Bucoops

Thanks They're interesting creations with their squared off boiler casings etc.

One thing that has been bugging me with the N7 over the A1 - cutting parts off the etch. I've been using a scalpel blade but it blunts blades very quick;y and is hard work. What are people's suggestions for removing parts without the risk of distortion that using snips carries? Thanks

There's a facebook group called Chelmsford remembered and someone posted a photo of a locomotive at Hoffmans bearings - I decided it might be a Manning Wardle - going by your pictures I think it might be?

Hmm, might be easier than I was expecting... Cab front is on, and cab floor. How the handbrake would ever work in the position the kit says I do not know, but I have left it in that place to give it a little knock protection. The motor rear shaft will have to be shortened, but the backhead should cover anything that does stick through. You can see I need to do a bit of work to seal the bunker side too. My bend wasn't QUITE there.

Oh - the other side of this sheet is the High Level gearbox planner I can fully understand why Chris is the go-to person for gearboxes.

High level have run out of 1020s - I tried to get one for the J15 kit.Or rather he thinks he has enough for fulfiling existing orders. It may after a count-up prove otherwise. But that's where I got the 1420 from. I grabbed a couple of them off ebay when they had the 20% off coupon recently. Although they then got sent to the wrong address so took a while to actually make it! There's a couple of churches nearby I could get some lead from there (joke ) - what I meant was how many grams total?

Loadhauler won't fit between the frames unfotunately. HIghflier and Roadrunner will. Slimliner of course would as well. I need to make sure there's room for a DCC decoder as well. Maybe one day a speaker. What kind of weight should I be looking for? As you say, plenty of room in the tanks for some weight.

At the minute I haven't - The overhanging side in the photo is the side I've not fitted yet. Seems the other side is a better fit. So I was a bit premature when I said it wasn't as bad as I thought... I need to "find" about 0.5mm adjustment somewhere. Interesting info, thank you - that might explain why the 1020 is so hard to find compared to other sizes!

I've also been looking at motorising the N7. I want to try and squeeze a Mashima 1420 in. With a 54:1 ratio would give a scale top speed of about 50mph. Not really sure what speed an N7 could do but going by this noone seemed to argue with gearing for about this speed (the arguement was the calculation was wrong) - https://www.scalefour.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2858 Squeezing a 1420 in may be interesting but because these locos had to pull 10 coach trains I figure a bit of power would be useful! Fortunately with the whopping great side tanks it might be possible.

Starting to take shape now - needs a but of tweaking at the bunker but not as bad as initially thought.

Annoyingly the sides are too long at the bunker end (although better than too short!) - the need to line up with the footstep point for the cab door and also the tank front alignment is fiddly as it tries to line up over thin air where the footplate has its cut out.

I'm a ways off painting anything yet but will be thinking hard about what to use when the time comes! Mental note: When doing a seam on a bit, don't just run the iron along in one go, let the first part go solid first. Tacked the bunker back on, spot on position, then when I ran the seam it promptly fell off and I've ended up with a huge mess to clean up putting it back on. Ugh! For the curved top of the bunker back I tried to fill the gap flush with solder but it just kept wicking away so will try some lower temperature stuff later on, failing that, milliput time...

Don't *think* they had steam heat but were definitely ETH - that's what the last 4 were used for after their revenue earning life.

Ooh, there's a race to see if I finish my kit first lol

If it ain't screamin' you ain't tryin'

Ha ha very true

Thanks - you can see from the picture I've had a start with a fibreglass brush On regards to paint - I'm trying to think back to when I built a DJH J50 many (many...) years ago and i think I used car primer and possibly even top coat from aerosol. I do recall it being a bit thick. But what killed the paintjob was after putting the transfers on I then sprayed it with a varnish (I'm thinking railmatch) and it started looking like overcooked cheese on toast. I could have cried - I probably did!

Seemed to work OK. These castings could really be a lot better - but way better than I could make so not complaining too much! I'm not going to do as many photos for this build as I have been and will continue for the Jamieson - it's a normal kit, there's plenty of normal kit builds on here Although not seen any Stelfox builds? Once the other side are soldered on I can start building the body That scratch is very irritating

Is that the modelling equivalent of the Heritage Lottery fund that the preserved railways use?

When I used to do asbestos surveys, on occasion I would have to fly to wherever needed doing. We'd arrange for a ladder to be on site but I had to take my own tools. The number of times I was asked why I was checking a small bag into the hold and had no hand luggage! More than once I was made to cut the cable tie I used to use to seal the toolbox - always had spares to re-seal. And when we had to do armed forces bases the base guards got VERY uppity with the toolkit contents!

I've been toying with using two strips of masking tape along the top and bottom flange - then I can see if it's still horizontal just before I flip it over to solder. Yes I think tacking might not be something easily achieved on these.

Many thanks to Gobbler for assisting with photos - I've started on the N7 bunker footsteps. The lost wax castings are, not great, but they will suffice. I'll put the worst ones at the lower position... The castings aren't rectangular, nor are my poorly filed holes (complete with a couple of scratches, d'oh!) so will need to find a way to hold the steps horizontally when soldering them in.

Depends if you got through to three in 10.

No pics but I found a class 50 kit that I vaguely recall buying from John Dutfield when I was still at secondary school so likely early 1990s. It was second hand then - already started (badly) and I've not touched it since. No idea on the brand and no instructions. I have no need for a 50 as much as I like them so will probably take the ebay gamble on it.

Don't know about pre-grouping but there's 3 Michael Harris books - LNER Carriages Gresleys Coaches LNER Standard Gresley Carriages And also Historic Carriage Drawings in 4mm scale Volume 1 by David Jenkinson and Nick Campling