Jazz 7mm Workbench

[jazz]

Thank you Mark. Yes Llandudno is a very nice place to have retired to. We always enjoy the ride on the tram up and a meander down past the old church to the stunning Marine Drive.

 

Even today, looking at the Orme from our house, the low, mean clouds swirling round the upper reaches with the views of the angry sea in the gale force winds has a beauty all of it's own.

 

Oh well, turn away from the window and finish the 42xx.

[Markeg]

Hi Ken,

 

Thanks for the reply. Just returned from having tea/dinner/supper -evening meal. Had a quick look through at some of the entries and photos of your work. Some very nice items there. I model mostly LNER in 00 gauge with some BR favorites, but that is getting up to near 30 now.

 

I see you have made a D16 4-4-0. A friend of mine here has built himself a 45' x 20' 0 gauge layout with a few BR locos, DJH A1, BL A3, Black 5, Pannier and I think one other. I will get to question now. I have looked at the Gladiator kit of the D10/11 Director and may one day buy one, specifically D10 62654 Walter Burgh Gair as its has the same surname. How do you get the balance right, is the chassis compensated? But I must admit I think I would build a 00 gauge one first, but I'm hoping Hornby or Bachmann make one, now Bachmann for 2012-3. Then I would buy several to have one in LNER and BR liveries.

 

Went to Gainsborough MRC and saw a couple of nice 0 gauge layouts at Bristol MREx while I was in the UK. My favorite was seeing The Gresley Beat and meeting its owner.

 

Mark

[jazz]

Mark. I missed you were in Aussie. Have a thought for us in misserable, cold, windy Wales.

 

All Gladiator kits leave it to the builder to decide on compensation/suspension for themselves. The chassis have etched lines for you to cut out if the builder decides on sprung hornblocks.

 

Now the 4-4-0 locos are a pain for balancing. I do not use, or personally recomend sprung hornblocks (to much trouble for me). I much prefer my own form of springing as shown in many my posts.

 

For the 4-4-0 locos. Bogie on a sprung post with the spring set to hold the front of the loco up with too much upward force.

 

The leading driver sprung for downward movement only and the rear driver fixed. As much lead weight in the rear and over the rear driver of the loco as can be squeezed in ALL recesses etc.

 

There are many other ways of dealing with 4-4-0's, including one I saw with the tender heavily weighted to hold the rear of the loco down. That I did not like at all.

 

Hope this helps. Ken PS Dinner is tea in our house.

Edited January 5, 2012 by jazz

[jazz]

Hi again. Just a quick post to let you know I'm still here and busy. Been quietly working on my HO layout and building the 7mm GWR 42xx below a couple of hours a day for the past 2 weeks.

 

This is from the Gladiator stable. It has made into a nice looking model.

 

Next on the WB is the LNER 4-4-0 D30.

 

[Sandy Harper]

Hi Ken, a handsome beast!

I notice that the lubricator pipe cover on the smoke box appears to have a 'kink', for the want of a better description, where it passes over the boiler band between the smoke box and the boiler barrel. Is that part of the casting or have you managed to form it?

I am presently building a GWR kit where there is no 'kink' in the casting and to make it fit you either have to file a slot in the cover, thereby destroying the flanged edge of the casting, or removing a small portion of the boiler band.

Regards

Sandy

Edited January 20, 2012 by Sandy Harper

[jazz]

Hi Sandy. Were you referring to me or the loco?

 

You have hit the nail on the head. It is a matter of filing a notch in the casting or remove part of the band. I decide which, depending on how much flange you have to play with. On this casting the flange was not lost.

Edited January 20, 2012 by jazz

[Sandy Harper]

Ah! secrets out!!!!!!!

[N15class]

This is some very fine looking work. I look forward to seeing more in the future.

Peter

[HarryP]

I'll shall follow the D30 thread with interest, having one lined up for "soon", but having never built a 4-4-0.

Apologies, mine is a D32...wrong loco, but i shall still watch with interest.

Edited January 21, 2012 by HarryP

[jazz]

Today has seen a fair amount done to the D30 4-4-0 tender. No problems at at. Everything went together very nicely.

 

The only tricky part was bending up the tender correctly. It was a case of careful marking out. I started with marking dead centre of the rear of tender top. Marking the dead centre of the entire sides/rear and matching up the marks. Then starting with a very gentle small bend and constant checking against the model as you go using the bending bars.,

 

Here are todays photos. (Sorry about the poor quality. It was quite dark when I took these)

 

 

 

Edited January 21, 2012 by jazz

[jazz]

Well, that was a fairly easy build. I did have my doubts when I opened the box, but it was quite well designed and all the etches did fit nicely.

 

The flare was no problem and a perfect fit with absolutely no fettling or filing needed. Amazing really.

 

Here she is ready for the usual big clean up prior to priming.

 

 

 

[jazz]

A start was made on the chassis yesterday. The first image shows the foldup chassis prepared for folding and the ashpan side in the folding tool. (A great tool this form Metal Smith)

 

The second image shows the chassis so far. The valve gear is dummy and really looks the part. The upper parts of the gear is attached to the footplate, or you would not be able th detatch the body from the chassis.

 

 

[sej]

Hi Ken, an interesting class of loco and that chassis looks lovely!

While I'm steadily making progress on my working inside valve gear, I think that future projects will again involve the cosmetic variety;

it looks just as good and is pretty difficult to see when the model is moving!

[Blandford1969]

You could really be fooled that the valve gear does not work, you always work to such a great standard and I find it really inspirational. i'm looking forward to seeing the remainder of this build.

[jazz]

Thank you gentlemen for kind remarks.

 

I agree with sej, I do sometimes think working inside valve gear could be a waste of time & money. I guess it all depends on how you intend to use the loco. If, like me, I just want to run the things on a layout and then valve gear is not noticeable from normal viewing. For others it would be important just knowing it's there and working whether it can be seen or not.

 

It reminds me of a really good modeller who went to great lenghts to model the boiler tubes and all the internal smoke box detailing in one of his locos. I asked why go to all that trouble as nobody will see it. His reply, 'because I know it's there'.

 

Here is another shot of the valve gear, I think this is probably the best dummy gear I have seen in a kit and this detail is not yet completed.

 

It was a tricky business with the valve gear as you will notice I sprung the leading axle. So I had the assemble the gear with 14BA nuts & bolts to allow it to float. Thankfully it all worked out OK.

 

Edited January 25, 2012 by jazz

[N15class]

It looks impressive, I have only fitted dummy white metal and I thought that look good under the boiler, but wow yours looks like it will drive the loco.

[Horsetan]

Here is the start of the HO layout set in Bavaria, Epoch II (1920's).....

 

Any excuse for the appearance of an S3/6?

[Rob Pulham]

That looks superb Ken, whose kit is it (apologies if you have mentioned it earlier - I did look but without success)?

[jazz]

Any excuse for the appearance of an S3/6?

 

I don't need an excuse to run stock I likethe look of. I'm not in any way pedantic whey it comes to railway modelling. I just love Bavaria so I base the layout on that area.

 

That looks superb Ken, whose kit is it (apologies if you have mentioned it earlier - I did look but without success)?

 

The D30 is an NB kit.

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks Ken,

 

I hadn't heard of them before but having a look around their website there some nice looking kits. They certainly seem to contain lots of detail.

[mikemeg]

Anyone seeking the inspiration to start loco building or simply to improve their loco building should really look no further than this thread, for these are consistently and unfailingly superb. Not just the photos of what is done but the advice and guidance on how it is done. For me, this thread is mandatory reading and my own efforts are inspired by what I see on here.

 

Just the very best of the modeller's skill, techniques and true artistry.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[jazz]

Wow, thanks Mike, I am really humbled by your comments. I had always hoped my thread would help & inspire, just as I heavily relied on the books and indeed help and encouragement from the model railway club back in the 1970's to learn my craft. Looking back, my first efforts were pretty grim, with the very first 7mm scratch build landing in the garbage bin. But as my signature say's 'learning by doing', my old school motto.

[mikemeg]

Wow, thanks Mike, I am really humbled by your comments. I had always hoped my thread would help & inspire, just as I heavily relied on the books and indeed help and encouragement from the model railway club back in the 1970's to learn my craft. Looking back, my first efforts were pretty grim, with the very first 7mm scratch build landing in the garbage bin. But as my signature say's 'learning by doing', my old school motto.

 

And my first attempts went a similar route, they were cr-p. But if we persevere, then eventually we start to produce stuff which is acceptable; it is the individual's own definition of 'acceptable' which is the defining factor.

 

Jack Nicklaus (the golfer) was once asked, during an interview, to explain why he was so lucky in winning major Golf Tournaments. His reply was broadly :-

 

'Practice. The more I practice, the luckier I get.'

 

Says it all and you're welcome re the comments; the locos are superb.

 

Cheers

 

Mike

[jazz]

Onwards with the build. I am still amazed at how everthing fits so well. The only slight adustments so far has been 1mm cut off the connecting rod cover top lenghts and the same amount for the splasher top. Plus a mdjin off the cross brace between the fram extentions. No that's not bad at all.

 

The splasher tops ere very easy to bend around a needle file handle for the ends and fingers for the large bends. I kept fidling until they sat on the tops of the sides snug and neat before attempting to solder them in place.

 

I then just tack soldered them with three quick small daps of low melt solder. Checked they were correctly postionsed and then finished off with 145 solder. 50w iron for quick heat transfer and no need to worry about too much heat unsoldering them.

 

Here is the build so far.

 

First image is a shot of the brace I attach behind all my steps as they are always vunerable to being bent when handling the loco.

 

The second shot is the cab sides & front overlays in place over the inner cab frame. These were a perfect fit requiring no adjustments at all. Also the splasher tops all done and dusted. The cross brace is also in place.

 

 

Edited January 27, 2012 by jazz

[jazz]

More on the D30 build. (She is to be Cuddie Headrigg. A lovely Scottish name, I think) This is a remarkably time consuming model to build. Only because I am constantly scooting back an to from the PC. I have to do this to go on 200% zoom to see some of the detail, as there are many variations to consider.

 

I was shocked to find the firebox rear former required 1.2mm removing to line up with the cab front base. Plus 2mm removing from the former sides to clear the wheels. What a shame as I have not had to fettle any of the other parts. The boiler, when rolled up and soldered to formers, was a perfect joint along the seam.

 

Any way we are now on to the final stages of detailing, there is a fair amount of that too.

 

Also it is now clear just where the lead weight can be squeezed in abaft of the front drivers. As usual with 4-4-0's she is nose heavy.

 

Photos so far.

 

 

All the valve gear is now fitted, as some has to be fitted to the body build to allow separation from the chassis.