Porth Dinllaen in 0

[Simond]

One side done

 

[Adrian Stevenson]

That looks great!

[Simond]

 

happily, the second side looks much like the first

 

Ade, thanks for the kind comment.  Parkside kits are very good, and the red & white makes for a dramatic contrast.

 

A breath of matt varnish will be needed to lose the transfer backing film, and then I can look at weathering.  Nevertheless, I do like waterslides, easier to get the positioning just so.

 

Atb

Simon

Edited November 10, 2019 by Simond

[Simond]

And now for something completely different...

 

 

the JPL whitemetal kit for the APOC twin-tank oil tank wagon.  A rare beast, 9’ wheelbase, it appears on the front cover of Tourret’s tank wagon bible.  A facsimile of the same drawing IS the instructions, suggesting a degree of confidence, or competence (ideally both) will be needed...

 

A rather nice picture (plate 149, page 86) and the same drawing appear in the book, it was built by Cravens of Sheffield, in 1927, there may have been five or six of them.  Livery appears to be red oxide from the solebars up, black below.  There’s a large black panel with white lettering on the A tank which will be challenging.  They are fitted with heating coils, and were likely used for lubricating oil, rather than fuel, giving a challenging bit of pipework at both ends.

 

Wagons were numbered 1581-1584, possibly 1585 & 6 too.  It looks likely that they lost the large “APOC” lettering at some time after the Shell-BP merger in 1932.

 

I think that this will be rather fun.

 

I purchased a set of sprung buffers from NMRS when I got the kit.  It also needs wheels, I have Slaters 7120s in the bits box, I may swap them for non-split spoke if I can get some in time.

 

First steps;  de-flash all the whitemetal.  This has taken about an hour, but I’ve opened out the bufferbeam holes to suit the sprung buffers, and the coupling holes which were closed by flash.  One solebar was quite flashy, as were the saddles, but otherwise it was just little bits, scalpel & files.  Must wash hands...

 

The buffer support girders are cast with a stiffener across the ends.  This needs cutting off, next job.

 

 

then, I think we’ll be ready to fire up the low temperature iron, and break out the Powerflo.  

 

That'll be a job for tomorrow, along with blackening the wheels, axles, couplings and buffer heads.  

 

And the normal iron to solder the tanks.  There are hundreds of very obvious rivets on the tanks.  A number of options present themselves;  overlays are tricky, unwrapping the pre-rolled tanks would be daft, making new tanks would be cumbersome, and I’ve never used rivet transfers.  So I’ll order some tonight.

 

atb

Simon

Edited November 11, 2019 by Simond

[Simond]

 

I suspect that once again I’ll be cursing evolution for not equipping me with three pairs of hands and a prehensile (and heatproof) tail.

 

g’night

Simon

[boxerbayrailway]

The Mica van looks great Simon.   Now I'm tempted to build one 

Interesting Tank wagon,   looks like a nice kit,  should be a fun project,  I hope.    Does JPL have a website ?

Felix

Edited November 12, 2019 by boxerbayrailway

[Simond]

Felix, 

 

thanks for the positive feedback.  I’m pleased with the Mica, but was slightly off-put by the comment I read about a train of 35 of them leaving Birkenhead docks each night for Smithfield.  Let me see, the thick end of £1400 at list price!  I’ve got the fitted Toad for one end, and the Finney 47xx for the other, but I think I might lose any vestiges of mojo building another 34 Mica wagons!  Maybe Dapol will bring out a Mica B.

 

Unfortunately, it appears that JPL do not have a website.  They are a regular at lots of shows, and do very nice cast & turned loco wheels, along with a lot of other interesting things.  I’m sure their sales would increase tremendously if their catalog were on-line.

 

atb

Simon

[Hal Nail]

10 minutes ago, Simond said:

I think I might lose any vestiges of mojo building another 34 Mica wagons!

Is your layout visible from both sides? If not you could get away with only modelling half of each one - so only 16 1/2 left!

[Phil Traxson]

2 hours ago, Simond said:

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, it appears that JPL do not have a website.  They are a regular at lots of shows, and do very nice cast & turned loco wheels, along with a lot of other interesting things.  I’m sure their sales would increase tremendously if their catalog were on-line.

 

atb

Simon

I use JPL items in my 7mm standard gauge kits and find their mail order service from their paper catalogue excellent.    A lot of their items are produced in-house, as are mine on a much smaller scale. Too many sales can be detrimental as you fail to produce things fast enough to supply the demand and your reputation suffers due to late delivery.

There comes a point where you need extra help but the demand is not quite enough to finance this and so  becomes counter productive financially. I know one or two specialist model suppliers, myself included, who have reached this point and find that word of mouth and exhibition appearances are enough to keep them comfortably busy, it can be a difficult balancing act. The other point is that an on-line presence is not cheap and keeping it up to date and monitored for incoming orders consumes time and, coupled with the "want it yesterday" attitude of some customers fostered by the media, again can be counter productive. 

 

Looking forward to seeing this tank wagon completed by the way,particularly if you match the quality of your Mica build, a very interesting vehicle. I'm wondering now if I can justify one on Black Drake Wharf, there is a static oil storage tank already that I could deliver to, but could I afford the time off from production to make it!  

Phil T.

Port Wynnstay Models  

Edited November 12, 2019 by Phil Traxson

[boxerbayrailway]

Thanks Guys.   I understand completely why a website might actually be detrimental.  This is one of the little problems that pops up for someone like me that is across the globe.  It's easy enough to source kits like Parkside/Peco/Slaters/Dapl etc etc etc...    but the little detail parts or small production kits like this nice tank wagon I miss knowing about.  I see in the photo of the kit / box  they have an e-mail,  so I'll give that a try.  

Felix

[Simond]

A little progress on the tank wagon;

 

tank barrels soldered, chassis soldered, tank ends snug push fit, everything balanced for the photo.  Need to drill the axleboxes for the bearings, then it’ll sit on its wheels.

 

 

one of the saddles is slightly offset - might have to remove it, or maybe can adjust with a home made abrasive of the correct diameter.  Not an issue either way.

 

atb

Simon

 

 

[Simond]

Went to the movies tonight, a screening of a brilliant documentary of Apollo 11, released in July to celebrate 50 years since the first moonwalk.

 

so, not much modelling, but here’s a bit I did before I went to work;

 

 

only done one side and the ends, and more work needed, but showing promise!

 

atb

Simon

[Simond]

Well, a little more dirtying applied to the Mica, and back to the APOC twins.

 

its not often that you need a lathe for kit building, but when you do, it’s pretty handy.  It is obviously crucial to the look that the tanks are level and aligned correctly, and the simplest way to achieve that is to screw the inner ends together, through the spacer.

 

 

inner ends being drilled to suit an 8BA screw & nut.

 

whitemetal can be a bit of a pain to drill, as it’s possible to get the drill stuck, and then it snaps off...  make sure the drill is sharp, speeds can be reasonably high, feed gently and clear swarf regularly, and lubricate with lots of saliva.  If you do that, try not to put any whitemetal in your mouth!  Here I’ve swapped the baby lathe for the pillar drill, and drilled through, and I’m now going to open up the hole to 2.14 as I measured the screw at 2.08.

 

 

That worked fine, tanks now temporarily assembled and sitting in place on the soldered chassis.

 

 

now to sort out the axleboxes.

 

The Slaters bearings are just shy of 2.5mm outside dia, and the measurement over the bearings on an axle is 48.33, and the measurement of the inside faces of the axleboxes when installed is 38.38.

 

if I drill 5mm deep in the axleboxes, I’ll not break through the front, and the bushes will be sitting snug on the inside faces of the boxes.  Looks like a plan.

 

how to hold the axleboxes without damage?

 

 

it requires res more hands than I have, but the clothespeg does the trick!

 

atb

Simon

 

 

 

 

[Guest Isambarduk]

35 minutes ago, Simond said:

its not often that you need a lathe for kit building ...

Oh I wish that I could say that! 

 

I always seem to be able to make life just a bit more complicated by modifying something and I'm on the lathe (or milling machine) before I know it but that's where I am happiest, if I'm honest.  

 

David

[Simond]

David,

 

try a Peco or Parkside kit for a change!

 

Simon

[Guest Isambarduk]

10 hours ago, Simond said:

try a Peco or Parkside kit for a change!

Years ago, I did try that and it was better ... but not as much fun    David

[bgman]

11 hours ago, Simond said:

David,

 

try a Peco or Parkside kit for a change!

 

Simon

 

I do agree for the most part as it initially gives you a quicker end result until....

You decide to make some alterations to improve upon what is generally a good representation !

 

Overall though there are some good plastic kits available which will give a quick fix when needed.

 

G

[Simond]

Precisely what I needed, and the Mica delivered!

 

more over the weekend, all being well

 

S

[Simond]

 

Twin tanks now on wheels.  You can see that the saddles are not quite matching the tanks, so that’ll be a key step to fix.  The solebar seems to be sitting about a millimetre low, so I’ve got some space to play with springing or equalisation.  No decision there yet.

 

What is absolutely certain is that it won’t need any added weight!

 

Once the height is right, and the tanks are sitting properly, I’ll do the details.  The Archer rivets arrived, I got them from Historex, quick service & easy to deal with.  They’re mainly military modelling, but there’s a few interesting bits in the catalogs that came with the rivets.  The rivets are ferociously expensive, so I hope they’re going to look good.  There’s lots of valves & pipework to add.  I might try to get some cast brass hand-wheels.

 

more tomorrow

 

atb

Simon

 

 

 

 

[wessy]

On 12/11/2019 at 07:18, Simond said:

Felix, 

 

thanks for the positive feedback.  I’m pleased with the Mica, but was slightly off-put by the comment I read about a train of 35 of them leaving Birkenhead docks each night for Smithfield.  Let me see, the thick end of £1400 at list price!  I’ve got the fitted Toad for one end, and the Finney 47xx for the other, but I think I might lose any vestiges of mojo building another 34 Mica wagons!  Maybe Dapol will bring out a Mica B.

 

Unfortunately, it appears that JPL do not have a website.  They are a regular at lots of shows, and do very nice cast & turned loco wheels, along with a lot of other interesting things.  I’m sure their sales would increase tremendously if their catalog were on-line.

 

atb

Simon

Although JPL don't have a website, they now do have a presence on eBay.

[airnimal]

Simon, Historex also do Masterclub rivets in lots of different sizes and not at all expensive.

They do require a hole to be drilled to fit them, but they do look good once fitted.

I agree Historex service is excellent.

Mike

[Simond]

Thanks Mike,

 

if I were to post a picture of the photo from the Tourret book, you’d see why I’d prefer not to drill holes!  I haven’t counted, but “hundreds”, so the Archer approach is my current preference.

 

alternatively, a bit of careful marking out, use my GW rivet press to emboss new tanks, then roll with cardboard covers to prevent them being flattened again.  It would be the technically-best solution, but I think it would take weeks, and I’m too impatient!

 

cheers

Simon

[Simond]

Tanks now sitting nicely on chassis, buffers fitted, but a little adjustment required.  Tank top fittings are just sitting in place, but they’re not world class...  some turned substitutes will be needed for the valves at least.  The covers are not so bad.

 

 

The challenging bit will be drilling the holes for the diagonal tie rods.  I’ve pretty much solved the tank end drilling in my head, I can make a “wedge” on which to mount the castings in the little pillar drill, but the chassis will be a bit more difficult.  I suspect a guide clamped to the chassis will be the only way, probably use the flexi drive on the proxxon hand drill as it’s easier to steer

 

Once I've done that, i can drill the flanges of the heating coils, and then I can epoxy the tank ends into the tubes and make the “pushed in” assembly permanent.

 

i need to have the tanks entirely separate from the chassis for painting.  According to the book, the solebars and all above are red oxide, all below is black, this surprises me, I’d have expected the chassis to be all black, but hey ho.  The lettering is dead easy (not),  “APOC” in large equispaced characters, two to each tank, repeated both sides.  Since the demise of letraset, it’s looking rather like a freehand job.  As I mentioned earlier, there’s a black panel with white text under the right hand tank, additionally, an “A” and a “B”. Hopefully the letters will be on an old sheet from who-knows-where in my bits folder, the panel might have to be an appliqué of some sort.  Not sure about that one.

 

More soon

atb

Simon

 

 

[Simond]

Ok, tank end drilling arrangements...

 

 

pleased with that, seems to have worked well.

 

now the chassis...

 

 

cue rather contrived shot of Proxxon flexi drive.  The tatty bit of card with some lines on it is a precision gauge, cut from finest Slaters wheel backing card, with notches cut to suit the things being drilled.  The lines serve as sighting lines, and it’s really good enough for the job, as the temporary stay rods show.  What I probably should say is that the centre marks for the drilling were actually marked out very accurately, using my digital vernier, and small centre drilling’s were made by hand using the Archimedes drill before attacking it under power.

 

 

I think thats quite quite a good step forward, and I’ve got a few other things to do tonight, so I’ll leave it there.

 

atb

Simon

Edited November 19, 2019 by Simond

[airnimal]

Simon, I bought about 10 sheets of Letraset from my local art shop when there were withdrawn from the market. 

I used a few, years ago and they were fine. I took them out recently to find most of the wax paper that they are printed on is crumbling.

I would check yours just in case they are like mine.

Mike

Edited November 19, 2019 by airnimal