Michael Edge

I'll alter the hornstay patterns when I do another mould. The one (mostly in kit form) we measured at LH had already had its hornstays removed so I didn't notice this, although my photos clearly show the pads you mention. Michael Edge

The balance weight on the trailing axle should be opposite the coupling rod, that's what it balances. The one on the driving axle balances the coupling rod and the con rod/cranks so this one is in a compromise position. Most (not all) inside cylinder locos had the inside cranks at 180 degrees to the outside crankpins. I was this compromise position which led to "hammer blow". Michael Edge

If you have some fine flat pliers it is possible to move the bend slightly. Army green wasn't far away from BR Brunswick green - I've used it on a loco in this livery. Michael Edge

It shouldn't be rusty or unloved, these are army locos (DLO now) and have always been pampered pets. Michael Edge

This looks really good, we would like to add some of your photos in our slideshow. Can you send some good resolution scans of the completed loco. Mike and Judith

That doesn't sound like the best way to solder brass kits. If you heat the job and add solder there's a big risk that everything will fall apart, if you tin the parts first you won't get them to fit together accurately. The problem with brass is that it conducts the heat away very quickly, the way round this is to apply a lot of heat quickly (don't confuse heat and temperature) with a large soldering iron bit - i.e. one with a large heat capacity. I use a Weller 40w iron which has 1/4" diameter bit for this part of the job. Michael Edge

Try Charlie Petty (DC kits) for Black Beetles. Michael Edge

You can build the 4wh sentinel on a Black Beetle and the instructions originally mentioned this. However, after I had done one it involved cutting away so much of the BB that I removed all references to it. They are much better than the Tenshodo and you can get them with correct sized wheels. P4 shouldn't make any difference, the Sentinel frames are wide enough. Michael Edge

Xuron shears are excellent but a little short. Don't confuse shears with the cutters, they won't do the job without some distortion. The Xuron shears (or good quality tinsnips) will cut the tags off very cleanly with litle or no filing necessary. This is really essential for very delicate parts. I should have said by now that I think you are making an excellent job of this kit. Michael Edge

Beware of the captions to those photos - "Emily" is a Barclay, rebuilt by LH and conssequently carrying Hunslet plates. The MSC railway also had 0-6-0 Sentinels plus a variety of Hudswells, some of which might be kits in the fullness of time. Michael Edge

Further to my last comment I noticed in one of your photos that the remaining etch is still in one piece - at this stage I have a pile of scrap bits as I have progressively cut the etch up. Michael Edge

The etched parts are designed to be cut out with snips, all the tags are located with this in mind. It's a little difficult to describe (easier to show this - come and talk to me at an exhibition) but cut away the fret around delicate parts like this as you go and only make cuts which will not put any bending strain on the part you want. After a while you get the knack of this process. Michael Edge

There should have been 6 axle bushes in the kit, if they were not there please contact us and we will supply them. It does appear that the pivot hole has been missed off one frame, the above advice is the best way of jig drilling the missing hole. The compensation instructions assume use of a motor fitted to a gearbox, in this case it can drive on a live axle but in order to get a knfe edge pivot for the trailing axle you would have to drive on the centre one. My own two locos have compensation between leading and centre axles only. As a self confessed beginner I would advise you to build the model rigid in any case. For punching out rivets you can use a steel pin, recently I have found that aluminium angle provides a goog surface to do this on. If the surface is too hard you don't get enough impression, if too soft the brass distorts too much and the rivets are not sharply defined. There aren't very many on this loco anyway and as someone has already said not on the tank. Michael Edge Judith Edge kits

If you press out the rivets on the buffer beam they locate the jacking brackets - very simple, works very well. I've used the same system to locate horn guides on Steelman locos and BR Anhydrite hopper underframes. I've used plastic brake gear in the past, it's difficult to fit accurately and very fragile. You can get metal brake blocks very close to the treads if your wheels are concentric, they may foul the compensated axle though. the pull rods are useful in keeping the brakes at the same distance from the treads, if you don't put them on it's easy to move the brakes while cleaning the wheels. Don't forget that the compensating arms were supposed to be right against the inside of the frame plates. GA drawing with kit quite clearly shows the brake cylinder on the LH side, I do seem to have forgotten about the arm and spring on the other side though. Michael Edge

Difficult aren't they, some of them are prominent on these locos and a lot of builders like to put them on. The difficulty with our models is that our buffers are not self contained but protrude through the buffer beams. Full size ones are just bolted on the outside and the gussets are usually in line with the centres to take buffing loads. I would suggest fitting them wherever they do not interfere with your buffers rather than worrying about exactly where they should be (or just leave them off). Michael Edge

As I said before please refer all complaints to North British Locomotive Co. Michael Edge

It isn't actually the door, just the pressed out centre portion with the louvres in it. the door joint lines are etched into the casing.

I can't put the hinges on the doors because they are not half etched, the hinges have to stand out from a full etch. i note your difficulty in getting them through the slots - perhaps you see why I don't like slot and tab construction. They fitted fine through the ones I built but not all the etches are the same. The holes in the engine casing make assembly in the way I suggest much easier, you can get a soldering iron through them to tack the casing to the base and you can see what you are doing a lot easier with some daylight inside. I would have preferred the doors to be in one piece as with most of our kits but the NBL style would need three levels. Before you suggest it 3 stage etching wouldn't give enough depth to the louvres. Michael Edge

Feel free to attach the door etches before bending the casing - I just prefer to do it the other way round. These NBL doors are very difficult, the separate etch represents the part of the door which is pressed out, not th ewhole door and unfortunately the handles are not in th epressed out part. This meant that I couldn't provide any register for these parts - I know it's difficult but I can't think of a better way. The louvres are rounded at the top, as you say this is almost impossible to see but it might be noticed if some are the right way up and some not. It will be more visible when we get round to a 7mm version of this kit. The hinges are not very easy to reproduce, it might be just as good to use a short length of wire in the slot where the etched ones fit - depends on the builder's ability to solder very small parts. You have incidentally fitted them inside out - all that should be visible on the outside is a thin rib, most of the hinge is inside. the half etched part goes through from the outside, leaving the full etch part as the hinge - no bending or twisting needed. Your assumption about doors sharing hinges is correct, there are 8 on one side and 10 on the other. I'll make them more visible on the drawing and I'll have to think about making the instructions a little clearer. You can't see them on the website photo because they weren't on the test etch, I need to update these photos as I have built and painted two more of these locos recently. See my earlier comments about using good quality shears for removing very delicate parts from the fret

Delicate parts such as window frames are designed to be cut off with good quality shears/tinsnips, e.g. Xuron etch shears. The parts should be roughly separated by making cuts which do not distort the finished piece, then the tags snipped off close. If you use good quality shears no filing is necessary, don't attempt to cut out parts like this individually (and certainly not with knives or chisels), chop the fret up as you release the parts. I usually leave the fwindow frames off until last, in this case they are actually black rubber mouldings so I paint them black and fix with varnish after painting and glazing. Same process for those which are left bright metal. You do seem to have assembled the cab quite succesfully, I don't know how you'll get on with the engine casing by this method. I developed this technique many years ago while scratchbuilding diesel shunters in order to keep the body straight and square, grease is really very good at preventing solder from flowing where you don't want it. Your comments are much appreciated and we do take notice of them. Judith and Michael Edge

Yes, footplate support is in the right place and yes it really does support the footplate. If it gets in the way of your motor/gearbox fitting just cut away the centre part later. It's etched in one piece across the frames to make it easier to fit and ensure that it is level. Michael Edge

Tags are placed to avoid damage/distortion in the etch, they are almost all placed in positions where they can be removed with good quality snips. I tack fit the footplate angles while holding them on with fingers, if they were a fold down from the lower footplate there would be a small gap at the top of the angle (very difficult to fill). All complaints about the location of the battery boxes should be addressed to North British.... Michael Edge

That answers my question, rsu and solder paste is definitely not the way to do this, most solder pastes have very active (and corrosive) flux in them. Phosphoric acid is much safer, also your rsu heats everything up, what you want is local heat (quickly) just around the nut. Michael Edge

You seem to be having a lot of trouble soldering the nuts to the footplate top, I don't knowwhat sort of soldering iron/flux you are using but the method I use gives no trouble at all. Some grease under the footplate helps but is not essential, I bolt the parts together, run a little flux (phosphoric acid) around the nut and touch the soldering iron to the side of the nut and footplate. The solder quickly flashes round the nut as long as enough heat is applied (40w iron for this) and the screw can then be removed. We supply steel screws and brass nuts to make this easier and they are the best quality available (and quite expensive) Michael Edge

The beams are supposed to be fitted against the frames, no mention is made of adding bearings as in this kit they are doubled, this gives adequate bearing surface. If bearings are added they should be on the inner face. I have found that using screws for these pivots leads to greater wear from the screw thread turning in the frames, pins or rivets are better. Your unidentifiable frame spacer is in fact a scrap piece, the original drawing was modified to shorten one of the spacers, to preserve the tags this piece was left in. Michael Edge