Daniel W

I mentioned a while back that I was starting on my first loco kit, a Judith Edge North British/Paxman shunter. Here is my progress so far. Thanks to my Poppy's Woodtech jig, the chassis is very free running. Alas, i had quite a hard time with the many different parts for the cab. I must have gone seriously wrong somewhere, since there is a noticable gap between the doorframe and the roof. My soldering is also typically filthy and in need of a good cleaning up, particularly on the back of the cab! Next job is the engine casing, but that will have to wait until work has slackened off again. Daniel

I don't see the LNWR brake vans on the new site. Are they still in the pipeline, Bill?

Thank you, Tony. The answer to those questions is indeed 'no' and 'not much', so I am considering simply carrying on regardless. To sate your curiousity i have included a quick photo of the frame and one of the etched overlays.

Yes. Numerous times. They made no mention of this particular topic. Merely to fit the bushes and then a few sentences later to fit the axleboxes.

I've only just started my first loco kit and already had a disastor. I've always seen people fit axle bushes with the flange on the outside of the chassis when building kits, yet after soldering the bearings in to my Judith Edge North British shunter i realised that the etched axelbox overlays were designed to fit over the opposite side of the bush. Bit of a rookie mistake, since if i'd looked closer that would have been fairly obvious. Unless the etched axleboxes are desinged to be soldered on to the flanges of the bushes, but surely that would cause them to stick out far too much?

Interested to see how you get on with this. I've been looking at the Phrozen range with great interest.

On the subject of glueing glazing, i have used both 'Glue and Glaze' from Deluxe materials and Humbrol Clearfix. The former is like a hybrid between varnish and pva, being very thin. The latter has a much thicker consistancy and is more like a traditional glue.

I've finally managed to finish the Dave Bradwell 13T Hopper, after what felt like an eternity of working on it. It's certainly a good kit, but some of the tolerances were very tight to say the least. I'm fairly certain the hopper is a about 1mm too high on the chassis, but i couldn't get it any lower. In fact, the whole thing is a little wobbly and wonky, but i'm still somewhat chuffed with myself for not giving up on this complex kit. Next step on my soldering journey is starting a Loco kit. Either a Judith Edge kit for a North British shunter or an Agenoria kit for a Hudswell Clarke Canal class tank engine. Although between work and other hobby projects, i'll probably give the soldering iron a rest after this one!

That's actually an interesting suggestion and makes sense.

I was wondering if i could pick people's brains on cleaning up after soldering brass? At the moment i've been using soda crystals in water, but i think that the current project will require something a bit more heavy duty. I've heard that some people use cif to get rid of stubborn tarnishing etc, I'm just not sure which particular one to go for, since their range is pretty large. Other suggestions are welcome of course.

Great news! Having built a few of the 4mm kits, i have to say they are an absolute joy to put together. Very happy to see this valuable resource for modellers return.

I mentioned a few days back that I was planning on starting my Dave Bradwell kit for a BR 13ton hopper. I was so worried about getting the hopper body folded and soldered correctly that I did that first, just incase i made a pig's ear of it. Lo and behold, it went together like a treat! I've never made a shape this complex from brass etches before, so it's been a nice little confidence boost for me, i must admit. Once this one is out of the way, I might even *gulp* test my skills on a loco kit next...

I have one of the old etched Stanier Reverse Veranda Brakevan kits in my stash. It looks to be a well thought-out kit, albeit a little bit basic on the detail side of things. I know quite a few of Roger's etched kits tend to turn up on ebay and go for silly prices, so even as scratch-building aids they would be welcomed.

Some more lockdown modelling of a different kind. I've been meaning to learn 3D modelling for printing off for a while and finally got round to it. The initial test subject is this LMS Sand Wagon, made in Tinkercad. Mainly chosen because its one of the more simple wagons in the diagram book! Buffers, axleboxes, w-irons and brake-gear will be added from available etches and castings. It's a little rough around the edges, but i'm pleased with the initial result. Although the real test will be how it 3D prints. Whilst Tinkercad is incredibly easy to use (i've never done any 3D modelling before and picked it up quickly), it does have its limitations. So now it's on to learning the frankly baffling Fusion 360, which should pay off in the long term. The small holes in the solebar and headstock are for the insertion of brass wire to represent a number of strange hooks these wagons seem to have, along with the usual towing eye on each solebar. The hooks look more substantial than the usual cleats you find on opens and given the nature of the traffic, i'd assume they are for holding down some sort of heavy-duty tarp or cover to keep the sand from leaking out. Alas, since only a hundred were ever built, i have no pictures of them in traffic. Regards Daniel

Those Palbricks look fantastic. Very neat soldering too! Regards Daniel

That soldering is even worse than mine, and that's saying a lot.

Hi, Chris. Most of them use self-contained buffers from Lanarkshire Model supplies. The later built catfish had oleo buffers, which can also be obtained from LMS. I have no connection to Mr Franks, but have always been very happy with his products and rapid service. Daniel

My own contribution to the 'lockdown modelling' that everyone has been sharing. Aside from building etched wagon kits to practice my soldering, i've also been building some plastic kits for engineers wagons over the past few months. The Catfish and Mermaid are Cambrian kits and the two Grampus are the Parkside kit that has been modified to represent the morton brake version used on the London Midland Region. The mermaid bodies have not been glued on yet for ease of painting. Quite a few have had their axleboxes replaced with cast ones to give more prototypical variation to the fleet. The Catfish in particular seems to have been built with at least four different types of axleboxes through their lifespan. Next up is a Dave Bradwell 13Ton hopper kit which looks like a well designed, but finicky, kit. Daniel

The subject of how common certain wagon types were is a interesting one. The LMS built 54,000 D1666 open wagons to a Midland railway design. On nationalisation, this one diagram would have out-numbered the entire fleet that British railways inherited from the Southern Railway. Yet it is never modelled in anywhere near the sort of numbers it really should be. Cambrian do produce a kit for it, however I do not believe it has ever been released in RTR form.

You chaps are not exactly filling me with confidence over my new temp-controlled Antex soldering station. I'm assuming that at some point production shifted from the UK to China and lead to a decrease in quality?

No worries, Pete, it happens to the best of us sometimes! Dan

Fantastic, PJT, thank you very much! I must have gotten confused between Messers Kent and Shackleton as to whom built it. Hopefully i can actually find a copy of that issue. Edit: Having looked up that issues and re-read your post, it seems the article is about the Consett jobies. The kit i was referring to was the 13-ton steel bodied mineral hoppers to diagrams 1/142 and 1/144. Regards Dan

Thanks for the info. I wasn't aware that Jidenco did a kit for one of those.

I have most of the issues with the Iron Ore hoppers, so i will acquire the rest just in case. The search didn't seem to reveal any specific mention of that kit though. The index might be useful for future reference though. Regards Dan

This is a bit of a long-shot, but i know there are quite a few MRJ readers here. I seem to recall reading somewhere that Geoff Kent wrote an article in MRJ about building the Dave Bradwell 13 ton BR hopper kit. If I did indeed not just imagine this in some manner of fever dream, would anyone happen to have the issue number for this article?