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Adventures in kit and scratch-building.


sej
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They are coming on a treat Simon, I particularly like your support for Earl Cawdor. It's a bit more sophisticated than my bits of plywood offcuts.

 

It's worth mentioning that B&Q do big bottles of low odour white spirirt these days at a reasonable price.

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And I bought a fantastic bottle of "artists low odour white spirit" from an art shop on Charing Cross Road for tapping and dieing without the pong!

Cheers

Simon

 

Hello Simon,

 

is the low odour white spirit as good as the normal one?

 

OzzyO.

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Hello Simon,

 

is the low odour white spirit as good as the normal one?

 

OzzyO.

 

Hi Paul, that's what I have been using since you suggested it on one of the threads and its excellent, I even use it when drilling too.

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Hi Paul, that's what I have been using since you suggested it on one of the threads and its excellent, I even use it when drilling too.

 

Thanks Rob,

 

I'll give that a go as normal white spirit, evaporates in the jar that I have it in, and has taken on a green hue to it. This maybe caused by bits of brass and nickel silver in the bottom of the jar.

 

OzzyO.

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Hi Paul, that's what I have been using since you suggested it on one of the threads and its excellent, I even use it when drilling too.

 

Hi Rob

Do you use this low odour stuff to thin paint for spraying? Has it the same characteristics as the normal spirit?

Thanks

Sandy

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Hi Rob

Do you use this low odour stuff to thin paint for spraying? Has it the same characteristics as the normal spirit?

Thanks

Sandy

 

Hi Sandy, yes I use it for everything, my good lady and I both suffer from paint fumes and we have avoided anything spirit based for years finding low odour white spirit has really broadened my horizons particularly when using enamels.

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Hi, thanks for everyone's interest; it's the same for me with white spirit, I can't bare the smell and it does my eyes in rotten! So far I haven't used it for tapping but I hope to have a go with a bit of tufnall soon and see what it might do to that.

 

Cheers

Simon

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Hi, thanks for everyone's interest; it's the same for me with white spirit, I can't bare the smell and it does my eyes in rotten! So far I haven't used it for tapping but I hope to have a go with a bit of tufnall soon and see what it might do to that.

 

Cheers

Simon

 

 

Simon,

 

cut Tufnol DRY. It will absorb any liquid, so that's not always good.

 

OzzyO.

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Hi Sandy, yes I use it for everything, my good lady and I both suffer from paint fumes and we have avoided anything spirit based for years finding low odour white spirit has really broadened my horizons particularly when using enamels.

 

Thanks Rob. I'll get some.

 

Regards

Sandy

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So far I haven't used it for tapping but I hope to have a go with a bit of tufnall soon and see what it might do to that.

Cheers

Simon

Simon,

cut Tufnol DRY. It will absorb any liquid, so that's not always good.

OzzyO.

 

 

Hello Simon all,

 

as I said above cut Tufnol dry, with a sharp HSS tool bit, at about the speed you would use for brass. If you used white spirit on it it will absorb it and then you would not be able to glue in to place, But after its fixed in place it would be OK.

 

For tapping it a 1/4 - 1/2 turn then back it off a bit, depending on the size of the tap and the depth you may want to remove the tap and clean it ( I would do this from about 6BA down). I don't think that I would tap it below 12BA, it may be OK smaller, but I have not gone any smaller.

 

A lot will depend on the quality of the Tufnol. With good Tufnol you should be able to M/C it to about + or - .001" (+ or - 0.025mm).

 

HTH

 

OzzyO.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi there, sorry about lack of updates. Normal service will be resumed as soon as my outdoor Shakespeare is over. Looking forward to some sunny weather for the next few weeks...or slightly less rain.

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  • 2 months later...

Hi, after much rushing around I've at last got some time to post up a bit of progress with my scratch-built "Earl Cawdor".

I'd got as far as the splashers, which I wanted to shape to the sides of the boiler and firebox. I built them up with parallel tops soldered to the sides and then filed them, very gently, by eye and then offered them up to the loco. I use permenant felt-tip to help me to see where stuff needs to come off. It takes a lot of time and it's very satisfying when it works!

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They where then attached to the boiler etc., which I'd attached to the frames and smokebox saddle...

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I made up the small strengthening strips between the splashers by rubbing an impression of the footplate edge into a piece of card and then cutting out a template for the nickel-silver, before fretting out and soldering.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thankyou Peter, I very much like the creative problem solving side of scratch-building!

Some more arty shots (that's my excuse for the distortion effects...)

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The small steps on the curved frame are filed down spares (a fantastic time saver from fiddly soldering) from my MOK Armstrong kit. The splasher beading is from some lovely square section brass wire from Eileen's after being wafted through the cooker gas ring and the square socket lamp brackets (irons?) come from Laurie Griffin. I scratch-built the loco steps from nickel strip.

MOK are looking to supply various castings from their kits as spares, which is a real boon to all of us Edwardian GWR 7mm modellers out there!

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Hi Sej,

 

While I obviously have a thing for producing models of the stock preserved at Didcot, there is something deeply satisfying about seeing these long extinct types come back to life - albeit small scale. They really do echo their time and it is a crying shame that so little of the GWR built in this elegant and refined era remains to be enjoyed today. Excellent stuff as always!

 

I am also glad that someone else uses the 'arty' photo excuse... ALL my photos are very 'arty' indeed!

 

All the best,

 

Castle

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  • 3 weeks later...

As the weather in my painting studio, AKA "the garden", hasn't been good recently, this is as far as I've got with Earl Cawdor's paintwork. Still some bits missing too!

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And I've been distracted by another project, which I'll post up soon...

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  • 1 year later...

Hi, my last post was over a year ago, so it's time for a bit of an update. One big distraction was moving to Ludlow, very nice, and getting a room with a work-bench instead of the kitchen table, even nicer.

 

The other distraction involved this 4mm scratch-build project.

 

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And at the moment I'm collaborating with Luton 0 Gauge group to build this rather interesting diesel shunter, used by Ford motors at Dagenham.

 

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There is a preserved example and I've been given loads of photos and dimensions of it and started the drawings. The idea is that I will scratch-build the body and other club members will produce detail castings. I'm looking forward to working with other people on a project and will keep you posted on its progress!

 

Cheers

Simon

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I've mananged to make some head-way with the Ford Diesel Shunter. 

The outer sides are cut from 0.25mm nickel and rivetted in my excellent GW Models machine. There are a great many rivets! I've worked out their spacings from the many photos that I have and the drawing to 7mm that I prepared. I mark the horizontal and vertical lines to make sure I keep everything square and the callibrated knobs on the rivetter make the spacing a pleasant task. Still takes a while though.

 

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There are some interesting little circular vents on both sides and I wanted to represent the slightly domed appearance of the covers.

 

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Photo thanks to Luton O Gauge group

 

I drilled holes in the appropriate places and soldered in some thin walled tubing to provide the rim.

 

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After filing flat on the rear surface I soldered on strips of very thin brass strip, normally used for 7mm boiler bands.

 

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And then carefully pressed in the curved shape from the rear using a scriber.

 

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Edited by sej
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Does anyone know of a supplier of flat etched grills that would suit this? I'd rather not have to knit one from fuse wire.

 

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Photo thanks to Luton O Gauge group

Edited by sej
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Thanks for the very kind offers of help I've had with this build. RMWEB is a great modelling resource and a beacon of good will in the sometimes murky world of on-line blogs. Cheers.

 

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So far, I've soldered a strengthening layer of brass to the inside surface of the sides. I used quite thin nickel-silver (0.2mm) for the outer sides because I wanted the rivet detail to be crisp and those windows that are near flush to be near flush. The brass is from a huge sheet, 0.6mm thick, which I bought cheap years ago and haven't found a use for up 'til now. I've made cut-outs in it to accomodate the glazing and the frames of the non-flush windows. The frame of the grill is also provided in the same way and the small circular vents are backed by it too. 

 

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Photo thanks to Luton O Gauge group

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Edited by sej
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  • 2 weeks later...

I've made a bit of progress soldering the strapping to the sides of the loco, mostly located between all the lines of rivets which is rather helpful. Pete Harvey generously sent me some waste fret scrap which is just the right dimensions. Many thanks Pete!

 

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The high-tech soldering clamp is half a clothes peg screwed to my conti-board bench hook. I.m going to represent the various sized rivets and bolt heads on the straps using a number of different methods when everything else is finished.

 

I've made up the ends in the same way as the sides. The rivet detail is different on each end so I've labelled them to avoid confusion; must remember to the label the sides too.

 

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I'm itching to solder everything together but I must drill various holes in the ends for piping and build up the inset window frames before I do. My apologies for the rather rubbish pictures. I'll try harder next time.

 

 

 

 

 

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