Well the end has come, the final assembly has been completed and the loco is now in a box waiting for postage to the UK.
It seems to have taken too long to do, but when I think about how it arrived on my door step it is not too suprising. I don't think the kit was at fault. I think it was not starting from fresh etches. This kit came from a ACME kit, the etches where labeled as College kits, which I think were quite good. I have got one of their 43XX class to do, which looks really g
I now think I have finished the painting on this. It has been a bit of a struggle to get it this far. All in all I am pleased with it. I just need to reassemble it all now, I just rested it together for these photos.
I gave it a coat of varnish with black added, but I then gave it a coat of straight varnish. This was because I over thinned the first go and it was a little patchy for my liking.
Having been
I have done a little more to this, it has been a bit slow as I have been doing the West Country. I have now got all the valve gear fitted, there are a few screws that need trimming and locking. But it seems to run very well. The valve gear is in is cast nickle, most is quite good, the holes were slightly to large for my liking, I much prefer to have to open them up to suit.
I have started the lining which I am quite pleased with. I still have most of the red to do,
Things here have been a little slow because of the house costing etc. But that should change soon as the builders will be starting very soon.
Since spraying the Ivatt black I have managed to paint between the frames, and the buffer beams.
I had a thought, at no time through this rebuild had I tried the loco and tender together, a sort of panic set in about whether they would line up properly. So as soon as the loco drivers were on I check. Big sigh of relief they w
Hers is a little update from what I was doing today. I have been trying to get both the A1 and the Ivatt, so a lot is going on but not much worth showing.
I did however get on well with the backhead. It is now all but done, I don't think the LMS painted the regulator handle red, I am quite happy to be corrected though.
Here is my latest update for the Ivatt. I have been working on this although not full time.
The first thing I finished was the black paint. I am very pleased with the way this has turned out. I am now trying to get the inner frames and buffers paint red. Why red when it does not cover well at all even with an undercoat. I am still undecided what livery to do. I think if it was for me I would do the it's first BR livery, but as it is for sale I think it would be better in lined BR liv
Had a good few mornings with the Ivatt, along with otherthings it has been moved along quite nicely. I have finished all the soldering and managed to give it a coat of primer.
The filling has been done on rhe loco. Also my mistake has now been rectified. If you has not noticed I had forgotten to put the cab roof gutters on before priming.
I am really pleased with the way this is coming on, I know ther
Well we have had a couple of successful days. I have finished the loco body except for my deliberate mistake, can anyone spot it. I also have given it a coat of primer. Now need to get the 1000 grit wet and dry out and find some filler from somewhere. Might try baking powder and loctite I read about the other day for resin castings. There is quite a bit to be sanded, and a bit of filling around the fire box. It is actually much better than I thought it was going to be,
I have had a good day with the cab. I had thought the other day I finished most of the high temp soldering. But I managed to fing loadsto do at the cab end. You get there in the end though.
I have done the cab roof, including the the roof ventilator. I added the the handles to the inside of it, and also what I presume is the roof mounted whistle lever.
Inside the cab I mounted the reverser, I am not sure it is how the designer plan it but it is in there. Also
Here we go with some work on the loco body. I think I have added most the brass and copper bits to the body. There is still the cab details and roof. and a load of white metal castings. I had to redo the oilers as I found out there was another part to the set up. I have no idea why it has the second manifold, but it looks impressive sat there on the footplate. I had a lot of other bits of piping to add, I think I have them going in the right directions. The front left hand side looks our of bala
Back to getting on with this again, which is quite pleasing, I had got to a place where I could not see where I was going with it. But the inspiration is coming back.
Had the Airbrush out today and all seemed to be going very well. Apart from the thinners I used, I will try another one next time,
Here is the new set up. Small but works well.
Well all in all the chassis has come out well, I need to clean off the slide bars etc, then it is getting on with
Well, what do you know, no activity on the blogs for ages then two come along at once.
I gave the chassis a good old scrub. I must admit I was surprised how well it came up. I then blackened most of it to help with the paint and thoughs horrible wear edges. I then gave it all another scrub. My hands are not used to all this wearing of rubber gloves.
Then it was back to the acid 8 primer. I am really happy the way it has come out. There are one or two bits to tidy, but tha
The chassis has been continuing slowly but surely, again meetings with architects and engineers about our house. I think I now have it ready for painting I will add it to the other bits then I can get it up and running under power.
I have got the injectors fitted beneath the cab these are from Laurie Griffin. The brake gear I had to fix. I could not see an easy way of making it detatchable using the hangers that came with the loco but it is not to much of a problem it is easy enough
Bad week of model making, too many meetings, we can now at last, get on with the house again, just got to find a decent builder, (apart from me of coarse). But here is the latest installment. There has not been much progress, The wheels now look like they are ment to be on a model not the scrap bucket. I spent quite sometime cleaning and blackening them.
The coupling and conecting rods have been cleaned up. The chassis runs nicely with the rods fitted I just need to make a new crank
So we now have a chassis that rolls. The trouble with it now there are no detailing on at all. But the first thing to sort is to fix the broken coupling rod. When I had this on the bench last time I had to bush the crank pin holes as they were huge. this was done with some copper tube which I had in stock, and was the correct size. I took the broken joint apart, and found both halves broken.The front half I managed to solder a brass bush into it. The rear half needed a piece scarfed in, to make
Well I thought I had got to a place with the chassis to start rebuilding. I was wrong. Off came the spring castings, reverser shaft etc, sand pipes and all the bearing. Only to find the bearing holes all far to big. The bearing on a few almost fell through. At this stage I was a bit ruthless I cleaned up the inside of the frames with a cylindrical sanding disc. Not neat but effective. I needed it clean enough to solder to.
Now at least I know it will work when I put it back tog
Well the time has come to start a new chapter.
Here is where we start. I bought an Ivatt 2MT partly built, but built very badly. I have tidied up the cab, and the boiler and footplate is now straight and square. I thought I had got the chassis in a runable condition. I have now decided to make the cylinders removable, and to follow a suggestion on here to compensate the chassis on the front two drivers, I will leave the rear fixed as I can just about get the motor into t
