CF MRC

A rare photo of R33 over London.

'On the 2nd July 1919, when the R34 began her transatlantic flight, the R33 also left the sheds that day with the SR1 to fly over the peace procession in London, again the ship towing a very large banner advertising Victory Bonds. On this flight the ship carried a band on the top gun platform, however the band members would have been out of sight from the crowds below the ship and it is doubtful that the music would have reached the crowds as well' (source Airship Heritage Trust).

 

Probably coincides with our model of the DH2 going to the Imperial War Museum down the Cally. I'll see if I can find an old photo.

 

Tim

Nah Jim, the dentistry is just a hobby!

 

Tim

The wonderful tumbled down buildings were made by Matthew Wald, who is currently making some offices for the goods yard behind York Road viaduct. The photos were taken in the early 90's by Barry Norman with wet film.

 

Tim

Blast(ed) pipes by name and nature! These little blighters took a whole evening to make and fit. The first go looked OK but was just a bit too far back, so they were taken off and repositioned forwards a touch. They were made from some copper wire of the correct diameter. The anti-slip areas were also re-scribed: an advantage of making the front end from white metal.

 

Tim

Found a couple more of the Cally from the Club archives. The demolished house may correlate with the Minutes of a meeting of The Model Railway Club 13th October 1915: ‘The meeting was brought (to) an abrupt conclusion at 9.30 by the visit of Zeppelins to the immediate vicinity. ‘

 

Tim

I think CF will see me out Don! Plenty yet to do.

 

Tim

Found this picture in the archives. Horse must have been moving in the long exposure. The tailor's dummies almost look like Slater's 2 mm scale figures!

Happy Christmas everyone!

Tim

Lubrication

The streamlined P2s have very clean lines and running plates but on the near side were two Wakefield lubricators. Many years ago I bought some neat little castings and thought they would serve. However they were a bit too big, so I turned up some square brass rod to represent the oil reservoirs and hand wheels. Unfortunately, I haven't found a way of reproducing the operating linkage, spokes on the wheels or the oil feed pipes...

 

Tim

It's the depleted uranium core in the boiler that will make all the difference.....

 

The running boards are now nearly complete, apart from Wakefield lubricators on the LHS. They needed some careful scoring and bending to make the splashers clear the wheels. A good way of holding small pieces of sheet metal is to put them on a file (the tang of the file is visible at the bottom of the picture) and then clamp down - the teeth on the file will stop the metal from slipping. This can be seen in the photo prior to scoring.

 

The other photos show the boards and the last shows the RH one in place.

 

Tim

Time for an update Mark?

BTW, airships can be hung over a model and justifiably not move. Graf Zeppelin poled around London quite a bit in the 20's.

These people sell some good models of airships:

http://www.anticsonline.co.uk/1843_1_105338950.html

The R33 we have on Copenhagen Fields is scratchbuilt. I have a 1:144 WW1 Zeppelin, but that is 4' long!

 

Tim

Made a start on the running board plates. These were made from 8 thou nickel silver strip, but needed the 'splasher' bent downwards at the back. This was achieved by scoring the bend line with a scalpel blade on both sides, then placing it in the vice: the score is line just visible in the picture. I then use a file to push the metal over to the required amount. You can also use this technique to cut a straight line in metal. The score lines need to be a bit deeper and the metal is then moved backwards and forwards to work-harden the joint and then snap it.

 

There are details to go on these running plates such as lubricators and a rear edging strip to prevent the engine cleaners from slipping down the slope of the splashers. It will be much easier to make these with the plates separate from the engine. The final photo shows the plate sitting passively on the engine. The splashers will need careful adjustment to clear the drivers. In the end, I don't think they will be very visible, but at least I'll know they are there.

 

Tim

If you look in post 1077 David, you'll see that the window frames are bright brass on the prototype. Using wire could be an option, but I didn't have any brass that was appropriate (maybe should drink some Rioja) and flattening afterwards is a bit hit and miss. I wanted a flat surface to solder to the cab front and then be able to file it back to the correct thickens and dimensions. Soldering on wire wouldn't quite give that effect. The brass strip is a bit oversize and is quite soft so it will bend sideways if it's held tightly in well ground pliers and equally good pliers used to move the free end. I have a lot of experience in bending bits of brass sideways on CF.... If you look carefully, you will see that the corners of the unfitted frames are rounded. Once sweated into place the inside and outside edges of the frames were trimmed with files to the correct size and the front face filed down to thickness. A sharp scalpel can also be used to chop off any bits of brass in the wrong place. When the engine is painted, the brass will be exposed. Glazing them will be fiddly!

 

Tim

Fettled the cab-firebox area a bit more in the cold light of day and reduced the size of the cab window frames. There is a bit of porosity in the silver solder, but this lines up with the ejector pipe. Next thing to do will be the running plate, which isn't as simplest as it looks because there is an integral set of sloping splashers over the driving wheels and some natty little brackets to support it.

 

Tim

Sorting out the cab.

The cab on the P2 is a 'lost plastic' casting derived from a Farish plastic moulding. This has some pleasant rivet detail on the roof and the centre raised bit is a tricky shape. It was quite straightforward to modify the pattern a little, invest it and cast it in students alloy (a type of brass used by dental students when they are learning to make crowns). Getting it to fit the Wooten firebox on the P2 took quite a lot of doing and the sides needed considerable thinning to look respectable.

 

At the front, the windows in the spectacle plate are close fitting against the boiler cladding and quite large with brass frames. The original moulding/casting did not represent these at all well. The boiler was turned from gun-metal and the firebox sides bent up from thick brass and silver soldered to the boiler. This is visible half way up the firebox in the second photo.

 

So brass window frames were needed. Some thin brass strips were guillotined and bent up as can be seen in the third photo. I made about eight before something passable emerged, with the floor being particularly hungry this evening. They were sweated onto the cab and boiler with a very hot iron! The brass front window frames are quite conspicuous on LNER engines.

 

I need to spend a bit more time cleaning up to get rid of the scratch marks: the iPhone 6 has an incredibly good close up camera that doesn't take prisoners. The cab interior will probably be made as a plastic pattern and cast in brass alloy. If anyone wants any cab mouldings, I have some spare.

 

Tim

I recall Joe Rowe's epic 4mm EM model of 10000 being quite a dark grey.

 

Did I read somewhere that it was battleship grey? In that case you have a choice of Home or Mediterranean fleet. The former would be Laurie Lovelesse's model (which looks spot on). the later would be more like a works grey and rather too light.

 

Would make an interesting 2mm loco. Certainly plenty of room for the motor and weight! Where is the best source for works drawings? The book on the subject is evidently not well endowed in this dept.

 

Tim

Thanks for the comments Tony.

 

The Lone Star A4 copied the original HD, which I converted to Dominion of Canada. The Minitrix A4 was a reasonable profile butt very fat and bloated (we did run one for a while). The Farish A4 is pretty good: our Silver Fox was made from this. The cab on the P2 used the Farish A4 cab as a pattern. The front end of the P2 started out as a Foxhunter A4 from Phil Kerr. The origina l was OK, but it is now a shadow in the past after much carving and re-shaping.

 

I haven't git close and personal with a Dapol A4, but they look pretty good to me. Might see what can be done with a skirted version.

 

Tim

Don, I think the secret of this work is that the low melt solder and white metal are very closely matched. I can't tell one from the other when carving. The solder freezes instantly when placed on the white metal. However, you have to put on quite an excess as the heat ends to pull the white metal alloy to the iron, potentially leaving a recess at the margin. Solder always moves to where the heat is.

 

Tim

Something different for Sir

I figured that the cognoscenti on this thread had their eyes tuned to the correct shape for A4s and, in this case, a P2. The engine will be 2003 'Lord President'. The front has been carved from a white metal original. External blast pipes are yet to be fitted, as obviously also the valences. Do you think the shape is OK? The build story is on the 2mm Finescale, 'What's on your workbench?' thread, p 41- 44.

 

Tim

The scraping continued to give a flat (L-R) front to the smokebox. This was then smoothed further - using a potatoe peeling grip- with the back of a scalpel: that part of the blade is dead straight and hard edged.

 

Third photo shows the shape roughed out, but no corner curves added to the smokebox. It is easier to appreciate the geometry of this complex shape by working in hard lines.

 

The whole surface was smoothed with various grades of carborundum paper and a fibre glass brush right up to crocus paper: aiming to get the light reflecting in the correct places. Scraping was still used for most of the very fine adjustments and then finished with abrasive paper. The next challenge was to re-instate the cod's mouth joints. A piece of insulating tape was cut to size and this was then used as a guide for a gramophone needle carefully run along its edge. This cut a groove in the white metal very easily indeed.

 

The final photo shows the P2 front just as I think it should be. The hinges are simply extra scratches in the right place. These work on the principle that disrupted light reflections can fool the eye. George Mellor used to provide dimples rather than pimples to represent rivets on his white metal kits.

 

Hope these ramblings haven't taught to many grannies to suck eggs.

 

Tim

Not quite there yet.

Whilst the back bit of the streamline casing was sorted out, I wasn't happy with the front, especially where the smokebox front meets the buffer beam area just next to the lamp brackets. It wasn't sharp enough. Phil had scribed in some lines to represent the cod's mouth but I thought they were too close to the edge. The prototype can be seen in the first wonderful picture (again, I can't remember the source),

 

So, out with soldering iron to fill up the grooves and give me some more metal to play with at the front end, as seen in the second picture. In the last post I had glibly mentioned scraping the white metal to get the correct shape. I thought it might be useful to show some piccys of how to do it, rather than making a mess of your files. A sharp scalpel can shift white metal very easily but needs to be held carefully. The third photo shows a 'potatoe peeling' grip. This gives great control and is safe - Jim will know all about such grips...

 

The fourth photo shows a stiff lozenge-shaped steel graver being used to smooth the surface near the chimney. If you want to get a smooth surface then rigid & sharp tools are a must. Again, notice that the thumb is acting as a steady to avoid slipping. When scraping you should keep changing direction very slightly to avoid a rippled surface.

Tricky streamliners.

The streamlined P2s had an A4 front end, but originally I hadn't quite realised that the cladding went down to the running plate at ninety degrees behind the external blast pipes. This can be seen clearly in the first attached image of Lord President (sorry, not sure where this came from).

 

My P2 front end had not taken this into account when the boiler/smokebox/running plate were made three years ago. I therefore removed the cast running plate behind the blast pipe position. This left a nasty gap, as can be seen in the second photo.

 

The good thing about low melt solder is that you can puddle it around quite easily with plenty of phosphoric acid flux and a hotish (270 degrees) iron. It can then be re-shaped with burs and scrapers (like a white metalled bearing). So I filled in the defect and also fattened up the front end a bit, also adding to the chimney base at the sides. I think the P2s were a little bit 'fuller' looking at the front end than the A4s.

 

The final photo shows the changed front end. I am much happier that this will now looks like a P2, rather than an A4-P2 mongrel. I think I can safely say that this front end has been carved from white metal.

 

Tim

Don,

. I think that the key factors in 2mm scale are colours and weathering; it is easy to exaggerate textures.

John

I fully agree with John on this. A restricted palate also helps to create cohesion in a model. The roof of a building is its most obvious aspect but, in general, I think textures need to be seriously downplayed: especially road surfaces and track ballast. Take a look at a 2mm scale sized foot and look at some of the surfaces we expect our little people to traverse!

 

The attached photo was taken by Craig Tiley (courtesy RM). Looking at the NL building, the slates are OK, but the lead flashing is a bit heavy - must try harder next time. The figures were made by Matthew Wald.

 

Tim

I appreciate where you are coming from Tony. In the last few years, much of my time has involved converting very pleasant N gauge locos to run on Copenhagen Fields: effective but a bit boring. There are also excellent kits available in 2mm, but they don't fit our requirements that well.

I now have a bit more time on my hands, so have resumed work on a scratchbuilt P2, Lord President. I have added a few posts on the building process on the "what's on your workbench" section of the 2mm finescale section of this forum to show how it's done. The series could make an article for a magazine. I think there is a bit of a danger that railway modellers might forget how to make a working chassis from scratch; following the mantra "why can't we have a (conversion) kit for such & such..." It really is'nt that tricky to follow the old fashioned rules and make something that works. It's also hugely satisfying.

 

Fellow dinosaur

Tim

Hush hush Mr Higgs don't be so cheeky! 10000 would be an interesting exercise in brass carving and might be heavier than the P2. The A4 photo is my 7mm model: I know you shouldn't copy models but it is quite accurate...

 

I've been working on the double chimney on 'Lord President'. These double chimneys are massive on the Greeley boilers: you can see why Mallard was able to make the steam for her record breaking run - and get rid of it - when you look at the proportions. To all intents and purposes there are no joints visible with the streamlined casing, especially in 2mm scale. I have made four A4 chimneys to date, so thought I would try a different technique for the P2 making the chimney integral with the streamlined casing. The front end started life as a white metal Foxhunter A4. Phil Kerr gave me the excellent casting, although it has undergone major re-sculpting to suite the P2.

 

The loco body was mounted on the frames and then the frames simply clamped in the machine vice on my little Cowells milling machine. A 3.6 mm diameter mill was then used to slot out the base of the chimney to take the Kylchap blast pipes. Next, a lump of brass was double drilled for the two pipes and then filed up to shape, with the V shaped rearward extension sitting on top of the casing. This brass was generously tinned at the sides and bottom with 146 degree solder and then placed in the slotted smokebox casing. A hot iron was left for a while on top of the openings and the brass fitting melted into the casting. Any extra faring was made up with 70 degree low melt solder painted on with a hot iron. Then followed quite a lot of cleaning up. The final chimney has a reasonably seamless joint with the streamlined casing. It may be a touch too tall at the moment, but these things are often best left to have a look at with a cold pair of eyes. The final photo shows the engine doing an impression of Sir Ralph Wedgewood after Luftwaffe-based re-modelling.

 

More on the boiler and cab later. The brass running plate is the valence, rather than the footplate itself.

 

Tim