dikitriki

Hi, We're unlikely to look at the T9 until next year, so up to 12 months I expect. Yours, Richard Lambert

Hi, Just to let you know, we will have limited numbers of the M7, Adams Radial and T3 and tender available for Telford. If you wish to reserve one, contact me through the Finney7 web site or by PM. The Princess Coronation (Duchess) and Bulleid Light Pacific are due (hopefully) by November, and we will then turn our attention to the LNER part of the range, and the Broad Gauge Rover. We also propose making the Rover tender available as a separate kit. We have updated the web site and added the M7 instructions as a pdf. Do have a look at the new instructions in the Finney7 house style, a lot of work has gone into them. Richard

Hello Neill, The GWR kits are not going to be available until next year. We have to make a few new masters and all the white metal castings needs new moulds, and this has slowed production up. We should have the M7, T3 and Adams' Radial available at Telford, even if we are packing them Saturday morning.The Bulleid Light Pacific and Duchess will be available before Christmas, with the LNER range being reintroduced shortly thereafter, including our new kit, the rebuilt W1 4-6-4. Richard Lambert

We hope to have the 7mm kit out by Guildex in September..... though they are being reserved fast Richard

Anyone fancy a Gauge 1 (1/32) original West Country? We're pursuing a number of avenues, and we have had enough initial interest in a 1/32 Bulleid light pacific to explore some proof of concept areas. Tender springs and axleboxes: Cab reworked for 1/32, already at the etchers. We're also looking at the 47xx etches. I'm not entirely sure the G1 fraternity is ready for a 1/32 Finney kit, but you never know...... Richard

Hi, I am pleased to advise that we have now commenced production of the first 5 kits from the Finney7 range. They are the M7, T3, Radial Tank, Duchess, and Bulleid Light Pacific, together with the appropriate tenders. There are still a few production hurdles to be overcome, but we expect the first kits to be available in the next 8 - 12 weeks. These will be available in fairly limited quantities, and prices will be posted in due course as soon as we are able to do so. The first new Finney7 kit will be the W1 in rebuilt form. This will have a resin casing, and we will have pre-production material available for inspection at Guildex. The web-site has been updated with prototype and model information, and we shall add further items as we can, It is our intention that all instructions, detailed pictures of contents, and photographs of builds are available for all kits. It is, however, going to take time to work our way through all the material, so keep an eye on the site for updates. Richard Lambert

Good Morning, Just to advise that the website is now live at http://www.Finney7.co.uk Still work in progress at this stage, but it gives a little more information about us and where we are going. Richard

Thank you David, I'd love to see a Rebuilt Bulleid Light Pacific in the range, but it's far too early to say whether it will happen. It's fair to say we have identified it as a possible, but that's got to be a medium term aspiration. At the moment we've got enough on our plates just sorting the existing range out. Richard

Thank you Bob, and everyone else, for your kind words. It's not entirely coincidental I am building a Finney Duchess - we need something to show on the trade stand and apart from being one of my favourite locos, it has serious 'wow' factor. We shall be at Telford this year, and then all the Guild shows plus Reading (December) and Bristol (January) if we can get in, so come and say hello! Richard

Hi, I am delighted to report that I am one of the new owners of Martin Finney's 7mm range of locomotive and tender kits and accessories. I have spent today with Martin Finney and we have completed the purchase of his 7mm business, taking possession of the 7mm assets. I would like to record my thanks to Martin who has done his utmost to ensure a smooth transition. The hard work now begins. We have to catalogue what we have and work out the order of events from here. You will appreciate that until this is done, I cannot announce which existing kits will be released or when. I will let you know as soon as I can. The web site should be live in the next couple of weeks, and I am the point of contact. I am attaching our press release below. Richard Finney7press release.pdf

Hi, I am delighted to report that I am one of the new owners of Martin Finney's 7mm range of locomotive and tender kits and accessories. For commercial reasons - we only completed today - we were unable to announce anything earlier. Please note that I shall now start a new thread for comments relating to the 7mm range. Richard

Steve, I have to say that is a fantastic spec at an incredible price, and I take my hat off to you. I do hope it works out for you and rewards your bravery in taking the project forward. Good luck! Richard

It was run yesterday on Heyside. Richard

Agree totally, the top profile is crucial. With the Royal Scot, there is so much going on on the footplate that if the bottom of the boiler is out a little, it would be next to impossible to tell. Not that I am advocating sloppy work, it's just that model building tolerances get in the way of supreme accuracy, and this is so with the very best of kits (MOK 76XXX cast firebox is a fraction short - do you rebuild it if your skills are up to it, or accept it on the basis that no-one will ever know?) Richard

Hi Dave, No, you misunderstand. I am merely reporting that from the same kit, that's what I ended up with. I am actually very pleased that's it's as close to 'official' as it is (my build predates the profile book) - the chances of forming a boiler to the exact shape necessary and being truly accurate, getting all dimensions to scale, approach nil IMO. I am also pretty convinced that actual builds would not match the works drawings exactly, so my 0.45mm difference I can live with very happily. Regards, Richard

Hello Tim, I dug my Scot out of the cabinet and put some strip across the footplate. There's not a lot of places where it is clear to do so, but the maximum clearance I have is 0.5mm between top of footplate and bottom of boiler. You asked about the firebox; I trimmed it to fit over the splashers - a long and careful procedure - rather than fit it behind them, and then filed the splashers back to match the footplate rear as I felt it looked better. I won't be tackling some of the lubricator pipework. The reason I wanted such clear photos was so that I could reproduce it all When we go to an exhibition, because it's such hard work over 5 days, we have a month off. We shut the door on the layout (literally - it is still broken down) and only reassemble it when withdrawal symptoms kick in a month later. If you are ever in the UK, and near to the SVR, PM me, and you can come to play. We were fortunate that Cliff Williams wanted to take a professional video of Heyside at Telford, so we have a permanent record of our exploits. It's 1/2 an hour long - I had no idea he had taken so much footage - but gives a really good idea of what we are trying to create. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZERKWZjs6U#t=1028 Cheers Richard

Tim, A little treat for you.... Cheers. Richard

Hi Tim, I have spent today on the SVR chasing the Royal Scot and Britannia.We also saw 2 rebuilt West Countries, 28XX, Flying Pig amongst others - a cracking day. By extreme good fortune, the Royal Scot and Brit were parked under the footbridge at Bridgnorth, so I took the opportunity to do a full photographic survey from the top down, and I have a few hundred photos. I'm not going to dump them here, but I will give you a flavour which will show you the sort of detail I was after for my own purposes. I am happy to post the photos as you come to need details. This is the only one I took all day with full loco in shot! It looked in fantastic condition. This one answers your boiler height issue: It was taken as near as I could get it looking flat across the footplate. There's no daylight visible. I reckon if you put some brass shim across the top of the footplate and rest the bottom of the boiler on that, you won't be far out. Edit - found a second photo from a bit further away showing the same thing: The following 3 shots are just a sample: I'll have a look as to how I approached the firebox later. Heyside went out to an exhibition a couple of weeks ago, and I'm in a bit of a mess at the moment! Cheers Richard

Hi Royal Scot is at the SVR this coming week end for the gala. Richard

Hi Tim, Yes and no! I assume that the front and back cylinder faces are parallel, and that the location of the end of the cylinders attached to the slide bars is in the same place on either side in relation to the cylinder cladding. If that is the case, place the cylinder on a flat surface - in the orientation as above, and make sure each slide bar is truly at 90 degrees to the flat surface. Your will be able to tweak the individual slidebars by simply bending them using a pair of smooth nosed pliers to the correct position, as they do not appear to be too far out. Once they are all at 90 degrees viewed from both side and top, re-check that the crosshead is a nice sliding fit. Then ensure that the slidebar support bracket fits round the slidebars without forcing them in any way, and only then mount in the chassis and use both at the same time to get the correct fit in the chassis. Put a 2mm rod or similar through the piston hole with the extension aligning with the centre of the middle driving axle (a little difficult if you have CSB!) and if the rod is parallel to the slidebars, the cylinders and support bracket are properly located, with the cylinders at the correct angle. Fiddle and file until this is achived and the cylinders are sitiing properly in the chassis and not interfering with the fit of the footplate. Richard

Can I suggest an order.......and make sure every component/join is free and has sufficient movement before you move onto the next part? * Coupling rods * Connecting rods and crosshead (watch for front crank pin nut clouting the back of the crosshead) * Expansion link, eccentric rod and return crank * Radius rod, combination lever, union link and crosshead drop link. If you can, I would suggest powered track test before each stage is signed off. You will also need to make it all removable for the different stages. Others will, of course, have a different preferred order of construction. Pages 11(bottom) to 18 deal with the build of a Gladiator Patriot's valve gear which will be pretty much the same http://www.westernthunder.co.uk/index.php?threads/dikitrikis-dark-side-l-y-crab-temporarily.100/page-11 I ignore my own advice of course, but then I can't remember when I last built a loco without valve gear! Looking Good. Richard

Hi Tim, The rivet looks to me like a coupling rod rivet, to articulate the front and rear sections. Richard

Hi Tim, The Iroda is the same as the Nimrod, I presume rebranded for the US market. Funnily enough, on my WT thread, I have just been going through injectors for a Crab I'm working on. You have 2 to consider. The smaller is the live steam injector. This is mounted vertically to the back of the rear step on the driver's side (left hand side looking forward). The larger, exhaust steam injector is mounted on the bracket attached to the chassis (I either made my own bracket or adapted the kit's - yours as attached will have the injector too far inboard) longitudinally on the fireman's side - the right hand side looking forward. Note that there are variants of each, so the castings you can buy may need chopping about to get the pipework on the correct side. Laurie Griffin, Ragstone and Hobbyhorse Developments all have first class castings. As an example, this is the Crab's exhaust steam injector, which by the time I had finished with it comprised 13 separate components. You don't have a need to buy the JLTRT super-detail kit. Any additional components you may wish to use can be cherry picked from other sources. Keep up the good work! Regards, Richard

Hi Tim, I'm glad you found the pictures helpful. The lead is just for ballasting - the firebox is plenty strong enough without. The Crailcrest motor is best in a reasonably weighty loco so the boiler and firebox were lined with lead sheet. The only downside - apart from size - is that it requires a pretty hefty chip. I do have a substantial build thread on WT http://www.westernthunder.co.uk/index.php?threads/dikitrikis-dark-side-l-y-crab-temporarily.100/ There is nothing on the Scot though as the build pre-dated my internet presence, but you might find it interesting none-the-less. As far as microflames go, I use the Nimrod Solderpro 120 extensively. It's a brilliant piece of kit and very controllable. One of my key tools that I would replace like with like should it fail. Yours, Richard

No problem OzzyO, thanks for letting me know. Richard