k22009

4 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

Any idea how long that took you?

 

Hi Mike,

I'd guess all told it was probably a couple of hours, but some of that was adding more plasticard seperators to a small box i had to make enough compartments. It has however made me look at the parts and they are organised now so i can find them a bit easier.

I've cut out most of the parts within the footplate and valance frame etches and stored them, there were only a couple i couldn't identify so hopefully these will become clearer as there's less parts left to assemble. 

The valences are etched as part of an assembly frame and will form a good solid base to work on the footplate. 

I marked the approximate centres of where the curves need to be formed and slowly worked on each one until the footplate fitted ice and snug on top of the valences which fit into a half etched recess.

With this done i added the frame extensions and front lower footplate, there's a few details to add to this area but i'll do that later, the lamp irons are a fold up item and had to be done now,  they will probably get knocked about but hopefully they'll survive man handling.

Before i get to grips with anything else i have attached the injectors and pipework. These are unusually not included in the kit, so i have used a Stanier set from Wizard models with a few additional pipes added. The injector pipework has to be removable in order to be able to get the wheels out so i will make the pipe in 2 sections, the injectors will need to be soldered to the rear frame spacer. 

The front of the exhaust steam injector has had a 2mm dia hole drilled to take a tube 2mm dia x 1.5mm i/d as the main pipe is 1.5 dia, this is just long enough to take the end of the injector pipe which will secure the rear end.

The pipe has been bent to go around the screw which locates the radial truck and will be soldered to this. I've also made a joint from another piece of 2 dia pipe that will fit to the front of the rear pipe, the front pipe will then locate into this. I can't complete the front pipe as i need to fit the slide bar and radius link brackets. (it will hopefully be fitted to these brackets).

The pipe is bent to miss the gearbox and goes under both the brake assembly and the keeper plates to allow the wheels to be removed.

17 hours ago, Michael Edge said:

 My biggest and loudest complaint is the way that small parts are located round the edges of holes in the footplate - you have to cut them out at the start and then have to remember what they are much later. If they had been attached together inside the hole they would remain identifiable after removing.

I agree Mike, even for the sake of an additional etch with all of the small parts on it would have made a better design in my opinion.

Below is the etch for the footplate and valences.

43 minutes ago, JeffP said:

Have a small notebook and keep a record of what's in each compartment.

Thanks Jeff i like it, however above lies the problem.

Now that it appears the chassis runs ok with the old Romford wheels i've been working on the Gibson wheels that are intended for the build. I very often use Romford crankpins with Gibsons as the Gibson sleeves mean drilling a larger piece of coupling rod and sometimes they don't seem concentic anyway. So i've opted this time to use M1 x 8 csk screws, M1 brass nuts and if needed i have some very thin wall tube that would act as a sleeve at 1 dia x  0.1mm wall.

I always ream gently the back of the wheel at the crankpin location with a larger drill bit so the head of the screw doesn't protrude, i generally then add the crankpin adding a dab of superglue before seating fully. I then drill a hole using the slot in the head as a guide at about 45 degrees and add a 0.45mm wire pin to lock the crankpin in place so it won't rotate. This is especially useful for the return crank on the middle axle as this can then be tightened up better without fear of the crankpin releasing it's superglue bond and rotating.

I didn't take a photo of pinning the crankpin but this is one from a Claughton wheel.

The wheels are not quartered on this loco but the R/H wheels lead by 120 degrees so 1/3 of a circle, this is ultimately a guess when first pressing the wheels on, but by doing 4 wheels first then the final axle it doesn't take long to get it running nicely. Balance weights are etched and fit perfectly there is a diagram (as with most of the build areas) that show how both sides are positioned.

With the wheels fitted along with washers,  hornblock bearings and gearbox to the rear axle i once again assembled all of the components, connecting rods are just loosely positioned and not yet fixed to the crossheads which will need a small amount trimming from the piston rod. Without reaming any of the coupling rod holes it runs like a dream under hand power.

It is a big advantage to have the major components removable so i can paint each assembly seperately when the time comes.

I'd like to fit the motor and pickups to test it running under power before starting on the valve gear, the gearbox is a High Level HiFlier (in the final photo it's just flopped over as there is no restraint fitted yet). I had envisaged fitting wiper pickups to the upper part of the frames behind the where the splashers will be as it's getting busy underneath and i'd like to leave that clear in case i find more info about the injector pipework routes, but to do that i need to have the footplate assembly so i can make sure nothing will foul them. So i may just leave the chassis for a while and start on forming the footplate.

9 minutes ago, sjp23480 said:

Its interesting to see just how substantial the slide bars are, esp when compared to RTR and some other kit manufacturers - where just a sliver of brass/nickel silver suffices.

They do have a presence, for the modeller it's a big help as it means it's difficult to get them twisted as you can so easily with other kit manufacturers, of course this all reduces any clearances with wheels later. 

I've noticed one of the triangular stiffeners that fits onto the slide bar bracket later has been bent over so i need to straighten that.

Slide bars and all the castings added to the cylinders. The stiffeners at the junction of the slide bars and the cyliders needed to be added after the slide bars while it was easier to get access, the instructions suggest adding them at the end but it would make access quite awkward. 

The castings fit beautifully with minimal work required, it's obviously essential to take your time and make sure everything is lined up and sitting square, the rear and front valve crosshead guides are different so i made sure they were the correct orientation.

The small hole in the front cylinder stretcher at the side of the bent up tab is for the front centre valve rod on the 2 in 1 lever assembly, this is very close to the frame side in OO. 

I've made a start on the cylinders/valve gear by identifying each part and drilling all of the initial holes whilst everything is well attached on the fret, some of the parts, especially the fork joints for the valve gear are very small, assembling these and getting moving pinned joints will be a challenge.

The slide bars are made up of 6 laminations, there are holes for 0.45 wire to locate and pin them all together while soldering. These haven't been dressed yet, once they are all together i'll do that.

Soldered together and dressed, i'll go over them with emery paper afterwards to remove the file marks.

You then cut off the rear and fit the cast crosshead. This needed the slots in the slide bars opening with a very thin filed down file and wet and dry. The casting also need just a small amount removing to ensure it slides smoothly, but like everything so far it all fits very nicely. Notice the slide bars are etched with left and right to orientate themm correctly, these marks are hidden within the cylinders so no need to remove.

Then just placed loosely in the folded up cylinder block to make sure everything fits ok.

On 29/10/2022 at 07:43, JeffP said:

There used to be an excellent set of photographs on the DJH/Piercy website showing details under their 7mm A4.

That might help?

Thanks Jeff, had a look but the website seems to have been updated, i'm always dubious of using photos from models anyway, however i've started to look through the workshop photos from the latest 60103 refurbishment but i've so far found nothing. 

Brakes have been assembled and test fitted, the wheels are old Romfords, i've some Gibsons that will go on after the chassis has been painted. The brake cylinders needed carving , they would fit as is in P4 and most likely EM but not OO, I'm hoping they won't foul the bogie wheels.

And here frames, bogie and radial truck assembled to see how it sits and runs. I added some crankpins and later checked with the coupling rods attached too. All very smooth with not a hint of tightness. 

Cylinders next up. 

One thing that isn't included with the kit is any of the major underframe pipework and i'm thinking mainly the injector pipes and manifolds. I have a very poor photo of a drawing showing some of it but if anyone has any photos or can glean some light into what i may need to include it would be appreciated.

The rear radial truck is a simple 2 part etch that incorporates springing tabs and lateral restraint tabs, the hornguides on the rear frames are bent at slightly off 90 degrees so that the truck will slide smoothly.

In the instructions it suggests restraining the whole assembly with some flats soldered to the rear frame body. This would mean having it in situ during painting which in my books is a recipe for something to get stuck. To alleviate this i've made up a keeper that allows plenty of vertical movement but stops the whole assembly dropping out. This means the frame and the truck can now be painted seperately.

The bogie is likewise a fairly simple item with a stretcher, 2 sides which need rivets pressing out, ties, guard irons and front dust shields. 

I'll add a little weight to this with a few pieces of lead sheet, there's a slot on the centreline to allow some side to side movement.

The brakes are all generally 2 parts for each item which need sweating together to give some rigidity.

I've drilled out the brake cross shafts where the pull rods locate, 0.5mm wire has been added to resemble the bolt heads and filed down so they don't protrude too much.

I'll probably remove the flat etched brake shaft ends and replace them with some rod which will fit into the hangers better, especially as this will be removeable so will need to withstand a little flexing.

I've a spare set of old Romford wheels that i'll set up next so that the brakes can be assembled into a unit.  

I thought i'd start a thread in this section to keep all of the etches i've made available in the same place and easily accessible.

If anyone is interested in obtaining an etch (s) please see the downloadable pdf with the current list for 2022 with prices on. I don't keep anything available so they will all need to be ordered which at present is around 4 weeks from date of ordering. It makes sense to order in batches to keep the postage costs down from the etchers so it's unlikely i'll be ordering just one etch. Please don't add requests onto the thread please, message me instead. Thanks.

I'll show a couple of photos of each item with a link to the relavent thread if available.

Fowler 0-6-0 Dock tank   https://tinyurl.com/2p9f9nrn

MSWJR Sharp Stewart 4-4-4 passenger tank    https://tinyurl.com/253dejep

Johnson 1134 class 0-4-0 Saddle tank   https://tinyurl.com/2p8ewcjz

Deeley Flatiron 0-6-4 tank   https://tinyurl.com/yy6nybup

Johnson 1377 class 0-6-0 tank   https://tinyurl.com/2p8ehkch

LNWR/MR/LMS Claughton 4-6-0  https://tinyurl.com/ycksc48h

Kirtley 700 class 0-6-0 double framed goods  https://tinyurl.com/45hj87t9

Johnson 3F 0-6-0 chassis kit (this is for the tender loco rather than the tank)

Compound 4-4-0 chassis kit

Johnson 1377 class 0-6-0 tank chassis kit

Midland Railway D333 Implement/Traction Engine wagon

Midland Railway D384 Gunpowder Van

LMS/BR Stanier Mogul 2-6-0 (no tender)

Cheers

Dave

the etch list latest.pdf

On with the rear frame extensions. The frames themselves are supported by a magnificent etched component that forms the frame support, radial truck guide and lower firebox support all in one, the piece is attached to the rear frame spacer.

The frames are etched brass and form easier than they would in Nickel silver but still needed a few attempts and tweeks to get them correctly aligned. The slots in the frames needed opening with a scalpel as they are only about 0.25mm wide to allow what i assume are cab supports to pass through. There is also a locating hole that fits over the rear brake hanger pin, so it's all quite tight.

Once the frames are fitted small details are added, steps, Cartazzi axle box ties and some small overlays along with the rear body fixing support.

The instructions here suggest to fit the rear spring brackets, if you fit these now though the Cartazzi axle boxes will not fit as they need to fit under them, so axleboxes first then spring brackets after.

Below are shown both items, the axle boxes need the flash removing, note there is a right and left hand item, John Hayes removes the hanger rods and replaces them with wire which i may do.

Coupling rods made up, you have to be careful with soldering these as the fine details are very close to the edges, these are forked and then pinned with 1mm dia nickel silver rod. I dabbed the ends of the inner part of the joint with brass black to stop any solder jamming up the joint, before soldering just from the rear.

Once the rods were made up then it allowed me to add the hornblock guides to the frames. The front pair were soldered in first, i used a long 1/8" rod through the bearings and a set square to make sure everything was at 90 degrees. Then the axle jigs with the springs in the centre to hold the bearings and guides in place. The coupling rods placed over the ends before soldering up to the frames. I've also formed and added the 4 bogie splashers.

Compensation beam to fit next before moving on to the rear frames and trailing truck. 

A slight deviation from my plan to do the coupling rods. As i had the springs removed i decided to make these up and fabricate keeper plates that they could be attached to.

The keeper plates are just some Nickel silver offcuts drilled through with the frame spacers tapped 12ba, with the springs clamped in position small gussets are then soldered onto the keeper plates. This will enable the wheelsets to be removable (the brake assembly will also be removable when i get to them).

2 hours ago, mikemeg said:

On an entirely different issue, does anyone know where RMWeb is in trying to recover lost photographic images?  Or has this recovery exercise come to a halt?

 

Cheers

 

MIke

 

Hi Mike

Andy posted this a few weeks ago.

"It is evident from matters over the preceding weeks that no further progress with the restoration of images is likely to be made. The previous hosts maintained that their earlier backup was viable but the majority of folders containing the images from each month over the years were empty or corrupted. Beyond initial good progress it's been a very small minority that were recoverable and restored.

I fully understand the frustrations on an individual basis, especially for those who had uploaded content and I can assure you no-one has been more annoyed about it than me. I can only apologise (although not having caused it) but I am grateful to and impressed by those who have made inroads into restoring content from their locally saved files.

It's not a good outcome but thanks to measures taken before the crash at the end of March is a whole lot better than it could have been."

Last call for sets of etches. If you're interested and haven't registered an interest please message me. I'll be ordering on Thursday.

Cheers

I've pretty much followed the instructions so far without diverging. The frame spacers are a very good fit with just the half etched slots in the frames needing a little work with a scalpel to remove the faintest hint of cusp edges which stops the full width spacers locating correctly. There are some small overlays to modify slightly and add to the outsides too, centre sandboxes are a fold up part of the lower frames.

There are some tiny brake hanger pivot covers that need drilling to fit over the brake hangers that are  suggested to be fitted next but i can't fit these yet as the compensation beam pivot needs to be fitted beforehand. Martin suggests using 0.45mm wire for the hangers but i've opted to use lace pins with the heads soldered on the inside which are around 0.55mm dia. I'll then add some brass tube over the top to act as spacers between frame and the hangers, the hangers  can then be sprung onto the ends of the cut down pins.

Without too much effort a nice square set of frames is produced. 

Coupling rods next so that the hornblocks and bearings can be fitted.

10 hours ago, adriank said:

Have you tried putting a sheet of aluminium beneath the etch when using your gravity riveter? It produces sharper rivets and less distortion than a cutting mat.

 

Adrian

Hi Adrian

Yes i have tried a thin aluminium sheet as well as the cutting mat, the problem was i didn't want any distortion with the frames, keeping them perfectly straight is vital, overlays would have been better (as in quite a few Malcolm Mitchell kits) but i understand that there would have been quite a few variations with these, especially with the variety of early lightening holes that were gradually filled in due to them creating a weakness in the frames.

Over the last few years i've opened the green box containing the beautiful etches and castings for the Finney A1/A3 so many times, i've poured over the parts, digested the instructions and diagrams so many times but always put everything back neatly and closed the lid, thinking another day maybe.

Well another day has arrived, this time after looking at the chassis etches i actually cut some of the parts out started drilling the holes for brakes etc. So here goes. I've had a read through the RCTs book #2A and will decide which loco and time frame at a later date. But i'm erring towards Blair Athol in late LNER or early BR days.

I have a copy of the very well thumbed article by John Hayes in MRJ 66 and 67 which will be very useful.

This is what the chassis etches look like, my only small criticism is that there are not many (if any at all) spares of some of the tiny parts and valve gear, which would have been nice, so i need to be careful.

I've removed the main frames, spacers, compensation beams and springs. The frames have had the rigid axle holes all removed as i will add full compensation to this as designed by Martin. I want to have the brake gear and wheel sets removable too, but more of that further on down the line.

One thing i did decide however was, as i don't have a George Watts rivet press (or similar), i generally use either the gravity riveter or a pin and small hammer. But i find that there is usually some deformation of the parts, sometimes only small. However the frames have rather a lot of rivet detail that would need punching out. As originally built apparently the frames were flush rivetted so basically invisible which is what i'm following, i realise that by the time frame of this loco the frames may well have had visible rivets so this may not be accurate but tbh they are hardly visible anyway. My reason for this is that i really don't want to deform the frames at all. 

Anyway no turning back now.

On 12/10/2022 at 01:02, lezz01 said:

For full details see Midland Record issue 18.    

Cheers Lez, ive got a copy winging it's way to me so i'll check it out.

1 hour ago, Blandford1969 said:

Wow, you not only seem to design them quickly but put them together even quicker. Another super build what's next something different like a NSR 0-6-4?

Thanks that's very kind.

No plan's for anything else as yet. Getting drawings easily and then being able to buy the necessary castings are the main criteria i have that need to be filled before i start anything new. At the end of the day i design these and previous etches primarily for me and non of the R&D costs go into the etches i offer other members, it wouldn't be viable if i did that. I have a mountain of other kits that i'd like to start whittling down too but if the right locomotive appeared you can never say never.

Dave 

19 minutes ago, Miss Prism said:

 

Absolutely. Those resins (particularly the chimney) do not match the quality that you have reached with the body.

 

Thanks, yes exactly no prizes will be won with those, they are only loosely secured on there until my order with Colin comes through.

Thanks for all of the likes and comments etc through the build. it is much appreciated, every day is a school day.

Most of the detailing done, i still need to add the sanding rods at the end of the smokebox and salter springs both will be added after painting. 

I've used a few resin castings that i had but it really deserves a full set of lost wax ones from Colin at Gibson's, they would finish it off nicely. The buffer packers were too small on the etch so i will change those on the artwork, in the meantime i'll add a bit of plastic strip to bring them up to size, buffers are from Dave at Lanarkshire. Dart, door hinge, clacks, lubricators are all home brewed but most are available as castings.

I'll add this to the growing paint mountain waiting list, in the meantime i'll revise the artwork.

I've had a few members message me to ask about availability so if anyone is interested do the same and message me rather than ask on the thread please i can give you the details then, I'll wait a week or so before sending it off to the etchers.

Cheers

Dave