Battledown's Workshop Ramblings

[Battledown]

Having finished the T3 some time ago I have spent very little time at the workbench. I have a sizeable number of projects, both new and uncompleted. I have four locos awaiting painting, one part built, one part painted and eight waiting to be started, to say nothing of various items of rolling stock in a similar variety of states.

 

First up will be to complete a Finney T9 I started a number of years ago but still need to line and detail the loco.  It is in Drummond livery which is a bit more intricate than Adams'. I have been using the Pressfix transfer & fine brush method to good effect on the tender but the loco has splashers and cab sides to line so is not so straightforward. 

 

Here is the tender. It is basically complete other than fixing the rear buffer beam, which has started to separate from the footplate, then a coat of varnish and the fitting of buffers and coupling that will be done at the same time as the engine.  

 

 

 

 

Photos of the loco will follow when it is lined. Until then I may post some photos of other models completed or awaiting painting.

 

 

[Simon Moore]

The painting & lining is superb on the tender. I look forward to seeing more. The T3 on the other part of the forum was a nice account of the build. I've never built a finney kit but I would like to do the M7 in br black at some point.

[Battledown]

3 hours ago, Simon Moore said:

I've never built a finney kit but I would like to do the M7 in br black at some point.

They are excellent kits but require concentration, care and patience. 

[Battledown]

This is a LSWR T14 'Paddleboat' I built from a Nu Cast white metal kit about 30 years ago - frightening!

 

Nu Cast produced two versions; the Urie superheated one and the later Maunsell one with modified footplate and splashers. Perverse as I am, I decided I wanted to build the original Drummond saturated one so I used the Urie kit as the basis. The smokebox had to be shortened and I fabricated the cross-water tube covers from plastic card. I also fabricated and purloined much additional detailing. The valve gear rocker assembly above the footplate was made from a special etch I drew up and commissioned from Bill Bedford - this was back in the day when he did special one-off commissions from his lair in the Shetlands.

 

I used the kit chassis which was milled brass and compensated it using Flexi-Chas components from Perseverance. Wheels are from Alan Gibson, as are the coupling rods. The rest of the valve gear was from the kit. It is powered by a Portescap RG4-1620 motor-gearbox but has never been a good runner. In retrospect, I probably should have fabricated my own frames or, being a OO model, kept the kit chassis as rigid.

 

So, a lot of kit and parts suppliers from the past, some of them sadly long since demised. I could not see myself producing such a model again but I love the prototype and there is still no kit, nor is there ever likely to be one. Martin Finney has scratch built a beautiful one for his Semley layout but I have never seen another 4mm model of an original T14 in Drummond livery.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 7, 2022 by Battledown

[Camperdown]

>I have never seen another 4mm model of an original T14 in Drummond livery.

I recall a Bernard Baker model on Derek Mundy's layout, but checking the November 1976 Constructor, I see it was the superheated version with extended smokebox.  

[Camperdown]

Unpainted, but an original T14:

 

[Battledown]

11 minutes ago, Camperdown said:

Unpainted, but an original T14

Thanks - when I wrote this I did wonder how long it would take for someone to show me an example!

[Simon Moore]

I could be wrong but I am sure I saw a notice on the PDK website that he was producing a kit for one. He's done a fair number of ex lswr loco kits. 

[Battledown]

1 hour ago, Simon Moore said:

I could be wrong but I am sure I saw a notice on the PDK website that he was producing a kit for one. He's done a fair number of ex lswr loco kits. 

PDK does all the Drummond 4-4-0 locos, 700 and M7 but none of his 4-6-0s, as far as I can tell. Moreover, his kits for the T9, S11, L12, D15 and 700 classes are for the superheated boilers with extended smokebox which is only natural as that is how they ran for the majority of their lives. 

[Simon Moore]

I just had a quick look on the website.

 

Planned kits are LSWR T14, L12 & S11. He's also done the urie 4-6-2 & 4-8-0 tanks if they float your boat.

[Battledown]

Here's a video of the T9 chassis with full inside motion on the rolling road. It's a little lumpy due, I think, to my having slightly distorted one or both of the brass cranks when assembling the wheels onto the axle. If I can't tweak it enough I will have to build a new crank axle assembly, which means a new inside motion kit with new cranks, connecting rods, eccentrics and valve rod assembly. Failing that fit a straight axle and just leave the motion as cosmetic.

 

 

[Battledown]

I've still not been able to get to the work bench and am unlikely to until after the weekend, so here's another loco built many years ago - a Wills (now South East) Finecast Schools Class. In fact, it was this that got me into railway modelling. It was a Christmas present from my wife in 1986 following a suggestion from a work colleague. I built it out of the box as Stowe, using the Wills cast chassis, Romford wheels and an XO4 open frame motor.

 

Fast forward about 15 years and I stripped the paint and modified the cab to portray Charterhouse in early guise sans smoke defectors. I built a new chassis from a Comet kit, using the Wills cylinder castings (the Comet ones were over size), Alan Gibson wheels and a Portescap RG4-1416 motor/gearbox. The tender received similar treatment with a new chassis. Both loco and tender chassis are compensated and pick up up is from wipers on the loco driver and tender wheels. Additional detailing, both proprietary and scratch built and a new paint job, with light weathering, transformed it into a decent model - such was the development of my capabilities over the years. It still looks good and runs really well. 

 

 

 

 

[Battledown]

It's been a long time since I posted on this thread. For a number of reasons that I needn't go into here I have not been able to do any serious modelling until fairly recently - let's just say that 2022 was devoid of any modelling time. 

 

However, I have been busy this year and have eventually finished that Finney T9. Having dropped it and damaged the rear steps, chimney and running plate it was relatively straight forward, though time consuming, to make the cosmetic repairs. The bent crank axle and inside motion required replacing, however, but it all went back together and runs reasonably well, although improvements are needed to the pick-ups. 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 13, 2023 by Battledown

[Battledown]

Another model completed - this time a GNR J3 from a London Road Models kit. The GNR goods grey livery was much simpler than the Drummond passenger one thankfully!

[Battledown]

At long last my new garden workshop is up and running. Having had to share the utility room with the domestic authorities, modelling time and space has been at a premium. Now I have my own exclusive space there is no excuse for not getting on with things in earnest.

[Battledown]

So the first project in my new workshop is a Great Eatern E22 0-6-0, one of the series of locos known as Buckjumpers. This is a London Road Models kit, originally designed by Iain Rice and marketed under his Riceworks label.

 

First up is the footplate which Mr Rice suggested is built first so that the chassis can be tested as it is is built. Here is one I prepared earlier!

 

[Battledown]

Today's task was to prepare and assemble the chassis frames and hornblocks. I decided to keep things simple and fix the rear axle with a compensation beam between the middle and front axles. I am modelling one of the locos that ran as a 2-4-0 with the coupling rods between the middle and front axle removed. This meant that I only had to accurately align the centre and rear axle to the coupling rods, with the front axle aligned by eye.

 

One issue I had is the kit only comes with OO or EM spacers, the latter also being used for P4. I was not happy with that idea - you might only be talking about 1.6mm but the increased gap between wheels and frame is noticeable. Luckily I still have some perseverance universal spacer frets so was able to cobble together some replacement P4 spacers. Hornblocks are from High Level Kits.

 

I used my Chassis2 Pro jig (from the much missed Eileen's Emporium) which shortens the task of fitting hornblocks and spacers and ensures that everything is square and aligned.

Frames hornblocks and spacers laid out ready for assembly - note the original kit EM spacers at the top.

 

One of the frame sides fitted to the Chassis2 Pro jig and hornblocks positioned ready for soldering

 

Frames and horn blocks assembled - the Perseverance spacers do the job but are slightly thinner gauge so don't look as neat as the kit ones would have done

 

It all fits neatly beneath the footplate.

[Battledown]

So today I assembled the motor and gearbox - High Level Roadrunner Plus with D1 Extender, 45:1 gears and Mashima 1220 motor.

 

Wheels are fitted and I have a basic rolling chassis.

 

I'm off messing about on the river tomorrow so more at the weekend.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Battledown

[Battledown]

I have been without a camera for the last fortnight having dropped my phone. While that didn't stop activities in the workshop it did mean I couldn't photograph progress on the Buckjumper. The chassis is is now all but complete as can be seen from the photos below. There were a few issues, one of which was the brake hangers and pull rods. The instructions say that you need to bend the top pivot wire down and forward to ensure the pull rods clear the crankpins and coupling rods. Why not just put the holes in the right position, says I. So I did and it made life a lot easier. I also fabricated the brake cylinders that were very visible on the prototype but are not included in the kit.

 

Basically complete chassis - just pick-ups to add. You can see the original etched brake pivot holes just above the actual pivots. The whole brake assembly is removable to aid painting and any subsequent maintenance, as are the cosmetic springs which are attached to a keeper plate that fixes to the central frame spacer.

 

The underside of chassis showing brake linkage detail and cylinders, and the keeper plate for the cosmetic springs. You can see how tight clearances are for the crankpins, even though I repositioned the pivots. 

[Battledown]

So, moving onto the body, much progress has been made. I have to say that while the kit is generally accurate it does show the age of its design. Firstly, there is virtually no tabs or slots with assembly mainly relying on butt joints - more like the old Sayer-Chaplin kits than current practice.

 

Anyway, I now have the basic cab, bunker and tank superstructure complete. Again, I deviated from the instructions which suggest assembling one side straight onto the footplate then working your way around the bunker, other side and tank fronts. I chose to assemble everything away from the footplate, using some an engineer's square and pane of glass to make sure everything was square and flat, before then offering the whole assembly up to the footplate and soldering it in place - well, it worked for me.

 

The basic structure just placed on the footplate and chassis to check motor clearances.

 

Then soldered in place.

 

Tank tops fitted. You will also see that the cab interior is about 1.5mm further back than it should be. This is due to there being no diagrams in the instruction to show how it all goes together, so I only discovered my error after I had soldered the whole structure together. I can live with this as once the cab roof is on and the backhead fitted it won't really show. I certainly wasn't going to take the whole thing apart and start again!

 

 

 

Edited June 2, 2023 by Battledown

[Battledown]

Final sequence for today shows the cab roof which I made removable. The rain strips are made from 0.45mm wire filed flat.

 

The kit only caters for the later steel roofs and not the original wooden ones.

 

 

Finally, I fitted the coal rails - a bit fiddly but I got there in the end. Pity about the LH spectacle - that will need to be straightened!

Edited June 2, 2023 by Battledown

[Izzy]

I shall follow this build with interest as I’ve just started on a LRM J68 to P4, my first complete 4mm kit build for around 30 years so wondering what if anything has changed. I like the simple keeper plate arrangement.

 

Bob

[Battledown]

I have to confess that I am terrible at taking photos after each session, preferring to just get on with modelling and keeping clear of the computer. Hence the tardiness in updating this thread and the gap between the various stages of construction.

 

Anyway, the E22 is now basically complete, although there is still some work to do on tidying the chimney, dome and safety valve seatings and some minor filling between the valences and footplate. Some of the polished items, such as copper pipework and clack valves, are only placed on the model temporarily and will be removed again before final cleaning up ready for the paintshop.  

 

 

 

I also have a North Staffordshire Railway B Class 2-4-0T that has been waiting for the paint shop for a couple of years so am going to be quite busy with the airbrush and lining pens for a while!

 

 

 

 

[Battledown]

At long last I have completed painting the E22, reassembled it and got it running. Modern digital photos taken on a smart phone are very cruel and show up every minor blemish - and there are plenty on this model. Believe me when I say the naked eye and normal viewing distances are much kinder. 

 

[Battledown]

Next up is the North Stafford B Class 2-4-0T. So far I have etch-primed, sprayed the buffer beams and inside frames vermillion, the outer frames black and the main body colour, which is my own mix of red, yellow and black.

 

This one is a lot more challenging from a lining point of view. I really am going to have to master the lining pen for this one - the tank sides and bunker rear are panel lined black-vermillion-straw-vermillion-black, with a vermillion-lined black border. Cab sides, rear and front and toolboxes are lined vermillion and straw with black borders. Boiler bands are are body colour lined straw and vermillion with a broad black border. Deep joy!

 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Battledown