Scratch/Kit building a J38 in OO

[WD0-6-0]

This is my Scratchbuild entrance to the 2015 challenge. (I hope Scratchbuild is the right challenge to enter into, I'll change the entry if it's wrong).

In this challenge I'm building an LNER J38 from a great British locomotives collection J39 and a Jinty chassis with the modifications scratch built and a south eastern fine cast 3500 gallon tender.

I'll post some photos of the work so far later on

[Horsetan]

Could you not use the SEF J38 chassis (FC 171)? That would give you the correct wheelbase and help set the "frame" for your bodywork.

[WD0-6-0]

Limited on cash and experience I'm afraid Horse, I will be building another J38 and other proper kits in future but I'm sticking to the Jinty chassis for this one

[WD0-6-0]

Ok, my first step after getting the GBL J39 home was to remove the splashers, the J38 has smaller wheels and so doesn't require them.

With these removed the running plate was filled sanded and painted, in the below photo a scratch is very visible but you can barely see the real thing, still it must be corrected before final completion.

 

Onto the boiler, fortunately the boiler has a removable bottom section because unfortunately the motor is mounted centrally in the chassis so it will show below the boiler (one of a number of compromises I will have to make in this build). I have chosen the Bachmann Jinty because the wheel base is very close as is the wheel size.

A set of false frames were cut to sit on the running plate to fill the gap left by the splashers.

Some filling was also required at the front frames as the sat above the running plate rather than on it.

You may also have noticed that using the J39 running plate is wrong, I have been told that the front curve should be 1.5mm further back but I have chosen to accept this on this build rather than correct it.

I also filled in the round indentation which held the smoke box lamp iron, it was very large and obtrusive.

[WD0-6-0]

Unfortunately the copy of the correct Yeadons registers for the J38s (and D49s) has been cancelled by the retailer as they cannot get hold of a copy for my. I could only get that copy due to having vouchers for that retailer and cannot afford a copy from elsewhere which is a real pain.

Onto any modelling done since the last update. Well to be completely honest, not that much has happened, I've not long finished my final year of school so a lot of my time has been taken up by BBQs on the beach however work has still been done, the false frames have been removed as I felt I could do better, I'm currently working on new ones. the frame extensions at the front under the running plate have been remodelled to a better appearance. I have still not yet acquired a suitable tender but I will. Other small jobs were filling and sanding small areas too, not really worth mentioning.

Maybe it wasn't such a good idea entering this into a competition but I will stick with it for now, I now this wont be a winner but I'm enjoying it and that's what counts.

[WD0-6-0]

Believe it or not there has actually been some progress, I have a tender. This was the main part I feared, cutting into a very nice tender to make it smaller, I had to do it, running my J38 with a later style 4200g tender just didn't seem right even if I've seen such a loco, it had to be a 3500g tender. Yesterday I bit the bullet and made a start, today I finished the structure. It still needs work but then so does the whole loco, I'll post some photos shortly

[WD0-6-0]

As promised a few photos, I know this is going slow but hey it's still going. The main problem isn't my model bashing as such but my seeming inability to update here when stuff is actually done.

Here we go anyway.

The building of the 3500G tenders

And some transfers

It's getting there