locomotive kits 30368's Workbench SR Loco's with a bit of LNER

[30368]

Final update for today.

 

I have now soldered the two running plate angles to the running plate with the help of always useful hair clips. I tacked the angle to the centre of the running plate and then re-checked that the radii at each end still fitted the angle frofile and then prgressively soldered from the centre to the radii. and so on. All worked very well and I will take DLT's advice and leave the support "land" on the running plate angles while I assemble the body to ensure all is square.

 

The boiler casting fits fairly well so the running plate profile is not too bad. I have looked into John's (Tomlinson) view that the boiler casting is not right looking a bit like a humpbacked whale. I can see what he means! I have checked the casting against the Isinglass drawing (4/390) and it seems ok. It does though have a few problems. Whilst the front section of the boiler has a cast whitemetal insert to fill in the missing underside of the boiler this is not the case at the firebox end, which is understandable given the motor and gearbox reside at that end. I will aim to extend the underside of the boiler down to the running plate at the firebox end too, using the 2 thou brass sheet. That's the plan!

 

First side and all is going well, I took my time on this task continually checking the visable side to ensure all was well.

 

Second side showing how I used hair clips as heat sinks and clamps.

 

All done with boiler offered up.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

[30368]

Made a few wrong assumptions regarding the boiler cast whitemetal insert. It covers up most of the gap between running plate and boiler leaving space for the motor and gearbox, in fact I had to saw off a short section to suit. I still think I will need to fill in the lower section of the boiler adjacent to the motor/gearbox assembly for a decent finish.

 

Insert fitted.

 

Next job is to form the smokbox - I progressively use a piece of dowell for this - there are better ways - bending bars and proper rollers but the dowell works fine for me and is cheap!

Useful elastic band!

 

I soldered the front of the smokebox seam whilst it was wrapped around boiler end.

 

Then soldered the rest of the smokebox seam free from the boiler. Seems to fit together well.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

 

 

[John Tomlinson]

Richard,

 

I suspect that my boiler casting is more "humped" than yours, as compared to the Isinglass drawing mine shows a greater angle of fall on the firebox towards the cab when the boiler section is aligned correctly.

 

As I understand it, viewed from side on the slope on the top of the firebox should be very slightly downhill going back towards the cab. The result is such that top of cab, top of dome and top of chimney are all in line when finished - this isn't very helpful I know as we only put the latter two on at the end!

 

The other thing I've wondered is if the boiler is a cone which rises on the underside as well as falls on top, as you go forward, which appears to be the case with yours? This only really shows up when you fit the white metal insert as you are doing.

 

Best wishes,

 

john.

[30368]

John,

 

Yes my boiler does seem to be ok although I have filed a little off the "hump" and it does coincide with the drawing.

 

I do hope that all the boiler fittings and cab top are aligned although the chimney lip does seem proud of the dome again based on the drawing.

 

I'm really not sure, it does appear that Doncaster boilers have a coned section adjacent to the firebox and a parallel section at the smokebox end as you suggest. Perhaps an LNER expert can advise?

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard

[30368]

Boilersmith today! After much internal debate I decided to overlay the firebox with 2thou brass sheet so that some of the missing detail could be captured. It took a while and I split the cladding into two sections. I think it works ok and I am pleased with the result. Boiler bands also added.

 

I now have to carefully locate where all the boiler washout plugs etc go.....

 

Drivers side view.

 

Firemans side.

 

Thats enough for today - morning shift over.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

[30368]

I manged to locate all the washout plugs by using the handrail holes on the boiler as a reference. Note that both sies of the firebox have 5 high washout plugs, there ia one very close to the cab front on the firemans side.

 

 

 

Coming together nicely.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

[30368]

Boiler now mounted onto running plate. Fits very well with a good match between firebox and running plate. I think the boiler looks ok and has avoided too humped back appearance.

I shall now remove the running plate angle "land" since I think this will require a lot of manhandling which may well damage any more detailed parts that I could add at this stage.

Firemans side.

 

Drivers side

 

I have just had a look at the firebox backplate, the level of detail is very high of which more later.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

[30368]

One last picture today - it fits! Still need to trim the running plate edge.

 

 

Kinjd regards,

 

Richard B

[John Tomlinson]

That looks just the job - I think you taking the top off the "hump" has really done the trick!

 

Was it difficult to cut out the runnig plate support, it looks to have been done without any collateral damamge at all?

 

Regards,

 

John.

[30368]

Hi John,

 

 

Many thanks.

 

Used a craft knife with v. sharp blades (uesd two) some disturbance of the running plate strip at the ends but nothing too serious. Coming together well. Will probably re- visit the boiler underside next to the firebox.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

[30368]

Started adding all the oil pipes around the smoke box. They seem to be delivering oil to the steam chests. Scratch built the leading axle sand pipe supports - they etches were a bit too short. Will add the reinforcing piece later.

 

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

[30368]

A little more progress this morning since there is no chance of going out to do a bit of gardening or for that matter go for a walk the weather is foul.

 

Focus on the drivers side and firebox/grate casting fitted to underside of running plate and 2 thou. overlay fitted to same. Th oil pipe/reverser rod cover on the firebox needed a bit of additional work with brass scraps to bring it up to the correct depth. Lastly the cab side was soldered into position being careful to prevent solder on the outer surface because a cab side overlay has to be fitted. As I did with Sun Castle I will build and paint the cab interior before final assembly and painting.

At last I discovered where I had left my special close work specs so expect things to go together a bit squarer in future.

 

It was these two high quality pictures of the rebuilt Great Northern in Peter Costers excellent The Book of the A1 and A2 Pacifics that inspired me to built this, by all accounts, misfit locomotive.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

 

[30368]

All sandpipe fillers and lubrication pipework now complete and cab "inner" sections soldered in place. Tirned my attention to the reversing lever casting supplied with the kit and decided to replace it with a brass section. The kit doesn't seem to include the large support brackets mounted on the mainframe between the trailing and centre driver so these were scratch built. The drivers side provides support for the reversing lever.

 

I thought the A2/3 was long but I'm pretty sure that Great Northern is longer still given it has larger driving wheeels. Must compare them!

 

 

Cast reverser is just too "clunky".

 

 

 

Brackets need final trim to fit.

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

[30368]

Today's update. Focus on the reversing lever and the smoke deflectors.

 

Reverser and running plate/reverser support bracket in place.

 

Smoke deflector initial fit to running plate curves. They fit a lot closer than the picture!

 

Mounting brackets soldered to deflectors ensuring that the brackets align with the rivet detail on the outside of the deflector. Grab handels also soldered in position.

 

Painting soon I think! I am tempted to complete model and then paint after! Creates a lot of difficulties though!

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard b

[John Tomlinson]

You've made rapid progress and now it really looks like Great Northern.

 

I've never understood how folk manage to paint in a satisfactory way beind smoke deflectors, both the deflectors themselves and the smokebox side. On the A2 I finished recently I painted them separately and then used a tiny bit of superglue when all was complete to fix the little tabs on the deflectors into the slots in the running plate and keep them there.

 

Maybe there is some clever trick to this - I wait and hope!

 

John.

[30368]

John,

 

Many thanks, it does begin to look like the A1/1.

 

I agree, it is pretty much impossible to paint the back of the deflectors/smokebox with the deflectors in place. So I will probably proceed like this:

 

1. Etch primer to body.

2. Partial dismantle chassis (wheels off) etch primer and then black.

3. Mask the cab interior (no roof or side overlays fitted) and boiler. Then paint deflectors and smokebox and running plate top.

4. Mask the smokebox and running plate. Paint boiler and cab overlays green.

5. Paint cab interior.

6. Brush paint edge of running plate green

7. Brush Paint the firebox backplate.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

[30368]

First the good news.

 

The chassis runs superbly, silently and smoothly. Very pleased with the Markits return cranks and chacking again on the drawing, they are very close to scale assuming that the Isinglass drawing is correct. Thanks to Mark of Markits I have a spare return crank being delivered FOC with my next order from him - required to replace temporary replacement from a similar set of return cranks (SR type).

 

The bad news concerns painting! The usual etching primer was used (Railmatch) but the results were disapointing. Firstly I will own up to a mistake. The flat boiler washout plugs on th topof the firebox kept falling off (I should have soldered them!) and whilst the kit has spares I was down to the last few. I thought I know, I'll just lightly spray with flat varnish to fix. Well this resulted in a reaction with the etching primer causing bubbling which required lots of wet and dry work. Stupid, I won't do that again.

 

Secondly, I always expect primer to highlight finish defects, that is in part, what is for. However I was not expecting all the voids on th resin boiler due to poor casting. This required a lot of filler and flating back. So perhaps I will avoid resin boilers in future - I should of taken heed of Tony Wrights advice ion this respect. Incidently, I have bought a second hand copy of his excellent The Book of the LNER Pacifics - modelling options. Really useful.

 

Whoops!

 

Ans whoops again!

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

PS Looks a lot better now!

 

 

[Guest Jack Benson]

Oh dear, commiserations for such bad luck. Paint problems are always frustrating as they occur right at the end of so much effort. 
 

Good luck with the recovery process.

 

Best wishes

 

 Cheers and Stay Safe

[30368]

Well, the worse is over and on we go. If I build a loco with a resin boiler in future I will assemble the boiler as a unit, fill and paint and repeat until I achive a resonable finish. It is possible though that my kit had a particulaly poorly manufactured boiler.

 

Looks ok now.

But not perfect so a bit more to do before top coat applied.

 

A picture of the chassis running in, High Level motor and box doing its stuff.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

[John Tomlinson]

A good recovery from the painting problems.

 

From your earlier posts this was a Crownline kit, and so quite old, probably when resin casting was relatively new. Hopefully 15 plus years of experience will have improved the outcome of the manufacturer's efforts today. I am an occasional bus modeller, a field in which resin cast kits are the mainstay of the hobby. Here the quality varies a lot, some are virtually perfect, some definitely not!

 

John.

[30368]

Good morning John,

 

Many thanks - tricky working on the boiler though!

 

Yes I agree, it would have been a fairly early application of resin casting to 4mm loco boilers. Crownline kits morphed into PDK and whilst I have not built one of their kits supplied with a resin boiler (yet) I have built an LSWR D15 and a couple of H15 4-6-0's all really good kits so I have a high regard for PDK.

 

Comments regarding bus kits noted! Something I have not tried yet.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

[30368]

Chassis now completed. Fitted a brass bush to both bogie and trailing wheel assembly mounting holes to minimise clearance. Chassis now painted.

 

 

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

 

[30368]

Great Northern almoust finished. The cab sides, firebox backplate and smoke deflectors all complete and ready for assembly. I have had a go at reducing the GN Coat of Arms and printed a version. I have mounted it on the nameplates but not really happy with the result. Does anyone know of someone that makes said coat of arms in 4mm? I have a set of Fox and the Scottish versions but nither seem to have the coat of arms included (The Fox version is of the earlier version of the nameplate without the shield).

 

Satisfied with the rest of the build except for the 2thou brass overlay on the firebox - I could have been a little more careful when sticking it to the resin casting.

 

No pull out regulator handles yet. Perhaps should have made the backplate a little darker in shade.

 

Green is much darker than flash picture. Builders plates to add.

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

 

[30368]

Great Northern is just about finished. The front footsteps, front number plate and shed plate (Grantham) are still to be fitted and some final touch up paint to do, oh and weathering but that can wait until the tender is built. Loco runs very well but I would like to adjust the meshing a tad a little too shallow.

 

In terms of a reflection of the prototype I am fairly pleased. I have modelled it around 1954 or so certainly before AWS and BR speedo fitted. The speed indicator bracket on the firemans side is still fitted. I made an error in the positioning of the two lower boiler washout plugs - the angle is a little too steep. Other than that it is a fairly good representation of this Thompson Ugly Duckling - I rather like its awkwardness!

 

 

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B

 

 

[30368]

Apart from some further weathering powder and subsequent clean and polish Greta Northern is finished. I am again pleased with the result. The camera, at least mine does, pick up every imperfection. It looks better in the metal (and resin!).

The therapy provided by loco building has again succeeded in raising my spirits! Mrs B is very good at that too!

On to the tender and then a Urie S15 although the latter may have to wait until after the move.

 

 

 

 

Kind regards,

 

Richard B