Boris

Thats looking rather nice Paul, as it looks like I am no longer grounded, perhaps we can compare notes on our respective projects on Wednesday night? Any thoughts on which particular G5 it is going to be?

Some more forward progress has been made despite forced marches to Tesco/Iceland and other domestic activities. This part of the build is quite heavy going as there are myriad small parts that all have to be fitted to both ends before you even start on the body sides themselves. First off you fit what is basically a blank end which holds the body together and provides a mounting for multiple other parts and overlays. The initial overlay goes over 3/4 of the inner and has to be perfectly aligned, hence the use of bits of bent wire through the various holes to get the alignment right. I've also attached a photo of later in the build with some of the lower door detail starting to be added, I do need to remove the solder which will be done as soon as I get some more refills for the fibreglass pencil. The end door weather strips have also been added around the outer edges as has the lower door detail web and the hinge details and securing plates are just starting to be added. On the plus side, the body is now much more robust with both ends affixed. (Build time now at 87 hours)

That's an easy one, here you go: From what I can tell, the discharge pipe sits pretty much directly below the wheel on the top of the tank, IIRC there is a rod that run down through the tank body and as you turn the wheel at the top it lifts a plug like valve in the bottom of the tank body. There is also a stop valve behind the solebar on either side of the T fitting:

Here you go! If you want any photos of anything specific on these tanks, just let me know.

I've got the underframe totally finished off tonight, all underframe and headstock detail has now been added. Springing the buffers was achieved by placing a line of spring steel behind the shank and soldering on, these now work, although they are a short throw, as I tend to shorten these things slightly. As I have no feeling at all in my hands I find the little bit of extra room between vehicles means I can couple up without quite as much hassle. The vac bag has a fully detailed head, and can be fitted/removed from the dummy as per the real thing, right down to the slot and lugs having to be lined up correctly, although fitting is helped by a piece of rod that slides through the centre of the dummy! I have changed the steam bag from the one supplied, the supplied pipe was of the same design as the vac bag, and unfortunately try as I might I couldn't get it to hang correctly, and the texture of the spring is wrong for a steam bag anyway. Vac bags being ribbed and steam bags being smooth(ish), so I substituted a length of rubber tubing for an air hose as a replacement and this gives the right texture and shape. Rather than let the pipe hang I have added a length of wire from the back of the headstock to represent the retaining hook. There are a couple of ways of retaining steam bags, including lengths of chain or a 3 part hooked rod, the wire looks close enough for the latter. Last job will be to fit a feed wire from the dynamo at some point, most likely after the post finishing clean and before the pre-painting clean. I have posted one general shot, one close-up of details and one headstock picture. (Time now at 81 hours) (DELETED - and reposted to remove errant photo of cat rather than headstock - and photos cropped to remove background clutter)

Ahhh, the plot thickens, I was asking about the sprung bolster, because, as you know they come with useable coil springs. My mistake. The whole area of putting working springs on things is a bit new to me, I've only built the glass truck with working springs, they took a bit of setting up, but the effect was definitely worth it. I tend to be a little bit more of a luddite and go for a wheelset on a rocker arrangement. However, most of my stock tends only to run fairly short distances on shunting layouts and the like, so I can get away with being lazy. And I can vouch for the axlebox castings being tough, having had to drill 8 of them out to accept the bearings, it's tough going with a pin chuck.

If you don't want to do rivets, Roberts of Wakefield apparently started welding some tanks quite early on (WW2ish?). If I remember i'll go out and take some photos of some Roberts tanks like this one for referance tomorrow, failing that feel free to swear at me.

So, thinking about it, most of the compensation must be through the extra play included when the bolster is sprung later on in the assembly? Interesting, but I think I'm going to stick with my unsprung bogies at the moment, for the time being anyway. Anyway, those are looking really good, best of luck with assembling the brake gear!

Welcome to another meeting of insomniacs anonymous, a night of sleeping with SWMBO doing her world renowned Sherman tank impression has led to a surge in underframe progress during the small hours of the morning. All underframe detail parts have now been added, these include the battery boxes, distribution boxes, regulators etc. A small amount of work has also been undertaken removing blobs of errant solder that had escaped previous attentions. The only jobs left to do now on the underframe are the headstock details, bogie and dynamo belt fitting and painting. Painting however will be left until everything else is done just in case I find a bit that I have missed reading further on in the instructions. Unfortunately my digital camera is quite old and is not in the hands of a skilled operator as I would love to be able to show you the fine detail on the battery boxes and the other nickel silver detail parts. (Time now at 74 hours - and seeing that photo full size has shown me another errant solder blob)

Hi Richard If you wouldn't mind posting a picture or two, I'd be very interested to see how the springing arrangement goes together, compared to mine which are fixed and use the castings. Boris

I do accept that it may have been the exception rather than the norm though!

That's coming together quite nicely, I've never been a big fan of Slaters tank bodies, and I must say that the brass overlay makes a very good alternative.

Yes, they are preservation vehicles, however I know for a fact that not one of the vehicles has had the vacuum cylinders removed since preservation as they are intended for storage only and not as runners. I've managed to talk to a friend via facebook as well today who used to work on these things in the 70s and 80s, and he has confirmed that latterly, certainly where he was concerned that he wasn't too fussy which way round a vacuum cylinder was as long as it worked. It is one of these preserved examples that the model is based on anyway as I am attempting to buy one, next one I build will have inside feeds, then everyone is happy!

Hi Bob, Thanks for taking the time to reply on the thread. Unfortunately I do have to disagree with you on the placement of the valve in relation to the solebar/centreline. Because I'm getting paranoid in my old age I have been out and had a look at 3 GUVs this morning, namely 86604, 93545 and 93813. The first of these vehicles has the feeds on the inside as you say, but 93545 has both cylinders fed from the solebar side as I have modelled, however 93813 showsone cylinder with an outside feed, and one where the feed is on the inside. The referance photos supplied with the kit also show both types of feed quite clearly, and as far as I can tell, yes, they were built with the feed on the inside. It would appear that as time wore on cylinders were apparently refitted back to front at some point, and, as I am heading towards modelling a vehicle in the late 70's I think I can probably get away without turning the cylinders, not that it would be much of a problem.

I've not updated for a couple of days, largely down to being very busy putting dozens of dinky components onto that underframe picture I posted not so long ago. Some of these items are now complete, first up is the drag box/draw hook assembly, this is a departure from the traditional O gauge (and other scales) sprung coupling; the one where a spring is threaded over the back of the coupling behind the headstock and held in place with a split pin. Instead the spring is placed in a slot inside the widened (behind headstock) end of the cast coupling and a thick piece of brass rod inserted through 2 holes in a drag box (see here) and sandwiched in. This allows the draw hook to spring in and out as per a standard O gauge sprung coupling, it also allows side to side travel and is self centreing behaving much more like the real thing. The next part of the build is to add the dynamo casting, mount and associated wires, this isn't the easiest component in the world to assemble as it has some truly tiny etched nickel silver parts, including a tiny key screw for unscrewing the dynamo nosecone. An etched dynamo belt is also provided, I will be fitting this later when the bogies are fixed in place. The dynamo even comes with tiny rings for mounting the safety chain (which stops the dynamo travelling/swinging too far should the belt snap), and a cast set of wires running from the dynamo up into the coach. Once the dynamo is fitted and correctly aligned, you can move on to the vacuum brakes. These comprise a number of castings including cylinders, DA valves, release valves and pipework, not to mention myriad tiny cranks and other fittings to allow modelling of an almost perfect cylinder set. This photo shows loads of blobs of solder etc. which have now been removed from the underframe along with the errant flux blobs! I must admit that here I disagree with the placement of one of the components on the cylinder assembly, the item closest to the solebar on the base of the cylinder is the manual release valve for releasing the vacuum brakes manually. This is accessed from a string on the solebar at either side of the vehicle, two per cylinder, one to either side. The "handle" type assembly on the right of this item is the actual release that the strings attach to, and should be mounted fore and aft on the vehicle (otherwise pulling the string generally means the valve won't work) and the instructions have it mounted side to side. I have now completed both cylinders and associated cranks etc. and am about to start installing the handbrake wheel assemblage, which I KNOW is going to be fiddly as it includes tiny cog etches. (Time now at 66 hours!)

I must say, those pictures are quite inspirational, they remind me of growing up in the late 70s and early 80s with the very last of the industrial steam (and some diesel) in the remains of the Ashington coal field. Mind you I'm also impressed with the girth of the shunter in one of those first pictures, I didn't realise they made orange overalls quite that large!

Now THAT is cool! That looks superb, well done.

Thank you both for your kind comments gentlemen, I'm not convinced about producing a professional finish, but I appreciate the sentiment, especially if you saw the solder lake I created on the underframe web that I spent 45 minutes cleaning off! I've managed to get cracked on a bit later last night and a bit more this afternoon, both solebars and central underframe trusses have been added, the solebars were quite easy thanks to the slot and tab guides on the main underframe web. Then came the central trusses, I won't repost the actual language used because I value the continuing use of my RMweb account, lets just say that the air was a pretty shade of dark blue at one point or another. The idea is that the trusses are folded and then set into slots located in those cross stretchers fitted the other day. This is further aided by more slots and tabs and half etch lines in the main web, however, human nature being what it is, and the tolerances being exceedingly fine, a certain amount of fettling was required to get everything to line up and sit correctly. Not to mention that any over application of force could distort the underframe making the entire assembly process later impossible. Suffice to say that these have now been fitted and fettled, and the myriad small parts that complete the main underframe assembly. We're now into the realms of the really fiddly stuff that actually makes the underframe look decent, there's now a lot of "create assembly X and set aside for future use", so don't panic if there are no updates for a while, I'm just waiting until I feel I have done enough to give you something worthwhile to look at. Firstly a picture of the completed underframe mounted on its bogies: And the body perched on top for an ego pleasing moment so I can see what the finished article may look like: Finally I'm off to take the bogie back off the underframe and give the whole assembly a bloody good clean before I go any further. (EDIT - Build Time now 54 hours) - thanks peejay!

Hi Richard, Yes, I'm afraid that is 39 hours total spent solely building bogies. I reckon if you are adding the working springs option you can probably add a couple of hours to that total. However, as both bogies are essentially identical you could probably reduce the build time substantially by building both sets of bogies together rather than one after another like I did. Moving on, todays progress on the underframe, showing the bogie mounts (the outer 2 trusses at either end), and the 5 cross trusses. I've manahed to get about 8 hours in since making that post last night thanks to a fantastic case of insomnia! There is nothing particularly hard about building this part of the model, however the trusses are time consuming to construct as they are composed of roughly 8 parts each, and have to be mounted exactly central and upright because the main fore and aft trusses slot into cuts in the cross stringers. I've also folded up the buffer beam for the hell of it! As an aside I've managed to fold up the solebars (same length as the underframe web), as rooting through a convenient skip the other day I managed to find an antique vice with jaws that must be about 550mm accross, and because the jaws of the vice aren't chewed it makes a fantastic, if heavy, way of making long folds. Next job is clean the tabs off the underframe web, as I left them on until I had some pieces soldered on for strength because I didn't want to risk distorting the etch if I got overenthusiastic with the file. After that task the fun begins, bend up and fix the central underframe trusses, another long job, and then there are the queen post etches to add and loads of other bits to give the correct profile for a rolled girder frame. (Time now at 48 hours!) EDIT - Dynamo side solebar fitted in 15 minutes of stressful and super careful soldering

I've not updated for a few days because I have been pressing on with the 2nd bogie, and it's a bit daft reposting items that have already been covered. Bogie 2 is now complete and has passed the plate of glass and the electrical shorting test, so I'm starting to look carefully at the underframe, which is the next part of the kit, if built in sequence. This is just to give you an idea of the size of the underframe etch, easily 400mm of nice thin brass fret to play with, it is absolutely essential that this part of the kit is kept totally flat whilst all the underframe trusses and details are added otherwise you will have little chance of getting everything to go together, and even less chance of it running nicely. I've elected to build this part of a sheet of glass to give me the best chance of keeping everything even. (Time invested now at 39 hours)