david.hill64 Posted July 13, 2015 Author Share Posted July 13, 2015 Saturday was wiped out by a bout of extreme lethargy, but I am pleased with yesterday's progress. Two types of firebox washout plugs are provided in the kit, but I wasn't happy with either. So a bit of bodging was called for. First I soldered the LNER type in place. Then I drilled a hole through the centre of each plug. then I used a razor saw to cut them back. Then soldered lengths of square brass through the holes. I filed the ends of the brass rod so they are equal lengths. Next I fitted the mudhole covers and whistle. I dislike forming the handrail where it curves round the front of the firebox. It took a couple of attempts. I found it easier to work back from where the joint will be (I don't have long enough wire to make the complete handrail in one go). The joint will be in the first hand rail knob on the left hand side. I run a little solder into the knob to keep the wires in place. Then I added the handrails to the cab rear. Next were the sandbox filler caps and the small handrails next to them. Followed by smokebox handrail, dart, lamp irons and vac pipe. The vac pipe isn't complete yet: it obviously needs forming and the pipe run added. I also fitted the tender buffers. The thinking cap is on wondering how to retain the loco buffers. They are oval nickel solver castings. The instructions suggest bending the leg where it emerges from the buffer body, but I think this will be too difficult. The buffer bodies have a slot, so I think I will file a flat on the buffer stem and drill a hole and put a pin through to retain it. Not many jobs left to do now: lamp irons on the tender, vac and steam pipes to sort out, cab detail and cab roof, lubricator and various oil pipes and pots. I also have to decide whether to borrow the safety valves from another kit or wait to fit them when I get back home (the valves were an omission and have since been collected). Good chance he will be in the paint shop next weekend. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkallan Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 Malcolm is growing nicely - great work, David! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share Posted July 16, 2015 No photos today, but there has been good progress. The cab roof has been curved to shape and the strengthening ribs and rain strips added. The lamp irons, vacuum pipe and steam pipe have been added to the tender, which is now complete bar the pick ups and a pipe to the vacuum bag. The steam and vacuum bags have been added to the loco and formed to shape, but the vacuum pipe needs to be added. Then it will be the lubricator and its associated drive, pipework and oil pots to add. I haven't piped the backhead yet. I have been unable to find a photo of the cab interior. Does anybody have one please? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted July 16, 2015 Author Share Posted July 16, 2015 Not the best photos but it is getting there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted July 18, 2015 Author Share Posted July 18, 2015 The idea for fixing the oval buffers has worked. I filed a flat and then drilled a hole through the buffer stem taking care to ensure it was in the correct orientation. A piece of 0.8mm N/S wire will retain the buffers but these will be fitted after painting. The lubricator drive was next. I cut the main rod from some nickel silver strip and drilled two 0.6mm holes 48mm apart. The crank was taken from some spare valve gear from a 4mm Brassmasters Deeley 0F. I soldered a 14BA washer to it and drilled and tapped 12BA to fit on the crankpin. The drive to the lubricator is another part of the same valvegear with two 14BA washers sweated together and drilled out to sit on the spigot on the lubricator body casting. brass rivets were then used to join them together. The lubricator then had some oil pipes added and soldered to the footplate. The drive was then tried. In this view the crankpins are still too long but I think this is going to work. It's not 100% correct as I think there may have been an intermediate support where the drive changed from rectangular section to a rod, but I have found good photos hard to find and I don't have a drawing. The drive will be retained on the lubricator with a rivet soldered through a spare cab valve control wheel. So now I need to add the oil pipes and pots and do the cab fittings. Will I be able to do the ritual end of construction workbench clean tomorrow? Good chance I think. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted July 20, 2015 Author Share Posted July 20, 2015 Will I be able to do the ritual end of construction workbench clean tomorrow? Good chance I think. Failed..................... I did manage to fill the paddle boxes with lead and fit a sheet of lead to the rear of the firebox. This was necessary as the loco is nose heavy and was balancing on the leading driver. I have also cleaned up the backhead castings. I need to source or make some extra oil boxes that sit at the front of the splashers. Now I am sure that my bits box in Derby has just what I need, but being in Bangkok that doesn't help. I'll have to knock something up from scratch. Pictures to follow. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 Still no photos, but all of the numbered parts (bar the backhead and cab roof) have now been fitted. Just piping up and final clean up left before painting. It looks like I may be lucky and be able to get the backhead in after the cab roof is fitted. I'll double check and if so get the roof on. Piping is mainly the small bore oil pipes around the front end. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium uax6 Posted July 22, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 22, 2015 David Jenkinson shows in his 'Carriage Modelling made easy' book that in 7mm he drilled a hole through the buffer head stems and then ran a wire that went from buffer to buffer via the drawhook. The drawhook anchored the wire near the buffer beam, so that the buffers were located and sprung on this wire. I'm finding this a fascinating build, thanks for sharing. Andy G Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted July 22, 2015 Author Share Posted July 22, 2015 David Jenkinson shows in his 'Carriage Modelling made easy' book that in 7mm he drilled a hole through the buffer head stems and then ran a wire that went from buffer to buffer via the drawhook. The drawhook anchored the wire near the buffer beam, so that the buffers were located and sprung on this wire. I'm finding this a fascinating build, thanks for sharing. Andy G Andy, Thanks for this. The buffer housings have to be located the way they are as they have step plates on them, so the retaining wire slot will be vertical. However it will still be possible to run the retaining wires through the coupling hook stem and this will solve the issue of trying to retain the wire in the buffers. This will hold buffers and coupler in one easy solution. Really excellent suggestion! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium uax6 Posted July 22, 2015 RMweb Premium Share Posted July 22, 2015 You could cut the rear off the buffer housing, so that there is nothing behind the bufferbeam, that way the wire via the hook will hold everything the correct orientation, and the wire won't rub on the slot in the housing rear extension. It will make getting the wire in much easier too. Andy G Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted July 23, 2015 Author Share Posted July 23, 2015 You could cut the rear off the buffer housing, so that there is nothing behind the bufferbeam, that way the wire via the hook will hold everything the correct orientation, and the wire won't rub on the slot in the housing rear extension. It will make getting the wire in much easier too. Andy G True: but having drilled the holes in the buffer stems already, there may not be room to drill another hole. However, it would I think still be possible to cut off the rear of the buffer housing. Thanks for the suggestion. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted July 27, 2015 Author Share Posted July 27, 2015 Well it has been a few days since updating this thread. Unfortunately I succumbed to a painful bladder infection, which – when you are located in Bangkok – is slightly difficult to explain to the wife, no matter how innocent the cause. So my grand plans for finishing this weekend – as opposed to the previous weekend – were laid waste again. I did manage to do most of the driver side oil piping before getting ill. I had been quite worried about this as the prototype photos that I have are not all that clear, but in the end I figured that as there seems to be major differences from loco to loco with time, trying to follow what I have for Malcolm as close as possible will be acceptable. There is one long pipe form the cab to the front of the loco that looks like it would wave about in the breeze anyway! There is an oil pot shown on the RHS splasher, but in none of the photos I have seen of any of the locos I have not seen an equivalent on the LHS. Does anybody know if there was one? The mechanical drive to the lubricator has also been nagging me and I have decided to rebuild it slightly to include the central pivot. I will add a pivot and a dropper behind the valance, with two holes in the dropper. One will take a piece of round wire forward to the dropper from the lubricator, replacing the strip in use now. This strip wil be cut back and riveted to the central dropper below the drive to the lubricator. This will have the twin advantages of being slightly more realistic than the long arm I have now and stronger/less vulnerable (I hope). Should be straightforward (tempting fate perhaps). Anyway, once I have the energy and frame of mind to get back to the workbench I’ll see what I can do. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted July 30, 2015 Author Share Posted July 30, 2015 So back to the workbench and progress to report. First an apology: I thought the firebox washout plugs didn't look right, but Geoff has kindly contacted me to point out that if I had used the other type and inserted them from inside the firebox all would be right: and having had a second look he is of course correct. Doh! Here is the lead inside the splashers and stuck to the back of the firebox. I don't have a good picture of the piping on the left hand side of Malcolm, and the pictures of the other D11/2s that I have show different arrangements, so I think a bit of modeller's licence is in order and I have crafted a representation. The right hand side is more complicated. As well as the mechanical lubricator there is an oil pot and a couple of feed pipes that is missing on the LHS. I have come to the conclusion that they are lubrication pipes for the lubricator drive intermediate stage, which would explain why I have never seen a photo of one on the other side. I fashioned this by cutting up the water scoop control and adding small bore tube and copper wire. The pipe union behind the smokebox was made from a piece of tube and 14BA nut drilledout to accept the 0.4mm copper wire. Again there seems to be a lot of variation form loco to loco. I piped up the backhead and had a trial fit in the cab. The whitemetal castings are quite crisp. Having shown that it is possible to get the backhead in place with the cab roof on, I soldered the cab roof in place and added the footsteps all round. Then I thought it would be nice to see how it looked all together. Sorry about the quality of the photos: the light was terrible. I will take more at the weekend. The only job left now before final clean up and painting is to modify the lubricator drive. I have started that. There will be an intermediate stage. I feel that a glass of Dr Malt may be in order, but today is a Buddhist holiday with no alcohol on sale or consumed. But as I am not Buddhist................. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted August 1, 2015 Author Share Posted August 1, 2015 So I bit the bullet and had another go at the lubricator drive. Here it is with the intermediate stage. The drive from the crankpin is held together with .6mm rivets soldered to one part, but I could not do that for the wire that represents the front drive rod. I hit upon the idea of using some brass tube to hold it in place and soldered that to the wire where it comes through the droppers. It works! The intermediate stage sits on a piece of .5mm nickel silver wire with lengths of brass tube acting as spacer and retainer. The drive will be soldered to the front crankpin after final assembly. The drawback of this is that it will have to be unsoldered to get the body off but I couldn't think of a way round that. The pick ups have been added to the tender. The centre ones act as springs on the floating axle. The body has been scrubbed up and will get a coat of primer tomorrow. Now to tidy the bench! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted August 13, 2015 Author Share Posted August 13, 2015 I haven't posted for a while as Malcolm is going through the paint shop. I used the Halfords Acid etch primer and I am very pleased with it. Top coat has been a base of Games Workshop Chaos Black with a flash of Halfords Black Satin on top (mainly because the other can was empty!). I have started to paint the inside of the cab and the backhead. I think the main painting jobs will be complete by Sunday, but Saturday will be a write off as it is the last day SWMBO is here and I will have pleasure in domestic duties taking priority. Hope to post some pictures on Sunday. Malcolm will be on the Gladiator stand at Telford, so please drop by and say hello. I would like to put some faces to the names. David Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted August 13, 2015 Share Posted August 13, 2015 .....today is a Buddhist holiday with no alcohol on sale or consumed. But as I am not Buddhist................. So long as you don't insult the King of Thailand, I'm sure you'll be fine.....! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted August 23, 2015 Author Share Posted August 23, 2015 Slow progress over the last couple of weeks: thrown out of the apartment while it was redecorated, a welcome visit by SWMBO and an unwelcome cold followed by a trip to Japan that at least got me away from the Erawan bombing which injured one of my colleagues. So Malcolm is waiting final touch ups, some reworking of the cab interior painting and varnishing (always fills me with trepidation after the fiasco with the B!) and then ready for final assembly and a trip to Telford. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
asa Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 David,you have made lovely job of it,a lot tidier looking than mine! I'm hoping to get to Telford this year so I'll say hello. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkallan Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 As David's customer for the D11/2, I'm delighted with it! It will neon the Gladiator stand. At Telford and I'm bringing the J36 and the B1 that were also done by him. Great work. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkallan Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 Meant to be "be on" the Gladiator stand! Isn't predictive text great?!?! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Focalplane Posted August 23, 2015 Share Posted August 23, 2015 I plan to be at Telford early Saturday and this is on my list of must sees! Looking forward to putting faces to texts (not always predictive as noted above!) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Will the B1 and the J36 be on that stand too? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted August 24, 2015 Author Share Posted August 24, 2015 Will the B1 and the J36 be on that stand too? Yes I think so: David will bring them but they will only be there on Saturday (as will Malcolm). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeffP Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 That's my day, I'll make myself known, I need to thank you in person for keeping the B1 available. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.hill64 Posted August 25, 2015 Author Share Posted August 25, 2015 That's my day, I'll make myself known, I need to thank you in person for keeping the B1 available. Jeff: you are welcome. I think we met briefly in spoons last year, but very happy to see you again. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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