Nile's Mostly Freelance Bodging Bench - Pre-Grouping Locos

[Jack P]

Hey there Nile,

 

Looking excellent as usual, just wondering where you got the cast smokebox front from?

 

cheers

[Nile]

It came from the London Road Models Tilbury tank kit (LTSR no.1 class 4-4-2T). The kit contains parts to build all the variations, apart from the condensing version. As I'd used the Midland door this one was left over.

[Nile]

Moving swiftly on the tender was painted and varnished, removing any trace of Hornby's horrible weathering.

 

With transfers and matt varnish applied these are the major parts ready for reassembly.

 

And here it is back in one piece.

 

I removed the side sheets from the front handrails. The resulting L shaped parts were a bit fragile so I drilled holes in the front of the body for them to locate (and be glued) into.

[Legend]

Drummond's engines were so much more attractive before that Mr Urie got hold of them!

Nice modelling!

I wish Hornby held that view

[Nile]

The tender, with added coal and some light weathering.

 

Back to the loco chassis, I glued some strips of plastic to the sides of the motor. These limit movement of the motor under load.

 

Body back on the chassis. This has also had a bit of weathering, and 3-link couplings fitted.

 

Putting all the bits together this is what you get.

 

I'll do some comparison shots with 316 next to wrap things up.

[NHY 581]

Lovely work Nile.

 

Can I ask, how have you treated the coupling rods?

 

Rob.

[Nile]

All I've done to the coupling rods is try to remove the weathering with a fibreglass pencil. I think I got most of it off. Their appearance can vary quite a bit with the angle of view.

[Nile]

I've got six more photos for you to finish off this 700 saga. I've put the two LSWR models together for a before and after Urie rebuild comparison. 316 is in ex-works condition, 459 is looking a bit grubby after years of service and a world war.

 

 

That's all for now, thanks for looking.

[Nile]

The next project is a bit simpler, a bit of detailing and a repaint.

The starting point is a GBL C class model, the plan is to turn it into a typical goods engine of the West Midland Railway.

Here the model has been stripped down to its component parts and the moulded handrails removed. The front and middle splashers have been swapped.

 

I've repainted it using Reading green, another obscure paint from the US.

[Corbs]

Yes! I think I enjoy your LMWR/WMR projects the most

[autocoach]

The next project is a bit simpler, a bit of detailing and a repaint.

The starting point is a GBL C class model, the plan is to turn it into a typical goods engine of the West Midland Railway.

Here the model has been stripped down to its component parts and the moulded handrails removed. The front and middle splashers have been swapped.

C_1.JPG

 

I've repainted it using Reading green, another obscure paint from the US.

C_2.JPGs

And if that was Floquil Reading Green or Polly S acrylic Reading Green now long gone as Floquil and Polly S have been discontinued by Testors/Rustoleum with only a few Railroad colors moved to the Testors Model Masters line of paint.

[Nile]

Yep, Polly Scale, I liberated what was probably the last jar from Model Junction last year. Very nice paint, shame they stopped making it.

[Jack P]

Nile, not to hijack your workbench thread, but as it's a 700 I thought I would use that similarity - how do you stop your Matte varnish from ending up all splotchy?

 

If you excuse the rather average picture, it highlights the issue I seem to be having, although it seems my photography belies the finish

 

[Nile]

Hi Jack, I normally finish my models with a few coats of Humbrol Acrylic matt varnish, sprayed from a can. Just how many coats depends on how glossy the model was before, and how matt I want it to look. I find this varnish has to be applied in very light coats, if it goes on too heavy it can go cloudy. It can also react with some paints, it doesn't work well with Phoenix paint but is fine with Klear.

 

Back to the current model and here it is after I've applied some Klear and some transfers (Microscale).

[NHY 581]

Nile, not to hijack your workbench thread, but as it's a 700 I thought I would use that similarity - how do you stop your Matte varnish from ending up all splotchy?

 

If you excuse the rather average picture, it highlights the issue I seem to be having, although it seems my photography belies the finish

 

I agree with Neil, Jack. If applied too heavy it leaves a white deposit or in my case you can lose the various colours you have spent hours applying......!!

 

Light coats and start ahead of the model, pass over and finish after the model.

 

I find the texture you end up with to my liking but that is probably because I am weathering. Here's one of mine as an example. (Apoligies to Neil.)

 

Rob.

[Nile]

And now for some detailing. I thought that the gap around the front of the smokebox was a bit too prominent, so I've filled it in. With that done I added the handrails.

 

On the tender I moved the handbrake to the other side. This required some mods to the fall-plate.

 

On the top of the tender the GBL model has two partitions at the rear, I removed the erroneous one next to the coal lump. Any remnants will be hidden by real coal.

 

At the front I replaced the side screens with some brass rod handrails.

[Nile]

With the handrails and smokebox painted their appropriate colours I sprayed it with matt varnish, apart from the dome which I masked. I kind of like the big shiny brass dome.

 

Finally a few extra details added - real coal on the tender and reverser linkage on the loco (left hand drive).  The coupling rods have been oilified with some Tamiya X-19 Smoke.

 

It won't be pulling any trains, but then nor will any of my other OO locos any time soon. It should be possible to motorize it in the future if needed.

[Nile]

Recently what little energy I have in this heat has been directed elsewhere. Then suddenly last weekend I got the urge to tinker with one of Oxford' Rail's Adams Radials, to see if the motor mount problem could be solved without too much work and new materials. The problem with the model as it comes is that the motor mount protrudes into the space under the front part of the boiler. The solution is to move the motor rearwards , doing this with the original motor isn't entirely simple.

This is the starting point. Between the motor and gear tower are a flywheel and universal joint, these will have to go.

 

With the wires unsoldered the motor can be removed from its mount.

 

The motor and flywheel. One half of the universal joint sits in the recess of the flywheel, which is very firmly attached to the motor shaft.

 

It might be easier to use a different motor, my previous conversion used a Mitsumi motor seen here, still available on ebay. Another alternative is in the photo, a 5-pole motor also from ebay, but I don't know if it's still available.

 

My intention this time is to reuse the original motor, which means getting the flywheel off without breaking the motor.

More tomorrow, time for bed now.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Nile

[Mikkel]

Very interesting, Nile. Can I ask why removing the flywheel could break the motor? I'm quite ignorant on these things.

[sir douglas]

itll take a lot of effort to remove it and a slip of the hand could very easily damage the motor as it is a damntight press fit, ive done it with a brass worm gear on a motor shaft, i had to clamp the gear and hammer the shaft out of it from the end with a nail

[Nile]

The problem here is that there isn't enough room to get my gear puller between the motor and flywheel, so I resorted to attacking the flywheel with saws and drills. This was the sight part way, note that I've wrapped sticky tape around the motor to keep the brass out.

 

The motor has a 1.5mm shaft, whereas the worm is on a 2mm shaft. To bring these together I used some brass rod, 2.0mm O.D., 1.5mm I.D. The bearings needed opening out slightly to fit on the tube.

 

Edit: The tube and worm were secured in place using Loctite 603.

 

Here it is fitted to the chassis. There is a piece of wood under the motor, it might be from a lolly stick, it will stop it rotating. The motor mount has moved to the left, lining up with the next hole in the chassis.

 

 

After a test run proved successful I tidied things up. Most of the motor mount was removed, and the clip was refitted onto the gear tower.

 

 

This brought things to a halt, it seemed the clip over the gears was too tight. So I removed a small amount of material from both sides of the clip to loosen it slightly. This fixed the problem.

 

 

Finally for today a photo showing the chassis and body together, but without the boiler. This shows how far back the motor now is.

 

 

I've removed the boiler so I can add a new underside to it, that's next.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

I made the new boiler underside from some 10thou plastic card. It may have been the same stuff I'd used before as it was already curved. I wrapped it around a AA battery a few times and stuck the end down with some tape. I removed it from the battery and then dunked it into a hot cup of tea that had conveniently just arrived. Removed and washed, I then cut it into two pieces a bit bigger than the space to fill. While using a bit of cardboard tube (about the same diameter as the boiler) as a former, I glued the two pieces together with Limonene (which is milder than MEK). This is the resultant part, after trimming to fit the space under the boiler.

 

 

I added some supporting framework inside the boiler for this new piece to glue to. I've also glued a weight inside the smokebox, as the motor mod would have shifted the CofG backwards slightly.

 

 

New boiler underside glued in place.

 

 

And this is what it looked like with the boiler temporarily refitted.

 

Next, paint it black.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

I painted the new part matt black. I haven't tried to match its finish to that of the boiler, or add any lining. This model will probably end up painted a different colour eventually.

Here it is with all the bits refitted.

 

 

And now for some before and after comparison photos.

 

 

 

 

Bodies removed.

 

 

The only material used was some brass tube and Loctite 603.

Edited November 5, 2023 by Nile

[BG John]

Where do you get the tube? I may have a variety of motor shafts and worms to match up, including one of these. Paint matching won't be so easy though, as mine's in LSWR livery, and I want it to stay that way, but backdated as far as possible to real LSWR condition. And probably converted to EM!

[Nile]

I think I got the tube from Eileen's. As that was the last of it I've bought some on ebay that seems to match it.

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2mm-Brass-K-and-S-Tubing-12-THIN-WALL/231847312293?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649