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The Fatadder

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  1. The Fatadder

    dean D14 part 3

    By The Fatadder,

    Next up was the roof, prior to taking drastic action I decided to have a go at the roof.
    I started by using a couple of Lima ballast weights to pin the roof flat to the workbench. I then glued the end pieces into position, then glued the clesterory side into position. In the centre the roof had bowed by 6mm below the datum point. Once the ends of the side were in position I the forced this up and glued into place
     
    I did find the bowing along the length of the side compounded the problem, if (when) I make another of these I am likely to run a length of brass strip along this side blocking the windows (plated over on the prototype)
     
    The tops of the compartments needed some fettling to get a good fit, and once painted will need gluing into place. In the below photo it's clear a tad more work is needed to get a good fit at one end.
     
    I have also fitted the first solbar along with the two etched plates that sit on either end of the chassis (not exactly sure what for)
     
    Finally made a start on the seats, although they don't match the diagram.
     
    Really impressed with this kit, the only downside being the bowed parts (though as a 2nd hand kit of undetermined age I won't hold this against it). The instructions are fantastic (right mix of text and diagrams) and the choice of material is spot on with brass used where it's best). Hopefully Coopercraft will have them back in production soon as I rather fancy an all third clesterory and 3 toplights...
     

  2. The Fatadder

    Dean d14 part 2

    By The Fatadder,

    Construction has now started,
     
    First up I removed all the main parts from the spur and removed the excessive amount of flash present on some parts. Once cleaned up the holes were drilled for all the fittings
     
    I departed from the instructions and started with one side and end before adding the floor. This was then followed by the other end and finally the other side.
    Once complete I added the lookout on one side and a repair panel with no beading on the other (one side of the other lookout was damaged). While I have now exact photo to work from (I don't have the Harris coach book yet), I am working from photos of clestories in the Russell books and following typical modifications
     
    Next to be fitted were the internal partition walls, the fit in the slots needed a bit of fettling, but once glued and set with an engineers square
     
    Before adding the solbar and the interior details I decided to test fit the roof, this was the worst part in terms if warping, and as can be seen in the photos it's not good. My hope is that adding the clestory will straighten it out as my original plan for two strips of 1mm by 6mm brass will not work with the compartment walls.
     
    If this does not work the alternative is to glue the roof on, requiring the inside and body to be painted first...
     
    Today I intend to fit the solbar and interior, and depending on time maybe start painting the insides of the coach.
    Would be so much easier if butanol / enamel paints were more inert as I've got plenty of time sat with baby sleeping (I know I could use acrylics but I am not keen on the coverage), but don't want any nasty chemicals anywhere near her

  3. The Fatadder
    Continuing from my thread on oldRMweb, I have made a little more progress on my rake of Foster Yeoman PTA
    The underframe ribs are now completed, adding the reinforcements to the outer headstocks and the wider ribs over the bogies.
    The headstock reinforcement was fabricated with the chopper set to carefully cut along its length to get the two heights (a further small step needed removing from one corner to allow clearance over the packing pieces which support the ribs.
    Whereas the ribs themselves were cut from 60thou strip laminated either side of a further piece of 60tho to get the width. This ensured an accurate cut (the chopper dosn't like really thick plastic). Given that the bogie bolts go right through the middle of the rib, I fabricated it in 2 halves with a 3mm gap in the centre for clearance.
     
    Once this was completed, the other major task was preparing the inner headstocks for Kaydees, In order that they could offer both inner and outer wagons, Lima moulded one headstock attached to the chassis, and the other to the body. The chassis mounted headstock was lost when I started this project (when the old chassis was binned) so to save time these were replaced with plasticard (with the kaydee hole cut off model). For the other end I kept the lima headstock (for strength), so it needed the holes cutting out. Thankfully the plastic used on these wagons is very soft, so it was a very quick job cutting out the five holes!
     
    The below photo shows the current state of the work:

     
    The next job is going to be fitting the tops to the ribs (10 thou evergreen strip), followed by the underframe equipment. Once this is out the way the final job will be preparing the bogie retention bolts (which are going to be counter sunk into the floor of the wagon, then glued in place.) After which it will be ready for painting (or more to the point doing the other 5 wagons!) I've just dug out the bogies I brought for this rake a long time back, and they were a lot worse than I remembered. As such, its not going to be possible to finish until new bogies are available, which is probably the reason why I havent done much more on this.....
     
    That said, I have been looking at how I am going to finish them, My link from Paul Bartlett may provide the inspiration to get another project finished. A long time back I brought one of the intercity Models etched kits for the second wagon in that set, while the floor is bodged beyond use, Im thinking about soldering up the sides and bogies and using with a plasticard chassis to add something a bit different to go with the rake.
     
    I have been wondering what to do about the livery for them, it seems that there was a change of livery in 1989, but I was wondering if this version (Caib branding with the big Y yeoman logo) had appeared in 88...
    My thinking at the moment tends towards an ex works set in the new livery and a very weathered set in the old. Or doing a set in Yeoman and a set in ARC...
     
    To go with it I have a set of 12 POA boxes (in Yeoman and Tiger grey), a set of PGAs (mix of Hornby and Lima awaiting detailing, although the latter is very tempting for gunnul conversion.....)
     
    And of course a couple of 59s which are part fitted with Bachmann 66 innards (and desperately want finishing...)
  4. The Fatadder

    Dean d14 clestory

    By The Fatadder,

    I have the in laws visiting the baby this evening, which will give me a couple of hours off baby duty and let me get into the workshop.
     
    My plan is to get on with an eBay purchase of a slatters clestory d14,
    While it's the toplights I am really after, getting this kit at a good price was too good to miss. The intention being to use it as part of a summer Sunday special.
     
    Looking at the kit there's tons of detail, although most of the main plastic parts are badly bowed (is this common with slatters) so some strengthening and straightening will be needed
     
    I'm also planning to model it with duckets, and will also be removing some of the panelling. I want an example right at the end of its life in patch painted and weathered in pre war choc & cream
     
    Not actually got a photo to work from which doesn't help
  5. The Fatadder

    Gwr open c

    By The Fatadder,

    Currently on my work bench is a wagon I have been after for some time, a Ratio kit for a GW Open C.
    I think I am right in saying this is a 30 year old kit, but the crispness in some of the mouldings is still rather good, all be it slightly let down in some of the finer components.
     
    The solebars come moulded as part of the sides, I think this has the net result of making them significantly over width (while the body looks like it matches the drawings in Ackins et al).
     
    I have chosen to model the example photographed within Ackins (which is also repeated on the Ratio packaging). When finished it will be painted in the post war GW livery and loaded with some large diameter pipes for delivery to the reservoir at Cheddar.
     
    Construction started with the 2 piece floor, I removed the necessary ribs from the underside to provide clearance for Bill Bedford springing units, before gluing the two halves together. An inch length of Brass U channel was superglued in the centre across the joint to add further strength.
     
    Next the body was constructed, ensuring all was square, before carefully cutting off the corners of the headstock to get the required angles. Buffers were replaced with some castings of the later type (again working from the Ackins photo)
     
    Moving onto the chassis, it suffers from an unusual problem. The solebars are too wide apart (by approx. half a mm each side) which makes the etched W irons look a bit strange recessed so far in. To solve this I took the plastic W irons Ratio supply, removed a channel for the bearing to move in, and glued in place overlaying the etching. (God knows how you get this kit to work in OO!)
     
    Finally break gear was cobbled together with the Ratio shoes, V hangers and leavers along with various scratch built brackets and rods, working from photos. Not 100% accurate, but good enough for the layout.
  6. The Fatadder
    Finally Berkeley castle has been completed,
    The below footplate lining was scraped off with a flat knife blade, along with microsol as a softener.
     
    Moving onto the tender, I had hoped to keep the original gw arms crest, however after removing the great western lettering I realised it was not in the right place for the new logo so that had to go as well.
    Again the method was gentle scraping with multiple applications of microsol.
     
    Once complete HMRS transfers were used to rebrand the tender, along with adding new numbers to the buffer beam
    I know there are a few minor detail differences in rivet locations on the front frame, but for once I think it's close enough.
    The tender is intended for Nunney Castle once the new gw liveried castle hits the shelves (current eta Boxing Day). This gives me the Hawksworth tender needed for Berkeley.
     
    It's still oo for the time being, I don't really want to start working on another conversion where the cylinders overlap the driving wheel (and the clearance issues associated with it) until I get the 38xx and the mogul working properly. Hopefully in that time brassmasters will release an easichas pack.

     
    The photo also shows a bit of rework on the layout, trying to set the overgrown siding a little better. Needs a lot more bushes but I think it's an improvement
     
    The next main modelling job...
    Garage conversion into a modelling room, I now have all the bits for phase 1 (phase 2 is to add a door and window into the side come the summer). Sadly I think it will be too narrow for a continuous run (I think the best I could get would be about 3ft radius, which I think will probably be too tight for large steam locos in p4)
    That said I might give it a go on a test board once the garage is finished...
  7. The Fatadder
    While I have been thinking about how to do the next steps on the tender (thanks again to Mike G for the advice)
    I have been cracking on with the body
     
    First up the Dapol firebox was removed, it had already been cut at the cab end to clear the new cab front, so. Careful cut along the boiler end, along with using a scalpel to score two lines along the splashes.
    Then using the trusty xurons the top was broken. And carefully snapped along the cut line.

     
    Next up a Hornby 8f was dismantled and then hacked up to provide a new firebox. All the lms details have been carved off and filled ready for replacement with gw parts. The photo below sees it test fitted in place .

     
    A little filler will be required to blend the splashed into the bottom of the firebox (given the over width original),
     
    The next job is to add the missing bottom of the boiler, for this I am planning to reuse the bottom of the 8f boiler
     
    Back to the tender, I have soldered in the front and coal scope (both need a lot of cleaning up of my poor soldering). Still really strugelling to get enough heat, so will be ordering a bigger tip rom eilieens ASAP.
     
    Rather than messing around scratch building an accurate coal shoot side, I am thinking of adding a flat top and a scratch built fire iron tunnel, then adding a full load of coal (as per the prototype photo I am working from).
    This will be the main job for the weekend
    I want to crack on and get the body and tender finished before I get tempted to work on the 42xx when the brassmasters bits arrive next week
  8. The Fatadder
    Now that the nights are drawing in, and the temperature is falling. Its time to get the soldering iron out again.
     
    Before I make a start on building my Finney Dean Goods, I thought the Falcon Tender for the County would be a good call. (the plan being to follow this with the chassis for the Dapol body.)
     
    So far this project has seen a bit of progress focused on the loco body, the cab has been rebuilt with the Jackson parts and an 8f body has been purchased to supply a new firebox.
     
    So onto the tender, certainly this is the most difficult etched kit I have put together to date (mostly due to the age of the design). But so far Ive been enjoying the build
     
    The first step was soldering up the buffer beams, followed by opening up the holes to accept the sprung buffers. a bit of a tedious job which seemed rather pointless (why only etch a hole a fraction of the diameter of the buffers.)
     

     
    Next up was the valance on the sides, pressing the rivets and laminating the two parts. comparing with photos there appear to be a few rivets missing here, my plan is to add these post completion with Archers transfers

     
    Then the 4 parts were soldered onto the baseplate. To assist with this I knocked up a simple jig to help keep everything square, without acting as a heat sink. This was made from a couple of lengths of sleeper along with 2 metal pins to keep it locked in position. First the headstocks were soldered on, followed by the valances.

     
    Now it was time for the most important job, and the one I had been dreading. Forming the curves on the rear of the tender. These were wrapped around a length of brass rod (iirc it specified 3/8). Once fitted it was almost perfect, needing only fractional adjustment.
    However the tabs which locate it onto the baseplate were far too long (fully visible under the plate). So out with the file, and it was filed down to the thickness of the brass baseplate. Its now ready for soldering.

  9. The Fatadder
    Following up from the work on this loco the other day, here is a photo of the finished windows:
    (unfortunately I didn't take a 'before' photo, but there are plenty of the Airfix/Hornby 14xx online.)
     

     
    Unfortunately an inability to spray at the moment, means that I cannot finish off the loco. Possibly once the new layout room is converted the temperature inside the garage will be ok for spraying.
     
    The longer the loco goes without being painted, the more modifications I seem to be making to it. I am now giving serious thought to replacing the sandbox linkages with separate parts (shame no one makes an etch)
     
    Moving onto the 42xx, the below photo shows the current state. Roof is removed for painting the interior, the filler in the sides needs a little more touching up prior to painting. Interested to see what is going to be in the Branchlines detailing kit, I suspect at the very least those glazing bars and missing rear doors will be there!
    I also need to straighten the running plate, but again I will hold fire until I have the new chassis in 2 weeks time.
     
    Looks like next spring is going to be rather busy with the spray gun, with these two along with 7723 requiring a coat of GW green paint.
     
    Next to enter the works will be 7723 which will be getting its new injectors, window grills and a few other details fitting.
     
    I have also been doing some research on my 2 castles, I had seen mention that 4085 Berkeley Castle ran with a Hawksworth tender in my period, however I have yet to find a photo confirming this (in 39 and in 52 it had the collett version) Similarly I understood Nunney Castle had the Collett tender, but the closest photo I have found (early BR crest dated 1950) had a Hawksworth tender. This turns things around a bit, with the ex Tintagnal Berkeley Castle keeping Tintagnals 4000gl Collett tender, and when I get Wellington (if Hornby ever deliver...) it can be a straight renumber to Nunney.
    Does remind me of another job for this afternoon, bringing Berkeley's tender up to post war livery...
  10. The Fatadder

    Hornby 42xx

    By The Fatadder,

    Since they were released I have rather fancied getting one of the large GW tanks from Hornby, however given the low specification of the model I was rather put off by the £100 price tag.
     
    However having found a damaged (and non painted) model on ebay for a sensible price, I couldn't resist...
     
    First up the problems:
    It needs a new chimney, 3 new steps, a superheater cover, tank vents and of course a set of sprung buffers fitting. There are also a couple of bit of damage to the side which need to be filled.
     
    it will also be getting an Easichas kit from Brassmasters later in the year when they release it.
     
    As for an identity, I am a little undecided for now. It is of course far to heavy for the Strawberry Line, though I think the line through to Kites Croft must have been upgraded during the war to allow heavier trains.....
     
    Thinking about it, a St Blazey based 42xx would be rather nice going into Blackcombe with a rake of GW china clay wagons.......
  11. The Fatadder
    3863 - Hornby conversion
     
    As previously mentioned at the weekend, I have been working on converting 3863 to P4.
    The initial conversion at the weekend showed that the crank pin nuts on the lead axel fouled the crosshead, and that the drive gear was loose on the axle.
     
    I initially attempted to cure the latter with an application of loctight, however it still persisted. I have now stripped it down and attempted to resolve through the application of additional knurling to the axle (attacking with a xuron cutter) which appears to have done the trick.
     
    The lead crank pin nuts were filed down, and the crank pin sleeve reduced to match the rod. Upon refitting it still fouled the plastic mounting bracket that supports the crosshead, so some careful material removal was required (it still needs even more to get a reliable joint!)
     
    Upon reassembly I noticed that the 2nd axle on the right hand side has a the wrong sleeve fitted to the crank pin (which means it now fouls), so another dismantle and reassemble is needed before fitting that part.
     
    Hopefully this will be the final work to get the loco working...

     
    Moving onto 3215, I finally made it to the Yate modelshop on the way home from work today and picked up a pack of HMRS GW loco transfers. So finally 3215's tender has been branded up. Given the loco was delivered right at the point of nationalisation I have decided to put the early British Railways logo in GW typeface on one side of the tender (for something a little different) while sticking with the post war G W R on the other.
    While I was at it the buffer beam numbers were added. So now I just need to get some plates ordered...

  12. The Fatadder
    A while back I was inspired by a photo of a 57xx pannier on Paul Marshall-Potter's Albion Yard blog, I decided that I would replace the rear windows on my pannier and 58xx with the Mainly Trains etch. This is a nicely done Ian rice designed part which comes with enough to do a good few locos. It's still a bit too flat compared to the prototype, but having the glass behind the etch should look a lot better than having window bars which are a scale 3 inches thick!
     
    After a lot of procrastination, I've finally got an etch (via the classifieds) and I have set to fitting it to 5813.
     
    The original bars were carefully removed with a sharp scalpel, I then carefully enlarged the window to match the etch.
    Looking at photos both the front and rear windows on the airfix 14xx are too short and too narrow, so the next job will be opening up the size of the front windows.
    See the prototype here. http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/gallery/image/46668-left-hand-tank/
     
    Before gluing the etch in position the final job was to cut new windows to fit (before putting away until after painting)
     
    For the 57xx it was a little easier as the windows were more or less the right size, I am however tempted to try and model the front windows open...
     
    Will try and add the model photos tomorrow...
  13. The Fatadder

    59004 - new chassis

    By The Fatadder,

    A few weeks back at Scaleforum, I got into a conversation about Mendip operations, causing a bit of a spike in my interest in getting on with finishing a couple of my stone projects
     
    59004 uses a lima 59/0 body on a Bachmann Class 66 chassis. The chassis has been modified with the lima sideframes (suitably modified to add the missing corner), modified Bachmann fuel tanks and scratch built air tanks / battery boxes.
    The chassis is now finished and painted (and converted to P4), which just leaves the body.
     
    The A1 grill (which has been placed over the hole cut many years ago) looks so dated, Going to have to get on and use something else (so this wont get finished until I get round to drawing something up I suspect...)
  14. The Fatadder
    One project which has sat in the to do pile for a long time has been my castle
     
    The intention is to take what was Tintagnal Castle and renumber to 4085 Berkeley Castle which will be partnered with the Hawksworth tender from this yeas GW castle release. The tender from Tintagnal will then be used with the later loco from Wellington to produce Nunny Castle.
    Both locos have been picked for the names rather than the use (so I hope they will fit prototypically with a future layout with red coded track.)
     
    Berkeley Castle given that the real castle is in the next village over (complete with 4085's name plates on the wall), while Nunny Castle is where I proposed.
     
    Renaming was a fairly straight forward process, cutting the green splasher off the plate and only fitting the name part (wish they would do just the name!) the buffer beam numbers came off easily and will be replaced with HMRS transfers (although I need to get a new pack after failing to find any at Scaleforum.) Still need to strip the Great Western logo off the tender and re brand with the post war G crest W
     

     
    Will still be a while until I get it converted, need to get a couple of the current in progress locos finished first (which means cracking the outside cylinder problem...)
     
    I also picked up the crankpin washers for 3863, although after fitting and assembling the wheels I have found more material needs to be removed from the crank pins to clear the slide bars (I wish someone would make a lower profile crankpin nut) I was having bit of a clumsy evening so decided to stop at that point! I will have another go soon.
     
    Scaleforum also resulted in a bunch of other useful bits
    Including another coopercraft GW Van, Ian Kirk GW 4 plank and ballast open, Parkside GW van and Gunpowder Van, Ultrascales for a tender and a 14xx, along with some books (the Ian Rice book on chassis should prove useful with the current problems!)
  15. The Fatadder
    As previously mentioned this the body has already been built following the coopercraft, all that remained was to build the chassis and detail.
     
    I have started off by adding weight, I cant stand the liquid stuff, preferring to work with lead sheet. so a 3 bits of lead were cut to fit the 3 recesses in the floor, this places the majority of the weight directly above the suspension units. (to save time the second build has it fitted inside the van.....)
     
    The solebars have been filed down to provide clearance for a pair of Bill Bedford units, and a set of Maygib 3 hole disk wheels have been scavenged from one of my modern wagons to provide cover until I can get some more axles from C&L so that I can replace with Exactoscale wheels. (A second hand purchase of Exactoscale wheels has left me with lots of wheels, but only parallel axles for them. leaving a decision to either get parallel bearings or pin point axles...)
     
    Once fitted it was onto the brake gear, I've added some brass rod for some of the linkages. but it is still missing the cam linkage between the brakes and the lever (nothing important then......) Does someone make a good etch for this?
     
    I've also repainted part of 3215's tender, (when removing the BR early crests the green paint also came off with it.) Fortunately Phoenix GWR green has proved a very good match. Now need to remember where the G W R transfers are (or more likely pop to Yate on Friday after work and buy a new pack!)
     
    Realised after taking the photo that a wheelset in the wagon to the left has popped out making one side higher than the other (now fixed)

  16. The Fatadder
    Given the heat of the summer, I have next to no interest in doing any soldering. This is a bit of a problem when it comes to the need to finish a few locos that require etched chassis...
     
    As a result, I have decided to bring forward my second 2251 and use the Ultrascales that I was going to use in the etched chassis for 2220.
     
    A quick conversion later and it is now running. However it is not that smooth a runner, and seems to have very poor slow speed control. I suspect the latter is not helped by the poor quality DC controller (and will hopefully improve under DCC fitting.) I have just decided to switch DCC controllers, having recently ended up buying a second hand ZTC 511 (with the intention of upgrading it to the 611 later in the year.)
    After making a small profit on selling my original 511, I've ended up getting this one for about a third what the old one sold for back in the mid 2000s...
     
    Anyway, back to the point, the 511 has a DC capability (which was missing from the Powercab I currently have) and will enable a better test of this locos slow speed control.
     
    More of a concern is the jerky running, there is a bit of slop in the coupling rods (the ultrascale crankpins not being a good fit in Bachmann's holes.) Other than that there is a possibility of a quatering issue (one wheel had slipped on its axle, before I reset it and applied locktight.)
     
    Getting back to the model,
    It has had the BR shed code and smokebox no plate removed, along with the smoke box dart. This will now be replaced with a separate part, along with some evergreen strip for the door bracket. the large amount of flash along the boiler top joint has been carefully carved off, which will now need a touch up to blend in along with a little weathering. (If I can find which box the airbrush's paint cup ended up in when we moved, the plan is for some spraying GW green over the weekend...) It will then be renumbered to 3215
     
    The tender still needs to be rebranded (according to rail UK introduced in December 1947, I'm unsure as to whether this would have been released to traffic with the G W R logo, the new British Railways in GW font or just a plain green tender. For something a bit different I am thinking about going for GWR on one side and British Railways on the other)
     
    Longer term, the loco will eventually get a new chassis from High Level, along with similar body mods as 2220 once that loco is complete and working...
  17. The Fatadder
    Last night I got on with the initial stages of the next batch of wagons, All of which are now waiting for
     
    First up a a Coopercraft Loco Coal open, and a 4 plank open. Coopercraft open wagons are a bit of a pain, given that Coopercraft have moulded the floor much too high.
    As a result I have corrected it by removing all of the ribs on the underside of the floor, then glued it in the correct position to the sides / ends. The solbars were then modified to remove the 2mm additional length on the top, getting them back down to scale height. (these have yet to be fitted, pending buying some more springing units.)
     
    Next a pair of Coopercraft Minks, I think this is the diagram V4 Low Mink though I would need to double check. While the floor design for these is the same as for the opens, it is hidden inside the van negating the problem. In fact it actually makes life easier as it means that there is no material to remove from the floor to fit the new w irons. Both have 30g of lead fitted inside the van. The next job on these is to add the rainstrip to the roofs, the solbars need about 0.6mm removed from the inner side to provide clearance to the w irons, they will also need the additional DC linkage adding which was not provided by the kit.
     
    Between the two Coopercraft Minks, is a Ratio GW van which was built last year. This has been stripped down with the chassis removed, and replaced with Evergreen channel. This now provides the clearance for new w irons, although it still needs to have the breakgear built up.
     
    Onto a couple from Parkside, an LMS 3 plank and another LNER Lowfit. As I have probably mentioned before I love how well the body falls together with a Parkside kit. But I hate how they have designed the underside! All those needless ribs which need to be removed in order to fit decent W irons! In both cases I took a large ba***rd file and filed it all away before building up the bodies as per the instructions.
     
    Finally a bit of a random job, a very old Hornby 20t (from my first trainset) which I understand is vaguely like a GW owned private owner wagon. I have tidied up the end and sides removing excess depth of moulding and refining detail where possible. a new chassis has been scratch built with some left overs from Cambrian for the headstocks, Evergreen solbar and bill Bedford w irons. I also have a spur of Parkside brake gear which will be added soon to finish it off.
     
    Not shown in the photo is another Ratio Iron Mink, not made much progress yet on this as I want to get a set of replacement wooden doors for it first...

     
    I have a couple of spare short wheelbase chassis (one steel and one wooden) left from Cambrian kits which hopefully will be used to rechassis a couple of old PO wagons from years ago.
     
    I think this now brings the fleet up to the following
    GWR
    Open: 4 finished, 2 in progress
    Van: 2 finished, 4 in progress
    NPCS: 1 finished, 2 in progress (one of which just needs bogies)
    Other: 1 Macaw
     
    LMS:
    Vans: 3 (finished)
    Open: 2 finished, 2 in progress
     
    LNER:
    Vans: 2 Finished
    Open: 2 finished, 1 in progress
     
    SR
    Open: 1 awaiting paint
     
    PO:
    2 Finished, 2 more as body only awaiting new chassis, + the 20t awaiting painting and final detailing.
  18. The Fatadder

    County

    By The Fatadder,

    Another one of those random projects which have little use from a layout point of view, other than being an interesting exercise in modelling (which frankly is the most important thing)...
    As with the Saint, I am pretty undecided if I will build it in OO (using the included Romford wheels) or sell them on and buy a set of P4 Gibsons. In this case I am tending toward the latter as it means the chassis can be built to the correct width!
    I also will need to decide if I will make a ridged chassis, for simplicity saving time and money, or go for a full CSB job making it better should I ever decide to run it.
     
    The project:
     
    Dapol Body
    - fit Jackson parts to correct cab front and roof,
    - fit wire hand rails to back of cab
    - detail cab interior
    - replace mud plugs
    - etched plates - trying to decide if I leave it as County of Somerset for which plates were included, or change to County of Gloucester
    - add missing rivet detail
    - replace the firebox and missing lowerboiler with Hornby 8f parts
    Perseverance chassis
     
    Falcon Brass tender.
     
    It is with the latter that I have started looking at today, with the awful instructions not helped by not being able to find the sheet explaining what part is which number, not liking the look of all of those but joints so I have dug out some U section brass which I am going to use to form some brackets supporting the main sections and keeping them square. We are currently expecting, so I wont solder in the house when my fiancée is at home. so hoping to take advantage of her being away for tomorrow afternoon to make a start on the soldering.....
  19. The Fatadder

    Wills Saint

    By The Fatadder,

    A while back I picked up a bargain part built Wills Saint from the second hand stand at a preserved railway, with the intention of rebuilding it as St Dunstan in post war livery (St Dunstan being the name of the junior school I went to as a child).
     
    Upon stripping back the components, it was clear that some of the components were in a worse state than others (in particular the boiler which had a large cutout for an X04 motor and a lot of rivet detail missing on the top of the boiler.
     
    After soldering together the foot plate, and the boiler as two separate units I added a new lower boiler from plasticard (following the same approach I used on 5813) I have been fitting new rivets by drilling hole and fitting a small length of brass wire filed to size. Time consuming and tedious, but its looked pretty good so far.
     
    The boiler has now been fitted to the footplate, although the fit is not great so it will require a bit more work to finish.
     
    Now need to decide if it will be finished to P4 or remain with the OO Romfords it came with....

  20. The Fatadder
    Having put the 2251 chassis to one side while I wait for new handrail knobs, and having once again failed to buy the required plywood for the baseboard, today I have been working on wagons.
     
    Fitting bill Bedford springie bits, along with the parkside / Cambrian brake bits to a 13t sr mineral, a parkside lner 5 plank, 1 plank and van, a Bachmann po mineral and a Bachmann conflat.
     
    The latter two wagons have received replacement underframes from Cambrian leftovers, but still need brake gear / leavers.
     
    Finally I fished up the underframes on a ratio iron mink, working from photos in the hmrs mink book I picked up at Bristol I gauge show last month. Going to be adding at least one more of these with replacement wooden doors at some point...
     
    The other work today was some modifications to my work bench, a 3 inch wide raised platform was added to the back of the workbench. Fitted onto a 1.5 inch high strip of 1inch thick ply. Onto this a length of redundant concrete sleeper track has been glued, which will be wired up to a set of terminals to connect to a ex or dcc controller.
     
    The final stage of my planned modifications to the bench is to add a better quality vice, and add holders on the right hand side for glue / flux bottles along with holes for files etc
     

     

  21. The Fatadder
    Today I finally picked up one of Ratio's new type 7 GW signal box intended for "Drayott" (I really should come up with a better name, and rename this blog to differentiate from Uglypug's rather excellent sounding Cheddar project.)
     
    So far I have built the core of the structure, the base could have done with a little more support in the centre to hold the floor in place, but other than that the parts pretty much fell together.
    The floor has been put in position on the second photo to ensure the walls are square. it will then be removed to fit the lower windows, post painting the brick.
     
    One disappointing aspect of the kit is the lack of interior, a kit will be purchased shortly to enable it to be finished off!
     
    I have now painted the windows in GW cream, the idea being that I will then cut individual pains of glass from the clear plastic, and flush glaze (thus avoiding the side of the plastic stuck behind the windows getting into the interior.
     
    Hopefully will get the brickwork painted over the next few nights.....
  22. The Fatadder

    Finney Dean Goods

    By The Fatadder,

    Having picked up the kit today thoughts have now turned to what to model.
     
    The prototype I want to model is going to be a Westbury based machine, for which there is a photo in one of the cheddar books dated 1949. This is an early build loco and would use the narrow footplate parts, fluted rods, however the photo is too grainy to work out which of the two fireboxes needs to be used.
     
    As ever if anyone knows of a good source of photos of this loco please let me know.
     
    I am going to be building the loco with CSB suspension and the full working inside motion (which looking at the parts frankly scares me!)
     
    Construction is not going to start until after I finish building the Collett Goods chassis to make sure my soldering is a good as it could be.
     
     
    Given the number of "spare" parts in the Finney kit, I am seriously considering building a second loco. Looking at the etches it appears that I am going to need a boiler, sub foot plate (along with the headstocks), splashers and of course a chassis.
    The latter is the easy part, modifying the High Level parts from their chassis kit. The rest I am less sure about. One option I am considering is to buy a cheap Airfix shell, cut off the cab, fit the etched top to the footplate, finney cab, and then detail up. I will see how I get on with cutting out accurate parts based on the finney originals.
     
    My intention is to model this second loco as 2462, which according to the 1948 list on railuk was the only Bristol based loco with the wide footplate, unfortunately haven't found a single photo of this one yet. so cant be sure as to what other details it will need.
  23. The Fatadder
    A while back I found a photo of a gwr branded Hawksworth coach in a mixed rake dated 1949
    Given the availability of the fantastic Hornby model at a low price on eBay I have snapped one up.
     
    Now I did get a little carried away with bidding, and haven checked if the coach I bought matches the prototype photo (or for that matter of it is in the correct livery) but ho hum
     
    The other reason for getting the model is to use it as a benchmark for producing the other coaches for the layout
     
    P4 conversion was very simple, a set of exactoscale coach wheels were dropped in and the brake shoes bent to provide clearance
    There is still a little resistance, so the next step is going to be adding brass bearings and realigning the breaks. My plan is to remove the mouldings, drill out the Hornby shoes and glue to lengths of brass wire before re attaching to the bogie.
     
    The other job that is still to do is going to be fitting the masokits detailing kit to further improve the coach
     
    Quite tempted to get another if I see one at a good price, though god knows why two brand new coaches could be justified on the cheddar branch
  24. The Fatadder
    Finally a real start on the next chassis, having been thoroughly driven mad by 5512's outside cylinders
     
    The body is nearly finished, just waiting on some etched buffer beams and a few other small details. So it is onto the chassis
     
    This will be my first attempt at a csb chassis, and will also be using the new high level 3mm bearings
     
    I have used the csb jig from high level along with the clag website for the spacings. Typically on marking out the second pivot is over a spacer so a bit of a change is needed tomorrow.
    Next will be marking out what changes are needed to give clearance for the beams
     
    The wheels are an ultrascale drop in set for the Bachmann model, these will need to be modified to reduce the boss thickness by a few mm (it give the added advantage of not needing any spacer washers!)
     
    The avonside jig is now set up ready to go, so tomorrow if I can sort out the csb holes I can get on with soldering up the chassis.
  25. The Fatadder
    While my fiancée is out for the evening, I've taken advantage of a nights un interrupted modelling. So after taking the dog on a very long walk to ensure she passed out, I dug out the 4575 conversion to try and finish it off.
     
    I will come back and add some photos tomorrow, as the paint is currently drying...
     
    Starting off with the slide bar, The original pin on which the connecting rod (please correct me if I am using the wrong terminology) is linked to the slide bar was a larger diameter than the thin end of the Mitchel con rod and hence had to be removed. So after carefully cutting off with a cutting disk, I switched to a milling bit and smooved off the inside.
     
    Next a .4mm hole was drilled through (matching the hole in the end of the con rod). Into this was soldered a length of .4mm brass wire, cut to directly fit across the inside of the slide bar once the con rod had been fitted.
     
    Moving onto the centre driver, a long crank pin has now been glued into position, after which I gave all wheels a coat of black paint
     
    While the paint was out, I also painted the new plasticard frames and the Mitchel pony trucks
     
    Re checking the dimensions on the cylinders, it looks like with a reversed crank pin nut and some washers on the axel to eliminate any sideways movement will work. Fingers crossed.....
     
    So, the next job is going to be putting it all back together once the paint has dried, and all being well it should work...
     
    Not exactly looking forward to making the brake gear...
    I have some more spare Mitchel bits from the ebay frets, which will provide the 'flat bits', and will then build up a removable sub assembly ala High Level
    One thing that worries me with an etched chassis is the risk of the brake shoes shorting against the wheels. One way round it I have been considering is to have half the brakes in plastic and the other half with the etched (using half on the Bachmann chassis, and the other half on the etched chassis which will be going under my next 4500)
    Will have another think once I have the rolling chassis working...
    Edit:
     
    Photos attached,
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