Tales from the Treatment Room

[Mike Boucher]

Well, I had some tests last week (CAT scan, bone marrow biopsy) and the results show i'm in "partial remission".  Which means that, while the cells are still floating around in the bloodstream, there aren't as many, and my lymph nodes are shrinking.  That means the treatment is working and the disease is trending towards total remission.

What it also means is that I'm done with infusions, which mean no more treatment room modelling (for now).  I still have a daily pill to take, and appointments every few months, but until they stop seeing progress and things start heading the wrong direction, this thread will go into hibernation again.

Thanx for all the encouragement, and for following along.

 

Now I need to find time at home to finish these projects (and my other ones).  You can follow along on my "regular" workbench thread where at last updating, I was doing battle with a Connoisseur "Jinty" that I had made a hogs breakfast out of... 
http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/18405-bouchs-workbench-7mm-jinty/page-6 , 

[jamie92208]

I sincerely hope that this thread doesn't need to return Mike but please keep us informed of your modelling progress.

 

Jamie

[shortliner]

Mike - really, really pleased that the treatment room has been side-lined - long may your remission continue!

Edited May 25, 2017 by shortliner

[3 link]

Great news Mike, I will look forward to some updates on the Jinty.

 

Martyn.

[Mike Boucher]

Well, the treatment room is open again, for a short while.  The medications I've been taking for 2+ years have outlived their usefulness, so I'm switching to a couple new drugs (both pills, no infusions).  As part of that, I spent yesterday at the hospital while they constantly monitored blood chemistry after my first dose of drug #1.  Starting drug #2 will make life even more interesting for a month or so.  Over that first month, they'll increase the dose every week.  They have to be even more rigorous with monitoring bloodwork, so they'll admit me for at least 48 hours each time they increase the dose.  Which means I'll be spending between 9 and 12 days sitting in a hospital room over the next 4 weeks.

 

With that much time, its back to working on some models, and then the "treatment room" will close again.  (at least, that's the plan)

 

For yesterday, I decided to work on the Porter, as there's some paint blemishes on the brake van which I need to fix before continuing work on that.

 

Looking at where I left off, I realized I only needed to do a few things to finish construction on the tender, so I worked on that first.  Adding the brake gear was fiddly, and all but invisible when its on the track, but its a nice detail to have.

 

 

If you look at the right side, you'll see a chain drooped over the end beam.  This gets wrapped around the brake staff, and trimmed.  But, with the brake staff installed, you can't remove the tank from the chassis, so I'll wait until after painting to complete that step.

I cut a couple of large holes in the tank bottom for two reasons.  1) to be able to glue the tank top on from the inside, and vent the glue fumes and 2) I'm considering installing DCC on this loco.  The tender seems like a reasonable place to try to fit a decoder (and speaker?), so I access to the inside of the tank is required.

 

Once the tank top was glued on, grab irons and the front and rear steps were all that needed to be added.  A couple holes in the front end beam need to be filled.  Here's the completed tender

 

 

 

Now back to the Porter locomotive itself.  When I last worked on it, the running gear was in place, but there was still work to be done on the non-functional valve gear.  Most of the parts of this are well hidden between the frames, the valve rod and the reversing lever are the only readily visible parts.

 

 

 

Notice the spring on the anchor for the reversing gear.  On the prototype, this was there to make it easier to move the valve gear.  On the model, that's a real, metal spring.  Its completely non-functional, but using a real spring over a round piece of plastic must have been easier than trying to make a mold which looked like a spring.

 

With work on the running gear done, the boiler was re-attached to the chassis and the side tanks glued in place, making sure they're nice and level.

 

 

And then I realized I had a problem, and I had also made a mistake earlier during construction...

 

The problem was that the next step is to add the front tank mounts.  I started work on these (back in post #144), but they were nowhere to be found.  They weren't in any of the parts bags, nor were they in the small bag I put the tanks in.  When I got home, I looked around on my workbench, but they seem to have disappeared into the black hole everyone has on their workbench. Ugh.      

 

So, Looks like the first task for the next session is to scratchbuild new ones.  Fortunately, I have a photo of the parts on the previous post, so I should be able to cobble something together out of styrene, NBWs, and Archer rivet decals.   but its frustrating to lose such a significant part, and it'll be time consuming to make new ones.

 

The mistake was that I never attached the sand lines from the front dome, and these clearly go behind the now-glued-in-place tank.  Looking back at the instructions, they clearly call out to install the rear sand lines, but never mention the front ones.  Looking at the reference photos for that step, I saw that both the rear ones are installed, but only one of the front ones was (and its the one on the "rear" side of the boiler, so it wasn't obvious)  Clearly, both lines should have been installed in that step, but I don't know why the instructions were specific about the rear.  

 

The fix was to cut the plastic part in half, and glue the two halves in place from both the top and the bottom.  More of an annoyance, but they're in place now.

 

Next up was to start adding details to the model.  First, work on the pilot beam.  Added the coupler pocket, footboards, and grab iron.  Instructions also said to add couplers, but I'm going to use Kaydees, not the dummy couplers which came with the kit, so that'll wait for another day.

 

One detail still to be added are the brackets which run from the pilot beam to the smokebox.  Those I'll add after painting, as having them in place will make separating the chassis and the boiler more difficult.

 

Next, work on the cab and rear end beam.  Like the pilot beam, the footboard and coupler pocket was installed.  Keeping in mind that there won't be a coupler in my case, since I have the tender, it'll be a drawbar...  Also added handrails and grabs to the rear corner of the cab.

 

 

And here, you can see I made another mistake earlier in construction.  There are two nice holes molded into the cab side, towards the front.  Those are supposed to be at the rear, for the stanchions for the hand rail.  I glued the two cab sides on completely wrong.  I carefully spotted and drilled new holes, and now I have to fill the molded in ones.   

 

That's about as far as I got yesterday.  Looking a lot like a finished locomotive, but there's still quite a few details to be added.

 

 

Next step is to build the headlamp, which is actually quite a complex piece of assembly.  One additional complexity is to install lighting in it, so I'll probably mostly assemble it, but I have to figure out what to do about acquiring an LED...  Detailing the backhead also looks like a lot of parts to add.  That's only a few steps away, and I'm sure that'll take longer than it appears.  At least US backheads are usually painted black, no polished brass/copper to deal with 

 

Over the weekend, I'm hoping to fix the paint on the brake van, so we'll see how far I get on that next time.  I'll also look ahead to make sure there aren't any parts which need painting first, and I also need to source the decals for lining the brake van, which Slaters suggest to do before adding the details to the sides.  That will probably somewhat delay progress on that.  But, I have a few other projects in mind I could start working on...

[jamie92208]

Hi Mike, That loco is looking good but I'm sorry to hear that the treatment room has reopened, let's hope it will only be on a temporary basis, but please keep up the reports.

 

Jamie

[Deano747]

Wishing you all the best, Mike, and a successful outcome!

 

Regards, Deano.

[Mike Boucher]

The first of 4 scheduled stays in the hospital didn't result in much progress on things model railroading.  Lots of interruptions, and I didn't have certain items I needed to make progress...  But, I did some modelling.

 

I brought the LMS brake van, to remember where I was on it.  I'm very close to finished, but I was blocked on doing any work on it for a few reasons

1) They suggest putting on the lining/lettering on the sides before going too much further.  Unfortunately, I don't have the decals.  I sent Fox Transfers an email asking for guidance, but they couldn't answer the questions I had about which of their products were suitable.

2) I need to paint the end steps and buffer bodies black.  I had painted them crimson, but the instructions suggest that this is incorrect.  (The steps are black, but the color of the buffer bodies is unclear.  Instructions suggest they should be black, but the photo on the box shows crimson.  Since the buffer beams are already black, I'll paint the bodies black and wait for someone to tell me its wrong. )

3) I need to blacken/paint the handrail castings for the ends

4) The footboards and their supports are all brass, so I'll need to solder those together at home.

 

At least I have a "punch list" to try to do for the next time I work on that kit

 

For the Porter, I didn't get to work on the scratch-built front tank supports, as I didn't have the appropriate rivet decals from Archer.  They've been ordered, should be delivered in the next few days

 

What I did do was install the couplers and work on smokebox details

 

First, I followed the instructions on modifying Kaydee 803 couplers.  (The one on the left is the modified coupler.)

 

 

When I put them in, I found some serious coupler height issues.  Looks like when I glued the coupler pocket to the tender, its angled a bit down.  (the photo makes it more obvious than it looks in real life...)

 

 

Without hacking the tender beam to pieces, I decided to try shimming the coupler...  You can see a white styrene "wedge" glued to the bottom of the coupler.

 

 

That seems to have helped.  We'll see how well it works when I actually try to pull a car.

 

 

Finally, I added some details to the smokebox.  The headlight is just sitting on top, I need to find an LED for the headlight.  Also, I'm thinking of leaving the headlight off until after painting, so I don't have to worry about masking the lens.  (same rule applies with the builders plate and the number for the smokebox door)

 

 

This, also, is very close to being finished.  Other than the tank supports, there are just a few small detail parts, and the cab interior to do.  One of the parts I could have put on, but I needed a 1/16th drill to open up the locating hole, which I didn't have with me (and my taper reamers aren't large enough).  There's also installing the motor (and possibly a DCC decoder), but that I need to do soldering for, so that's a job for the home workbench, not the treatment room.  (and that'll be done after painting as well)

 

What I wound up working on was another "Metal Earth" kit.  If you look at previous posts, you'll see I was working on a USS Arizona.  This has been completed, so I started working on another battleship, the USS Missouri.  This is a larger kit than most, the sheets of metal are 4"x8", and there are 3 of them.  The finished model will be about 12" long, which is almost double the size of the Arizona.

 

 

My father is in a ship modelling club, which is having and exhibition over the weekend.  I was hoping to get this together for that show, but it was much harder, and took WAY longer than I expected.  What you see in the above photo was probably about 6 hours of work.

 

I had also brought another freight car kit to work on, that I bought from the "white elephant" table (aka bring and buy) at a show, but I found that the instructions weren't in the kit!  the kit is out of production, and an email to the manufacturer hasn't recieved a respose yet...

 

Hopefully next week will be more productive.

As an aside, the C&O caboose I started in the treatment room is now finished.  I sourced some decals, installed the lighting, and lightly weathered it.  Here's the finished product.

 

 

there's a lot more work here than appears, but I've gotten some positive comments from fellow modelers, including one person who thought it was a brass import.  When I told him it was built from a 40 year old wood kit, he was quite surprised.

 

[Mike Boucher]

I'm at the point on the porter where it takes a lot of time to make little visible progress, and I'm pretty much at a roadblock on the LMS Brake van.

 

For the past week, I've been trying to find suitable transfers/decals for the lining of the brake van.  And it appears that none is available.  Slaters seems to only have the lettering/numbering (although they haven't replied to my emails), Fox doesn't have a suitable set, and asking on the Gauge O Guild forum got "you have to line it by hand" responses.  Kinda boggles my mind that Slaters would produce kits for several different Midland/LMS coaches but then not produce transfers for the lining, but they must have had their reasons.  Looks like I'm going to have to get a lining pen and do a lot of practice.  (recommendations for good pens for a raw novice would be appreciated!)

 

The first thing I did on the Porter was start working on building replacement front tank support brackets.  If you look back at post #144, you'll see the parts I have to replicate.  What I did was built it up out of sheet styrene and some NBW castings.  Its far from perfect, but from a few feet away (and painted/weathered) it'll look the part.

 

First step was to measure the diameter of the smokebox front, and cut an arc into some styrene to match.  I used my machinist's radius gauges to both measure and cut.  Here's a "test fit" to verify I got it right.

 

 

Next I used a slightly larger radius gauge to cut a circular piece out of a thinner piece of styrene, and glued it in place, overlapping the cutout, and then carefully removed the excess.  This was to represent the part of the curved "mounting flange" (between the bracket and the smokebox) that's attached to the bracket..  Next was to take some .010 styrene, curve it, and glue it in the arc, at 90 degrees to it, to finish the mounting flange.  The photo below will make it clearer...

 

 

I let the pieces dry for about 30 minutes between each step, to let the pieces fully cure together.  Once this was dry, I cut the pieces to size.  Here, I found that the two tanks weren't quite at the same level on each side of the boiler.  The pieces are slightly different sizes, and therefore have slightly different angles.  So, this was a lot of "cut to fit" trial-and-error.  Here's one of them being test fit after it was cut to size.

 

 

Like what I did back in post #144, I used the NBW castings provided in the kit on the mounting flange where it attaches to the smokebox.  (once again, setting it aside for a bit to let the joint fully cure)

 

Then I used O scale rivet decals from Archer to represent the rivets on the other half of the flange and the support bracket.  And here is where I ran into issues.  The rivet decals absolutely refused to adhere to the sheet styrene.  I don't know why, but after letting the rivet decals dry, I could blow on them and they would just fly off.  Completely useless.  Archer has a guarantee, so I'm going to send them an email asking if there should have been some prep-work needed to be done to get them to adhere.

Fortunately, I had a "plan B."  In my toolbox, left over from the C&O caboose, was some smaller NBW castings.  The ones for the mounting flange are a scale 1 3/4" diameter (IIRC), and the other ones I had were 1" diameter.  Next to each other, they're visibly different sizes.  So, I used the smaller ones in place of rivets.  Doesn't' look as "clean" but if anyone notices and complains, I'll make up some B.S. story about the master riveter at the railroad's shops was injured, and instead of riveting they bolted the tanks on during a trip to the repair shops... 

 

Here they are, before I added all of the NBWs.

 

 

This was a lot more time consuming and challenging than it appears, Lot of careful measuring and drilling to get even spacing between all the rivets...  Finally, I got them attached to the front of the tanks.

 

 

A few more detail parts to the tanks, and I'll pretty much be done with construction on the locomotive itself.  The major things still to do is add some piping, steps, and the hatches to the tanks, and the backhead detailing.  While waiting for the parts to dry for the tank brackets, I started working on the backhead.  Here's what the backhead looks like, as provided in the kit.

 

 

Grandt also sold a "backhead detailing kit", which I bought when I got the kit.  What I didn't know was that most of the parts are molded in a very flexible plastic, and they needed to get bent to shape.  Problem with this is a) they also bend back to "straight" and b) that plastic is very hard to glue.  Lot of fighting with the parts to keep them in the right shape, and hold them in place while gluing with ACC.  Grandt also provided a drilling template (you can see some of the holes in the above photo), but not all of those holes were located correctly.  I had to re-drill several.  Fortunately, they're pretty much hidden behind the piping, and once inside the cab they'll be difficult to see.

 

I didn't get all the parts on, but I made a decent start...

 

 

Still more pieces to add (like the throttle and johnson bar)  All of the valves also have insanely small handles, molded in red.  I'll attach those after the backhead is painted.

 

The reason I stopped there was because I had a tool failure.  I had 3 pin vices, one for drills larger than 1/16, one that could hold drills as small as a #60, and one that could "close to 0", for drill between #80 and #60.  The holes I needed to drill for the backhead detailing (and some of the side tank piping) needed drills between 60-80.  And somehow, I broke the pin vise that would hold those drills.  One of the four "tangs" snapped, so I couldn't tighten the vise down onto the drills.

 

So, I spent most of the rest of the time finishing the Missouri...  Its about 12" long.  By far the largest, most complex, one of these metal models I've built so far.  (and my nurses and the Physicians Assistant were absolutely fascinated with it, much more than they were with the Porter)

 

I didn't take any photos, but I also started assembling some O scale Intermountain hopper kits.  I have a C&O Allegheny, and need more hoppers to pull behind it.  I've acquired 5 kits over the past few years, so I started on these by assembling the trucks.  4 down, 1 to go.  (that'll get me to a dozen hoppers, which still isn't close to enough!)

Next session, "finish" the porter (ready for paint), more on the 5 intermountain hoppers, and I'm planning on starting a new project, a Slaters LMS 3 axle, 2000 gallon milk tanker.  We'll see how far I get on those.

[BR60103]

Mike

Sixty-some years ago I had a plastic (toy) model of the Big Mo. It had wheels under it that were replaced with chewing gum so that it would float.

[jamie92208]

Mike, Lining Slater's plastic coaches is a pain as I know only too well. My friend who built quite a few used HMRS lining but it looked quite bright yellow. I've got a sheet of the HMRS lining but haven't yet tried using it. I have tried two other techniques. One is to paint the raised strips in gold paint by hand which leaves a broad gold line. Then use a very fine felt tip pen to add the back line in the centre. There are some 0.5mm pens on the market. You can also use a Rotring drawing pen to achieve the same result. I did that with black on gold using Indian Ink whilst sitting in direct sunlight so that the ink dried very quickly.

 

 

The Porter is coming on nicely,

 

 

Jamie

Edited August 4, 2018 by jamie92208

[N15class]

The problem with coach lining. It tends to be on the edge of the panelling not on the flat. Unless it's just longitudinal. It is albut impossible to do with transfers, lining pens are the best option.

[Sandy Harper]

The problem with coach lining. It tends to be on the edge of the panelling not on the flat. Unless it's just longitudinal. It is albut impossible to do with transfers, lining pens are the best option.

I fully concur with Peter. The only way to line a coach, without tears, is to use a lining pen. Yes, a decent Haff will cost about £40 but you will wish you had invested the money years ago. If you want to know everything about painting and lining get a copy of Ian Rathbone's book on the subject (Still available on Amazon) If you can't line a coach, after reading his book , take up knitting!!!

 

Sandy

[Mike Boucher]

Hi folks,

 

This installation of the treatment room, I "finished" the Porter, and started a couple new projects...

 

Firstly, I added the remainder of the details to the side tanks on the Porter.  The filler/cap on top of the tanks, steps and tank drain on the front, and balancer pipes and injector pipes underneath.  (very hard to see the pipes)

 

 

Next, I finished adding the details to the backhead.  After painting, there are a lot of tiny, red handles to add to this.

 

 

Once its inside the cab, things get pretty well hidden...

 

 

And I've done as much as I can without painting.

 

 

Right now, temperatures are in the mid 90's (35 Celsius) with 90% humidity, neither of which are conducive to painting.  It'll probably be late September before I break out the airbrush and learn how to paint a locomotive. 

 

The new projects I alluded to at the end of the last update, "bulk modelling" of some O scale, US prototype hoppers, and a Slaters kit for an LMS 2000 gallon milk tank.

 

I had started assembling the trucks (bogies) for the hoppers last time, I finished them up.  Doesn't look like much work, but each truck took about 15 minutes, between removing flash and assembly.  Note that I acquired metal wheelsets, replacing the plastic ones which came with the kits.

 

 

I would add one part at a time to each hopper, which would give the glue time to try on hopper #1 by the time I had the part on hopper #5.  Made a decent amount of progress.  The main frame was attached to the bodies, some frame bracing, parts of the brake gear, and I started putting the hopper doors on.

 

 

Being black plastic, its hard to see the details, so here's a close up showing the doors and the air line on one of the hopper bodies.

 

 

I also worked on the 2K milk tanker, but didn't get too far.  I started on assembling the frame:

 

 

This took a lot longer than it appears, as I had to pull it all apart partway through when I found that I read the instructions incorrectly.  There are Vs cast into the back of the buffer beam and solebar parts, to show which way is up.  Unfortunately, this V isn't on the central underframe.  When I attached one buffer beam and both solebars, I was holding the underframe upside-down, and therefore attached those pieces to the wrong side and upside down.  (the two solebars aren't identical, and the underframe isn't symmetrical, one solebar needs to be on a specific side.)  I THINK I have it together correctly now...

 

According to the "assembly notes", the next step was to install the drawbars.  BUT, if you look at the other instruction sheet, it doesn't show those installed until Figure 5, after the W irons/wheels/brakes are installed.  It also says to not install some of the microstrip until after the couplings are fitted, but accessing that will be awkward (at best, might be impossible) if everything else is in place.  To make things even more confusing, there's a note off to the side that says "we recommend that the buffers and couplings are fitted before the main assembly begins".  (Is it just me, or Slaters instructions sheets seem to be "random".  Whatever happened to step-by-step instructions "install part X to part Y...)

 

I'm assuming that I should attach the drawbars now, before I install W irons/wheels/etc.  Unfortunately, I was missing a critical part.  The two etched drawbars are joined together in the middle of the chassis by a cast "drawbar cradle".  Upon looking for this part, I found that there were no castings at all in the box.  The parts list says there should be a bag of castings, which includes the buffer body castings (but nothing else specified)  So, I was at a "hard stop" here.  A call to Slaters has a replacement bag on the way.

 

To keep making progress next week (I'm assuming the package won't arrive before the next treatment) I scrounged this part from a 3000 gallon milk tank kit that I also have (3 of them, to be exact)  While I was on the phone to Slaters, I ordered a set of the etched, sprung W irons which are optional for this kit.  Like with missing casting, I have a few of these for the 3K tank kit, so I'll use one of those for now, as I need to do some soldering/blackening on these parts this weekend at home.  When the package comes, I'll replace the "missing" pieces from the 3000 gal tank kit.

 

Next week is the last scheduled inpatient treatment, so we'll see how far I get on these projects.

[Mike Boucher]

Last installment of the treatment room for the forseeable future, so I think I'll have to keep working on this stuff at home.

 

First thing I did was to finish installing the hopper bay doors and AB brakes to the 5 intermountain hoppers.  

 

Day 1, I got the brake cylinder and the associated piping installed...
 

Day 2 was working on the brake rigging along the frame, and connecting that to the brake cylinder.  The instructions were very unclear as to how some of the parts went together, but what I worked out seems reasonable.  However, there are a few places where the levers should be anchored to something, but I'll be damned if I can figure out how they're supposed to be anchored to where...
 

 

once again, very hard to take picture when everything is all black, but the above photo shows two levers (one from the cylinder to the rod which passes thru the bolster, and one which connected that rod to the brake gear on the frame.)   Neither of which are anchored to anything (one at the mid-point, the other at one end).  Will be hard to see when in a train, so I'm going to leave it for now.  Even with this "obvious error", It still has more detail than some of the other hoppers I have...

 

Now, to the LMS milk tank.  Over the weekend between hospital stays, I blacked the parts for the drawbars and the sprung W irons, and assembled the W irons.

 

 

I didn't press out the rivets, as the instructions were vague, but it looks like I should have.  Something to remember for when I build the 3000 gal versions.

 

First thing was to install the drawbars.  This turned out to be more fiddly than expected for a few reasons.

1) The provided spring was way too long.  It would be fully compressed, providing no springing, as provided.  I removed about 1/3rd of the length.

2) There wasn't much room for my needlenose pliers inside the drawbar cradle to bend the ends of the drawbars

3) The "bendable" part of the drawbars weren't long enough to retain the spring.  (that is the diameter of the spring was larger than the bent out ends of the drawbars)  So, the spring would slide out beyond the end of the drawbar, not the desired action for a sprung drawbar.  Easy to resolve, but still annoying.

 

 

After that, things moved a little quicker.  I used 5 minute epoxy to glue on the W irons, ACC to glue the plastic axleboxes to the sprung, brass axleboxes, and attached the brake cylinder and brake hangers/blocks.

 

When I went to attach the springs, once again Slaters instructions could have been more clear.  In the isometric drawing Fig #3, they don't show part #19.  But, there's a "end view" which says "part #19 locates the spring onto the W Iron".  When I came to the point of attaching the springs to the W irons, it became clear that parts #19 are glued thru two holes in the W irons, with a small stub extending out, which fit into holes cast in the back of the springs.  What the instructions fail to mention is that once the wheels are in place, its virtually impossible to glue part #19 in.   So part #19 should be have been glued to the W irons before they were glued to the solebars.  (keeping in mind that the thinner etched W irons would require modification to part #19 anyway)

 

Since I've already attached the W irons to the solebars, What I have to do here is glue part #19 to the springs, sand them down to about 1/2 their thickness, and then use them as "pegs" into the locating holes in the W irons.  (no clue why Slaters didn't just cast them like this to begin with, but whatever...) 

At that point, it was time for me to be discharged, to see the continuation of work on these, you'll have to start following my "workbench" thread (which hasn't been updated for a few months now)

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/18405-bouchs-workbench-7mm-jinty/

[Mike Boucher]

Well, the treatment room hasn't completely closed...  One of the "side affects" of what I've been dealing with is Anemia.  My bone marrow has been too busy making ineffective white blood cells, it forgets to make red blood cells and platelets.  Over the course of the summer, I've had a LOT of blood infusions to keep my red blood cell counts to a "safe" level.  Most of these have been "ad-hoc", that is, I go to my doctor, they do bloodwork, and say "yup, you're getting an infusion today".  (and a few have been in the emergency room)  I've been building "metal earth" kits during those infusions, as they require few tools, so they're easy to carry, and I haven't required an infusion at every doctors appointment.

 

However, this week was a little different.  I had bloodwork late in the afternoon on Monday, and they didn't have time for me to get an infusion that day.  They had me come in Wednesday for 2 units.  Since each unit takes about an hour, I brought the LMS milk van kit in with me.

 

The next step is to add the springs on each side.  Seemed simple enough, but no...

 

When I went to test-fit the first one, I found that the locating holes in the etched W-irons meant the spring hangers wouldn't reach the solebars.  

 

 

You can't see it in this photo, but the plastic spring is also fouling on the "real" spring.  It was made to glue to a flat, plastic W-iron.  With the sprung W-irons, the round spring protrudes beyond the face of the W-iron itself. 

 

Fortunately, both are easy, albeit slightly time consuming, fixes.

 

First fix was to cut the hangers away from the springs, and attach them to the solebars separately.  Second fix was to cut/file a recess in the back of the plastic springs to clear the "real" springs.

 

 

I used 5 minute epoxy to glue the plastic springs to the etched W-irons.  Then liquid plastic cement to attach the hangers to the solebars.

 

Here's what it looks like with one side completed

 

 

One side is all I had time for.  We'll see if I need more infusions, and, of so, how far I get next time.

 

BTW - I've also been working on the 5 hoppers at home.  Construction is finished, but I have't been able to paint them yet as the past month has been either hot and humid, or incredibly rainy.  (we've gotten about 6" more rain than normal in the past 2 months)  Once those are painted/decaled/weathered, I'll post photos.

[Mike Boucher]

I've had a few more treatments over the past few weeks.  One thing I'll say about this Slater's kit is it is complex (the second thing I'll say is the instructions could be better... )

 

At one of my treatments, I finished installing the springs, they are now installed on both sides.  Since finishing that,  I've started working on the etched brake gear.  The brake gear is pretty fiddly, there's one step where you have to put a .020 piece of brass wire through 5 holes in 3 pieces  (and you have to do this for each braked axle!)

 

The brake rigging for both axles are done (there's no braking on the center axle).  I've glued the 3 V irons to the chassis, and I've started on the linkages to the vaccuum cylinder and between the V irons to the brakes.  The various pieces on the shaft thru the V irons aren't glued on, and the shaft itself isn't permanently attached.

 

 

 

 

Still a way to go, but its getting there...  The more I work on this one, the more I dread building the 3 3000 gallon kits I have...

Before the next treatment, I'm going to have to blacken some of the castings, the "splash plates", and the etched brake levers

And the intermountain hoppers have been painted in between rain (the last weekend where we didn't have rain was late September!), awaiting some decaling...

[Northroader]

Mike, only just spotted this thread, and hope you’re progressing OK. Best wishes.

[Mike Boucher]

More progress...

 

I've finished assembling the brake gear.  Added the brake levers and their guides (or whatever those things that they pin the brakes down with are actually called!)  Also made the connections beteen the lever/vac-cylinder rod and the brake levers.

 

 

 

As you can see, the levers are shaped differently depending on each side, presumably so they clear the axle boxes.  And one lever is "directly acting" on the shaft, the other acting indirectly, so pushing down on either will activate the brakes.  Took some careful reading of the diagrams in the instructions to make sure I got them correct.  (and I've already fixed the issue with the lever guide in the top photo, where the glue had come undone where the "loop closes")

 

In the 2nd photo, you can see some of the brake rodding.

 

After that, the bracing at the bottom of the W irons was added.  This was a little more fiddly than it appears as the long, thin etched piece needs to be straight in both dimensions, but you also have to add twists between each axle.  I also had to make sure it wouldn't foul the sprung axleboxes.  One side fit perfectly, the other took some filing to make the piece thinner and a lot of test fitting.

 

The next steps are above the chassis.  The "assembly notes" say to add the etched splash plates, followed by the tanks support backing.  But, they say nothing about the cast pieces that tie down the tank bands to the chassis, which are shown in figure 7.  Back in step 1 I drilled holes in the solebars for some of these castings, but those holes only account for the "inner" 2 pairs.  The "outer" two pairs attach to the W irons

 

And then I realize my mistake...  There is a note in Figure 1 which says, "we recommend fitting castings (refer to fig 7) before attaching W irons."  

 

Here's the instructions that I failed to comprehend.

 

 

Now I understand what this meant.  Even though they're never mentioned in the "assembly notes", and they're not actually shown as being attached in figure 1, these "tank strap tie downs" were the castings they were referring to.  if you read back to post 164 (http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/76636-tales-from-the-treatment-room/page-7&do=findComment&comment=3261233 ), you'll see that I didn't have the bag of castings, which didn't exactly help me discern what they were talking about.  

 

So, in figure 1 you drill holes in parts attached in figure 2, and they "recommend" attaching parts shown in figure 7 into these holes, and none of this is spelled out in the "assembly notes".  Good lord.  Also, the hole locations are different depending on which end of the car they're on, and that fact isn't exactly explained well in the diagram, IMHO.

The next problem is that the etched, sprung W irons don't have pre-etched holes for attaching these castings, nor do they even have a half-etched "divot" where the holes should be.  And even if I did have access to drill these holes, there are no measurements in the diagram to tell me where to drill the holes anyway.  A simple change to the etch master would have easily put 4 holes in each etched W iron.
 

And now for a bit of a rant:

 

Slaters - whoever writes your instructions really needs to re-write these.  Your "Assembly notes" should give STEP BY STEP instructions, with the appropriate figures embedded in the text.  Having some information on one sheet of all text (the "assembly notes"), important information in a seemingly-random location on another sheet (that's all diagrams), and expect the builder to discern what you're talking about.  The order of assembly in the "assembly notes" doesn't match the diagrams either:  assembling the drawbars is described before the W irons and wheelsets, but the W irons are attached in figure 2 and the drawbars are shown in figure 5.

In the Assembly Notes, You have 18 lines describing how to assemble the sprung drawbar assembly (4 parts), 19 lines describing the entire brake rigging (24 parts), and NOTHING describing anything assembly after figure 7, (note there are 10 "figures"), so there's no text at all about building the actual tank and its detail pieces.  

 

I can't have been the first person who's had difficulty with this. (and this isn't the first Slaters kit where the instructions were lacking, the LMS Stanier 20T brake van instructions were pretty awful in places)

 

Hopefully there's enough info in the diagrams, but one thing that jumps out immediately is I have no clue how wide the ladders are supposed to be, I just know there's 4 etches and a bunch of wire.  One other thing I noticed is that the diagrams don't show attaching the vacuum brake hoses and steam heat hoses to the end beams, nor attaching them to the piping that runs thru the chassis (figure 2).  

 

Oh, and part numbers for these castings would be nice, with a diagram of which parts are on which casting sprue.

 

Rant off...  (and yes, once this is done I'll write an email to Slaters with these comments.  I'm waiting so I can mention ALL the issues in a single email!)

At least when I build the 3 3000 gallon tank kits I have in the queue, I'll have this "institutional knowledge"

 

So, at the last session, I got two of the splash plates attached, and the "inner" pairs of tank band tie downs.

 

 

Next time, I'll attach the remaining splash plates, trim the pins off the castings for the "outer" pairs of tank band tie downs, and then locate the tie down castings, centered in the slots etched in the splash plates, attaching them with 5 minute epoxy.

 

I'll probably also start assembling the tank, as I suspect I'll need to do some filling/sanding on the seams between the 3 parts.  And before I glue on the ends I'll need to add some weight inside the tank.

 

[jamie92208]

You have my sympathy on many fronts Mike.  However I do feel for you with regards to Slaters instructions.   I have several issues with those for the fiendishly complicated spring coach bogies, of which I have many sets to complete.  I have only built one tank wagon and that's one of the 4 wheel petroleum tankers.   That was tricky as well.  Certainly I recommend getting weight into the tank before final assembly.   I weighted mine to about 4.5ozs but didn't get the liquid lead very level and it has never run well.   Good luck.

 

Jamie

[Mike Boucher]

I’ve had a couple more infusions, so I’ve made some significant progress on the LMS milk tanker.  At the first session, I installed the remaining splash plates and started working on the tank supports.  Unfortunately, the photos I took of this work are too blurry.

One note about this work.  The splash plates have etched rivet detail on them, which is great.  Unfortunately, the inner two tank supports are installed directly over some of these rivets.  (Assuming I measured correctly from the end beams).  This means the tank supports don’t fit flat, and they would be slightly higher than the two outer tank supports.  Easy enough fix, I carefully filed away the offending rivets.  But it seems Odd that Slaters would etch these rivets in knowing they would interfere.

 

I started working on the tank itself, drilling the required holes in the top of the tank, and gluing the three pieces together. 

 

 

Over the week, I added some weight inside the tank.  I weighed the chassis, tank shell, and the sprues for some of the plastic and brass parts I haven’t added yet, which was about 3 ounces.  Based on that weight, I added about 2 ½ ounces of lead, which should bring the finished weight to between 5 ½ to 6 ounces.

 

 

Yesterday, at my latest visit, I put the outer two tank supports on the chassis, attached the ends to the tank, and the “end brackets” (whatever those things are which brace the ends of the tank).  The tank can still be lifted out, as it needs more work, and the chassis and the tank HAVE to be painted separately (well, if you’re insane or masochistic, you could attach them and try to mask everything, but I’m neither    )

 

 

 

One thing I'll mention is that the tank supports are made wider than the chassis itself, by a visibly noticeable amounts.  (a couple of mm each side).  I had to carefully trim away the ends of all 4 tank supports so they didn't overhang the solebars.

 

Before I can do much more here, I need to clean up the tank.  The seams between the 3 pieces its made out of are quite visible, as well between the tank and the ends.  So I’ll need to do some work with body filling material and sandpaper to get a nice smooth tank.  That’ll have to be done at home, since I need to let the filler dry, and it’ll take a few iterations.  For the chassis itself, there are a few lamp irons and the vacuum/steam heat hoses to add, then I’ll be ready to paint and letter it.  Other work which needs to be done at home is soldering the ladders together.

Since I’m nearing the end, and the work I can get done in any one session is limited, I decided to start working on my next project.  After some internal deliberations, I’ve decided to build an O scale resin kits from Funaro and Camerlengo, the “Erie Dunmore Shops covered hopper”.  F&C is well known in HO circles, but they only produce three kits in O scale.  Years ago, as a thank you, a friend gave me the kit, and it’s bubbled its way to the top of the project pile. 

This kit builds a 4 bay covered hopper, here’s the drawing of what It’ll look like when finished. 
 

 

In my experience, O scale models of 4 bay covered hoppers aren’t exactly common, excepting modern cylindrical covered hoppers.  So, this will be a somewhat unique model.  Here’s the required picture of  the parts…

 

 

Not included in that picture are two sprues of plastic brake parts (rodding, levers, cylinder, triple valve, etc) from Intermountain and a bag of wire grab irons.

It’s pretty large, especially compared to the models I’ve been working on lately (2 bay hoppers, milk tanks, On3 0-4-0, etc).  The sides are about 11” long!  For a sense of scale…
 

I’ve only built one resin kit, that being an HO boxcar, so between working with resin, the size, and the amount of detail I’ll need to add, I expect this will be a challenging kit.  This week I spend a LOT of time removing flash from the side and roof castings.  If you look at the picture of all the parts, and compare it with the size comparison, you'll see I've cleaned the flash from between the framework on the ends.  One thing that made it time consuming is there are "NBW"s cast into the ends, and trimming the flash was finicky.  I didn’t get to the point of doing any assembly, not a single drop of glue was used.  One thing I found is that there’s a lip on the underside of the roof where the side attaches, and the side is significantly thicker than that lip, so I need to either make the top of the side thinner, or file away on the roof.
 

Until next time...

[Mike Boucher]

Over the past few weeks, I've made some pretty good progress on the LMS milk tank.  While at home, between treatments, I filled the gaps/unevenness on the tank itself.  Started with the seams between the three tank pieces.

 

 

This was the "first pass" of filling and sanding, only working on the three seams where the tank sections were joined.

 

I used a "top secret homemade filler", which works better than any other filler I've used.  I don't remember where I learned it, but IMHO its far superior to anything else I've tried.

 

What I do is take an old, glass jar, which used to hold liquid plastic solvent (leftover from when it was empty, I use a Tenax bottle).  I take the new jar of liquid plastic solvent (now, I'm using Plastruct's "Plastic Weld") and pour some in to the old jar, about 1/4" deep.  Then I dump in some scrap styrene.

 

After an hour or so, the solvent has melted the styrene into a thin paste.  There's a little bit of trial and error here, if its too thin, I add more styrene.  Too thick, add more solvent.  You want something which about 1/2 way between liquid and toothpaste.  It spreads easily, but doesn't flow away from the joint you're trying to fill.  Use a putty knife to spread it over the joint, and wait for a few hours for it to cure.  File and sand as needed.

 

Now, here's the advantages.  You've basically made liquid styrene, with the "liquid" part being a solvent.  When you spread it on the joint, the solvent joins the styrene to the item you're filling  Once its cured, its bonded to the part and as hard as solid styrene.  When you file/sand away, it can get incredibly thin and not chip/flake/fall off.  As an aside bonus, it dries glossy.  When you file/sand it, the sanded surface is matte.  So, you can look at the part closely, and if you see a glossy area, that's lower than the surface you've sanded smooth, so you know you need more filler there.  You can so several iterations with no "test painting" in between.  And each layer bond itself to the previous layer.

 

If you look closely at the photo, you can see some parallel lines in a few places (most easily seen at the left end).  These are actually machining marks in the mold which get cast into the tank piece.  The filler has even filled in these very small imperfections, and now the tank is nice and smooth.

 

Now, back to construction...

 

Over a couple of treatments, I finished both end beams.  I blacked all the castings, for the steam and brake lines, and glued the pieces together.  I also assembled some Slaters screw-link couplings.

 

The casting for the brake line had a valve handle cast in.  But, that handle was very long, and would foul on the coupling.  I had to cut about 1/2 the length off, and also bend it up a little bit.  Still looks like a handle, and it doesn't hit the coupling.

 

The question was to figure out how to join the cast brass piping and the plastic thru pipes.  I had some brass tubing, both 1/16" OD and 3/32" OD.  The 3/32" OD fit over the pieces easily, but looked really "heavy".  the 1/16" OD wouldn't fit over the pieces.  I measured the pieces, and found them to be about .050" diameter.  I tried drilling out the 1/16" OD tubing in the lathe, but that made the wall thickness about .006", which was too fragile.  The tube would crush too easily.  Styrene tubing wasn't any better.

 

Finally, I decided to use heat shrink tubing.  I found some 1/16" diameter tubing which would shrink to 1/32" diameter when heated.  It seems to have worked OK.  Being flexible, the joints aren't perfectly straight, but it'll be hard to notice that when its sitting on the layout.  I took the photo before I had shrunk the tubing.

 

 

 

I've also added most of the details on the top of the tank, and 3 of the 4 bracing rods (didn't have enough .030" brass wire for the 4th, need to go buy more!)  Here's what it looks like now...

 

 

As you can see, I didn't put the dome on top of the tank.  Looking at the bag of castings, there are three cast pieces which need to be soldered to the dome casting.  They look like clamps to tighten the lid, and I think I've figured out where each get attached.  (once again, the instructions don't have any information/guidance)

 

Other than the dome, What's left to do?

- the 4th bracing rod

- Painting.  Chassis black, tank white.  And lettering, I have the Slaters "United Dairies" transfers.  My understanding is the 2000 gallon tanks were only used by United Dairies.

- The tank straps.  I need to solder brass wire to the etched straps, and these will be attached after painting.

- The ladder.  Need to solder these together, and attach after painting

 

Getting VERY close to having this done, but most of the work left will have to be at home.  I suspect the next treatment will find me working on the next project more.

 

Finally, wishing everyone a blessed holiday season.  Whatever your religious beliefs are, may you find peace and happiness in the coming year.  And thank you for watching my progress, and for all your well wishes!

 

[jamie92208]

That's really coming on Mike.   I really hope that the treatment is also coming along as well as the kit.   All the best and I hope that you have a very good Christmas.

 

Jamie

[PhilMortimer]

Mike,

 

Wishing you all the best for the New year. Thanks for such a great thread.

 

Take Care,

 

Phil

[Mike Boucher]

Over the Christmas->New Years holiday, I had a few visits to the treatment room.  Unfortunately, one of those visits I was diagnosed with Influenza A, so not much got done during that visit.  I have mostly recovered, but I spent the better part of a week sitting on the couch watching either the “festive features” of the Premier League, US football games, or movies.  I also found some energy to add decals to a few of the intermountain hoppers I had been working on.  3 are “finished”, one is 2/3rds done, and one still needs to be started.  Photos will be forthcoming when all 5 are decaled.

 

For the LMS milk tank, I found time/energy at home to solder the clamp castings onto the tank lid, and buy some .032 brass wire.  At the last treatment room visit, I glued on the lid and the last of the bracing wire.

 

 

This completes all the construction I can do at the treatment room for now.  Before I can do anything else, I need to paint the tank and the chassis, and solder together the ladders and the tank bands.  I’ve realized that, while the instructions don’t specify the width of the ladders, there is a piece on each etch which is labeled “jig”.  I’m going to assume that these two jig pieces are to hold the ladder sides to the correct width and maintain parallelism.  I should be able to solder these pieces sometime in the next few weeks.  Painting is a big question, as the weather has been hovering below freezing for more than a few days (todays high is 25F) and I do most of my painting outside  (at least theres no snow...).  If there’s no warmup into the 40s in the long range forecast, I may attempt do to some in my basement, but I’ll have to bring the air compressor inside…

 

As for the resin covered hopper, I’ve also made progress on this.  I glued the sides onto the roof, being as careful as possible to line up the center rib on the roof with the center rib on the side.  I’m a little off, but its less than a mm, so it shouldn’t be terribly obvious. 

 

 

 

One end lined up almost perfectly, but the other end didn’t.  The sides are slightly longer than the roof, leaving an obvious gap on that end.  This isn't completely unexpected with resin.  The good news is that the sides are the same length, just slightly shorter than the roof.  (I haven't tested against the floor yet)

 

 

I worked on the “perfectly aligned” end first, and decided that would be the brake end.  (the end castings are different, depending on if its the brake end or not)  The width of this casting was spot on, but the vertical ribs weren’t centered correctly, and the ribs which form the end ladder would have been too far apart for the wire grab irons.  Trimming that side until the ribs were centered, and the end ladder ribs are the correct distance meant there was a gap on the other side.

 

 

I filled this gap with some .030” thick styrene strip

 

For the other end, before I could think about attaching the end casting, I needed to extend the roof.  I used some .040” square styrene, sanding to blend it in.  There’s also a short vertical piece on the end which needed extending.  I also added a similar spacer on the inside of the top of the end piece, so the top isn’t “floating in air”.  While this makes the “indent” on the top of that end deeper, I’m not terribly worried about it, it’ll take a very critical eye to notice the depth difference, and its not like I’m going to enter this in any model contests…

 

 

I didn’t have time to actually attach that other end piece on, as it has similar issues as the other end.  it needs trimming on one end to keep the ribs symmetrical on the center, and therefore a gap to be filled on the opposite side.   that’ll be the first step in the next visit.

 

Until next time…