jdb82

National Day here = model day! 

I've painted up some of the cab parts, and have been playing around with some weathering. After painting most of the surfaces black, and the floor a dark brown, it all needed some muckying up. A combination of a light misting of a black/brown/grey mixture with the airbrush, and a dusting of smoke and rust weathering powders give it that used look I'm after. Not perfect, but not too bad for a first go. The rust colour just above the firebox doors needs toning down  a bit maybe....looks a bit too red in certain lights.

All of the weathering done so far are what I would term "dry" effects. Next I need to make some kind of rain-effect streaks on the can roof. I have the Vallejo rain effects wash, as well as the streak grime wash, but I've not had a lot of success when practicing on scrap pieces with this yet.

certainly for the time being, mine won't be having any footplate crew.....they missed the plane over here, and will have to wait until the summer.

I was thinking along similar lines for fixing the tanks extensions. I too am building a short tank 'Canal' class.

I much prefer the Canal tanks.....always think the long tanks look a bit out of proportion. 

I have a few photos of No.67 that my dad took, which although is a long tank (Sweden type), will be good for the chassis and cab details. Give me a shout if you want them. I never made it up to the KWVR to see Hamburg that I'm modelling, and have just had to make do with photos from the web.

Hello John,

I've been following this thread with interest as I'm building the same kit. I started just after Christmas, so I'm a bit behind you (not started on the boiler yet), working on the cab interior at present. Like you I'm making this as a separate assembly. May I ask how you intend to hold all the separate parts together once painted, particularly the tank extensions? Should say this is my second loco build, the first being a Connoisseur 0-4-0 which had much more comprehensive instructions. Must also say you're making a cracking job of this build.

 

cheers

 

Steve B.

Thanks Steve! Been a bit of a learning curve for me but it all seems to be coming together quite nicely now. 

My plan for fixing the cab interior is to add short lengths of square brass bar (I think 1.5mm) to the cab walls for the drop in floor, tank extensions and backhead to butt up against. I'll then add a drop of Araldite to each one to glue them in place once everything is painted up. Not sure this is very conventional, but I didn't fancy my chances of: a) getting my soldering iron in to make a neat enough job without access from the back, and b) having enough room to paint it neatly, as space is pretty tight on these small tank engines. 

Just out of interest, are you building the long or short tank version?

John

A drop of acetone will remove any (and all) paint you’re not happy with. Probably worth having another go, rather than rubbing down.

 

Best

Simon

Thanks Simon, I'll give that a go when I'm ready to prime the loco body. Quite a bit of cleaning and polishing on that to do first mind.....

Lots of bits and pieces from the cab, and the rods cleaned up and reading for priming.

Cab pieces, rods, brake hangers and chassis after priming. Even priming is a bit of a learning curve... having practiced using a 0.2mm needle in my airbrush, I swapped to a 0.4mm needle as it kept becoming clogged up. This obviously delivers a significant amount more paint, and I ended up getting a bit of a 'drip' on the left hand end of the chassis side. At the moment, I'm unsure whether to leave it and put it down to experience, or use a fine grade of wet/dry paper and sand it down a bit. Also managed to pull a bit of the primer off the front face of one of the rods as I removed it from the paper I'd painted it on to, so will need to tend to that too.

I'm thinking I need a rivet press of some kind. From what I've found they range from £12 (LRM/Eileen's) up to about £100 for GW's finest, and GW also does a "lesser" one. Bearing in mind I'm not building vast quantities of kits, would the LRM/Eileen's one be good enough for 4mm rivet embossing? If not, what's the lowest priced one that is good?

 

Thanks

I have the gravity riveter from Eileen’s - it’s basically a a sharp-pointed steel rod with a weight that you drop from a pre-defined height. It works pretty well as long as the rivets are half etched. Anything scratch built and you’ll need to pre drill the rivets about half the thickness of the brass for it to be effective.

Almost enough here to build a clone. This is really good way to start scratchbuilding.

One step at a time! Build a few kits first, then scratch building after that! Painting is the bit I'm least sure about, so I thought using these spare bits would be could to develop a bit of confidence before tackling the real thing

Don't forget the vacuum pipes - posts 81 & 82.

 

Gordon A

Not forgotten them - they have been ordered (not part of the kit unfortunately), but post out here can take 7-8 weeks to arrive from past experience! Depending on when they do finally turn up, they may be soldered on, or they may be an Araldite addition! They'll make it on to the model at some stage though......promise.

Just been playing around with my airbrush was kindly bought for me at Christmas - first time out of the box and the first time I've ever used one. It is a thing of beauty, and very simple to use and strip down. The Agenoria kit comes with the option of making either the long or the short tank versions of the loco, and so I had a few spare etches to experiment on. 

To keep it über simple, I cleaned the etches up an gave them a coat of surface primer. To my delight, I got a silky smooth, even finish. I have an energy saving bulb in my lamp at the moment which seems to cast some very bright white areas of light, as well as some yellower areas - it's a much more uniform covering than it perhaps looks in the photos below.

My question is how much paint would you expect to use on what is essentially 2 long tanks of a model? Although I didn't fill the colour cup full, it took 2 cups of primer to cover these 4 etches. It probably amounts to about 3-4ml. It seemed to disappear very quickly - am I using far too much paint, or does that sound about right? I only brought 2 17ml bottles of primer out with me, and I'm worried I won't have enough!

Agreed! Really good weathering that we could all learn from :-) Show us how!

Folded up the steps and soldered them together this afternoon, and attached them to the running plate. Just the lamp irons to attach, and then that's everything built up and attached. That being said, I'll need to do some work to make the cab roof detachable, and I've still the pickups to do, although that's a job for after I've painted it.

I need a diagram! Can’t do it on the iPad. I’ll try to explain;

 

Put the wires through the frames so they are sticking out further than the hangers will.

Cut the thin tube to fit between frames and back of the hangers, These will be more-or-less the thickness of the wheels in length. Depends on clearance etc.

Solder this lot up solid.

Cut away the wires between the frames if needed

Carefully trim back the sticking out wires so they are long enough for the hangers to hang on, but with not much more than the thickness of the hangers sticking out past the end of the tubes.

This provides the pivots.

 

Then solder the hangers to the stretcher beams. They should clip on and off the pivots easily, and pivot fore-and-aft easily too. But they won’t go side to side. You can lean the brake shoes against the wheels whils the solder the beams on, but but if you do, make sure you clean any flux splashes off your wheels or the dreaded rust monster starts...

 

Finally, clip all the hanger assemblies onto the chassis and solder the brake pull rods to the beams. adjust the clearance to the wheels by ensuring the rod that connects to the cylinder (or handbrake) crank is the right length. You might have to arrange this to clip in too.

 

HTH

Simon

Ahhhhaa! The lightbulb above my head has finally come on! Sorry....that took me a while. I had it in my head that the tube would go on the inside of the frame. Now it makes sense! Next job is to find some suitably sized brass tube....

Sand pipes and boxes now soldered on - not cleaned them up yet. Now going to strip the chassis down ready for painting.

Contrary as always, I almost never use different solders. “Just be quick”... well it works, mostly.

 

I tried to suggest, bu5 explained badly in my previous post, it’s much easier to solder rods/stiff wire through the frames, and solder on short lengths of tube as spacers (and cut away the bit in between the frames as needed) to provide pivots for your brake hangers.

 

You don’t need to solder the hangers to the pivots, but you do solder the stretchers between pairs of hangers. This forms a square-ish “U” which you can then clip on and off. The brake linkage is the bit that keeps them all at the right angle and really close to the wheels.

 

Easier fro painting, service, etc.

 

Best

Simon

Hi Simon,

Yep, I'm still planning on following your advice, although I do need to try and find some brass tube of a suitable size somewhere - the only length I have with me here in Brunei is a little too wide. I'll cut the top wire to make them removable - these haven't been soldered to the chassis frames yet. As you say, the brake linkages are keeping everything at the correct angle - it was putting all that lot together that I was finding difficult! 

Once I have the tubes in place, what stops the whole brake assembly from sliding around side to side? Plug the tubes up with something for the top wire to push against maybe?

Are you using 145deg solder? If not, this would be a great help here, and there would be far less risk of unsoldering parts of the frames.   David

Yep, I'm using 145deg solder. I do have some low melt solder too, so maybe I solute try that.

Brake hangers now installed. Clearly I haven't yet discovered an easy set of working methods for this - I found it very difficult to hold everything in place, straight, in line with everything and the same distance from the wheels, without everything waggling around and moving. To compound this, the (what I assume is ) 0.7mm nickel silver wire that came with the kit was very reluctant to solder, and I end up with dry joints all over the place that probably need redoing. I think I wasn't holding the iron in place for long enough to provide enough heat, for fear of moving everything out of line. Still, it doesn't look too bad as long as you don't go looking too closely from the underside ;-) I will sort it all out to make it 'good' at some stage!

Not too much left to go now - sand pipes, steps and a significant amount of polishing and cleaning to prepare it for painting.

Edit: Oh, and pickups....... forgotten about them! 

Just a thought on the brake hangers.....the blocks are obviously going to sit pretty close to the wheels, which is going make taking the wheels off/putting them back on a bit tricky to do without damaging the hangers and bending a wire somewhere. Do you think it's worth me not soldering the top wire (that they hang from) that stretches across the frames yet? That way I can take them off, paint them by hand and glue it all in place after I've painted it and put the wheels back on? Or am I fussing over something that's really not a problem?!

All 6 brakes & hangers laminated, filed, cleaned up and ready to go.

I have one, which I use regularly during the build of anything brass. They’re very good as getting the crud off, and flux & other stuff out of crevices & so on, but they’ll never leave you with a model that looks polished. If you do get one, make sure it’s a biggee! It’s a question of how much use it will get.

 

There was a discussion about chassis jigs on the other channel, and I was saying that I thought they were an unnecessary expense - the proponent argued that whilst they were not absolutely necessary, he would never be without. It transpired that he built as many locos in a year as I have in my lifetime...

 

I got something very like this - about 350mm long inside.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/UK-Ultrasonic-Cleaner-Heater-Timer-Cleaning-Bath-Watches-Jwellery-Tank-Industry/401477319123?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908110712%26meid%3D0537675ac8c444458894633dfb96550a%26pid%3D100677%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D30%26sd%3D173052038610%26itm%3D401477319123&_trksid=p2385738.c100677.m4598

 

Best

Simon

I was thinking of getting a 6L one which is way bigger than I need for the Hudswell, but hopefully I'll build something a little larger in the future, and I don't want to have to buy another one! Like yours, I think its about 30cm or so long. It's one of those things that I will tell myself not to buy one until I move back to the UK (whenever that will be!), but will probably end up getting one now any way ;-)

Nice smooth running chassis there. Well done!

 

As Simon says, run it in now whilst working on other parts of the loco. A few hours running will help enormously. When you dismantle it for painting, clean it thoroughly and then place some rolled up kitchen towel or simmilar through the bearings to prevent paint getting into the bearing surfaces and jamming everything up. You may need to carefully clean all bearing surfaces on re-assembly to regain smooth running. This isn't unusual.and it isn't unusual (but is annoying as heck) to find a free-running chassis becomes a little lame after painting. Careful cleaning up will restore performance.

Yep, agree with Phil here.

Quickie for cleaning wheel bearings after painting. Line up three pairs of cotton bud sticks and a thimble full of acetone on the workbench. Immediately after painting, before it starts to harden, dip a bud in acetone, whip it through a bearing, reverse, and poke the other end through to remove any residue, repeat 5 times...

You can then take another cotton bud stick, dip it in oil, and poke it through to oil the bearings before dropping the axles back in.

The trick is finding the cotton buds that don’t shed fibres. Doesn’t matter here, but when you’re painting...

Best

Simon

Oil the bearings (a quick wipe with a cotton bud) before painting, and less paint will stick.

Obviously you still need to clean and re-oil afterwards.

Thanks chaps! Painting is getting closer, although At the speed I’m currently going, it’s probably another two or three weeks away, even bough there’s not really that much left to do. Got a couple of days off work for Chinese New Year later this month, so if I can get the last bits of construction done then I’ll be happy.

For cleaning everything up before painting, is it worth getting an ultrasonic cleaner do you think? I haven’t found any here in Brunei, although I can order one and get it delivered here, but postage costs will be a bit of a !

Not had much time to get to the workbench this week - an inspection at work, and a calling to a badminton court have gotten in the way. I have managed to make a start on laminating the brake hangers and blocks. I seem to be painfully slow when in comes to laminating and cleaning up. Not working to any deadline though, so can take my time and enjoy it. Although laminating is not my favourite aspect of building! Maybe I'll see if I can find some castings for the next kit I have lined up ;-)

Reassuringly, this looks far better in the flesh than on camera. I'll blame my dodgy photography skills. 5 more to go.

As Simon says, very smooth running.

 

But your workbench is disgustingly tidy!

 

I have used nail varnish (nicked from the missus) to lock crank pin nuts in place. You can get clear, or if the rods were painted, usually something to match.

Haha, can't say the workbench looks like that all the time, but I don't like working in too much of a mess - tidy bench, tidy mind! 

Next, I need to make all the brake hangers and sand pipes, before painting gets underway 

I’d say you’ve nailed that. It appears to run very smoothly.

 

Given it’s rigid, you can support it with the wheels off the track, and let it run in, with a drop of oil on each bearing - axles and rods - for a few hours, whilst you get on with other parts of the model. I’d be very surprised if the nuts even try to come off. If they do, there’s something wrong, so fix that, rather than hide it with threadlock!

 

Best

Simon

Is it worth waiting until after I've painted it to run it in? Just wondered whether taking it all apart would undo all the good work of running it in!

Michael, Simon, thanks for the advice! Seems like my panic may have been a little premature. As you correctly identified, once the bushes were put on, they seemed to straighten up the crankpins enough to do the job. I've filed down the bushes so they protrude through the coupling rods ever so slightly to give a little working clearance, without introducing any slop. 

I fitted the gearbox (Slaters) and motor (Mashima 26mmx16mm), wired it up and gave it a test. Given the crankpins haven't been glued, nuts not finally secured, no oiling of bearings or running in, I was pretty surprised how nicely it ran! 

https://youtu.be/ryOrUXRjW7M

Now lets hope it all still works after I've secured crankpins, bushes, nuts etc.....

Must remember not to fix the nuts until after I've painted it ;-)