BMR Workbench

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Hello All

 

This is my first post in the Kit build / Workbench forum, as Ive been debating whether to post this as the standard of work on this forum is outstanding, so wasn't sure i should show or not.

 

A word of warning, if of a nervous disposition seeing locos being cut up... look away now! Before its too late.

 

The step by step is written in 3 parts and this is part 1, and i'll post up more over the next couple of days.

 

 

Part 1 - A bit of background, and the project

 

My first conversion was a Holden, Hornby 0-4-0, which has been converted to a B4, Normandy, using plasticard and spares from a J72.

Picture below.

 

 

My next project started in Early October; No kits exist so this was the only option to make this loco. Fletcher Jennings, 0-4-0, No3 Captain Baxter

Which is in working order on the Bluebell, and without doubt one of the more popular engines down on the Bluebell?

 

 

Firstly before selecting a loco, looking up the size of the loco and measuring up and various photoshoping on to pictures of RTR locos, finally decided

Which was the most suitable, the standard pug from Hornby was too large, and incorrect wheels as well as cylinder placement. Instead I came across a

LNY Dapol pug, which I managed to secure for a good price of £23.

 

 

Upon arrival I measured the loco up to see if what I want to do was possible, the cylinder blocks were easily removable therefore easy to reposition on the chassis

As they needed to be much low and running in parallel to the main connecting rod on the wheels. The cylinders where cut from there mounting and glued to the

Side of the chassis and leaving the mounting block in situe so it could hold the body on when it was reintroduced to the chassis. The wheels and motion were put back

On to check if this would all work and the motion was still smooth and no sticking

 

 

Work could then start on the main shape of the engine again work stated on the cylinders to begin with. At the top of the cylinders the slop down to the bottom and curve

Around the cylinder. This was achieved with plasticard, 2 rectangle sections were cut out and placed on top of the cylinder and left to dry. Once these were secure

A slope could be filed or cut in to them making the slop. Once this was done, a thin piece of plasticard was cut to size and using Superglue I glued the whole cylinder and

The 2 pieces of plasticard on the top of the cylinder. The thin plasticard was carefully positioned and stuck in place. This was done on both cylinders.

 

 

Work switches to the main body now, the main body itself will be mostly Scratch built using small spares from kits I have accumulated over the years. White metal fixings

Will be used from left over kits such as: Chimney, Dome, and smoke box door. These will feature a bit later on.

Firstly the first problem with the build was the boiler barrel.. After much searching I found 15mm tube a meter long made from plexiglass for about £2 from eBay.... I have plenty

left if anyone wants some! This is a clear tube so after resizing the lead weight to fit, 2 holes were drilled for the screws to attach the body to the chassis, after this using

the thin plasticard, as before the plasticard was covered in superglue and the tube rolled, this helped bring it up to just under 16mm.

The main deck of the body would be that of the Pug the body was cut off using a hack saw, thus leaving a flat deck, I then covered this in thin Plasticard. The pads on the buffer beam

were also removed to make way for new sprung buffers. Mean while using the thick card, I started to make the tanks and the back of the cab.

 

 

After a little while I noticed the body length looked out of proportion to the real thing so I sawed off the rear buffer beam thus removing about 1 - 2 mm from the rear.. Which made

It look a bit better. After this I Started work on the smoke box which was to be a bit of a challenge but I devised away of making it.

Using the thicker card, I cut the front shape of the smoke box and repeated that for the back, I cut a couple of spacers to keep the 2 a set distance appart. This was trial fitted and

lined up ok with the boiler which has since been glued in place.

Before gluing the smoke box in place, using the thin plasticard cutting a strip the width of the smoke box which would act as a wrapper, this was glued in place and cut to size and

then the smoke box glued on the front of the boiler.

 

 

A few white metal parts were then shaped and glued on, firstly the Dome, which comes from the E4 kit, the casting was tidied up and Glued on with superglue Gel, the top of the

dome was filed flat to house the safety valves.

Using a spare chimney cast which originally came from the Adams radial when it was changed to the Stove chimney. With the old cast Chimney, the top flange of the chimney was cut

off and filed down slightly. The next part was to shape it in to the Stove chimney shape, to do this I placed the locating pin of the chimney in to the drill and turned it until I was happy

with the shape. This was then glued on with Super Glue Gel.

After this the front of the smoke box was then measured up and amazingly the Smoke box door which I had spare from my E4 kit fitted pretty well... this was glued on again with the

Super Gel, and after the glue went off, the spare smoke box door handle was fitted.

 

 

 

Part 2 will follow .....

Edited August 15, 2012 by Bluebell Model Railway

[halfwit]

Some really nice work there, keep posting please. The B4 looks good but those con rods need toning down!

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Thanks Paul, yes maybe something to do when i have a bit of time

 

 

[S.A.C Martin]

Having had the pleasure of seeing the finished article already, I can state happily that the finished article is just amazing.

 

BTW Halfwit, Baxter's con rods are red - something for the painting stage, methinks?

[halfwit]

Having had the pleasure of seeing the finished article already, I can state happily that the finished article is just amazing.

 

BTW Halfwit, Baxter's con rods are red - something for the painting stage, methinks?

 

I was referring to Holden, the loco at the top of the page.

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Part 2 of my Pug Desecration workbench topic

Most of the major body work was done on Part one with only small details and detail to do.

 

The next job to do on the body was a nice simple one, all be it has a main weight in the boiler barrel; it had still lost quite a bit of the weight due to the lead weight being trimmed to fit in the tube. This in mind at least unlike the pug there were 2 nice tanks on either side of it in a central Position. These were filled with 2 squares of left over lead I had been given by a friend who got them at a builders merchants.

 

 

After this the tanks could have a top piece of plasticard glued over it to seal it to make it in to a tank. After this work started on the Cab. The cab is made up of 4 sections of plasticard. 2 sides out of thicker card, front made out of thicker card and a back piece made from the thinner of the 2 cards.

This would give the recess in the middle of the cab. The cab front is glued on and checked for levels. This dictates the level of the 2 side panels.

 

 

 

On the next morning I had a bit of a present from the Postman... a nice set of sprung buffers. The buffers are a Markits make I believe they are for a std 4.These are quite easy to fit, the buffer beams have holes where the buffer pads were, these were simply enlarged and the brass buffer part inserted and glued with the Gel super glue. Prior to the Buffers turning up in the post, a piece of hand rail off the pug was bent with pliers and the handrail knobs fitted. Two small holes were drilled on the front and the knobs glued in.

 

 

Next stage moves on to adding the small little details on as you may of noticed, some spring castings have been fitted between the water tanks and the smoke box. Next detail to be added, are the small boxes either side of the smoke box. These are made from simply gluing 4x squares of thick plasticard together and wrapping a thinner plasticard around it. These are then glued in place.

 

 

The next detail to add is very small, 2 safety valves added and glued to the top of the dome, as per Baxter. Steps have also been made up of the thicker plasticard and the thinner plasticard as the steps, again these have been glued in superglue. Other small detail also have been added to the front end, either side of the smoke box there are 2 small handle coming out of the running plate. I used some more of the hand rail wire from the pug; it was bent with pliers and tweezers. 2 small holes

are drilled around 0.5 mm. superglue gel was used to fix them in place.

 

 

After most of the fixtures and fittings have been fitted to the body, the painting prep can begin, all parts cleaned up and masked off. White Halfords primer gets applied to the loco body. Before anyone mentions it, there is no roof fitted until the very end. This is due to the very tight fit of the motor in the cab. In future I’ll try and devise away to make it easier. Once the body has had a couple of coats, it’s then left to dry for 24 hours.

 

 

After the application of the Primer various gaps or holes can be found and another coat can be applied. After this careful painting can begin. Firstly a Humbrol Acrylic (19) Red is applied, and a Humbrol, 33 Matt Black for anything black. I used for the lining I used a combination of the Matt Black paint and a lining pen.

 

 

The motion and body was test fitted and made sure all was ok.

 

 

Part 3 will concentrate on the finishing of the loco from the lining out, to pipe work and various other small bits and pieces.

 

 

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Part 3, The Finishing and Lining...

 

In the last episode of how to kill a pug... we continue...

 

After the paint and the protective clear gloss lacquer I put on to protect the paint this was left for 24 hours to dry.

After it was fully dry and not touch dry, the tidying up and lining could begin.

I used HMRS, Press fix White lining for this loco, all sections of the loco where the lining goes is carefully measured

And cut using a ruler and Stanley knife... a craft knife would be better. The lining strip is sticky back so when you locate

where your lining goes, you press it genially so if you need to move it around you still can. once your happy, use a paint

brush with some water and dab it on the paper of the transfer, If you keep the white lining wet you can still make some

small adjustments to it before it dries out to get it in line.

 

 

 

The loco is worked on side by side, once a side is complete, some fast drying varnish is put on to protect the transfers from

moving out of place whilst working on the other side. Each side takes about an hour and a bit to do, the cab took a bit longer

due to the fiddly nature of the lining.

 

 

 

Once the loco is fully lined, an acrylic Matt Varnish is used to seal the transfers in. I use this Varnish on all the kits I have built.

I usually put on 2 coats of this to fully cover the loco, on this occasion I have only put 1 on due to waiting on the lettering I will

be using from Fox transfers to do the name and number on the tanks.

 

 

 

Owing to having a few issues with the Fox 2mm letter transfers these were removed, and I have decided to go down a different route

and create my own using transfer paper. This may become an advantage wooing to other transfers on Buffer beams and buffers.

Whilst awaiting the materials to do the name and number, I decided to continue with the detailing of the engine.

 

 

 

 

Later in the day I decided to continue the detailing theme, and add the supporting rods from the top of the cab to the tanks, Whilst doing

this using a thick piece of plasticard, I gently bent it to give it a curve and make a curved support at the back this was to become the roof

and sprayed with Halfords Matt Black spray paint. Having a spare loco coupling chain these were split in half and attached to the hook on

the front and rear.Having a spare loco coupling chain these were split in half and attached to the hook on the front and rear.

 

 

 

Continuing on with the detail package I've planned out some plumbing around the cab of Baxter, using some copper, Nickel plated wire,

Firstly a piece of wire was gently bent and added some bends to the ends. Soldering a vertical piece to fit to the boiler when drilled. I found

some spare white metal and filed it to shape and added a small recess around the middle to make the whistle. This was glued on top. When

dry it was then glued to the loco.

 

 

 

 

The pipes were painted Copper, this paint is produced by Revell. and the whistle was painted gold with Humbrol Acrylic. Cab supports were also

painted at this stage. The Cab roof was trial fitted and found to fit well, I decided at this point to add some more rear support at the rear of the loco, by

using more paper clips I gently bent a piece to match the profile of the roof. This was soldered between the 2 hand rails / cab roof supports.

Couplings were reattached and the body and chassis finally reattached for testing. All work perfectly.

 

 

 

Finally after a few days of waiting the transfer sheet for the laser printer arrived. I had already pre-made some transfers on the Pc using various

programs and using images for some parts of the transfers. Builder plate was copied from a photo... which I may replace with a small piece of brass

in the future. Due to an error on the ordering, and not being able to afford another sheet, you can get 2 types of transfer sheet... a Clear or a White sheet.

Owing to Baxter having White lettering I should of ordered the white back.

So I had to make the best of it, I painted in white strips where the main letting was, so it would show through, this sort of worked all be could of been

neater but its presentable. Also I pinched off a front image of Baxter the pattern detail on the buffer beam these came out better.

These transfers work exactly the same as waterslide. As can be seen from the images below, some more painting was required to blend the transfer sheet

in to the rest of the paint work... this worked reasonably well.

 

 

 

After another coat of Matt Acrylic varnish to seal all the transfers and lining in, the Cab roof could be glued in place. After a clean up on the loco of wheels

and oiled all joints and motion, another test was undertook to make sure all was ok. It passed with no issues.

After 2 - 3 weeks, here is the finished Article on Horsted Keynes Layout, and a small video will be posted in time, also including C-Class, 592.

 

 

 

Thanks for Following the project, I hope it has inspired some, to see how its done, from start to finish.

 

And heres a small video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZF17rN-ePw

Edited August 15, 2012 by Bluebell Model Railway

[shortliner]

Congratulations - that is a very nice looking little loco

[halfwit]

A nice little loco. Thanks for sharing.

[S.A.C Martin]

Simply superb, well done

 

Halfwit, my apologies - thought you meant Baxter!

[m0rris]

Great inspiration.... Ive got a pug with a broken buffer, might well end up being "altered" soon! Have you any tips for those of us out there who are tempted to undertake similar projects?

 

m0rris

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Hi Morris

 

Im not a expirenced builder i dabble in it from time to time. I think unlike me, Plan what you want to do and get a rough idea of what you want to make or create, source all parts which you will need.

 

For me I just look at a chassis and see what i can do with it and get rough measurements and make it up as i go along... probably a bad way of doing it but its worked out twice so far.

 

But a bit of Time, planning, research, and patience, thats all i can say really.

 

Thanks for the comments above too, too kind.

[angell328]

A beautiful little loco!

 

I love plasticard, with a few pictures and some skill you can build anything. Seeing this Loco come together was a pleasure to watch.

 

Well done Sir and hope you have many happy hours of driving her.

 

Matt

[m0rris]

Thanks for the tips, its always good to get information from across the board. It does is a nice little number the baxter model!

 

m0rris

[D802 FORMIDABLE]

Brilliant!! I enjoyed reading through that and watching the transformation, cheers.

[Captain Kernow]

Well done - that's a lovely job you've done there, I enjoyed reading about the project and the video was great fun too - the layout seems to run very well. What is the origin of the SE&CR 0-6-0 tender loco, by the way, please?

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Thank you for all comments above very kind, and nice to read after a long trip back from Warley.

 

Captain Kernow, Thank you yes suprisingly well consider its not been run for 2 months, the SC&CR loco which featured at the end of the clip, was a SE Finecast, C-Class, with a Hornby Jinty Chassis, which runs pretty well, I use the Hornby Chassis under 2 other locos.

 

Hope this answers your question.

[Captain Kernow]

Thanks Matt, very nice job you've made of the 'C' class lining as well!

[relaxinghobby]

Another possible donor chassis for this or a similar project could be the High Level Pug replacement chassis. It's more expensive in money and time but produces a super slow and controllerable chassis with it's 108 to 1 gearbox and fly wheeled motor. I used it on a similar Southampton Dock Pug conversion.

 

 

The only trouble is that it took 2 years to fettle and get running properly.

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Yes it is another option but the word you use there is more Expensive... I think the point of doing something like ive done is... it doesn't have to be expensive to get a reasonable result, and running isnt that bad on the Dapol chassis ok could be better and quiter running, but for £23 can you really complain?

[m0rris]

Out ofinterest, have you got plans for any more conversions soon? I am still amazed with what can be done with the pug!

 

m0rris

[Bluebell Model Railway]

Hi M0rris

 

At this moment in time i don't see myself doing any more or any others at this point, as I haven't seen anything which inspires me to have a go. For now thats all until i find something else... which i can't say what as i have no idea at this time, thanks for your interest

[hayfield]

Matt

 

A great bit of modelling, thanks for shareing it.

[m0rris]

Hi M0rris

 

At this moment in time i don't see myself doing any more or any others at this point, as I haven't seen anything which inspires me to have a go. For now thats all until i find something else... which i can't say what as i have no idea at this time, thanks for your interest

 

 

Oh well, I look forward to when you find the inspiration!

 

m0rris

[relaxinghobby]

Hi Bluebell Model Railway

 

Another option for a Sir Baxter type build , that is for an 0-4-0 loco with outside cylinders. an old conversion from years past.

 

 

The loco crew seem to have just pop off for a cup of tea during shunting.

 

It's a cut down Airfix or Dapol pug kit. The foot plate is just glued onto the top of the Tenshendo motor bogge, it's ends up at the right height.

 

That's the original plastic valve gear fron the kit, the crank to piston connecting rod is running on a crank pin made of a sewing pin

glued onto a wheel cover disc of plastikard which is then glued onto the outside of the wheel. It does not have to take any force, just cosmetic so only a loose fit will work well.

 

There are no coupling rods as both sets of wheel are driven inside the bogie, no one notices because the con rods and cylinders hide the fact.

 

It runs a bit fast, but once warmed up is controllable and pulls well because that saddle tank and boiler is full of lead.