34055 Fighter Pilot from an Airfix kit.

[John Besley]

22 hours ago, brightspark said:

Hi All,

progress report on week 3. 

So far 18 hours clocked on this build.

 

This week, I have...

Made up the transmission unit. This is a Branchlines 30:1 gearbox with a Mashima 14x26 5 pole motor.

The pink wire is from my hoard. I am not sure that it is particularly suitable as it is very stiff. But for test it will do.

 

With that made up, I knocked up the motor mount from scrap material o the etch. With nothing else left to fix to the chassis before wheeling, I have sent it off to the paint shop. Accompanying it are the compensation beams and the pony truck procured from RT models.

 

While the painters do their thing, I have started to add detail to the cylinder bock and slide bars.

The Crownline instructions suggests soldering these small details, but as there is a risk of unsoldering the work already done, I preferred to glue these  details on. Some of the castings referenced in the instructions I do not have, so I shall use parts from the Airfix kit. These being the valve covers and lubricator on the slide bar.

 

 

I get ask regularly how long does a build take and what does it cost, so that is why I have been keeping a running total of these 2 themes on this thread.

It has been suggested that 40 hours is all that needed but Tony Wright is recording 150 hours on his thread. 

 

I have also just totted up the receipts that I have spent on this and I am really surprised that so far the total has just crept over £300. I thought that I had spent around half of that, so I am quite shocked. Oh and that is only for parts, that does not include labour. 

Now I could reduce that number, because I looked at the donated parts and checked their current value to purchase and added that to the total. However that only reduces the cost by around £50 to £80 .

The question is, is it cheaper & easier to buy a Hornby model and convert that? Also would I get a more realistic model?

 

Andy

 

The fact is you can say quite truthfully say 'I built that' and be pleased with the result, its also a way of proving your skill level.

 

[sagaguy]

10 hours ago, JeffP said:

I model in 7mm O gauge.

I have to say I'm depressed when at look at kits, and finishing them, especially large locos.

Kit: £500-£750.

Wheels: £180

Motor/gearbox: £120

Name/number plates: £30+

Paint, transfers etc: £??

 

And you can easily add another two to three hundred pounds if you start adding more, better, or different parts.

Scarey.🤔

But it does put the cost of a Heljan diesel into perspective, and makes those from Dapol real bargains.

Having moved into the realms of 0 gauge kit building,i chanced upon ACEproducts website who were offering a brass kit for the original Channel Packet in as built in 1941.Obviously,you had to buy the wheels and motor.The body kit was £315.I emailed ACE for details but never got an answer so plumped for an AC electric Cl.81kit for my next loco build.My interests are quite broad these days.

 

                           Ray.

[JeffP]

I hope you are relatively highly skilled.

Both ACE and PRMRP aren't rated as "straightforward" builds.

Do let us know how you get on.

The class 81 would be particularly interesting, I've not seen details of an electric build before.

[sagaguy]

Well,hopefully not too bad at it.My first 0 gauge kit was this DJH Fairburn tank and I'm now building a Roxey models WD 2-8-0, the nearly finished tender is pictured here.I find that with advancing years,00 is a bit small and 5 inch gauge is getting a bit heavy 😃.

[brightspark]

Very nice. But I wonder about the move to the senior to get away from fiddly bits - don't you end up putting on more detail? 🙂

Anyway - I  checked on the painters this evening. They seemed to be splashing some black paint around. Hopefully they will get some on the chassis.

The bogie has been folded up and because it is so narrow I am going to pack it out with the Airfix frames. 

Photos to follow.

 

Whoever said to me that you should be able to do a build in 40 hours, must have a slow clock.

I have just clocked up 20 hours and I still haven't got the wheels on.

 

I think that I will be hard pushed to have this in service at Bristol, especially as the proving day (when we test the layout and stock) is booked for the 8th April. 

But , hopefully, it should be advanced enough to be able to do a test run, should anyone be interested.

 

Andy

[brightspark]

So 27 hours clocked up, for those interested and the wheels are starting to go on.

 

I'll start with the front bogie. 

This is the Crownline bogie folded up with the Airfix sides thinned and bonded on.

I noticed on the prototype that there is a support across the front of the bogie. This appears to be either a bar or a plate. My best guess for '55 is a bar.

 

Next is the chassis back from the paint shop. 

The cylinders are still to be done.

I did complain about the poor paint, you know the sort of thing, paint runs and areas with no paint. But the paint shop foreman nearly chocked on his Woodbine when I started to go down this route. It seemed easier not to upset him as I have more painting to do later on. 

 

The pony truck was also given a coat of paint prior to assessment. 

  

I am not sure what to do with this yet as there seems no obvious place to locate the axle.

I am also considering attaching the tender drawbar to this in a similar way to the Hornby model.

 

 

Here are the main chassis components together

 

Next the wheels being made ready for assembly.

 

Finally wheels and coupling rods on the chassis.

 

The rear coupling rods went on a dream, but the front pair need some fettling as they have tight spots.

So some time will be spent on that over the next week before I can move onto the connecting rods.

 

[pete_mcfarlane]

On my build I Araldited a length of Brass tube into the pony truck to hold the axle (with the axle inside the tube, as you won't get it in later). It's 2.5mm diameter inside to there's a small amount of slop.

 

What I can't remember is how I got it accurately aligned, possibly by masking tape on the wheels to hold it in place as the glue set (or did I superglue it in first in the right place, and then flood with Araldite to hold it permanently?).

 

I think the chassis kit comes with a little cast retaining plate that you glue to the bottom of the truck, but that would have allowed the axle to slop around too much.   

[brightspark]

Hi Pete.

Thanks for that tip. A tube with 2mm I/D actually fits quite snugly into the casting I have.

I don't know what castings came in the kit as I didn't get any. (But I am not going to complain as it was free)

I do have the Albert Goodall (known in Bulleid circles as ALMIGHTY GOD) casting identified by AG written into it. I wonder if this is the same one that came in the kit.

 

Back to the story.

Well this week turned out to be a bit disappointing. I reported last week that I got the coupling rods on but the front set needed fettling. So the 5 or so hours I spent on this week were spent doing that. The holes in the rods became longer and longer and every time I thought that I had it just right the whole mechanism would seize up. At one point is was running really sweetly and I fitted the left hand con-rod. Only then to find yet another seizure.

 

This afternoon I decided that there is something wrong and so started to strip things back to see if I can find the fault or faults. One must be something moving around as that would indicate an intermitted fault. I don't like taking Gibson wheels off but some of the wheels have been on and off 2 or 3 times and one of the wheels may have been compromised. But if the thing don't run...and I can always buy more wheels.

 

I had a look at the rear axles that is the driver first and thought it best to run a reamer through the 2 bearings in the chassis and the bearings on the gearbox. That seemed to improve things and I also repacked the washers either side of the motor to hold it central as I noticed that it kept creeping along the axle. 

I also noticed that when I held the chassis by the motor that the running got worse. So I shall have another look at the motor mounting.

I then cast my eye of the axles in the compensating beam. Normally I set up chassis with horn-blocks by running a ⅛" sliver-steel bar that is 10" long through the bearings. I rest the coupling rods on top, solder the horn-guides into position and the thing runs like a dream.

I did not do that this time relying on the etch. This was a mistake. 

The leading axle is twisted and has a 0,2mm deviation across the frame. I then compared these readings to the coupling rods and found that the bearings were out of position by 0,225 & 0,575mm.

This explains the poor fitting of the rods and the amount of filling I found my self doing.

I am also wondering if this was also the cause of the intermittent fault that caused the assembly to seize. However I have my eye on another culprit and I wonder if there is too much flex on the compensating beams that also hold the bearings.

 

While doing this I also checked the relationship between the middle and rear axles and everything seems fine. That explains why these went on easily.

 

So the plan for next week is to adjust the bearings to the correct position and to strengthen the beams to stop them flexing.

 

Lesson learnt - check everything really is square and true before putting in the wheels.

[brightspark]

An update after Easter.

I spent some 10 hours or so reworking the chassis to get the axles correctly aligned and so getting the chassis to run sweetly.

Here is the jig that I use with the loco chassis in place.

 

 

The jig is described in Iain Rice's book on Chassis construction. I have found this to be an invaluable guide.

My copy also has lots of extra notes in the margins.

 

I found that the two rear driving axles were OK it was just the front that turned out to be incorrect.

A lot of the time was spent checking and rechecking.

Another problem I have found with this design of chassis is the compensation arrangement. With the two leading axle bearings on the compensating beam, it causes the distance between the middle wheel and the rear driving wheel to lengthen by some distance as the beam moves off the centre line. Any tightness here and the wheel tends to push upwards rather that bind. This makes the task of adjusting a little difficult. It also means that the coupling rod has to have a elongated slot in it.

As mentioned earlier, my hunch was right, the compensating beams also tend to bend. So I fixed this with some spacers made up from ⅛" I/D tube. 

Eventually I got the chassis to run quite sweetly. I think that the problems I have identified are what would cause the loco to lurch.  When I get to Little Bytham again, I will have a good look at Tony's loco to see if I am correct in identifying the chassis and the root cause.

 

 

 

Underside of the loco chassis showing pick-up arrangement and the spacers on the driving wheels. Also note the arrangement for mounting the wheels into the pony truck.

 

With the chassis running smoothly on the umbilical leads, it was time to make up some pick-ups. This is a bit of pcb bolted to the chassis with Slaters phosphor bronze strips soldered on. Slaters sell these in their 7mm range. 

I then had the chance to test the loco chassis and it had a run up and down Swaynton at the test day on Saturday.

This went without a hitch. But I was advised that the method of fixing the anchor nuts, to hold the body on was not robust enough. This proved to be the case, as when I got home and removed the body the bonding had not fixed.. So the mounting was made more robust by soldering the nut to a brass plate and cementing that. Hopefully this has a larger contact area for cement to grip onto, I also took the precaution of roughing up the surface of the plastic interface.

 

Above. Not a good method of mounting the nuts. Also note that the plastic is still smooth.

An improved method with a larger contact area for the cement.

 

I also made up the front bogie. This used the Crownline bogie as is. Iit is a fold up job, and I laminated the sides of the bogie supplied by Airfix, thinned down to 1mm. The spring is one that I found in the spares box. I think that it came from a pen.

 

 

The pony truck was also made up. There is no fixed position on the AG casting and the slot for the axle is quite large. I fixed the axle in place using 2,0mm I/D tube soldered to some brass strip. This I bolted to the pony truck.

 

I looked at the work that needed to be done to the loco body, and after reading AG's notes decided that perhaps I should move on to the tender, thinking that this might be easier.  Unfortunately this is also a bit of dogs breakfast, but I eventually figured out that the tender is too short and by how much and where, so that I could build a chassis for it.

 

This brings us up to date with this...

 

The next bit is to go through AG's notes and work out where to begin on the bodywork.

 

 

Edited May 5, 2023 by brightspark
spelling correction and to add clarity.

[brightspark]

Hello, it has been two weeks since the last update. We left the model with the chassis running and considering the bodywork.

Well what a minefield this is!

Most of the first week was pondering AG's instructions. I have found these hard to follow and some times he repeats himself or is not as clear as I would like it. I also have some components from his range that are not mentioned.

Even then you re-read them and see that you have missed a bit.

 

I think - I hope - that I am on the right path with this.

 

I will admit that I did pull a Hornby model out to confirm some of the dimensions and details and position of things where it wasn't clear. 

The photos in Richard Derry's book of the class, have been very helpful especially the photos of 34084 lying on it's side.

I don't think that this model, when finished will match the Hornby model for fidelity. It won't have the rivet detail for one thing. Although if I chose this path again I would invest in the paper overlays as the rivet detail is then achievable and the modifications to the Airfix body might be easier to understand.

 

Anyway, for those following me, here are my notes.

If I have got anything wrong, please let me know.

 

The footplate.

As seen in the previous post, I have already mounted the footplate. There is a nice casting to replace the front end (4AGB0FP). The Airfix front end has lots of problems with it, like the buffers being to high and a lack of detail.

I am going to fit Gibson buffers and I think that you can use the casting instead of the Gibson bodies. I drilled out the bore 2,4mm and drilled the back of the casting 3mm to suit the Gibson buffer spring block. I'll do a picture later. 

I did this with the casting fixed to the body, but it would be easier to do this before fitting.

There is an intricate shape to rear of casting and I matched this on the footplate. It looks to me that it hooks around the pegs that locate the smokebox front. So that it what I did. A handy tip is to roughen the Airfix plastic first  as the Araldite has nothing to bite into.

I fixed a strip of brass on the underside to reinforce the joint.

The two fixing nuts, I soldered these onto brass strips so as to give a greater contact area for the araldite.

I made up two triangular pieces that sit upright and are level with the smokebox pegs. This is to help locate cast smoke box. (4AGB0SB)

 

I added some Milliput around this to add some strength. I am not sure that it needs it, but had some left over from filling the rest of the body.

I noticed that Pete mounted the Airfix boiler back head inside the body and reversed. Instead of that I cut out some 010" Plastikard to that profile and glued it to the footplate in front of the two pegs that locate the back-head. But I might move this to aft of the pegs as the Goodall casting doesn't seem to want to go as deep into the body as the Airfix part.

 

At the rear of the footplate mounts the rear drag beam (4AGB0DW)

I misunderstood the instruction and cut off the material underneath the horizontal. 

This should be a cut through the horizontal plane shortening the length of the footplate. But be careful that you don't take too much off. Only shorten the length by the thickness of the casting as the cab rear sits flush on this.

The rear of the cab has fallen down here, but you can see that this sits in front of the cab turn ins.

In front of the drag beam is the Airfix peg for the tender coupling. I did consider using the original set up, but there is not enough room above the pony truck.

However the peg does align with the coupler hole in the casting. The peg is hollow for the intended plastic pin to be fixed into it. I tapped this 6BA and a cheese-head screw now sits there waiting for the drawbar to be made up.

 

Body sides.

I made a couple of mistakes here, that I had to rectify later.

The first was to remove the front fairing (I can't seem to find another name for this) as this is already on the front casting.

This has to remain, but will need reducing in height to match the top of the casting and lengthening. I figure on doing this with either styrene sheet or putty.

The body is too low above the wheels and needs to be cut back. The instructions advise that the paper overlay shows you where this cut is. However I think that it is along the bottom of the lower moulded lining strip. I used this as a guide to cutting a straight line before removing the two stripes.

The two holes for the smoke deflector were filled with putty. A .040" strip was added under the cab and firebox to correct the depth. The mistake I made here (the second) was to smooth this down to match the profile of the cab-side. This should be left square.

I cut out the windows before filing down the cab-side by 0,5mm each side to make an 8'6" cab.

I then added the cab turn ins. (4AGB0AT this is the one for narrow cabs)

Along the top of the body side I added a 0.010" strip for the replacement ladder rail. this protrudes 0,5mm.

I have yet to add the etched window frames.

 

The Roof.

I spent a lot of time on this and still made the odd error.

The instructions seem to be quite clear here except that you cut off the smoke cowl and replace it with the a new cast item. (4AGB00SC)

Before fitting this, correct the chimney and replace the angled plate that goes under the cowl.

The chimney needs opening up and moving backwards.  I added Milliput on the inside of the chimney to add some depth. The cowl behind the chimney needs some fettling and I scored in some panel joints.

I then removed the ladder rail by filing the outside edge away.

Then reducing the height by 0.010" to make up for the addition on the body sides.

There is also some material that comes off the front where the roof fits onto the smoke box front.

The 3 safety valves are filled. Behind this goes the whistle in its recess. 4AGB0WA. This carefully cut a hole for to get a nice snug fit. The dome cover was filed off. I replaced this with a paper circle cut out from a photocopy of AG's drawing. I embossed some rivets onto this. Lets see if the show up after paint. To the left of this is a hatch. Again a square of paper with a styrene strip for the runner. 

I have to add the lower runner yet, but I noticed that Hornby missed this off as well.

Behind the dome cover are the safety valves 4AGB0SV. 

Then four hales are drilled for the washout plugs. Two panel lines were scribed here as well.

Then the cab roof vent was removed and replaced by the casting. 4AGB0CV

I decided that I would have the roof vent half open.

The AG casting has the 2 rails on it, but after studying the photos of 34084, I thought that they were a bit short. Especially as the instruction gives a dimension of 2mm from the front of the cab. This looks all wrong. So I added some extra rail.

There are 2 square boxes made up from plastic strip behind the roof vent. I have yet to add the lifting eyes/

There are also instructions for reprofiling the roof. I followed this and it does work.

 

So here is the model with the sides and roof roughly clamped in place.

I was originally planning on having this ready for service running at the Bristol show this coming weekend. But there is an awful lot of work in one of these and I haven't even started on the tender yet. I wil take it along with me, in case anyone wants to have a look. It will be lurking behind the layout so please ask. 

It might even get a test run- although this will be in the last half or so of the show.

 

Andy

 

 

[brightspark]

 

I was thinking that I hadn't done anything since the last posting so it wasn't worth noting anything down.

But one of the advantages of posting progress here is to see how much one has achieved.

So it is worth a quick update.

 

 

The weekend just gone was the Bristol show where we were showing Swaynton. The plan was, and it  was a bit far fetched, that this loco would be running there. Well it did run up and down the track and a couple people saw it, so I half achieved the goal.

 

In the run up to the Friday, I assembled the body of the loco and started to make up the drawbar for the tender.

This is my usual paperclip formed with a loop at each end. The loco end fits snugly around the 8BA screw that sits in the tapped hole under the cab.  The rear loop fits around the pin on the tender. The distance between the wheel centres of the pony truck and the leading tender wheel is 32mm so spot on the prototype 8 foot.

You can get away with this close spacing if you have layouts that are straight and have generous curves. This model will just get around a 5 foot radius curve, which should be the same as the prototype.

I don't have that information to hand, can some one confirm?

 

With the body roughly assembled and the tender chassis in tow, I had a chance to give here a quick run down the layout at Bristol. This was late on Saturday, and a couple of visitors took interest in the progress.

The main test was to see if (a) it would run and (b) if it negotiated the point work. 

It did both but it became apparent that it is too light and was prone to a bit of wheel slip. So there was no point coupling it to a train. 

That will be done on th e test track at Expo Spring.

 

 

This week, I made a start on the tender. 

Again I found the drawing that I have from AG confusing. [Perhaps I have the wrong drawing] 

His drawing states that the body of the tender is 19' 7½". So I made the chassis to this dimension thinking that the body is too long. 

I was just about to shorten the body when I realised that he made no mention of this in his notes. 

I compared the tender against the Beattie drawing, but he has drawn the larger tender.

So back to the Hornby model and comparison revealed that the length of both the Hornby and the Airfix bodies are the same.

To cut to the chase, AG marked up his drawing wrong and the 19' 7½" is the length of the rave.

 

I have left the chassis short and packed it out at the rear.

 

Going back to AG's instructions, the bodyside has to be extended at the bottom by .040" and of course clean off the moulded stripes.

 

RT does a very nice casting of the rear of the tender 4AGB0TB.

 

 

This requires the tender to be shortened by the thickness of the casting. It rests on the moulded frames of the tender sides. 

The buffers on this did not come out the cast as well as the front, so I filed these off and will replace with the Gibson ones.

As instructed, I thinned the top of the raves down to present a thinner edge at the top.

 

The tender top is too narrow so I packed this out the match the rear casting. I used .020" microstrip.

I also removed the water filler cap and the mountings for the air tanks. 

 

 

You can also see that I have fitted the tender front lockers 4AGB0TF.

There is still some more work to be done on the top.

 

So that is progress to date.

I am away for a week so progress stops. On my return I will have just enough time to add some weight to the loco and then see what she can haul on the test track at  ExpoEM Spring  in Bracknell on the 13th & 14th May. 

Hopefully I will see some of you there. If so do say hello.

 

 

 

[Barclay]

Will keep an eye out for it on the test track!

[RedgateModels]

Here's One I did for someone waaaay back in 2008/9

 

Stock Kitmaster kit on a Triang/Hornby BoB chassis (with smoke!), HMRS transfersPrecision P78D SR malachite, 247 Plates

 

[Galagars]

I am interested in Brightspark's comments about the length of the tender body. I have a Crownline kit for the 4500 gal tender which I have not assembled because the body sides appeared to be too short. They measure just over 78 mm. The tender rear is slightly wider than the front bulkhead and it appears from the locating slots in the floor that it is intended to fit end over side. This seems to me to be a strange form of construction. I got as far as preparing an inner rear bulkhead to assist with assembly before putting the kit to one side. Fitting the end over the side would bring the length up to about 78.5 mm, but I was not satisfied that this was correct.

 

The best drawings I have are those published in Modellers' Back Track Vol. 1 No.1 As drawn, the length of the body side is 79 mm. The diagrams in Southern Locomotives by J. H. Russell are in agreement. The rave is a little over 2 mm less.

 

Scaling from a side on photograph (a dangerous thing to do!) of 21C125 being coaled at Wadebridge in1948 indicates a length of body side of about 19 ft 10in.

 

Does any RM Webber have a copy of the general arrangement drawing for these tenders to confirm what the 19ft 7 1/2in dimension refers to? If I knew the answer I might be prompted to assemble the kit!

[Graham_Muz]

The inside dimension of the tank itself is 19ft and the tank was made from 3/16" plate. 

The front edge of the tank is 2ft and 0.125" from the front face of the tender. 

The front edge of the bodyside that extends forwards from the tank is 1ft 5" from the front of the tender. 

 

Taken from Eastleigh GA drawing W5067 4500 gallon tender (and also W7848 5500 gallon tender as a cross reference the tank length being the same) I can not post the drawing due to copyright.

 

Edited May 4, 2023 by Graham_Muz

[cctransuk]

1 hour ago, Galagars said:

I am interested in Brightspark's comments about the length of the tender body. I have a Crownline kit for the 4500 gal tender which I have not assembled because the body sides appeared to be too short. They measure just over 78 mm. The tender rear is slightly wider than the front bulkhead and it appears from the locating slots in the floor that it is intended to fit end over side. This seems to me to be a strange form of construction. I got as far as preparing an inner rear bulkhead to assist with assembly before putting the kit to one side. Fitting the end over the side would bring the length up to about 78.5 mm, but I was not satisfied that this was correct.

 

The best drawings I have are those published in Modellers' Back Track Vol. 1 No.1 As drawn, the length of the body side is 79 mm. The diagrams in Southern Locomotives by J. H. Russell are in agreement. The rave is a little over 2 mm less.

 

Scaling from a side on photograph (a dangerous thing to do!) of 21C125 being coaled at Wadebridge in1948 indicates a length of body side of about 19 ft 10in.

 

Does any RM Webber have a copy of the general arrangement drawing for these tenders to confirm what the 19ft 7 1/2in dimension refers to? If I knew the answer I might be prompted to assemble the kit!

 

Do I read this correctly that you stopped assembling the kit because of a perceived discrepancy of around 0.5mm. in a 4mm. scale model?

 

If so, I defy anyone to detect an error of a prototypical 1'' - 1.5" at 4mm. scale without a measuring tool.

 

CJI.

[Graham_Muz]

3 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

Do I read this correctly that you stopped assembling the kit because of a perceived discrepancy of around 0.5mm. in a 4mm. scale model?

 

If so, I defy anyone to detect an error of a prototypical 1'' - 1.5" at 4mm. scale without a measuring tool.

 

CJI.

Why should it matter to you that it matters to them...

[cctransuk]

1 minute ago, Graham_Muz said:

Why should it matter to you that it matters to them...

 

Graham,

 

A somewhat caustic response! I was merely trying to inject a little perspective into the matter.

 

I know from personal experience that it is all too easy to become 'hung up' on a perceived dimensional error - only later to realise that it mattered little, in the greater scheme of things.

 

Would that the world had no greater concerns ...... !

 

CJI.

[brightspark]

7 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

Do I read this correctly that you stopped assembling the kit because of a perceived discrepancy of around 0.5mm. in a 4mm. scale model?

 

If so, I defy anyone to detect an error of a prototypical 1'' - 1.5" at 4mm. scale without a measuring tool.

 

CJI.

I do the same, if i see something even a little bit wrong, I have to stop and question it. It may be 0.5mm at first glance, or should that have been 5mm? Measure twice and cut once.

Another thing to consider when making such a compromise, is what else will this affect. How often do we see models, especially rtr, where more effort was put into overcoming an error than if the thing was done right first time.

You may not notice a 0.5mm error but it can have knock on effects.

 

(Yes, I am aware of the 0.63mm error in my chosen track gauge)

[cctransuk]

1 minute ago, brightspark said:

I do the same, if i see something even a little bit wrong, I have to stop and question it. It may be 0.5mm at first glance, or should that have been 5mm? Measure twice and cut once.

Another thing to consider when making such a compromise, is what else will this affect. How often do we see models, especially rtr, where more effort was put into overcoming an error than if the thing was done right first time.

You may not notice a 0.5mm error but it can have knock on effects.

 

(Yes, I am aware of the 0.63mm error in my chosen track gauge)

 

Accepted, but we are talking about a model based on a sixty-odd year old Kitmaster plastic kit!

 

Nowt wrong with that - I have one which formerly ran on a Tri-ang 'Princess' chassis with Tri-ang Bulleid wheels; now running on a Kemilway kit chassis with Markits wheels.

 

I am all for precision in modelling - but it's pointless unless applied throughout the model, rather than selectively.

 

CJI.

[brightspark]

Hi Graham, being several hundred miles away from the model, I can't check what the Airfix model measures up at. But it sounds about right.

Also you say that the 5500 gallon tender is the same length? Hmmm, then I wonder what Beattie used for his drawing as it much longer than the Airfix side.

[cctransuk]

2 minutes ago, brightspark said:

Hi Graham, being several hundred miles away from the model, I can't check what the Airfix model measures up at. But it sounds about right.

Also you say that the 5500 gallon tender is the same length? Hmmm, then I wonder what Beattie used for his drawing as it much longer than the Airfix side.

 

The Ian Beattie drawings are notoriously unreliable.

 

CJI.

[Galagars]

A little arithmetic on the dimensions supplied by Graham Muz confirms that the dimension of 19 ft 7 1/2 in is the length of the body side and not the rave. The kit is therefore accurate if the body is assembled end over side. If the dimension had been the length of the rave the error would have been over 2 mm. hence my concern.

[brightspark]

Careful now...are we talking at cross purposes here?

When I said the rave I was referring to the top of the bodyside on the Airfix moulding. 

As far as I can see the rave and the body length are the same apart from the bit that sticks out at the front.

Or have I got this wrong?

[Graham_Muz]

The rave and tank length are the same. I give the dimension of the cab side front part above as being 1ft 5"