doilum

Look in the RS catalogue. Won't be cheap though. Mine came courtesy of a service engineer who, having broken the tiniest one, swore loudly and threw the whole set into the bin whilst ordering replacements on line. The soft key is possibly a design feature to protect the screw head. If it rounded it can be cut back with a Dremel or piercing saw.

This might be the exception to my advice of pay for quality. Brass, white metal and plastic are not kind to files and whilst it is possible to clean them it is easier to have two or three cheap sets which can be regarded as semi disposable. Car boots and auto jumbles are often a good source. I have also found on occasion shim brass and other off cut modelling materials way below usual !prices.

Drawing pins and a small offcut of plywood. A block of hard wood with a straight square edge glued and screwed down one side. I usually start each new project by assembling a new one and often end up with three or four zero cost jigs by the time the loco is finished. A boy cannot have enough set squares including the large plastic type found in upmarket geometry sets. Equally useful are small clamps, some bought many years ago but most salvaged from shed clear outs or broken tools. Where it is difficult to clamp, a small piece of scrap brass or hardboard can be screwed to the plywood firmly securing the work against the straight edge. Tools do not have to be expensive but when you decide a purchase is necessary, pay that little extra for quality. Whilst I could manage without my Dremel and RSU, I wouldn't get far without my piercing saw or modellers files.

Whilst a very clever etched kit might off the superstructure as a single fold up sheet, you might do well to think how it can be broken down into several sub assemblies and how these will relate to each other. The arched windows will be a real skill builder! Plastikard is cheap and cardboard free so a dummy run might be advised

It was a long time ago, early in my loco building journey!

Time for someone to give it a try? One final point, if I recall correctly, lots of lead in the front of the boiler to take body weight off the bogie.

The G5 came as an unmade brass body kit from the bring and buy stall at a Wakefield show at Unity Hall. Included were a full set of Walsall wheels, insulated one side only. It occurred to me that if the bogie was isolated from the rest of the loco I could arrange an American style collection. The main frames are a short 0-4-0, rather like some toy locos and collect current from the non insulated wheels. The rest sections were made from Paxolin and are narrower almost fitting inside the main frames and carry the bogie pivot . The completed bogie then has a flexible wire direct to the motor. The rest frames were semi permanently fixed to the floor of the rest superstructure whist the front part bolts in the usual manner. It proved a reliable performer one a little lead was fixed in the bogie.

Old school fixed chassis often had centre wheels marginally high to avoid rocking over rough track.

Whilst always keen to encourage new scratch builders please be aware that 0-4-4 locos bring their own box of challenges. Otherwise this is a good choice for your first set of frames especially if they are split into front and rear sections. Models of this wheel arrangement often need a much narrowed rear frame section to allow the bogie the movement needed to negotiate tight curves and points. Somewhere out there, there is a 7mm LNER G5 I built using the American collection system.

High Dyke. Need I say more?

The satisfaction of having completed a very complex kit where there is no room for sloppy workmanship. The question is, are your skills up to it? A model built from a Finney kit will probably have a greater long term value but could be a very expensive learning journey. One day I will pluck up the courage to buy a Finney ,,A4.!!

In the interests of health and safety it needs a complete rewire. The ,240 and 12 volt wires were totally intertwined often in the same colours! The points are manual using bicycle spokes as push rods under the board. Please let me know if/ when you can organise transport.

Very much so. Other domestic projects have dragged and I haven't had a chance to do anything. It really has to go as I would like to have a few live steam sessions before the winter. It would be nice if it went in one lot but if some one wanted to salvage the buildings and details that would be OK. It would make an excellent low cost project for the forthcoming winter lockdown!

The card sits on a small block of timber. A loop of black florists wire is all but invisible in the coal and is easily hooked out with the shunting pole. Layers of card can be used to shape the load, don't forget to spray it black before glueing.

Radical option. This is a fairly simple chassis, why not invest £5 in a strip of brass and scratch build a replacement. Assuming that the coupling rods are OK the hard work is already done. A supply of 1mm drills, pin vice and a jeweller' s saw and you are good to go. The Scorpio frames are not the thickest and if the soldering has been overdone may well end up anything but straight. A Dremel is a useful tool for this kind of salvage work.

Are you using a top quality masking tape? Frogtape is good or better still, pay a visit to an automotive paint supplier. The tape sold in DIY stores and car accessory shops now tends to be pretty dreadful.

Just thought I would give this one more push before I go for the salvage option.

Whilst I have no experience of BL live steam, I have a Roundhouse Katy. The idea of a layout is almost essential even if it only consists of sections of track on lengths of plywood with catch fence sides. The heat of a live steam engine and it's ability damage it's surroundings if it leaves the track is not to be underestimated. Good luck with the project.

Agree entirely with nearhomer. The critical bit of kit is a length of bricklayers twine and some 20 mm pins. Forget lasers, this the only way to find out what is going on. I like the idea of creating an exoskeleton from ply, but given an 8' span would go for 9" depth. A good timber merchant or B&Q will machine cut these to provide the necessary straight edge. Some recycled 2x2" and scrap plywood beermats will be needed to support the centre until the outer frame is complete

In particular, the pre war specialist coaches, full brakes, restaurant and buffet cars, were very long lived some surviving into the 1970s in blue/ grey.

Many thanks for the link. I thoroughly enjoyed this album. It confirms exactly what I remembered and was trying to describe, the variation from bauxite to crimson lake, and every shade in-between. A really good mix of locos too including several Pecketts.

The ones I was thinking about go by the name of Stickoflex and Tiger Seal. There will be others, not to be confused with ordinary sealants. If you have to pay around £10 a cartridge it is probably the right stuff. I have never tried it in a modelling application but have reassembled damaged plastic wheel arches on my daughter's Jiminy.

Wickes sell a contact adhesive that is identical to the old evostick beloved by kitchen fitters and glue sniffers alike. It even has a red and black tin! Also available in tubes. More expensive but controllable for small jobs. Has anyone tried the silicon type adhesives used by the motor trade for fixing body kits etc?

Apologies for a slight deviation from the original thread, did the LMS keep its express liveries during WW2 or, like the LNER, paint them into plain black?

Crimson and cream sounds very much like blood and custard. This was the first livery of the post war British Railways. Some heretics think that this was the most attractive livery of Gresley's LNER coaches!