jazz

After spending some time building a few wagons for myself, I have the four locos now ready for Geoffs painter. Here they are. First up. Rebuilt Patriot. Gladiator Kit. Next the J21. Gladiator Kit (Fourtrack Models). I love this little loco, I think I can see one on my layout in the near future. Now the Stanier 2-6-2T. Chowbent Kit. Last but least the HR Drummond. Unknowm maker, he gave me it loose in an old box, part built. The tablet catchers will be added after final painting. Makes it easier for the painter.

Hi Michael. Now I see how you almost wrecked the roof. Never a good idea to heat those delicate areas. You have to work crefully in those areas, just heating the areas around them. I dot not think that tourch is suitable. The pinpoint flame heats a very small area and will be a bit too fierce. My flame heats a much larger area using a bigger flame which heats the metal evenly over about sq 1"at a time. Plus you can control the amount of heat the flame gives. On thinner metals of, say 15 thou brass, a less fierce heat is reqiured as opposed to 20 thou nickle silver when I open the valve to almost max.

Spent the day building this delightful Gladiator LNWR Beer Van for my layout, (one of a number of wagons I have backed up for the layout) Here are the etches ready for the basic body. The basic body soldered up. All soldering completed and castings/overlays added. I added fine chains to the brake post for the keeper pins. I like the working roof. A very nice kit. You just have a floor to supply youself, I used a piece of plasticard.

Coming along very nicely, John. Looking forward to see it painted. Love those rivets Jonathan, so much nicer than punched ones. Will have to look at them especially for bolt heads.

Thanks guys. Love to see your unrebuilt Patriot John.

And here we are, built and at the prep stage for priming. (I have 4 models now at this stage but they can wait as delivery is not due until end of February and I have other things I want to do for myself :icon_wink: ) This has been a nice kit to build even with the mentioned smokebox/boiler issue. I think it has not really affected to overall look of the model. Here she is.

Yesterday saw the build almost finished. If all goes well, that should happen today. Lets see.

Good morning Michael, I use this excellent torch from B&Q. You can regulate the flame from small to fierce. I only use fierce on large parts. Small parts, I use about 50% - 60% flame. Not sure how it's possible to destroy parts. I have an old pair of long nose pliers and work from the top of the piece holding the torch in one corner untill cherry red then slowly and evenly move across, move down a little and back across until the whole piece has been heated to cherry red. (You are not trying to get the whole piece red all over at the same time, just as long as the piece has become red before moving along it). As in all things, a little practice gets the right feel and touch. The metal does work harden. Also after a short time it becomes harden off. The firebox on the Patriot is just fine already. FOOTNOTE On large pieces, I only anneal the area of it that actually needs bending. I never anneal half etched pieces such as the cab roof and the like with half etched detail. The metal is already easy to bend. If I'm using the rolling machine, again, I do not anneal first.

Thanks John. Anneal until a nice cherry red, cool naturally. Then I use a scratch brush to make bright again where you need to solder. Works just the same on nickle silver.

An afternoon adding detail. Taking shape now. I think the slightly overlong boiler/smokebox cannot be noticed with the deflectors in place. These have been made removable by adding two small pins soldered behind the deflectors and locate into two small holes drilled into the footplate. Painting would be quite difficult in not done this way.

Yes, the double folded paper protects the rivet detail. Also, it assists the breass to run through the bars with skidding.

Yesterday sees the smokebox/boiler/firebox units made up, bolted together and soldered to the footplate. All went well with only a small amaount of filing required to make the firebox sit snug on the footplate. Judging by my photographs the unit appaers to be 2.5mm too long. The choice was serious reworking of boiler/smokebox runining the nice etched detail. So as she is to have smoke deflectors this discrepancy will hardly be noticed, if at all. Here she is at the start of todays efforts. Beginning with rolling the smokebox.

Just had time to assemble the firebox yesterday. Spent the day on the Wirral. L like this method of assembling etched fireboxes. With a little care in the bendinding and spot on alignment of the half etched location marks makes the job so easy. I anneal the firebox etching so it is very soft and easy to shape using steel bars and fingers. The brass rods are removed when solderd as a unit This is it ready to solder together.

Morning all. Nice to be back online, thanks Andy. It's been all go on the rebuilt Patriot. Chassis is as far i go before painting. This to allow easy stripping down of the cylinders and associated valve gear. The body is progressing well. There has been no problems with the build so far.

Thanks Ian, I'm a sucker for unusual little locos.

Almost finished. Just the painting/weathering to complete, crew, glazing & lamps to add. I found left over rods from a kit i built a while ago. The connecting rods were too short and the coupling rods too long. So it was a cut and shunt plus making the backing laminates. Here she is ready to roll.

Switching back to the Armstrong Whitworth, I just have the jack cranks, con rods and connecting rods to sort out. A start has been made on the weathering too. I am pleased to say Slater's was very accommodating in making a special casting for me to make the unusual jack cranks. Slater's, I thank you, excellent job. Also I have to offer my appreciation to Jim Read for the inspiration to build this cute diesel electric. So unusual to find such a small loco buit especially for passenger traffic and not the more usual industrial/goods shunting type. Here she is so far. (Ooops! some double uploading here)

A short break from the Armstrong Whitworth. I am now working on a Gladiator Rebuilt Patriot. This should be a straightforward build (having built four of these, I know they are a cracking good kit.) The Chassis was completed in an afternoons work. The body has gone well today and is well under way. The only tricky part is getting the bends on the sides spot on. I used Metalsmiths mini folders for this task. Careful measuring and easy on the folding was the secret to good bends. here is the tender so far.

Thanks Geoff. I'm now at the stage where I have to break off from this build for a few days. (I have to start a build for my pal Geoff (Gladiator) I have been raiding the scrap box again and cobbled up the air tank, air pump and generator from various castings. Cutting and shunting plus a little reshaping. They have turned out a fair representation of the prototype. Amazing just how much detail can be added to such a small and simple loco. There is still the cab to detail to add, there seems to be a lot in there too from the photos. Also the cab steps to knocked up. Here she is for now. What I cannot see on the drawings and photos is the diesel filler cap. I figure the appendix on the bonnet top by the cab is the exhaust. It is possible the filler cap could be in the engine compartment but I figure this would be rather unlikely. It could be below the footplate similar to the BR Class 08/09. Anyone know better please???

More progress on the Armstrong Whitworth. The rear bonnet was made in three pieces, sides and hood. After riveting the sides these where soldered in place on the footplate. Then lead was soldered between the sides for added weight. The hood was carefully bent to shape and soldered to the tops of the sides. Finally, the detail was cut from brass sheet, riveted and soldered in place. The buffer beam was cut from plasticard, riveted and glued in place. The vac pipe, a white metal casting, was also glued in place. I found a pair of cast brass head lamps from the Branchlines Ford Railcars in my scrapbox and I am utilising them on this model. Next the front bonnet was cut from four sections. front, rear and two sides. The radiator hole was fretted out and the detail soldered on. Again, from the scrapbox I found an etched radiator grill from one of their diesels that I then soldered on the inside of the detail. The chassis detail was also completed at this stage. (Just waiting to order the Slater's wheels tomorrow. Then I can make the connecting and coupling rods plus the jack cranks.

A little more done on the Armstrong Whitworth. The chassis is complete except for the conrods and jackshaft. I am awating the wheeks from Slater's. (I have 2 pairs of 3' wheels in the scrapbox but the wrong type for this loco, this has allowed me to continue with the build but not the con rods etc.) Onward with the cab Front, back and sides were marked out all holes drilled and cut out. Rivets punched out and window surrounds soldered on. Also the hand rail knobs soldered on. All soldered in place and the cab control desk added. All cab detail to be added when the bonnets have been soldered in place. To be continued.

Hi All. Hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas break. I spent a pleasant hour looking through the galleries. I came across Jim Reads gallery and fell in love with his Armstrong Whitworth 0-4-0 deisel electric By all accounts this little loco was the very first diesel electric passenger loco used in this countery. I felt this a perfect model for my light railway. Jim kindly furbished me with the drawings he used and I have made a start on scratch building one for myself. I am using a sheet sheet of 15 thou brass. Slaters L & Y Pug 3' dia drivers, a Mashima 1824 coupled to 40:1 from Roxey. I may have room for a flywheel too. The model will be filled with lead to make her a heavy model. The drawings needed to be redrawwn to 7mm scale. I did this on the PC by resizing the original and by using my scale rule quickly got it to exact 7mm scale. Then I simply used the monitor as a light box and with a sheet of paper taped over the screen. (Basically the smame method I used in my stained glass work) This is the result and ready to go. After carefully marking out the footplate and frames these were cut out using a fret saw and a scibe for the straight cuts. I scribe a deep groove in the sheet brass then gently bend back and to for a clean straight break. The lagre hole in the footplate has a small hole drilled in each corner and then using the fret saw is cut out by joining up the holes . The frames are tac soldered together then marked out for the axle holes, the jack crank, pickups and brake hangers. All were centre punched and drilled out on the pillar drill. The axle & jack crank holes were then reamed for a perfect fit for the bushes. The motor axle is fixed and the other axle is sprung with a short length of piano wire for faultless current pickup. The chassis attached the the fooplate. Just the detail between the frames to complete before moving onto the body. (This build will be done in the odd hour or two as work progresses on other building projects.

Ho I don't know Martyn, I was wondering what took him so long. B)

Thanks, if you need any tips on the build, PM and we can see if I can help.