Luigi Taveri

I picked up a Custom Finishing HO pewter kit of a US railroad tamper on eBay last year. I’d always admired them but had never constructed a white metal kit before, and I've not built it yet. However, I did quite bit of research including a very useful RMWeb posting ( www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/39669-soldering-white-metal ), purchasing and reading Iain Rice’s Whitemetal Locos (A Kitbuilder’s guide), and Nigel Burkin’s guide to Building Modern 4mm wagons. I wanted a practise build first and initially went looking for a 4mm wagon kit before coming across this MTK Class 59/1 unbuilt kit at a very good price. My first impressions of the castings were quite favourable although I did spend a good deal of time filing pieces (and I didn’t resent spending that time filing either). Now things have gone better than expected so I wanted to share my positive experiences after a long period of procrastination. In fact I had to pause to take some photos of what was left remaining because it had gone that well, and I’d really enjoyed the experience. Having said that, it isn’t perfect and I do have some questions about it. On the basis of my research, I assembled a collection of suitable tools including 25W 230v Antex soldering iron Ceramic tipped tweezers (A very nice) 2” Engineer’s Square Wire brush set Glassfibre brush White metal solder I already had Fry’s Powerflow flux Various bulldog clips, blutack A selection of files including a coarse b*stard file I also made a work station from an offcut of worktop and topped with heat resistant traffolyte. I also purchased a 230v dimming switch to use as a temperature control but in the end I never used it. Foxy

I’ve read all the above with great interest, particularly when it deviated into Q Kits as well. These are the only two items of 4mm OO scale that I own. I built the Q Kits 40 when I was about 14-15 (37 years ago!). I got rid of my British stock in the mid-90s but kept this because I built it. It’s a bit bright with it’s gloss varnish but I think it came out reasonably well. I seem to think the nose doors and fittings were A1 parts, I cut and filed a Hornby 37 radiator fan into place and flush glazed. It’s sat on a Mainline Peak chassis. And it still looks like a Class 40. As to the MTK kit behind, this is the first whitemetal kit I’ve ever built and I’ve just finished assembling it as a tester for something else. A lot of filing, (and probably a lot more work in filling and filing if I was to continue with it) and it isn't perfect by any means but it looks like a Class 59, and to that end I’m really pleased (I intend posting some more about this elsewhere on the forum as I’ve got some questions on general technique).

I found this lying on my work bench after posting and should help explain a bit further? Foxy

Another posting! I’ve always enjoyed plastic kit building and the Proto2000 3 bay covered hopper has been a favourite because of it’s good quality. However, it doesn’t seem to have been everyone’s favourite and I’ve collected a fair number of kits at very good prices. However, at 12 number built and 4 remaining un-built, even I’d come to a limit on three bay hoppers, until I came across this example in one of the Morning Sun X Car volumes. Microscale Genstar container decals (although I’ve struggled for smaller lettering for the “cement” wording written below Genstar – these are former Calaveras Cement Hoppers). Straightforward cut and shut with minor mods to the kit pieces and angle reinforcement inside. Needed a new roof from plasticard and I cut down Plano walkways to suit (the P2K kit walkway could also be cut to fit). I utilised spare hopper hatches from a Detail Associated 2 Bay covered hopper kit - they need toning down having looked at the photo. I’ve struggled to find these hopper hatches as a separate item – they use to be available as DA 6218. Therefore I’m hoping the 9mm hole punch on order from eBay will allow me to progress the remaining 3 P2K kits into further 2 bay covered hoppers.

This is a circa 25 year project! I’ve had the Bachmann model since the early 90s, initially upgrading the chassis to a Bachmann Plus B23-7 but it never stood comparison with the later Atlas U-Boats and B-Boats. I've completed this conversion on and off over the last couple of years, with a bit of push over the last three months. There have been a number of articles on upgrading to the Atlas body and chassis and it isn’t difficult. There are a couple of key issues. The first being that the Bachmann cab is approx. 1mm too wide and it was just about finding the courage(!) to razor saw cut down the centre of the roof and the centre of the nose and then just glue it straight back together again. A new front door and new headlight fitting assists this. Otherwise the other main problem is the glazing. I have taken the time to use offcuts from AMB glazing sets and filed them to fit. I hate filing for flush glazing and I have put that off but it is really worth the effort. Previously I’d back glazed the Bachmann unit and it showed it for what it was. And then there’s the paint job! I’m running units suitable for early 90s to early 00s and by that stage BQ23-7s weren’t particularly well looked after. I also wanted a Family Lines scheme to stand out from the SBD and CSX schemes already in place on my layout and CSX 3001 quite appealed. Google it and you’ll see that it is a mix of shades of grey, and it’s not neat. I’m more than happy with the finish in the flesh although I can’t make up mind whether the tones are too harsh in the photo? The decals are from Microscale and needed cutting to suit the missing lettering, as well as altering the position of the herald to bring it closer to the front of the ribbons than Microscale print it. CSX 3001 is an interesting choice as it has more windows plated over than the rest of the class (equalling less filing of small pieces of plastic glazing). It also doesn’t have the distinctive hand wheel brake on the front platform that the rest of the class have – I had problems trying to secure this on the previous model attempt so I was happy to avoid this as well. There are some compromises. I haven’t bothered modelling the front left (brakeman’s) replacement window frame. I tried not to overdo the weathering and avoided including the big patch of light rust between the front windows. It just struck me that I wouldn’t make it look convincing on the model and it was better left off. I may go back and weather the sun shades with rust effect shown on the prototype photos but I’ve not come across a photo looking down onto the cab roof and again I don’t know whether it would look right. (There are also other compromises in the photo – it is a corner of the layout that still needs finishing, and the covered hopper is awaiting some weathering and completion of the installation of the roof walk but that is for another time). Foxy