Nu-Cast Sentinel Steam Railcars x 2

[34016]

So I thought I'd just have to repeat the above steps for the second model. Nope, the two halves of the roof weren't wide enough and the whole thing was 2.5mm too short. After cajoling it to the right width I joined the two halves together, using a lot of solder to fill the gap. The next issue was at the trailing end the roof curved in more than it should. So I had to cut two slots as below.

 

Then gently tease them apart to get the right profile.

 

 

They were then filled with solder and filed flush along with all the mould lines and other filling in.

 

 

I decided to remove the rainstrips on this roof as the mould lines were quite pronounced and I couldn't avoid damaging them.

 

[34016]

I think most of the superstructure is complete now so time to start adding some detail. I've started with the steps to the centre doors. I've used 1mm nickel silver strip for the vertical rails. First I set the rails at 6.5mm apart for the passenger doors and 7.5mm apart for the luggage doors and soldered cross members to hold them at the ends. I then soldered .45mm wire across using a piece of 5mm square brass to space them correctly. Rather than do each step individually I'm doing them in sets of four, making sure that they're all the same.

 

 

I then soldered some 2mm nickel strips against each piece of wire to form the steps.

 

 

The steps are then cut individually to length, again using the 5mm square brass as a guide. The four steps on the right are offset on the rails for some reason, but photos do seem to bear this out.

 

 

Soldered in position, the L brackets you can see will be added to the back of each step to add strength.

 

[34016]

Next up are the steps to the cab doors. The steps at the motor end are wider than those at the trailing end. Again I've used 1mm nickel strip which as you can see had to be twisted through 90 degrees as on the prototype. These are then soldered under the step.

 

 

 The solder joint is rather flimsy, so I've had to drill in to the sole bar either side of each strip and add a piece of wire across them. This is folded in behind the sole bar and then soldered. Strong joint achieved and hopefully won't notice once painted.

 

 

The centre rungs are added using .7mm wire. Getting them the right length is a trial and error process. I used a 3mm square brass bar placed across the sole bars to get the spacing correct.

 

 

And then the 5mm bar that I used earlier to space the lower rungs. The end are then clipped off and tidied with a needle file.

 

[34016]

As well as the control columns and handbrakes supplied in the kits, I decided to add the boilers and flues. The boilers are made from 12mm diameter tube cut to 15mm long. 

 

 

A piece of brass is soldered at one end and then cut and filed to shape.

 

 

I then cut two pieces of 5mm diameter tube to 7mm long. These are then soldered to the top of the boilers near the edge.

 

 

The motor end with all fittings in place.

 

[Chas Levin]

Great stuff and as others have said, thanks for posting: I too am about to start one of these so I'm going to read through the thread properly tonight, as you're dealing with lots of things I've only started thinking about so far!

That boiler and flue is a nice touch as they're quite visible through the windows in some shots, aren't they?

Edited January 26, 2023 by Chas Levin

[34016]

I needed to put the handbrake, control column and seats into the trailing cab end. The only way to do this was to make up a false floor and fit all the parts to it. It will drop in place and then can be fixed with solder.

 

 

I've obtained 36 whitemetal tram seats from KW Trams, 18 for each railcar.

 

 

I marked the passenger area floor so that the seats are 10mm apart, and once I had cleaned up all the mould lines, they were soldered in place 1mm in from the edge of the floor.

 

 

With the vac and steam pipes, buffers and rivetted patches at each end of the sole bars, its now time to paint the underframe.

 

[34016]

I've removed the moulded on door handles and handrails and replaced them with .45mm brass wire.

 

 

 

I've also replaced the lamp brackets. The body is ready for painting.

 

 

Rather than use the torpedo vents in the kit I've obtained some nice turned brass ones from Markits. They have a .5mm hole drilled in them so I soldered in .45 wire.

 

 

And then glued them in place.

 

 

 

Edited January 31, 2023 by 34016

[34016]

I didn't like the whitemetal bump stops for the bunker doors, so I used 1mm brass strip. First I drilled holes in the strip with a .6mm drill and then bent them to shape. Then I soldered .6mm wire into the holes (I forgot photograph this stage).

The wire is filed flush and the bump stops cut to the right length and then glued in place.

I also didn't like the chimney's very much, both were a bit oval as well as being solid, so I turned up a couple of new ones.

 

 

Next up is painting everything.

 

[34016]

I've applied the primer to the bodies, light rub down and a second coat.

At this point I realised I hadn't drilled the holes for the window grills. These will be fitted after painting.

First coat of cream brushed on. I thin my paint so its easier to brush. The underframes were given a coat of primer, then matt black and finally satin black, all Halfords Paint.

 

[jwealleans]

Thanks for this thread, I've picked up a couple of handy tips for mine and the unbuilt one I still have.

 

I will also be interested to see how it performs with the power bogie.  I built mine with a BullAnt, which is a fantastic drive unit and gives it enough power to haul a carriage and a few vans.   I did another for someone else with a Black Beetle and it was disappointing.

 

I also found I had to attach the drivers steps to the bogie to get it to go round any sort of curve.  I work to a minimum 3' radius as a rule.

Edited February 5, 2023 by jwealleans

[34016]

2 hours ago, jwealleans said:

Thanks for this thread, I've picked up a couple of handy tips for mine and the unbuilt one I still have.

 

I weill also be interested to see how it performs with the power bogie.  I built mine with a BullAnt, which is a fantastic drive unit and gives it enough power to haul a carriage and a few vans.   I did another for someone else with a Black Beetle and it was disappointing.

 

I also found I had to attach the drivers steps to the bogie to get it to go round any sort of curve.  I work to a minimum 3' radius as a rule.

The steps are an issue and I may have to attach them to the bogie as well. The tenshodo isn't the most powerful and two on each railcar may have been better. Its been a learning experience all the way! 

[micklner]

Steps on mine are moved outwards a couple of mm, it goes around my 3ft curves without issue.

 

Tenshodo !!🙃

[Chas Levin]

6 hours ago, micklner said:

Steps on mine are moved outwards a couple of mm, it goes around my 3ft curves without issue.

 

Tenshodo !!🙃

Mick, my emoji knowledge isn't the best: are you praising or condemning the Tenshodo with that upside-down smiling face? 🤔

[34016]

The next job is the motor bogies. Having a built model to refurb, meant having a motor bogie ready to go, or so I thought. When I tried it in position it clearly was going to foul the steps, as pointed out above. Just in case I checked it against the isinglass drawing and found that the bogie should be 29mm over the axleboxes, whereas the example I had was 32.5mm. So, I had to strip it down and start again. To get the right width I cut some brass channel 23mm long and soldered it to one end of one of the bogie frames. I repeated this with the other side and then checked the width with the two held together. It came out as 29.5mm over the axles and 21mm between the bogie frames. Any less and The wheels would touch the sides. I still think something isn't quite right, if I was working in EM or P4 it would be an issue.

The two sides are now attached and I've filed away the back of each side to take the tenshodo mountings.

The mounting and bogie frame was lined up with the motor bogie in position and then tacked in place. Once sure that it was all level the mounting was soldered between the sides. I've also drilled and countersunk two holes for 12ba screws to attach the plastic base plate.

The two screws are soldered in place and filed flush and the base plate can be secured and is removeable for painting etc.

[micklner]

Found this today. Never seen it on the site before.

 

http://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/Image-Pages/Image_4mm_LNERSentinel.htm

 

Comes as etched sides, ends and floor.

 

Where you would find the Roof ,Bogies etc  from I have no idea ? The one big advange is the lack of weight !!

[34016]

8 minutes ago, micklner said:

Found this today. Never seen it on the site before.

 

http://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/Image-Pages/Image_4mm_LNERSentinel.htm

 

Comes as etched sides, ends and floor.

 

Where you would find the Roof ,Bogies etc  from I have no idea ? The one big advange is the lack of weight !!

Would've made a big difference, but such is life.

[34016]

Painting almost done now, another coat of cream needed in places. It would probably have been better if I had used white primer. The bogies are fitted and wired temporarily. I had intended to run the wires under the floor, but I forgot 🤦‍♂️. So I'll have to work out a way of retaining them.

 

[Suffolk Dave]

Nice looking paint job 👍 A couple of questions, if you will...  

 

Was it applied with a brush rather than an airbrush? And whose paints did you use? 

[34016]

9 hours ago, Suffolk Dave said:

Nice looking paint job 👍 A couple of questions, if you will...  

 

Was it applied with a brush rather than an airbrush? And whose paints did you use? 

The cream is precision and the green is railmatch doncaster green. Yes it was applied with a brush, I thin the paint and apply 2 or 3 coats depending on the base coat.

[34016]

I said in an earlier post that the coal hatches would be removable. In order to stop them rattling around and dropping off, I've fixed a retaining clip to each one.

They're just  lengths of brass strip about 5mm wide, folded to less than the width of the opening and then soldered in position with LM solder. There is a small bend on the end of each lug so that they push in easily and then its just a case of bending the lugs out so that they retain the hatches.

I've now painted the floor a light grey and the seats red. This is a guess, as there doesn't seem to be any info on the interior colours.

[Chas Levin]

On 08/02/2023 at 19:50, micklner said:

Found this today. Never seen it on the site before.

 

http://www.worsleyworks.co.uk/Image-Pages/Image_4mm_LNERSentinel.htm

 

Comes as etched sides, ends and floor.

 

Where you would find the Roof ,Bogies etc  from I have no idea ? The one big advange is the lack of weight !!

I'm sure that's been there quite a while Mick, as I think I remember seeing it ages ago and I think I contacted them about them but didn't take it any further.

I think from memory that I was put off by having to find all the other parts (the sort of thing I'd not done at the time) so I thought I was better off sticking with the NuCast WM kit as it's complete, but that was before I knew of the weight vs power issues, so this might be worth revisiting…

@34016, beautiful job you've done there, especially all the enhanced detailing - it really  looks good.

[34016]

I've started adding the green lining in the panels. I wasn't sure whether to or not as I didn't think I could get it fine enough, but I think its ok, just a bit of tidying up to do. I used a bow pen and ruler and thinned the paint so that it would run well.

[micklner]

Nicely done.

 

A discussion here re the lining , in case you havent read it.

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/154190-east-barnet-joint-stock-a-workbench/page/36/

 

 

[34016]

4 hours ago, micklner said:

Nicely done.

 

A discussion here re the lining , in case you havent read it.

 

https://www.rmweb.co.uk/topic/154190-east-barnet-joint-stock-a-workbench/page/36/

 

 

Yes I've read that, it was the reason I went with the green. A bit of tidying up to do and I may go over it again, but I could mess it up so maybe not.

[Chas Levin]

On 15/02/2023 at 23:21, 34016 said:

Yes I've read that, it was the reason I went with the green. A bit of tidying up to do and I may go over it again, but I could mess it up so maybe not.

You've probably seen this thread too, which came from the earlier discussion but in case not, it has some more photos and discussion about some of the lining details:

 

Have you run it yet and if so, how does the Tenshodo perform?

Edited February 17, 2023 by Chas Levin