Airfix Chops

[relaxinghobby]

 

 

The chassis has a second grinding down. All I have is a big hand file and a small clamp on vice which can barely hold the work piece firm against the force of pushing a big file over it. Progress is slow and the zinc metal clogs the files teeth so I had finished to quickly last time. This only became obvious once I had put the wheels in and placed the body on. It did not sit quite level or low enough so, eventually I would have to take the wheels out and measure mark and start the filing again.

 

That fin up the middle went as soon as I tried to fit the body, too difficult to fit the footplate around it.

 

Somehow you have to juggle all this metal work with marking and cutting out the wheel slots in the palsticard without cut too much. Line up and sit level

 

I thought the chassis block would be delicate and wanted to keep as much metal as I could so was very wary of grinding off too much and making it weak. After all there is basically a big hole in the middle where the worm wheel and pick gear sit.

 

No worries the small part left is plenty robust enough, metal is much stronger than the plasticard I am used to using but harder to work.

 

 

 

 

 

Now about the old boiler.

 

I had this nice white metal casting from a Ks Falcon kit. That was a sister passenger engine to the Lion goods class on the old London and South Western Railway. So I thought it would be a good fit here.

 

No the Falcon was a large wheeled class of engines and on the 00 model there are large cut-outs for the wheels and cab sides. Plus there is no bottom edge as on the Falcon, which was a fast engine made for speed so they made the boiler as low as possible for high speed stability. The bottom of the boiler is not visible on that model.

 

 

[relaxinghobby]

 

 

I don't know why this is in my Airfix Chops thread? It's so afar all from other tstuff.

A Wrenn footplate and all other green bits.

Wrenn or old Hornby chassis block, Markits or Romford wheels, how can I tell the difference?

Copper central heating pipe and brass K & S tube for the boiler.

A Ks smoke box moulding cut off their Falcon kit.

White plasticard from what ever source you just buy some sheets when ever you see it at model shows.

 

OH hang on the tender in some of the pics' is a cut down Airfix Schools kit tender or probably modern Dapol. So that sort of counts?

 

This pic' shows the newly hacked brass boiler balanced in place atop a strip of balsa wood which you can't see. To get the height about right.

Next is to build up the raised firebox. Should I carry on with more brass or go back to my more familiar plastikard?

 

Here's a drawing of the intended boiler firebox, in my head it is all different metal pipes fitting perfectly together and below is the brassy and copper reality and that is going to need tidying up.

 

 

[relaxinghobby]

 

 

Building up the brass-work for the boiler took ages.

Many evenings fretting over a hot gas stove.

Cutting bits of tube and bending them.

My main resource is plumbing pipe, 15mm copper and various brass tubes, is it K&N that metal stock that    sometimes appears in model shops. On little display racks, always useful but expensive. These are in different sizes and can telescope in side of each other which is good for building up raised section of boiler like this.

I've found using a plumber's pipe cutting tool puts a burr on the edge it cuts. Especially on the thin walled brass modellers tubes. Useful for introducing a round end. The pipe cutter is basically a set of rollers that turn and press the tube or pipe against a rolling disc like blade. It makes a neat perfectly square ended cut. Sometimes. That combined with some tin snips and a pair of round nose pliers sections of pipe can be curved into upside-down U shaped and omega ( insert special character here ) shaped hoops that can be built up to make the raised fire box.

The big cooker gas burner can be first used to heat up the brass to anneal it for easy bending and then soldering the whole big mess into a solid and heavy lump.

Useful for ballasting a loco.

Check with the kitchen authorities that this is OK or wait until they are out?

 

 

 

 

That bolt sticking up there was used to fix all the layers of U shaped pieces and hold then tightly in position whilst the boiler tube was held over the gas burner. Now it is solidly stuck, soldered fast.

 

The spare U shaped piece shows the rounded edge conventionally put on when using the plumbers pipe cutting toll. Luck or serendipity rather than intentional use of skill. The modelling Muses have been kind with this.

But looking at the close up photo  reveals a little bit of footplate curl developing around the red insert. Solvent distortion perhaps?

Edited April 27, 2023 by relaxinghobby
edit after read through

[davknigh]

I think this is the company you are looking for; https://ksmetals.com/pages/hobby

 

Cheers,

 

David

[relaxinghobby]

I stand corrected. Davknigh I meant KS Metals, I was getting muddled with K and N bolt on air filters for boy racers in their souped up and over noisy cars.

I checked your link and the KSmetals site opens up with a picture of brass tubes. Much thicker walled than I found in the shop. Possibly such tubes would be useful in modelling?

[davknigh]

I checked the tubes one site and found this: https://ksmetals.com/collections/12-long-round-brass-tube

Wall thickness varies from .006” for the thinner sizes to .014” for heavier tubes. I have found them useful for a variety of things such as brake rigging supports and sliding axles for 6 wheel coaches and wagons.

 

Cheers,

 

David

[relaxinghobby]

If I ever finish this model I could call it Hiatus, like the many Greek or Latin names the Victorian engineers called their creations.

 

 

Work on this little loco has stopped when I realised the finished loco would look just like another small 0-6-0 with raised firebox which I have a proper kit for. I'll save my effort to make a proper model of a raised top firebox loco not my usual bashed and hacked RTR chassis and old plastic bodies kinda model.

 

A proper kit means etched brass perhaps a more difficult form of construction. This would be a similar size and shape. Too similar for comfort.

 

So after a pause to think, or a Hiatus I've gone for a later version of a Lion class 0-6-0 with a larger smooth topped boiler.

 

After all the work on the earlier brass boiler I can use that on an original LSWR Beattie well tank model I have a kit for.

 

Of the half dozen photos I can find of this Lion 0-6-0 goods prototype each one had a different boiler configuration as they where changed and upgraded every few years.

 

Also I had this old brass boiler which was a good fit on the green footplate and dressed up the front with plasticard strips to make a smoke box because its easier to work plastic than metal.

 

 

Bit of curl dewveloping towards the rear of the footplate.

Edited May 8, 2023 by relaxinghobby
editing

[relaxinghobby]

 

 

 

 

 

How difficult it is to photograph black, so little contrast compared to the green at the back and the grey by it's side.

 

 

 

Paint Stripper

 

Waited years for an example of this old Airfix model J94 to come along then 2 within 6 months. Isn't that meant to be buses or Network Rail during the strikes.

 

One is being cut up to make another prototype, the tender version.

Then this one showed up just recently, covered in g lobby brown, thick paint. At last a use for all that clinical hand cleansing gel from the time of the covid panic. I bought a one litre bottle more expensive than the same size of one of Whiskey.

So the Tea tree and Aloe Vera gets to work on the paint and as quickly as a week to ten days the paint falls away and the plastic is OK. This is GO2 alcohol free I've got loads left after the covid panic.

 

For some reason the hand gel concoction did not totally remove the red paint on the buffer beams and it did not touch the silver pant whatsoever.

 

Don’t know what I'll do with this one. These kits don't work, just static compared with the late Airfix/Hornby running models. A scrap yard scene?

[33C]

4 hours ago, relaxinghobby said:

Don’t know what I'll do with this one.

Get the cheapest, oldest Triang jinty. File down the flanges, 2 strokes all round, with a coarse file. Dress and polish with wet/dry sanding block/paper. Service the chassis and motor. Cut out a slot in the J94 and drop on the chassis. Not accurate but useable, and paint it yellow with wasp stripes, front and back, N.C.B. style. That way you will never trip over it in the dark....

(The Hornby Ivatt/late 08 chassis is closer to the wheel base, but not common or cheap!) Get those shelf queen's running!

[relaxinghobby]

On 24/12/2022 at 17:54, relaxinghobby said:

Another diversion, I finally found an old Airfix J94 kit I can chop about and convert into the current tender version.

I saw it at the Spar Valley Line near Tonbridge Wells in the Autumn.

 

 

There are quite a lot of photos about on the internet of the J94s as both saddle tanks and the tender version, so working from these I got the razor saw out and set square, marked some lines and cut carefully the footplate and chassis. Fore and aft of the boiler.

A new boiler is rolled from 20 thou plastikard wrapped around a metal tube and heat formed with boiling water.

I’ve got three layers glued together here. I'm out of liquid solvent so had to use Humbrol Precision Poly which is a bit too thick but can just about be squeezed into the space between the layers.

 

 

The wheels are metal from a defunct Mainline J72, they can be forced into the axle holes after a slot has been cut out underneath to make a horse shoe shape.

The cab had the bottom cut off but did not look right so I stuck some plastic back on.

The cab sides have been filled and a new suitably shaped lookout needs to be cut.

 

I’ve used the back spectacle plate as the new front one. Keeping the lower half with the back-head detail on.

 

The tender is a cut down Airfix Schools. the 4 sides back, front and two sides are trimmed back to produce a small tender of some vague pre-grouping style. An internal sub chassis holds the wheels but needs levelling up.

Maybe this model will have a motorised tender rather than a motor and gearbox in the loco?  Watch this space but don't hold your breath, unless you are Houdini.

 

 

 

[relaxinghobby]

Some work on the tenderised version of the J94.

Theses are some wheels from the original Mainline and then Bachmann Branchline J72s and Pannier tanks. They were the awful split chassis or rather it was the wheel set and axle design that was bad. The central plastic sections became loose from the metal wheels at each end so the wheels all turn and loose their quartering.

 

As I‘ve found yhat out trying to fit these coupling rods, I’ve cut them down and re-soldered the ends to make shorter ones for the shorter J 94 wheelbase.

 

 

Somehow I will have to glue the wheels solid with the correct quartering.

 

 

 

 

Room for a motor and gearbox in there ?

[Sophia NSE]

I see you went down the same track as me at one point 😁

[papagolfjuliet]

Second hand find from a while ago: unmotorised Airfix 9F married with the tanks and cab and bunker from an Airfix Tanner-One to create a reasonable approximation of the kind of thing British loco builders used to turn out for Australian and South American and South African industrial lines. Now, where can I find a cheap Railroad 9F?

[relaxinghobby]

PGJ thats's great a tanker version of a 9F.

I have a Railroad 9F which was at a bargain price from Hattons or similar box shifter and have some sort of vague plan to turn it into a tank engine. the sort of thing industrial railways would do to a cheap second hand mainline loco. A wooden cab and some sort of home made side tanks . But yours looks very professional if a trifle Great Westernish.

I hope some motorised chassis terns up at a good price for you.

[papagolfjuliet]

15 minutes ago, relaxinghobby said:

PGJ thats's great a tanker version of a 9F.

I have a Railroad 9F which was at a bargain price from Hattons or similar box shifter and have some sort of vague plan to turn it into a tank engine. the sort of thing industrial railways would do to a cheap second hand mainline loco. A wooden cab and some sort of home made side tanks . But yours looks very professional if a trifle Great Westernish.

I hope some motorised chassis terns up at a good price for you.

 

The plan is to copy it using all but the cab of the Railroad 9F and the matching bits of the Dapol Large Prairie kit. Modifying that one would require far too much surgery.

[relaxinghobby]

PGJ's post above shows a great Airfix Chop. Here's mine a distraction from a brass kit which is going wrong, on the slippery slope down into an  over soldered mess.

With the fantastic Bachmann RTR City of Truro model available what to do with all those old Airfix static models which turn up at toy fairs and clubs sales stands ?

Chop them of course.

Here's a teaser photo of my chop.

Inspired by the recent acquisition of the book of overseas railway locos.

North British Steam Locomotives built 1857-1956 for railways over seas.

A book of early 2-2-2 up to massive multi wheeled monsters like the big  2-10-0 tanker in PGJ's post.

 

 

 

[relaxinghobby]

On 03/10/2023 at 13:44, Sophia NSE said:

I see you went down the same track as me at one point 😁

Hi Sophia NSE

 

 

Is Number 12 sitting on a Hornby 14XX chassis ?

 

These Hornby -Wren-body shells work well for smaller tank types.

 

 

Problems that have stopped this loco from being finished. Several listed below.

 

 

A * Bogie pivot screw here because there is a tapped hole in the chassis here, not necessarily an ideal point for the smooth running of the model.

I hope to replace the bogies with a metal one incorporating electrical pick up but must not touch and short against the bottom of the chassis.

 

B -B and C the green lines are where I hoped to make the chassis pivot relative to the body shell

C

D -The transmission shaft is now finished but not shown in this photo.

E -Some sort of pickup is needed.

F -Some sort of pivoted coupling link here to stop too much sideways movement of the bogie.

 

[relaxinghobby]

 

With boiler in place it looks more like an Outrance class 2-4-0 built for The Quest Railway of France in 1881 by Nielson & Co of Britain.

Boiler is from the Collectable Model Locomotive 3mm scale 4-4-2 De Glen compound or Nord Atlantic for the GWR.

Just the right size for a smaller 4mm scale Victorian era loco.

The cab is one of the black boxes found in the old Triang-Hornby tenders as a sort of primitive sound effect chuff-chuff noises. It's just wide enough to make this cab and being a cast box it makes for a strong structure with properly square corners.

 

Got to puzzle out how to refit the broken coupling rods and outside cranks.

 

 

The high short footplate and big wheels Make these 2-4-0s look very big with their high up boilers but is not so big when compared to this 0-6-0 C class a very standard size loco for the 1900 era.

 

[33C]

On 14/10/2023 at 11:17, papagolfjuliet said:

Second hand find from a while ago: unmotorised Airfix 9F married with the tanks and cab and bunker from an Airfix Tanner-One to create a reasonable approximation of the kind of thing British loco builders used to turn out for Australian and South American and South African industrial lines. Now, where can I find a cheap Railroad 9F?

Has the look of a broad gauge, Indian, suburban tank loco.

[papagolfjuliet]

8 hours ago, 33C said:

Has the look of a broad gauge, Indian, suburban tank loco.

 

Or perhaps something like this.

[Sophia NSE]

On 15/10/2023 at 15:34, relaxinghobby said:

Hi Sophia NSE

 

 

Is Number 12 sitting on a Hornby 14XX chassis ?

 

These Hornby -Wren-body shells work well for smaller tank types.

 

 

Problems that have stopped this loco from being finished. Several listed below.

 

 

A * Bogie pivot screw here because there is a tapped hole in the chassis here, not necessarily an ideal point for the smooth running of the model.

I hope to replace the bogies with a metal one incorporating electrical pick up but must not touch and short against the bottom of the chassis.

 

B -B and C the green lines are where I hoped to make the chassis pivot relative to the body shell

C

D -The transmission shaft is now finished but not shown in this photo.

E -Some sort of pickup is needed.

F -Some sort of pivoted coupling link here to stop too much sideways movement of the bogie.

 

It is indeed on a Hornby 14xx chassis. So much easier than the Airfix version

[cypherman]

On 14/10/2023 at 11:17, papagolfjuliet said:

Second hand find from a while ago: unmotorised Airfix 9F married with the tanks and cab and bunker from an Airfix Tanner-One to create a reasonable approximation of the kind of thing British loco builders used to turn out for Australian and South American and South African industrial lines. Now, where can I find a cheap Railroad 9F?

Hi Papagolfjuliet. I did something similar with a Hornby Dublo 2-6-4 body and a Railroad 9F chassis.

[relaxinghobby]

Back to my projects as it is my thread anyway.

 

What with one thing and another not much progress.

The Outrance style conversion of the old Airfix City of Truro, although that grey plastic looks like it’s from a Dapol version, anyway it is a bit of a bitsa.

Tired plastic keeps cracking like the cranks here or the plastic pins snap, so I have tried to use brass track pins but drilling holes makes the plastic weaker.

I have some half remembered outside crank axles from Romford in my bits box I think but setting up the cranks is very difficult. but metal would be stronger.

 

 

 

 

Another slow project is this LCDR  shunter, a Hornby J83 cut down and sitting on a Bachmann pannier tank chassis.

There is just about enough clearance over the motor.

 

 

[33C]

4 hours ago, relaxinghobby said:

Tired plastic keeps cracking like the cranks here

What about a bit of paxolin universal PCB board? The stuff thats used for electrical insulation (that the pick-ups are attached to on old Triang loco). Thin enough to cut/scribe and very strong for its thickness. 10 sheets, 7cm x 9cm, on Amazon for £6.99. You can also use it to replace broken brush holders on XO4 motors etc. The pre-drilled stuff is a boon for this.

[cypherman]

5 hours ago, relaxinghobby said:

Back to my projects as it is my thread anyway.

 

What with one thing and another not much progress.

The Outrance style conversion of the old Airfix City of Truro, although that grey plastic looks like it’s from a Dapol version, anyway it is a bit of a bitsa.

Tired plastic keeps cracking like the cranks here or the plastic pins snap, so I have tried to use brass track pins but drilling holes makes the plastic weaker.

I have some half remembered outside crank axles from Romford in my bits box I think but setting up the cranks is very difficult. but metal would be stronger.

 

 

 

 

Another slow project is this LCDR  shunter, a Hornby J83 cut down and sitting on a Bachmann pannier tank chassis.

There is just about enough clearance over the motor.

 

 

Hi,

I cannot help but think that the old Triang/Hornby M7 body might have been an easier starting point for this engine. But what you have done is looking good so far.....👍

Edited November 4, 2023 by cypherman