Roy@C-K Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Hello everyone and happy new year 2015. A recent purchase of a job lot of GWR locos, turned up a nice kit built Hawkesworth County. The locomotive is an all whitemetal body kit running on a Triang/Hornby B12 chassis, whilst the tender is of the usual "Wills / K's" construction where the wheels (pin-point axle all plastic) are built-in between the side frames. There are no etched or turned brass components. There are several in-accuracies on the locomotive, which are as follows: 1). There is no front bufferbeam step on the RHS. 2). There no cut-away to the RHS splasher for the reverser lever between the front and middle drivers. 3). The fire-iron tunnel shape to the LHS splasher, in front of the cab, is formed on the footplate and not as an extension to the splasher top where it should be. Apart from a broken injector and missing firebox backhead detail, the loco appears complete and looks very good. Rather un-usually the cab floor is chequer-plate detail. Can anyone identify the manufacturer of the kit, with an approximate date of when this kit was last produced - if no longer, and whether there was a scale chassis made to go with it? Other than the RTR Dapol and Hornby and Jamieson (N/S Brass) Kit models, I don't recall this GWR prototype being available from another source. I'm intrigued. Many thanks to all for taking an interest. Roy@C-K Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon A Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 A picture would have been useful. Gordon A Bristol Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike G Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Probably M&L Premier kits... Mike Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 It will either be M&L or Bristol Models. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy@C-K Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Gentlemen, Gordon A, Mike G and Horsetan, thank you for your suggestions - I agree with Gordon A that a photo would have been useful - and I'll try to post one or two as soon as I can. Regards to all, Roy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 From the kits of other locos from the 2 companies mentioned. I have found that M&L kits have better cast parts and fewer of them. Where as Bristol Models kits had loads of very small parts but slightly inferior quality parts Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy@C-K Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Hello again all, Thank you Hayfield (John) for your insight, at the moment this loco is fully built and painted in BR green and I'm going through the process of correcting some of the constructional problems that the model has, poorly aligned tender wheels, badly modified chassis etc. When I can get good running consistently I'll turn my attentions to the body which is suffering from some poor workmanship during the original assembly - bent castings - out of square fitting and glueing of some major pieces. Looking over the kit there don't seem to be very many parts to the construction, certainly not as many as you might find in a Wills GWR Hall as a comparator - but the castings look about the same quality as a Wills Kit. The plan is - paint stripper disassembly - straighten up the distorted castings - and rebuild - re-paint in GWR as first built keeping single chimney - so any running number apart from 1000! For now the loco will keep a much modified Triang/Hornby B12 chassis, but using new standard Chinese Hornby parts, and a Bachmann Bueler motor and worm (which when meshed with the Triang wormgear should give 40:1 gearing) just to see what kind of improvement can be achieved at a reasonable cost, might be useful information to others. The tender will be fitted with a compensated Comet GWR chassis or scratch built unit of similar design, which will improve the running characteristics. Eventually the Locomotive will also have a Comet chassis fitted. Anyway I'd better get on it, and if anyone's interested in progress I'll post some pictures (when I can get the hang of how to do it!) Best regards, RoyC Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 ..... kit built Hawkesworth County. The locomotive is an all whitemetal body kit running on a Triang/Hornby B12 chassis, .... There are several in-accuracies on the locomotive, which are as follows: 1). There is no front bufferbeam step on the RHS. 2). There no cut-away to the RHS splasher for the reverser lever between the front and middle drivers. 3). The fire-iron tunnel shape to the LHS splasher, in front of the cab, is formed on the footplate and not as an extension to the splasher top where it should be.... ....and 4) the Triang B12 wheelbase which scales out at 7'3" x 7'3". You'll notice a difference once you get the Comet chassis built. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Roy Sounds like a M&L kit which I believe are designed to work on RTR chassis. Bristol kits tended to have many parts and brass bar type chassis. I could be wrong but modern paint stripper seems to have lost its strength. Where possible soak the castings in a caustic soda solution (1 heaped table spoon per pint of cold water) for a few days, some spray oven cleaner all over and put in a sealed bag. Thoroughly clean and burnish after and be prepaired to use filler as the previous builder may have taken too much off the castings. Good luck Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roy@C-K Posted January 16, 2015 Author Share Posted January 16, 2015 Horsetan, Thank you for your observation, but the Triang compromise on dimensions had not escaped my notice, the Comet chassis will indeed be different but a scale wheelbase of 7'0" + 7'9" is only 3" out on the rear drivers (1mm on the model). The current build using the Triang B12 unit positions the lead drivers in the correct place relative to the splashers and chimney centre line - so the 1mm extra space required under the cab is easily accommodated. Hayfield, You are absolutely correct when you say about modern strippers, the composition changed in accord with an EU directive, whereby the vital ingredient - METHYLENE DICHLORIDE - WAS REMOVED. Fortunately I saw this coming and purchased 10 ltr from my local hardware store whilst they still had it in stock. The "good stuff" is only used for disassembling whitemetal kits that are glued with ARALDITE ORIGINAL type epoxy. The new insipid stuff will dissolve the 5 minute epoxy types (in about 2 hours) which by and large are a polystyrene composite. I hear what you say about the previous builder - but many of the castings appear to have had little preparation prior to gluing and still have mould and flash lines showing under the paint - so I'm happy - it can only get better. With regard to the parts that are missing, boiler backhead, screw reverser and the long injector - I think that these would be similar to that of a Wills GWR Hall, so a spares purchase from SEFC could be the answer here. As always thank you all for your interest, RoyC Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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