Hendreladis

I thought my soldering was bad but the photography is apparently even worse.

Amazing. There wasn't a suitable reaction icon and 'like' didn't really seem good enough.

Following Mark's advice I tried an ammonia based cleaner. Works a treat. Ideally I'd like something capable of doing away with too much scrubbing but wiggling a paint brush into nooks and crannies while in the ultrasonic cleaner shifts a surprising amount of crud. This was meant to be a quickie. I reckon I've spent as much time so far trying to file enough clearance under the boiler for the drivers as has been spent assembling the etch. These things seem to go together okay with only a couple of rookie errors on the etch. Next step will be to attempt to 3d print some roofs and springs for the Bogies. Then final chassis detailing and handles before they get consigned, as ever, to the boxes of semi finished tat in a drawer somewhere.

A case in point. Almost an oxidised layer in the nooks and crannies. It can be easily rimoved with a scratch. Which means another trip to the cleaner. And more build up. Ad nauseam. In fairness the final paint layer usually kills it off but I often wonder whether it will fight back through to the surface.

What is your preferred cleaning solution for fluxite? i chop and change various chemical soups in the ultrasonic cleaner with occasionally crusty results - brake cleaner to de grease, star drops, vim, dish washer liquid etc. Your result look nice and crisp. What is the secret?

I lack the skills and patience for too much fine detail nowadays. Time is shortening and I need to start finishing things. With that in mind I've been trying to simplify coach construction to suit my cack handedness while allowing reasonably quick build times. The coach below, still grubby and covered in wonderful fluxite (I'm too set in my ways to come to terms with the liquid stuff) went together in about 6 hours. 2 of those were spent on adding bolection mouldings which had previously worked okay on some six wheelers. Never doing that again. Lots of fine detail to add but all relatively simple. Ideally the Bogies need 3d printed suspension bits. Another learning curve. I reckon it is possible to do 3 bodies and associated chassis in a week plus maybe another week on details which is progress of a sort. But not much. I'll revisit some of the parts to see what can be done to gain assembly time. The clerestory had problems on the artwork but I had included spare bits just in case so hopefully I can cobble something together. These can be assembled in both broad and narrow gauge version. I'll let you know how that pans out. The initial approach re the wider chassis needs tweaking bot not a million miles off.

Hi Has anyone by any chance got a single pair of the old white metal centred driving wheels from the 70s/80s?? I am after some 10mm ones. Happy to pay cash or we can talk about the vast, diverse, pointless and increasingly depressing range of tat in my own gloat box. I may well have something you need (you don't really need it). Andrew

A bit of both. The more prominent, beefy rivets are half etched with the lesser ones around the buffer beams are pricked in from behind.

With a bit of free time on my hands earlier in the year I had a go at etching. Finally starting the trial builds on half a dozen or so locos and coaches. Need to sort out extending the axles before going any further but this looks promising. Has anyone got a single pair of the old white metal centred 10mm drivers they might part with?

The castings look to be the association's early SECR C class kit from the 1960s. Similar wheelbase to a 4F etc.

Many thanks Tim. Truly grateful. So as long as the majority of the weight of the tender can act through the driver it is feasible for a single pair of wheels to haul a few coaches - I doubt I'll ever have twelve of them to test with... And the front pair are largely independent of any tractive force but keep the pony axle as heavy as possible?? Let's see where we end up with this experiment. Thanks again. Andrew

In the middle of bodging together a single and need to address the drive system. Preference would be a powered loco via motor in the tender but simple number crunching suggests the all up weight of the loco will be pretty feeble. The alternative is a driven tender which would offer 4 small powered wheels on a chassis carrying about the same weight as the loco. Not sure having the tender fall plate resting on the loco would add much adhesive value to a 14mm driver. So... Powered tender with loco leaning on to that OR powered loco with heavy Tender weighing down the back and potentially inviting the front of the loco to pop a wheelie? Or just give it up as a bad job? I'm easy any which way. It will run in sequence with a Dean 4-2-2 which will invite the same questions and likely solution. Weighting will simply be lead. I don't have any copper tungsten or neutron stars lying about. Any advice gratefully received. Andrew

How do you remove the motor from these Dapol panniers? I bought a non runner that was awash with oil. Having assumed that to be the problem cleaned everything up but then found that the motor had locked up. Seemed an unlikely turn of events but it won't turn bar rocking a couple of degrees each way. Can't for the life of me see how to extract it from within the mouldings without a hammer - my go to choice generally. Andrew

I did the same. Essentially lead load the corner and carve it back. Possible word of caution. Unless you open up the tank tops the firebox tends to sit very high on these kits. Only worked out on the third model that (I think) the design invites the builder to bend the tank tops up to form the trim between tank and boiler etc then set the firebox between. The geometry wasn't idiot proof enough for me so hacked the tank tops with files to get the height above footplate correct.

Good find Jerry I remember reference in the 2mm mag many years ago, probably mid to late 70s, that Mr Solomon was doing Dulverton in 2mm finescale. His innovative approach to chairpin track made a few articles too. Maybe have a rummage for that too next time you visit. Andrew

8Thanks Jim. Just the person I was hoping would respond. Good to draw on the knowledge of someone with such an esteemed 2mm history. Yup. As I'd thought. I'll experiment. Or rather back in the gloat box they go for a while!

I'd like to fix rakes of wagons together semi permanently which raises a few questions. Intention is to link, say, ten wagons together with a DG at either end. Presumably certain principles of physics and or geometry apply so I'd appreciate some guidance from those with experience. The essentials. Wagons are small on a 5'6" wheelbase. Traditional etched construction. Dumb buffer at one end. Ideally rakes will be able to be propelled into sidings as well as drawn forwards by locos. Minimum radius might be as small as 300mm in extremis but that can be avoided if necessary. Obvious option is simply a loop of wire with a 'hook' to tie the wagons together. No obvious problem in tension but reversing will be a bit rigid. Ideally it'd be good to replicate the slackening of coupling chains and so loop could be elongated. Would that elongated loop invite problems? Presumably the applied force in reverse is more likely to push a small wheelbase wagon sideways and potentially derail? Other option might be to string the wagons like beads on a necklace of fine wire. There are ways to include stops to replicate the tensioning/slackening effect but getting a suitably flexible wire to function properly in forward and reverse will be a challenge. And to anchor the 'bead' at the centre of the wagon or under the buffer beams? Has anybody played with this problem in the past? Are there definitive guidelines on spacings etc? Or will it be better to use traditional, semi permanent 3 link couplings and rely on the buffers themselves? Expectation is two 20 wagon trains comprised of 2 fixed rakes plus brake plus a few peculiarities as required. Stock is all built just awaiting cleaning and final detailing. Hopefully shop 2 is well stocked for buffers and wheels. Some pics for scale of a selection for scale. Wagons are smaller than, say, a GWR shunter's truck and markedly smaller than a MR horse box. Prototype is simplistically described as "Taff Vale" type and visitors to the NRM have doubtless seen a significantly larger model in the display cases out back.

Wow

What Andy said. I used the 03 because I had made one up on a whim but had no real use for it. The chassis in the Judith Edge Hunslet kit is really close to the 03 but I may well have reversed it to make it fit??? As Nick points out you can make the 2mm pb bushes fit the frames in the kit but I wanted a quickie - primarily because I wasn't sure if building the kin 2mm was practicable (by me at least). Turns out it goes together really well and the others I have 'in progress' do use the original frames. Different approach to Nick's and, needless to say, far from elegant. Andrew

It is the 03 chassis - bodged a bit. It is the same loco that appeared alongside my revision of another of your kits a while back. Still haven't changed the buffers . . .

I just stuck a 2mm 03 diesel chassis under mine. It ain't pretty but you can finish the loco in a couple of days that way. Great kit by the way Mike. I enjoyed putting it together.

Thanks. Good call on the clockwork key. Until now I've been fixating on Mickey Mouse.

Thanks Michael. A few hundred locos to go then. . . I'd better crack on.

Thank you so much Michael and yup, that's exactly what has happened. More questions I am afraid. So do you form the bends on a 'whole' sheet of footplate material, attach to the frames and then remove the necessary cut outs for wheels etc? Are said bends formed by pressing annealed sheet on to a hard former that matches the frame profile whereby the metal assumes the correct shape? Or are you reliant on the skills of a lifetime to use bending rolls or similar in such a way that you can accurately coordinate the various curves of the mating surfaces without having to do too much tweaking when it comes time to solder up? From a 2mm perspective this attempt will pass muster as a test model but I want to be able to do it better for some future projects. Hence the input of the more experienced is truly appreciated. I prefer to bodge rather than making jigs but, if that is what needs to be done, I'll bite the bullet. Andrew