Nu-Cast J15 Cometh

[46444]

As promised a further update on the lump of metal. I've been off for four days and have survived the works do-driving thats why and have cracked on and made some considerable advances.

 

Sprayed the wheels, loco and tender chassis on Thursday and in the process managed to bust a crank pin so that put paid to further work in this field-Damn!

 

Using Gibson brake gear for the tender I was trying to work a means of fixing it on to the tender chassis and hit upon the idea of a subframe which I constructed from plasticard. This has worked really well as you can see:

 

 

The tender itself is coming along nicely. I've added some scrap brass sheet rivetting in on the tender side flares and need to make some doors for the lockers, finish the tarpaulian rail, handrails, buffers and lamp brackets. I'm also debating whether it would be beneficial to add pick-ups to the tender so it has 12 wheel pick-up in all.

 

 

As for the loco itself well I bit the bullet so to speak. To be honest I thought I'll just put it together-as I'd had enough of filling and sanding and thankfully things kind of fitted together quite well. I even sorted the wonk out on the boiler with some packing under the firebox. A bit of filler and I was ready for the next stage. By the way-I use Squadron Green putty and not sure if you're aware but if you use a cotton bud dipped in nail varnish remover-it removes the excess filler leaving a smooth appearance with little or no sanding thus protecting exsisting detail.

 

 

I gave everything a good wash and decided to put the beading around the splashers, add the boiler bands and some other details. For this I reverted back to my aircraft modelling days. Once, when I was building an Airfix Lysander I discovered self-adhesive foil tape made good access panels and have used this medium to to replicate the beading etc. I've added the sand box fillers also.

 

 

I still need to detail the cab, add the buffers, reversing rod etc. The Westinghouse pump, roof and ? feed tubes aren't fixed at present.

 

 

A bit of East meets West in the background! A question for you experienced kit builders out there-What's the best way to form the handrail around the front of the smoke box? I was going to bend the wire around a suitable piece of pipe, but I'm open to suggestions.

 

All in all coming along nicely-but the more I work on this kit, the more I things that aren't dimensionally correct-but that's the joy of a 30-40 year old kit. I'm sure the dimensions around the smoke box, chassis front are out and I'm not sure about the sit of the loco on 16mm drivers which are correct but I feel from looking at prototype pictures they weren't perched that high. Then again I'm no expert!

 

Thanks once again, Mark

 

Sorry about the dodgy photos!

[jwealleans]

I'm enjoying this build, Mark and the tip about the adhesive foil is a good one. I had exactly the same reaction as you to my Gibson one when I saw it on its wheels - it's too high. I even fitted smaller wheels but they looked just as wrong.

 

I form boiler handrails round copper heating pipe and bits of bar - make the arch over the smokebox door first and then the curve into the side handrails. A bit of 1/8" or smaller bar/tube helps with that. It's a bit of a hit and miss affair to so expect to waste some wire getting it right.

 

I can't recall how detailed the Nu-Cast instructions are but I'd have thought you'd be better off putting the reversing lever on before the Westy pump. There are tubes in and out of the air pump as well as along the valance of the running plate. If you're building a vac fitted version there's another pipe along the boiler above the handrails. There's also a small valve with handwheel which sticks out of the front of the cab as well as one on the side of the smokebox. The sander operating levers run along about the height of the top of the splashers at both sides.

 

I spent a long time looking at photos of my chosen loco (65388) and thought I'd got all the details right, then when I treated myself to the Yeadon last year I found 3 or 4 errors within 20 minutes. They're a bit of a minefield from that point of view.

[46444]

Hi Johnathan,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

The Nu-Cast instructions are fairly basic consisting of an exploded diagram with some written instructions. I'm using the Connoisseur 7mm kit plans as a guide. This looks like a lovely kit, though am I right in saying it's a scaled up version of the Gibson 4mm kit? The instructions for this kit are excellent and have certainly helped on the detailing aspects.

 

As for the details you have mentioned I have studied pictures of my chosen loco hard (65457)-all two of them and think I will get all the pipe work right-he says! Yes I've got to add the pipe work under the running boards and from the Westinghouse pump alongside the boiler, fix the reversing lever on which in this case needs a small modification and the sanding gear. As for that small wheel below the cab window was going to try to fit this detail-but I haven't got an etched wheel small enough unless I fashion one from plasticard rod.

 

Thanks for the hint on forming the handrails-I thought this was the case but hadn't thought about using copper pipe.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

[The Girondin]

Hi Johnathan,

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

The Nu-Cast instructions are fairly basic consisting of an exploded diagram with some written instructions. I'm using the Connoisseur 7mm kit plans as a guide. This looks like a lovely kit, though am I right in saying it's a scaled up version of the Gibson 4mm kit? The instructions for this kit are excellent and have certainly helped on the detailing aspects.

 

As for the details you have mentioned I have studied pictures of my chosen loco hard (65457)-all two of them and think I will get all the pipe work right-he says! Yes I've got to add the pipe work under the running boards and from the Westinghouse pump alongside the boiler, fix the reversing lever on which in this case needs a small modification and the sanding gear. As for that small wheel below the cab window was going to try to fit this detail-but I haven't got an etched wheel small enough unless I fashion one from plasticard rod.

 

Thanks for the hint on forming the handrails-I thought this was the case but hadn't thought about using copper pipe.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

 

There is no connection between the Connoisseur and Alan Gibson kits. Alan also did a 7mm scale J15.