Nile's kitbuilding bench - Midland 1377

[Nile]

I forgot to mention that. I re-used the weight from the Pug, it was glued inside the boiler.

[N15class]

Lovely model it is a same about the rough finish.

[Nile]

For the rear coupler, the solution was to cut a hole in the chassis big enough for the tail of a Kadee coupler.

 

 

I had a no.18 that already had a hole drilled into it and the end of the tail cut off. With some trimming this fitted into the hole, some brass rod retaining it.

(keeper plate removed)

 

 

 

Just enough clearance under the buffer beam.

 

 

And the right height too!

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

I've added a handbrake column, I think this one is a 3mm scale accessory. As I need the cab floor to be removable I had to check this was still possible before I glued the column in place.

 

 

Painted and fitted.

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

I'll finish this build with some photos of it on a layout, with a van.

 

 

 

One last piece of detail added was the coupling hooks. I found some plastic ones in a bag and glued them on.

 

 

Next up will be a more traditional kit. 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[sej]

Hi Neil, fascinating and inspirational stuff, a really good read!

 

Could you give us some news of your Tilbury Tank?

 

Cheers

Simon

[Nile]

Hi Simon, I've been working my way up to the Tilbury tank body. I plan to make a start before the year end.

[Nile]

Next I am going to finish a kit I started some time ago, in someone else's workbench topic. It's a Midland Railway long low sided wagon, by 51L. The contents include etched brass, white metal and plastic card.

This is where I'd got to before, one W-iron unit assembled.

 

The axlebox isn't glued on yet.

 

I've made up the other unit, this time non-rocking by bending up the ends of the base plate.

 

The tabs that stick up through the middle will be bent over to hold the W-irons in place when the model is finished.

 

The sides and ends of the body are white metal castings. After cleaning up they were glued together with small amounts of superglue gel.

 

 

 

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[Spitfire2865]

Hey! I see youve finally started on it. Looking good so far.

Edited December 3, 2014 by Spitfire2865

[Nile]

The floor was made from the included piece of planked plastikard, trimmed to fit.

 

 

 

On its own it would be far too flimsy, so I added some 20thou plastic card to the underside. At the same time I re-enforced the joint with the white metal parts with epoxy glue.

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

When gluing the buffers in I used the weight of the wagon to hold them in place.

 

 

Placing the body + W-irons on some track I could see that the buffers were about 1mm too low. To correct this I used some 40thou plastic card pads.

 

 

With the w-iron base plates now glued to the pads under the body.

 

 

The axle-boxes needed some filing for them to fit over the bearings and under the springs.

 

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[jwealleans]

Very neat and tidy.  You should be very pleased with that.

[Spitfire2865]

Very nice. Much cleaner than my attempt. Though Id like to see your mounting of the brakes as mine were so off that I had to cut parts of it.

[Nile]

I didn't have much trouble with the brake gear, no worse than any other. The brass bits were a bit fiddly to fold up, the whitemetal bits needed a bit of bending to get the brake shoes in the right place.

 

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

Now with added paint.

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

Now with added transfers.

 

These are leftovers from a Slaters kit.

 

The scenic shot.

 

Finished? Not quite, as my (limited) research shows that the ironwork on the body should be grey, not black. So a bit more grey paint will be needed.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[Spitfire2865]

I think it looks better with the black ironwork. But prototype wins I guess.

[Nile]

I've gone over the iron-work with grey paint. Here is the more accurate, if somewhat greyer model.

 

It's still not completely finished as it doesn't have any couplings. I need to get round to making some more.

Next up will be an etched kit, so lots of soldering.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

As part of my build up to finishing the Tilbury tank I'm going to build another etched kit. This one is a bit smaller. A small but perfectly formed kit.

 

 

The first task is remove the 7mm Romford wheels from their axles and fit them to the new axles, after fitting the gears in place with Loctite.

 

 

Work then starts on the Nickel Silver chassis. The first part is built around the new axles.

 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

The axles are driven by a lay-shaft, onto which two worm gears have to be fixed. There is a guide for this on one of the frets.

 

 

The shaft sits in some ball race bearings, in parts that fold-up and slot into the chassis.

 

I checked that the shaft turns freely before soldering these bits together.

 

The motor supplied doesn't have any mounting holes in it, parts to make a mount are included. This has to be glued to the motor with epoxy.

 

I'll leave that to set thoroughly before mounting it.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

With the motor screwed to its mount, pulley wheels are fixed to the shafts. These are connected by a drive belt.

 

The chassis can now be tested under power. Proper pick-ups will be fitted later.

I'll finish the chassis later, now onto the body which is all etched brass.

The cab front and back are made up first and soldered to the footplate. There is some very fine beading along the edge and around the windows. This was quite fiddly to fit but I managed it eventually. I'm mostly using solder paste from Eileens, that helped keep the small parts in place.

 

And the back.

 

There are also two nuts soldered to the footplate (one is hidden by the cab front) for attaching the chassis.

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

Now things have quietened down I can post some more progress, of a sort.

The bonnet is made from a single piece that will be folded to shape and soldered to the cab and footplate. Before that a small piece is soldered in the middle to represent a hatch. On either side of the bonnet is a side panel, that slides on the real loco. This is where things went a bit pear shaped as I managed to loose one of these. After spending ages looking for it I gave up and made a replacement from thin plastic card. This involved drilling loads of tiny holes, using the bonnet part as a guide. Here is the result.

 

 

The bonnet and front piece soldered in place (and the roof).

 

 

Test fitting the body to the chassis, success!

 

 

I'll be gluing the side panels to the bonnet

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[Pete Harvey]

it's a Cyclops nice build.

 

Pete

Edited December 26, 2014 by Pete Harvey

[Nile]

Thanks Pete, it's a distinctive look.

The side panels were glued on, as were the other detail bits - handrails, exhaust and air filter. I then sprayed it with primer.

I forgot to take a photo before I sprayed the primer on.

 

 

Can you tell on which side I fitted the plastic side panel? (And can I remember?).

Back on the chassis, for no particular reason.

 

The couplings are based on the Greenwich type, but made from scraps of brass. 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile

[Nile]

Back to the chassis, I've now fitted pick-ups. These screw into the central cross member of the chassis, so can be removed with the motor.

 

 

The chassis now runs on its own, but needs some weight added. For this I used some lead sheet cut into pieces.

 

 

It will now run on its own up and down the test track. 

 

Rather than paint the chassis I tried something different. I've chemically blackened it using some Carr's stuff I recently found at the back of a cupboard (must have been there for years). It's turned out nice and grotty.

 

I tidied up the wires with some tape, as I don't want to cut them. 

Edited February 19, 2023 by Nile