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Nile's kitbuilding bench - Midland 1377


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Before moving onto the next wagon I wanted to revisit the Cambrian brake van on the previous page. I wasn't happy with the fit of the roof, there were a few gaps at the ends, as can be seen in the photos. To fix this I ran some diluted Glue'n'Glaze into these gaps. When dry I covered this with black paint.24d.JPG.7cdaf3f3b88e5a17c6181b18f093db54.JPG24e.JPG.635a10542a83e8dd6a1164c1e0e2e589.JPG

 

 

Much better.

Edited by Nile
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On 26/10/2019 at 19:30, Asterix2012 said:

Nile

 

I have just read through all 37 pages

 

Very impressive work 

 

I do have a question, what would you recommend as the best method to join white metal to white metal and white metal to brass?

 

As an alternative, I pretty much always solder whitemetal to whitemetal, and to brass.  

 

When soldering to brass, it is necessary to pre-tin the brass with normal solder, and then tin again with low-melt.  I would normally tin the whitemetal with low-melt, place the two together, then apply heat to the brass.  You’ll see the low-melt progressively melt, and as the melt front reaches the tinning on the whitemetal part, ensure that it’s pressed down, and take the heat away.  It cools and grabs very quickly if there’s more brass to soak up the heat.

 

hth

Simon

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No, the knees get in the way. The instructions suggest gluing.

How easy is it to get a neat solder join with whitemetal? Both sides of the joint will be visible where the sides and ends meet.

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2 hours ago, Nile said:

How easy is it to get a neat solder join with whitemetal? Both sides of the joint will be visible where the sides and ends meet.

 

We shall see, once I get my hands on the kit! Looking back through your build, I think you must have had to do a bit of filling at some corners, before filing the bend on the corner plates?

 

I've been building a number of whitemetal opens recently; these all have butt joints at the corners, which can be tricky to line up to give a smooth surface.

 

I've actually not been too fussed about fitting floors to wagons that will have loads, but it looks as though in this case one is needed, to receive the W-iron assembly - or was that your own invention?

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Good evening Stephen, I shall try to answer some questions by starting on the next wagon, the other Prickley Pear kit I bought at Scaleforum.

 

NBR dia.77 8-ton 3-plank wagon

 

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Assembly follows the same method as before. Once the sides and ends have been cleaned up and fettled they fit together very well. These parts are just resting together.65.JPG.bab742d5660ae0c725e022327842b138.JPG

 

 

These parts could be soldered together as the floor can be fitted afterwards. I used thin superglue applied to the top of the corners, it flows into the joint rather like MEK does with plastic.It also acts as a filler when applied to the outside of the corners. These will be rounded later by filing.

Later the floor piece was cut to fit the space and glued into it.66.JPG.6051fd422fb87a3e0a98b5d1a8d3b5b3.JPG

 

Edited by Nile
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The chassis is the same design as before, with rocking W-irons. The instructions suggest 0.5mm of packing between them and the floor, so I assembled the parts on a sub-chassis of 20thou plastic.67.JPG.279c34bc85d7d73c4bf208019342ff3c.JPG

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This fits into the space under the wagon floor, where it will eventually be glued.69.JPG.146359aa0b5281f5f4d34edb7ccd2a01.JPG

 

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As the brake shoe units were glued to the sub-chassis rather than the wagon floor I had to reduce their height by 0.5mm to compensate. The instructions describe how to make the safety loops from the supplied brass wire. As I had some brass strip the right size I used that instead.70.JPG.312a79e7346c5071b2ee9e051172c838.JPG

 

 

In common with the previous kit the brake levers are too short. I used some more brass strip to make extensions, the join will be hidden inside the ratchet.71.JPG.27ffdfa78dc9efe4164e2b2cae51653d.JPG

 

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In the instruction notes it doesn't say when the extra brake was fitted, just later. You could probably get away with just one brake for your period.

I've been splashing the paint about, this is a test fit before adding the markings and weathering.72.JPG.795efa62e94b7b8a79b0c443ca2f5f20.JPG

 

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5 minutes ago, Nile said:

In the instruction notes it doesn't say when the extra brake was fitted, just later. You could probably get away with just one brake for your period.

 

 

... or at any period. My guess would be that a wagon of this vintage went to the grave with single-sided brakes. But I don't (yet) have Tatlow Vol. 3 - there could be photographic evidence against me.

 

Recently, I've been leaving brake levers off until the main painting is done (and painting them separately) to get a neater job and to avoid damage - especially with whitemetal or brass.

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The same here, unless the underframe is black, which isn't very often now.

'tis finished, bogof style.73.JPG.afb2d5d0f4d8f89e85a99f8ba69d9459.JPG

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The numberplate is from a Slater's sheet, with 'MIDLAND' painted out. Not quite right, but better than nothing.

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Next is another purchase at Scaleforum. I thought I might as well build it rather than try to find somewhere of store it. It's a Wizard/51L NER van.

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Once cleaned up the parts fit together well. This is a dry fit of the sides and ends, there is a plasticard floor inside keeping it square.

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Main assembly complete. As the wheels are now trapped I pre-painted the W-irons black.

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  • Nile changed the title to Nile's kitbuilding bench - more rolling stock
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Onto the painting stage with some Phoenix NER wagon grey. This photo also shows the internal bracing from some leftover plastic sprue. The long one will help support the roof.

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On 08/12/2019 at 11:16, Nile said:

Next is another purchase at Scaleforum. I thought I might as well build it rather than try to find somewhere of store it. It's a Wizard/51L NER van.

75.JPG.6a1c6e1cad7109ce05a892e8af0222b6.JPG

 

Once cleaned up the parts fit together well. This is a dry fit of the sides and ends, there is a plasticard floor inside keeping it square.

76.JPG.4d023c2edcd61ebe2589366310ac83e0.JPG

 

Main assembly complete. As the wheels are now trapped I pre-painted the W-irons black.

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Excellent as always! May I ask how you made/what you used for the commode rail "eyes" on the end pillars?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

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The handrail is 0.4mm and was fitted first into holes at the ends. I then drilled holes above and below it in the end stanchions. I bent some 0.3mm brass rod into U shapes and inserted them into the holes. This enlargement should help explain.

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13 hours ago, Nile said:

The handrail is 0.4mm and was fitted first into holes at the ends. I then drilled holes above and below it in the end stanchions. I bent some 0.3mm brass rod into U shapes and inserted them into the holes. This enlargement should help explain.

79.JPG.0fac5fc7c3ca49add01b178815ff0f6d.JPG

 

Thanks for the extra pic and info! Much appreciated.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

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25 minutes ago, Guy Rixon said:

Seems to me that most scripts in railway transfers are drawn a little over-sized when they really need to be a little under-size.

 

I'm glad that you said 'most' - they are spot-on from this supplier !

 

Moreover, a signwriter can subtly adjust lettering sizes to fit the available space - transfer designers do no have that luxury if the transfer sheet is intended to be 'generic'.

 

Regards,

John Isherwood,

Cambridge Custom Transfers.

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John, I'm glad to hear that your products are very accurate. Well done. I wish you did something that suits my period.

 

I still wonder if the best compromise for generic sheets might be to compress the sizes and spacing very slightly. An example is the "Ventilated" legend that appears on many kinds of GWR van: it's nearly always squeezed in between the van framing and default spacing of the letters makes it too large. If the letters were 5% smaller than nominal or the spacing 5% tighter, I don't think anybody would notice, but if the legend doesn't fit the space it really stands out.

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