails etc. 14 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
D869 Posted July 4, 2020 Share Posted July 4, 2020 Could you do the black circles with a fine marker pen with the wheels turning in a lathe/drill/loco ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Nick Mitchell Posted July 10, 2020 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted July 10, 2020 Just a quick update on the wheels. In the end I decided to have a go with some home-made transfers to see how they would turn out. Nothing ventured, nothing gained... I used Fox transfer paper, and sprayed an area gloss green to match the wheels. Then I used a bow-pen compass to draw the red circles. Getting a nice result with such tiny circles proved very difficult indeed. In the end I drew over a hundred to get 8-10 I was reasonably happy with. There was no way I could draw a black line neatly inside the red line with the compasses (I did try), so I brushed the centres in as neatly as I could. I couldn't cut neat circles around the red lines, but the green background disguises any crudeness fairly effectively. In between each stage, there was a couple of days waiting time for the paint to harden. The photo below is very cruel - you can detect the edges of the transfers (which I hope will disappear under varnish), but I think I have managed to get them reasonably well centred. To the naked eye they look OK. While I had the airbrush out, I masked off the frames and sprayed the boiler bottom green. I experimented by adding some lime green into the dark green, and am pleased with how it has turned out. On some photos of the prototype, the wheels appear a slightly darker, less yellow, shade. It could be a trick of the light, or a feature different cleaning materials being used for the wheels and the upper-works. Maybe "colliery grot" would have been a more sensible choice of livery? 10 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Higgs Posted July 10, 2020 Share Posted July 10, 2020 54 minutes ago, Nick Mitchell said: Just a quick update on the wheels. In the end I decided to have a go with some home-made transfers to see how they would turn out. Nothing ventured, nothing gained... I used Fox transfer paper, and sprayed an area gloss green to match the wheels. Then I used a bow-pen compass to draw the red circles. Getting a nice result with such tiny circles proved very difficult indeed. In the end I drew over a hundred to get 8-10 I was reasonably happy with. There was no way I could draw a black line neatly inside the red line with the compasses (I did try), so I brushed the centres in as neatly as I could. I couldn't cut neat circles around the red lines, but the green background disguises any crudeness fairly effectively. In between each stage, there was a couple of days waiting time for the paint to harden. The photo below is very cruel - you can detect the edges of the transfers (which I hope will disappear under varnish), but I think I have managed to get them reasonably well centred. To the naked eye they look OK. While I had the airbrush out, I masked off the frames and sprayed the boiler bottom green. I experimented by adding some lime green into the dark green, and am pleased with how it has turned out. On some photos of the prototype, the wheels appear a slightly darker, less yellow, shade. It could be a trick of the light, or a feature different cleaning materials being used for the wheels and the upper-works. Maybe "colliery grot" would have been a more sensible choice of livery? Once you have the loco in motion you will soon notice if they are centered or not. Chris Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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