Jazz 7mm Workbench

[jazz]

Not much to report today (A short day due to post Christmas family visitors)

 

Just time to post this pic of todays effort. More about this part of the build tomorrow.

 

[kristian1401]

Oh really starting to come together, i really cant wait to see this finished!

 

 

Kristian

[jazz]

So do I Kristian. Ken

[Blandford1969]

This is really interesting, thanks for all the photos, I've got the etches for one (reduced to 4mm to build) so this is a great help

 

Kind regards

 

Duncan

[jazz]

Almost forgot, thanks for the kind comment Pete. You're very welcome Duncan, my pleasure.

 

Well, this is turning into, perhaps, the most challenging loco I have built in memory!

 

It is taking quite a bit of fiddling and rebending to get things as accurate as possible. Even then things still will not line up exactly. Noye the etched handrail hole on the s/box. Then there is the problem of the fire/box, boiler and s/box being over long makiking the s/box front over hang. Solution was to trim a small amout off the front of the boiler, likewise a shade off the rear of the s/box. Extend the running plate 1.5mm and now it is acceptable.

 

That has taken all day as unsoldering work had to be done to achieve this.

 

Here she is so far.

 

[Michael Delamar]

if its challenging for you what hope is there for the rest of us

 

fantastic work, always great to see a master get the better of something like this kit.

 

look forward to seeing plenty more pics

 

Mike

 

 

[jazz]

if its challenging for you what hope is there for the rest of us

 

Mike

 

Hi Mike. I guess there's no answer to that?

 

 

Had a good day solving the issues on the build. (The photo makes it seem like not much has happened but it took all day to do it)

 

First job was to get the firebox/boiler and s/box to sit better on the running plate. I had only tack soldered the unit in place so unsoldering was easy, making the adjustments took quite a time before I was completly happy.

 

Having done that I looked at the pony truck. The frame extension was adjusted as high as it would go and still allow the body to sit level. But there still was insufficient room for the pony unit to ride properly. So that left removing 1.75mm from the lower edge to allow clearance for the units vertical movement. The photo shows that.

 

Adjustments were then made to the casting to allow the unit to sit level. This involved filing off some of the casting where the bolt attaches it to the frames.

 

Then I had to figure out the best way to attach the body to the frames. (This is not covered in the instructions.)

 

I have decided to fabricate a 'box' with a 6BA nut soldered inside and solder that to the underside of the s/box. This will then allow a allow a 6BA bolt to pass through the frame spacer to hold the front end. The rear will have two 8BA bolts passing through the vertical plate below the cab floor and into the nuts soldered onto the frame rear spacer which also has a vertical end immediately behind the afore mentioned plate.

 

The tender will be attached to the loco via a fabricated swinging hook from the tender to a horizontal bar across the afore mentioned plate below the cab floor. (That is my preferred method on all my tender locos to make the coupling/uncoupling very easy.

 

So this seems, I hope, to be the big problems all solved. I can now complete the chassis. I have all the associated brake gear made up and attached, couupling & connecting rods made up. The chassis is now running very freely with the centre axle sprung. Tomorrow starts the remainder of the chassis build.

 

 

[steve fay]

She's coming on nicely, looking forward to seeing her completed. Are you to paint it ken or is she off some where else.

[jazz]

She's coming on nicely, looking forward to seeing her completed. Are you to paint it ken or is she off some where else.

 

 

Thanks Steve. No, only the chassis and priming the body, then it will off to Geoffs own painter.

[dibateg]

Glad to see I'm not the only one tackling one of Jim's kits on here Ken!

 

You are making impressive progress as usual, I think your loco will be completed long before my K3.

 

Regards

 

Tony

[Crewe North]

Looking the biz Ken!! I built the Acme kit for it , which I think was the Jim H 'limited edition' that was sold on to them (thus making a mockery of the 'limited' bit) .....was a bit of a pain to put together but at the end of the day looked very impressive. I don't know if yours is the same but look out for the slidebar casting , the ones Acme were putting out came from their West Country kit and thus nothing like the BR ones......their Brit and Clan kits also had them also, together with con rods that were 5mm too short.....but that's another story

[jazz]

Hi John. As you know, this is the original J Harris kit, I cannot say for certain if the ACME kit is the reincarnation or not. Studying the AMCE photo it does look remarkably like it. By that I mean the etches and joints look the smae m.o. (The builder seems to have great difficulty in getting the cab to sit right.)

 

Anyway to the build on my WB. Today turned out such a lovely bright clear and sunny day my better half and I took a turn down to the prom and back, so not a full day at WB.

 

Unlike Johns problem with the 5mm short connecting rods, these were just fine. However there were plenty of the usual clearance problems with the coupling rods hitting the various attachments including hitting the connecting rods.

 

Plenty of filing and fiddling around and moving the piston covers out a little has solved that problem.

 

So tomorrow should see the valve gear attached and hopefully the chassis all but complete. (That is the target but I may not hit it.)

 

Todays progress.

 

[Crewe North]

'I cannot say for certain if the ACME kit is the reincarnation or not'

 

It is Ken, I was around when they bought it from JH along with the Brit/Clan/A4 etc etc.. BTW having looked at your photo that slidebar casting still looks (to me) more West Country pacific than the real thing which doesn't seem to have that 'bolt' arreangement on the rear end

[jazz]

Hi John, I thought the ACNE photo looked too much like the JH. You are quite correct, the slide bars are not quite right for BR.

 

Anyway the chassis is now at the stage for painting. The return cranks and speedo will have to be fitted after final assembly. Thankfully all the attachments went OK with virtually no mods meeded.

 

Now it's back to the body.

 

 

 

 

 

[jazz]

Just a quick update. Spent all day detailing her. Soldering all the pipework took forever. There is still quite a bit of detailing to do though.

 

I will not be at the WB tomorrow, (another project to tackle), so should have it finished ready for priming Thursday/Friday. Photos then.

[jazz]

Decided to take a break and had a pleasant day trip to the Imperial War Museum (North). A great day out too!

 

Finally, I am ready for the big clean up and priming. I just may take a rest from this build and do something else. It really should be renamed, Duke of Pain, but there you go.

 

Still a few things to attach after priming. (The smoke deflectors are very loosly fitted until after the final painting)

 

I am so pleased it's nearly over, I hope I never need to build another of these.

 

Here she is so far. (Apologies for the poor quality of the images, taken in VERY poor light.)

 

 

[jukebox]

Very imposing!

[steve fay]

Ken

Do you think you could get some pics of her once painted?

[jazz]

Ken

Do you think you could get some pics of her once painted?

 

Highly unlikely I will see here fully painted. Geoff will not have it painted for quite some time. I will, however, post photos shortly of her in primer.

 

In the meantime here is my J21 I have just completed for Pen y Cwm. She is now ready for some quite heavy weathering, glazing, crew etc., etc. This class of loco would not have been seen around Oswestry/Shrewsbury but I happen to just like this loco. Plus it is a Col Stephenson railway and he did purchase eclectic locos, so that's my excuse.

 

I have used Slater's GB03 spur drive gear box (all brass gearbox and gears running in ball races). She is a beautiful runner. I will be adding sound to her as well.

 

[davec.hh]

What a nice loco - then I do like black ex-NE 0-6-0 and 0-8-0 locos.

 

Hope that you can post a photograph of the weathered J21.

[jazz]

What a nice loco - then I do like black ex-NE 0-6-0 and 0-8-0 locos.

 

Hope that you can post a photograph of the weathered J21.

 

 

Will do. Jazz

[jazz]

Here is the J21 ready for duty. The idea was not to create a delapidated look, just a dirty look. As such I have given her a good rub down with coal dust, followed by a dusting of sooty weathering powders plus other shades of greyish, brownish colour of my own mix.

 

I used an almost dry brush to creat some streaks. Also a hint of dirtyish white runs from the chimney, dome and safety valve bases. Not all of this ia apparent in the photos, as they are quite subtle.

 

The last picture is a doctored photo of her simmering on the road.

 

 

 

 

[davec.hh]

Some superb modelling, painting and weathering.

 

Really nice to see the finished J21.

[jazz]

Thanks Dave, appreciate the compliments. Ken

[jazz]

Just completed final assemby on the Duke of Gloucester, after painting the chassis ready for delivery.

 

After the rather tedious build, she runs VERY well with the ABC gearbox/Cannon motor. Certainly romps along at express speeds. She is quitye heavy too, even without added weight.

 

The photos were taken with the wide angle lens and does have a slight fish eye effect. With this camera it's difficult to get such a long model in the frame without standing a long way back.