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Adventures in kit and scratch-building.


sej
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Thankyou very much Dave, it was my second attempt, she did spend some time in the paint stripper and dish-washer before I was happier! I lightly weathered her afterwards. I'm not keen on high gloss finishes but a coat of gloss paint does make it easier to correct mistakes in the lining. Ian Rathbone's DVD is inspirational as he really does make it look easy. He is very calm and unruffled and remembers to breath!

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Thankyou Rob, I really enjoyed the challenge of lining and am looking forward to painting my next loco project, "Earl Cawdor". That's after I've built her...

Before the 36xx I built a Great Western 517 0-4-2 tank, beautiful little locos, from a kit which had rather more resin components than I like, including the footplate which needed a lot of work...The point is, I decided to line it with transfers. And I can't remember the make! They're fantastic. I ordered them from a web-site on the GOG site's list of traders. I'll try and find them. They're not Fox, which I also like very much. There weren't sharp enough curves for the cab sides so I lined them myself, which led me to doing it all on the 36xx. I've recently bought a very nice antique bow-pen and am itching to use it!

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I found the transfer manufacturers. They are Clasp Decals and have a web-site that I reached through the Gauge 0 Guild Traders List. Or you could Google them, I'm not quite up to posting links yet...

I found the lining transfers to be excellent, not too fragile and with the right amount of stickiness and manouverability. You get a lot on the sheet too!

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Thankyou Rob, I really enjoyed the challenge of lining and am looking forward to painting my next loco project, "Earl Cawdor". That's after I've built her...

Before the 36xx I built a Great Western 517 0-4-2 tank, beautiful little locos, from a kit which had rather more resin components than I like, including the footplate which needed a lot of work...The point is, I decided to line it with transfers. And I can't remember the make! They're fantastic. I ordered them from a web-site on the GOG site's list of traders. I'll try and find them. They're not Fox, which I also like very much. There weren't sharp enough curves for the cab sides so I lined them myself, which led me to doing it all on the 36xx. I've recently bought a very nice antique bow-pen and am itching to use it!

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Assume this must be the Underhill/Zero Zephyr kit then?

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Yes. I bought it from the sadly missed Home of O Gauge. The footplate was quite badly warped and I broke it when I tried to straighten it. I rebuilt and strengthened it with brass channel. It did put me off resin although I'm keen to try a JLTRT Hymeck. (I emailed them about a swap for my Heljan model as they advertise on their website but have had no reply as yet.) I'd also like to have a go at one of their Mitchell 517s...

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Yes. I bought it from the sadly missed Home of O Gauge. The footplate was quite badly warped and I broke it when I tried to straighten it. I rebuilt and strengthened it with brass channel. It did put me off resin although I'm keen to try a JLTRT Hymeck. (I emailed them about a swap for my Heljan model as they advertise on their website but have had no reply as yet.) I'd also like to have a go at one of their Mitchell 517s...

 

 

A couple of pointers. When straightening warped resin casting, heating them with a hair dryer and leave to cool they will return to their original shape. (David White, Slater's told me about that trick, he would no doubt expand on it if you give him a call)

 

 

The JLTRT 515 class is a little gem to build.

 

Keep up the top rate work. Ken

Edited by jazz
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Yes. I bought it from the sadly missed Home of O Gauge. The footplate was quite badly warped and I broke it when I tried to straighten it. I rebuilt and strengthened it with brass channel. It did put me off resin although I'm keen to try a JLTRT Hymeck. (I emailed them about a swap for my Heljan model as they advertise on their website but have had no reply as yet.) I'd also like to have a go at one of their Mitchell 517s...

Talking of "missed", ABS are all but invisible since they ditched Keykits as their marketer. I would happily buy a couple of Zero Zephyr kits if I actually could! I built the 2021 PT a few years ago and it's a great kit though unlike yours has an etched footplate. The last catalogue I had from ABS had more items not available than available. Posts elsewhere on RMW suggest Adrian Swain has been quite ill. Would be a shame to lose his enormous lists.

At least the demise of HOOG has removed the dreaded Gateneal kits from the market!

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Talking of "missed", ABS are all but invisible since they ditched Keykits as their marketer...

I thought it was more a case of Kay Butler (KeyKits) retiring, so he lost this outlet. Kay was always a very efficient online supplier of ABS and other kit, much of which is no longer easily available without recourse to older technologies.

 

Nick

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I thought it was more a case of Kay Butler (KeyKits) retiring, so he lost this outlet. Kay was always a very efficient online supplier of ABS and other kit, much of which is no longer easily available without recourse to older technologies.

 

Nick

Kay gave it away this year, but ABS stopped using her at least two years ago. She was certainly efficient. She went to great lengths to explain some obscure ABS brake parts for me years ago; well beyond the call of duty.

 

I got my kit from Tower, but Adrian dropped them at least 5 years ago.

 

As an Aussie, attending a show in the UK on the off chance is not an option until teleporting becomes affordable!

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Are Keykits chassis kits still available? I'd forgotten about them and have always liked the look of them. I used to have their lists, sold via another company, but I can't find them on my chaotic computer filing system...

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I went to Warley for the first time on the 19th Dec.and very much enjoyed it. There was a particularly fantastic 7mm layout, Great Western naturally...with a beautiful collection of locomotives and rolling stock. Unforgivably, I can't remember its name; possibly Newchapel Junction? Very inspiring.

So armed with a powerful new temperature controlled soldering iron from Phil at Hobby Holidays (and a bargain buy Springside 94xx pannier kit for later) I've decided to tackle some half finished projects while also kick-starting my "Earl Cawdor".

I've got a near complete tender from the Scorpio "Achilles" kit started 3 years ago; a similar tender from a dubious internet buy which purported to be a DJB Achilles kit but was actually semi-scratch-built with a few kit bits and a set of instructions (learnt a lesson there...) and a David Andrews 3000 gallon tender kit bought at Telford this year for the "Earl Cawdor".

So, I thought I might as well finish the lot off together using the generous spares from the Scorpio and Andrews, along with a bit of scratch-building, to bring all three up to the same standard.

Here they are so far...

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What I'm keen to know about is that curious little joggle at the front end at the top of the sides. It doesn't appear on any of the drawings in Jim Russell's book or any of the others that I have but is very obvious in many photos of locos of the period. Were there two types of 3000 gallon tender or was it just a modification associated with the removal of the coal rails and addition of the coal-plates? My collection has examples of all three!

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...

What I'm keen to know about is that curious little joggle at the front end at the top of the sides. It doesn't appear on any of the drawings in Jim Russell's book or any of the others that I have but is very obvious in many photos of locos of the period. Were there two types of 3000 gallon tender or was it just a modification associated with the removal of the coal rails and addition of the coal-plates? My collection has examples of all three!

 

There are several examples of the tender variations in Russell's volume 1, especially on 3232s, Rivers and Barnums. Martin Finney's instructions for the 2500 gallon tender (so I assume similar for the 3000) mention this variation. He says that Lot A38 (11/99-7/00) was the first in which the flare was carried through to the front, i.e. the first without the joggle. A38 also had coal rails extended further forward (though I've not been able to understand what he means from photos) and the footplate was widened at the front. These were built to fit various new 4-4-0s and had a higher footplate (unless later modified for use with other engines). They also have front steps with a straight leading edge. Later, all were rebuilt with coal plates though the joggle remained on the earlier tenders. The rebuilds also included various changes to the toolboxes, sandboxes, etc.

 

Nick

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Thanks very much Nick, the expertise and information available, and freely offered, from people on this site is invaluable!

So I have a little flexibility on tender details and will be looking closely at my prototype photos to see which tender will suit which loco.

Cheers

Simon

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Woo hoo, went to Reading Gauge O Trade show and bought myself another Great Western 3000 gallon tender. This one comes complete with an Armstrong class 4-4-0 locomotive, one of the most beautiful Edwardian machines to run on rails. It's an MOK kit, which while comparatively expensive (we won't be eating for a few weeks) is a little miracle of engineering. I already have their GWR 14xx tank loco kit (which I have made a start on and then was side-tracked by commissions), and it's fantastic too. The accuracy of the etches and the tab and slot construction is almost good enough to forget about the soldering iron. I'll get back to the 14xx but for now I'm going to make a start straight away on the Armstrong; to be called "Brunel".

Here are some pictures of the goodies you get, including excellent instructions. Happily Slaters were there at Reading too with their special Armstrong driving wheels. I've also ordered a "Gooch" gearbox from the lovely lady on the ABC stand.

I'm in no way connected with MOK, I just really like their stuff and have been waiting for this one!

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I'll start with the tender...

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Must be some sort of record, three G.W.R. 4-4-0s being built on here and all outside framed as well. And all from different manufactures.

 

OzzyO.

Ah, the renaissance of beautiful Edwardian(ish) Great Western locomotives. How's about a new-build? My vote would be for an Achilles class.

My Gooch gearbox and motor, for the Armstrong, arrived post-free from ABC on Friday. Ordered on Saturday at Reading. Excellent service!

While I've been waiting I've made further progress on my clutch of 3000 gallon tenders. I'm going to end up with four of them and one loco, although I may try to scratch-build "Earl Cawdor" at the same time as it shares many similarities with the Armstrong and then there'll be four 4-4-0s on the go...

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And, for a complete change of subject, two missing Dr Who episodes have been recovered, one, a vintage Patrick Troughton! Hurrah!

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I've ordered an Armstrong from MOK which arrived on Friday and was immediatley confiscated by the Christmas monitor, her excuse was I need something to open on Christmas morning. "But darling I'm 57 and may not live that long I NEED to see it now". My plea fell on deaf ears.

 

Out of interest what motor have you ordered with the gooch gearbox?

Dave Sharp mentioned that Slaters have done a batch of high quality crank pins for the scale 7 group which will go with the drivers, are you going to use these?

 

Kev

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Hi Kev and OzzyO, yes it's a Canon (with a lot of serial numbers) firmly pre-attached to the gearbox by ABC. I'm very keen on flywheels on my motors, so if there isn't room I might try to replace it with a small Mashima? The gearbox itself is a beautiful little piece of engineering. I'm busily reading the instructions for about the eighth time as the kit seems quite different in style to many others and I don't want to sail ahead and solder something that I shouldn't. Also, Kev, do you not have a secret kit cupboard? Very handy for sneaking things into and then gradually introducing to the household authorities as "oh, something I've had lying around for quite a while..."

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Hi Kev and OzzyO, yes it's a Canon (with a lot of serial numbers) firmly pre-attached to the gearbox by ABC. I'm very keen on flywheels on my motors, so if there isn't room I might try to replace it with a small Mashima?

 

Hello Sej,

 

I would give up the flywheel and keep the Canon motor rather than fit a Mashima motor, the Canon has more power and is normally a 7 pole motor whereas the Mashima is a 5 pole motor. I have fitted Canon motors into Kings & Castles and they will pull 12 coach trains with no problems (have a look on the ABC website about motors and the power output).

 

On one of my last builds we tried the roller bearing addition for the ABC gear box along with the Maxon motor, we are still trying to decide if the extra cost of the motor is worth it. I think that the extra cost of the roller bearings will be. As the owner of the loco is running it on DCC we both want to see how it performs,

A) if the cost of the motor will show any improvements over the Canon &,

B], if the roller bearings will help more.

 

My personal feeling is that the roller bearings will help more.

 

OzzyO.

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swmbo signed for and took delivery of the kit so I wasn't able to resue it from her clutches. :scared:

 

I've used canon motors in the past and have always rated them, but for this kit I was considering the maxon 6W motor because more and more I'm coming to appreciate slow running and the maxon is rated very good at slow running. Another reason for trying the maxon is that I've not yet used one.

 

I visited the scale 7 stand at Wigan and saw the MOK Standard Tank fitted with ball bearings on the axles, it's movement was silky smooth, virtually no stiction at all.

 

Kev

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Hi, thanks for your help and interest; I'll stick with the Canon as it's here and it's new to me! I've always used Mashimas up 'til now, though I do have a dirty great MSC 'JH' and gearbox plus massive flywheel for when I get round to building my Great Bear kit (hidden in the cupboard...it was a huge bargain from eBay, honest.)

So, I've finished the Andrew's 3000 gallon tender kit as far as I can before I paint it. As my paint shop is the garden, that may take sometime...It's a lovely little kit with good detail and nice castings, with enough duplicates to be very useful for the other tenders. The instructions were'nt always clear and I changed a couple of things, like the chequerboarding at the front and added a simple compensation system as I don't like rigid chassis.

And now to start the "Armstrong", although I'm co-hosting "Dave and Simon's (Comedy) Quiz Night" at the MRC in Kings Cross tonight, not to be missed, you know, (very good prizes) so I'm not going to get very far...

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