Judith Edge NBL D2900 kit

[pete_mcfarlane]

I bought this part assembled a few years ago from a fellow EMAG member, and it's now worked its way to the head of the queue. Another of Mike Edge's 4mm diesel shunter kits - this is the batch of 330HP shunters from North British for the London Midland region. This is being built in P4 - I don't really have a use for any LM diesel shunters in P4 at the moment, but these kits are very nice. 

 

This was the state of things when I got it - basic chassis and footplate assembled. 

 

The next thing to do was the steps. These were cleverly thought out, with sacrificial cross members to keep everything aligned, but fitting the actual step treads was a bit fiddly. I got there in the end with a bit of swearing and some burnt fingers.  

Other than that it all went together really easily. Basically follow the instructions - the only real deviation so far was to use 1mm tubing for the brake cross hangers, so I can make the break gear removable. Even the cab roof was straightforward - roll the main curve with GW rollers, and then form the side curves using the vice and a 1.5mm drill bit. This took a bit of trial and patience to get the curve correct - bend it slightly, remove from the vice and test fit against the cab, then repeat until it's the right shape. 

This is the state of play tonight (the top half of the body isn't screwed on at the moment). It's since been taken to bits and is in the ultrasonic cleaner having a good clean up. I've assembled the gearbox (High Level Roadrunner plus and cheap Chinese motor) and checked for clearances, so the next step is to reassemble (using the tiny 14BA screws provided - I've now invested in a bag of spares as I keep losing them) and assemble the bonnet. 

[Adam]

I've done one of those! Not, admittedly, a BR one - I wanted something that wasn't the usual Ruston and this fitted the bill.

 

 

Adam

 

PS - it's one of my better efforts, most of it took me a couple of weeks and it's a truly excellent runner. There's a thread, but no pictures - might have to do something about that: 

 

Edited January 6, 2023 by Adam

[pete_mcfarlane]

Some more NBL progress. 

 

The chassis is off being sprayed (black rattle can followed by a dusting of Humbrol metallic gunmetal through the airbrush). Meanwhile the bonnet has been soldered together (which took a bit of fettling to get the top curves right, and even now I think it's a tiny bit asymmetrical in profile, but not enough for anyone but me to notice). 

All the soldered on details have been added, the resin ones will be added after I've got the thing running. I've also left off the front grill (to avoid clogging it with paint) and the buffers. The buffer beams on these are lined, so I'm hoping the gluing the buffer on after doing this will make it easier. 

 

The only really tricky bit was forming the exhaust cover. This was too small to roll using the GW models rollers, so had to be done the hard way by hand. And not having a gas cooker meant that I couldn't anneal it. 

 

Next step is to get the chassis working. 

[JeffP]

Looking good.

I enjoy these threads about more obscure prototypes.