RMweb Gold Worsdell forever Posted July 14, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 14, 2011 Really like the fish vans Jonathan, I must give that a go sometime, if ever I have time... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted July 17, 2011 Author Share Posted July 17, 2011 Cheers, Paul. A very straightforward conversion, which had to be pointed out to me as I was too slow to spot it. Slightly more complex if you go for a 9' WB version but very doable nonetheless. I may well go that way in the future. Question for anyone who might know; I've painted the Cambrian fish van bauxite as you can see. Barry's instructions specify yellow lettering, but wasn't this only for maroon or red vehicles? I'd always thought white lettering was used on BR bauxite vehicles. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted July 17, 2011 Author Share Posted July 17, 2011 (edited) A rainy afternoon (I had my fill of getting wet this morning) provided the opportunity to bring out the HMRS sheets and letter up the vans. This is not a task I relish as anyone who has used the pre-TOPS BR freight lettering sheet will understand. Here are the results from a lengthy session punctuated with much tea and other necessary sustenance. One of the LNE vans is finished in the LNER version of bauxite (the right one above) to give some variety to the finished train. The Cambrian instructions say yellow lettering, but I'm sure that should only be for maroon vans. I've gone with my instinct here (apologies to Barry if his research proves me wrong). The different appearance of the left hand panel is the gloss varnish applied before the transfers. These were actually completed during the week and just had another coat of varnish today. I used Modelmaster NE lettering on the toad. I have a love/hate relationship with Modelmaster transfers and the halo effect and the part-lifted covering film above shows you why. Once it's thoroughly dry I shall try to remove that film as recommended and if that doesn't work I'm told you can dissolve it with White Spirit. This is the rough side all round - apart from that chip on the stepboard the roof's lifted slightly at the left hand end. I'm very pleased with it overall and everyone I showed it to at Hartlepool was impressed. That done I got the soldering iron out again for a couple of hours before calling it a night. Mostly cutting out and preparing components, but the whole thing has visibly advanced a little. Now, the more perceptive may have noticed that the 0-4-0 above was an 0-6-0 when I showed it with the lid off. I found that the W & T wheels I'm using had a back to back which was slightly narrow. Graeme used the same make (possibly exactly the same wheel) on his P1 and didn't have a problem so it may just be the batch or the odd wheel in the set I've got. Anyway it seemed to be a problem when I tested the chassis in some of the pointwork on the Ormesby layouts, so I turned my mind to what to do about it. I didn't want to try bending/moving the plastic wheel centres so what I've come up with involves shimming the axle. The difference is slight, so I found a hole punch which produces a disk of the same diameter as the Romford axles. I've punched a paper disk (bog-standard paper is about 7 thou, I believe), impregnated it with cyano and placed on the back of the wheel. I'm hoping that the resultant disc will be hard enough to withstand me making the required square hole in it and then add just enough to the back to back, possibly even allowing for a midges to be shaved off if necessary. All that will be revealed in due course, I expect. And now someone will tell me that you can get suitable washers from somewhere. Edited September 7, 2018 by jwealleans Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted July 19, 2011 Author Share Posted July 19, 2011 (edited) I've been back to the loco this evening. For those who haven't guessed or found Rob2's previous build, this is an Arthur Kimber J73. Arthur sells these, among other engines as North Eastern Kits. There is a lot of tab and slot on these kits as Rob2 commented. They can to a large extent be clipped together as here. The cab and side tanks (all one fold up component) are just slotted into the running plate. This was more or less my starting point this evening. By the end of the night all that had been attached along with some of the cab interior detail and the cab rear and bunker are made up and ready to be soldered into place. The homemade spacing washer on the wheel seems to have worked so the other axles will be getting the same treatment. Here is the new build being moved round the works by something the postman dropped off today. Edited September 7, 2018 by jwealleans 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan Posted July 20, 2011 Share Posted July 20, 2011 At this rate Jonathan you will soon have the whole fleet of sentinels of the L.N.E.R. What does the new one run like? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted July 21, 2011 Author Share Posted July 21, 2011 (edited) Hi Alan. It was this being announced which prodded me into building the other two. I'd never have done them afterwards. It's a bit early to give a proper judgement as I haven't run it in yet (next Monday at the club). Slow speed running seems good and it pulls everything on the 'in progress' board with no trouble. . The original plan was to do one of my kits as a Y3 and one as a Y1 but I decided it was more trouble taking the grilles off and I'd probably not manage it without messing them up. Hence this is a Y1 to go with my pair of Y3s. My only slight reservation is the lettering, specifically the number. It looks cockeyed. I've had a calliperon it and if it is out it's microscopic, but it looks out. The question remains as to whether I can do any better, but it maybe repainted in due course just so it has a different number. I'll put a photograph up in due course. In the meantime another session with soldering iron and rollers has got this looking much more like it should: Edited September 7, 2018 by jwealleans Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Lewis Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 That J73's a long way from home isn't it? Looking good though. I've got one in the drawer which I'll get around to one day. Compared to some kits, I guess it should be a fairly quick build, because it's accurate and well-designed (and fairly small). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted July 22, 2011 Author Share Posted July 22, 2011 Hi Tim, Not really - if you take Newcastle as the northern end of their range and Hull as the southern, it's almost exactly in the middle. I haven't lived near Ely for several years now. This loco will be finished as 552 which covered most of that patch during its career. Your observations about the kit are spot on - well designed and accurate sums it up. I've had the odd hiccup - nothing more than that - but Arthur is very good at answering any questions I've had so far. I spent a Sunday afternoon building the chassis and all the rest has been done in roughly a week of evenings. I got distracted onto energising the test track last night, but I have just dropped my first bo**ock; I finished cleaning up the boiler and smokebox (which bolt together and on) then went into autopilot and soldered them into place without having added all the detail, which is now that much more fiddly to do. Nothing terminal, though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted July 23, 2011 Author Share Posted July 23, 2011 (edited) Firstly, the promised photograph of the Dapol Sentinel, with Crownline version to the left and NuCast (with plastic superstructure) to the right. I've been messing about with it on the test track and it does run very nicely; once it's had the prescribed amount of running in we'll do some haulage trials. In the meantime, I suddenly found myself at the end of the instructions last night. The castings are only sitting in place as yet and I will need to get the low temp soldering iron out, but the back of it seems to have been broken now. That's more or less a week of evenings to complete. I did have to make some little tweaks here and there and there's some more work to do on the chassis once the drive unit arrives (1424 and High Level RR+) but it looks like what it's supposed to be which I suppose is the aim. Please tell me now if you can see anything wrong with it. Edited September 7, 2018 by jwealleans 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ArthurK Posted July 23, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 23, 2011 Please tell me now if you can see anything wrong with it. Only one minor point Jonathan. The hole for the Ramsbottom lever is too low. It should be about on the level of the line joining the top cab corners. Yes I know that this will conflict with the cab roof former. I drilled that as well. The cab roof can still be removed by lifting its rear the sliding it bacwards. replace ment is the same but in reverse. It also helps keep the cab roof in place! Looks like that lever cfould do with a bit of straightening on mine, not to mention the handrails. Note this loco burns lead. Arthur Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted July 24, 2011 Author Share Posted July 24, 2011 (edited) Detailing and finishing off almost complete. There are no castings for the tank fillers so I'll make something from plastic. Other than that I did tweak a couple of things; the holes for the sander operating rods were a bit too far forward so I made new ones and filled the originals (the green patch you can see on the front corner. I replaced the smokebox dart with one made up from Mainly Trains bits (MT 317/260) and put the grilles over the cab rear windows on from the same source (MT 226). They do some very useful loco detailing etches. The safety valve lever has been moved up as you can also see (thanks Arthur). The other thing to make is the small bracket for the fire irons on the left hand side tank top. Edited September 7, 2018 by jwealleans 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Worsdell forever Posted July 24, 2011 RMweb Gold Share Posted July 24, 2011 That looks great Jonathan . Do you have a J72 to stand next to it to show just how much bigger it is? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ArthurK Posted July 24, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 24, 2011 That looks great Jonathan . Do you have a J72 to stand next to it to show just how much bigger it is? I put a J71 next to mine and couldn't believe just how much bigger the J73 actually is. I must photograph the two together to get a proper comparison Arthur Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ArthurK Posted July 24, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 24, 2011 Here are the two side by side. As you will see the J71 is very much smaller! Arthur 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted July 24, 2011 Author Share Posted July 24, 2011 (edited) Beat me to it, Arthur. This is a J72 which is going to be a J71. Edited October 16, 2018 by jwealleans 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ArthurK Posted July 24, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 24, 2011 Jonathan Are you going to shorten that bunker? It won't be easy if the chassis block is anything like my old Mainline J72. Arthur Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted July 24, 2011 Author Share Posted July 24, 2011 I have the Mainly Trains conversion kit, which I think is largely Iain Rice. I had it in mind as the next loco to do, being in a North Eastern 0-6-0 sort of frame of mind at the moment. I haven't started researching it yet, but i can see that the bunker on yours (your etches, I assume?) is quite a bit shorter. I know the early build J72s had a smaller bunker - were the J71s altered similarly? The conversion kit is an etch with a new chassis, front splasher, buffer beams and brake gear. There are some Gibson NE tapered buffeers and a cast piece for the boiler where the Mainline chassis used to stick up into it. As I'm building a new chassis it might be easy enough to shorten it, but then the replacement chassis is designed to fit the Mainline body so I may create more problems than I solve. Mikemeg has just done one of these and I don't think he shortened the bunker on his; knowing how thoroughly he researches that suggests to me that the larger bunker is an option. The loco was a swapmeet buy by my dad several years ago and needs something doing with it as it has been dropped, the front buffer beam and body are cracked and it runs like a 3 legged proverbial dog. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ArthurK Posted July 24, 2011 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 24, 2011 Jonathan All the J71s had the short bunker. The NER built J72s were virtually identical in appearance apart from the smaller wheels. As far as I am aware none of the J71 received the larger bunker. The J71 isn't from my etches. It was bought as a cheapo, I think, from Pocket Money Kits. It is scaled down from the 7mm version and the chassis didn't convert too well. The body wasn't too bad but it was very fiddly to assemble. The splasher top and front were separate fron the sides and being so small it was difficult to solder one edge without unsoldering bits that you had alreadt done. Sme day I will finish it but it was largely bought to find out how others did it! Having said that it would be an easy etch to produce using the same ideas as on the J73. Arthur Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted July 25, 2011 Author Share Posted July 25, 2011 Well, that'll be a bit of additional work to do when I get round to it. I have a couple of brass coaches to build for Ely first. Iain Rice references two MRJ articles in the pack instructions (issues 10 and 12) which will make a sensible place to start and I do have the drawing in the NERA Vol 3. If all it involves is a straight cut at the rear, shortening the bunker and then shortening the rear overhang of the chassis to suit, I can't see a problem. If it starts getting more complex i may have to live with it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted July 28, 2011 Author Share Posted July 28, 2011 (edited) Bit of a break for the J73 - it's stopped raining so I have a garden wall to build, with the prospect of a small waterfall at one end... The motor and gearbox came yesterday so I'll probably put those together one evening. I have been tinkering on with some other oddments: Another conflat. Now I've got the hang of what needs to go together to make the fixing chains these are getting quicker to make. Glazed the duckets on the Toad E. To be fair to Mr. Modelmaster the covering film almost came off as he said it would although you can see where it took the central leg of the E with it and I had to paint it back in. I've been messing about with this for a while following Graeme's King's example here from a few months ago and prompted by a pair of duckets courtesy of Scottiedog at Hartlepool. This was a body I picked up from Hattons some time ago when they were flogging them off at a pound each. Starting from that much more incomplete basis I've had to make floor and chassis as you see. I have some Comet W irons for 14mm wheels (these are occupation wheels) and will have to source up buffers and axleboxes in due course (I expect Andrew Hartshorne is the man). Edited September 7, 2018 by jwealleans Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted August 5, 2011 Author Share Posted August 5, 2011 (edited) It lives! I've made up the motor and gearbox and had it running with a pair of power leads attached. I've also made up pickups and had the motor powered from the track. It's now being dismantled for chassis painting and then the final (I hope) assembly. I've made up representations of the injectors, tank fillers, oil boxes on the tank fronts and also added works plates and the fire iron holder on the left hand tank top. I've used a different gearbox to the one Arthur recommends (I insist on grubscrews and being able to disassemble things, which limits what I can use from the High Level range) so I had to remove quite a bit of the chassis spacer behind the firebox and a bit of the footplate to make it fit. The sharp eyed may notice there are only sandpipes at the back: there was just not enough room for the front ones so I attached them to the brake gear. I've missed a bit of linkage from that as well so it may have to be tweaked again before painting. Bits for this are on the way but I didn't show it with the duckets attached. It seems to be staging 'Snakes in a Guard's Van'. I've been looking for axleboxes for the French vans with no real success so I made a set for this one. There are several different patterns so I may have a crack at a different type for one of the others. Edited September 23, 2018 by jwealleans 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted August 16, 2011 Author Share Posted August 16, 2011 (edited) Well it's been a bit of a lull, but I didn't think photographs of paint drying were worth the effort. It has been drying all that time, too; after I put the black on (Games Workshop), I painted the buffer beams with Precision white primer. Five days later, when it was still tacky, I put the red over it anyway and that has at least dried off. I did have the chassis to reassemble and here it is on the rolling road with the body in black and primer. I have no p/b wire for the rear pickups so I'll have to acquire some at Blyth. Here it is today along with the repainted Dapol Sentinel. I've added the works plates and sander operating rods to the latter. In the meantime I've been fiddling on with this and that... I acquired another pack of Bachy AF containers. John Isherwood gives some very useful hints on remodelling these to earlier diagrams in his instructions for the replacement transfers. I don't have either of the book she refers to, but there is a photograph of one of the boxes in question at the start of The 4mm Wagon Part 3. This is the 'before', two with the necessary detail removed and two untouched. I'm going to use the untouched two as they are, the Bachmann lettering and finish being pretty good. Here the other two with replacement door operating mechanism and handles. There are still some hinges to make. Different enough to be worth the effort, I think. Edited September 21, 2018 by jwealleans 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 The French van is a cracker; when it's finished and painted, would you like me to post a photo of it (and its older brethren) on a French wagon enthusiasts' site. I would think they would be amazed by it, as it's far more ambitious than anything they seem to have done. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwealleans Posted August 16, 2011 Author Share Posted August 16, 2011 Be very happy, Brian. What site is that? I'm always interested to read other forums, you can pick up all sorts. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted August 16, 2011 Share Posted August 16, 2011 Be very happy, Brian. What site is that? I'm always interested to read other forums, you can pick up all sorts. http://wagon.discutforum.com Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now