Kev T

Hi Ken If your new camera allows you to alter the settings, you need to set it to a high "f" stop number with a long exposure. The high "f" stop gives a narrow opening in the lens which results in a greater depth of field, ie more depth in focus. The closer you are to the subject, the narrower the lens opening is needed. You may need to go to f22 if it allows. I love the video of the valve gear movement, it must have been a beggar to build. Kev

Ken I'm glad to see you're on the road to recovery, I don't post much on here but I'm a regular reader of your posts. I look frorward to the resumption of the quickfire builds when you're properly mended. best regards and good wishes Kev

Hi Ken I've built one Scorpio kit and I'm very likely to build another due to the fact that they do kits that other better manufacturers don't. But I find it difficult to say that they're well designed when you compare them to Agenoria, David Andrews, Finney, MOK and no doubt others. In your posts you describe the boiler too long, the bunker too short, cab side windows not lining up, roof too long, sandboxes fouling the steps. I found that building the Dean Single a real PITA and as you say the quality of the castings left a lot to be desired. The kit ended up being quite decent in the end, but it was a lot more work than kits from the others I've mentioned. In your experience of Scorpio are these isolated examples or typical. kind regards Kev

I can understand that you may think the articulation would be a problem, but the amount is restricted and doesn't cause a problem. I can get mine around a 5'6" radius and the front bogie holds the front part of the chassis in place, the pivot is excatly like that on an artic. lorry so the rear of the chassis simply follows. There is no more sideways movement than on an 0-4-0, possibly less. There are sprung buffers between the loco and tender which may help but I'm not sure. All in all I'm quite impressed with the loco, but I'd think twice about building another, parts of the build were a pain. cheers Kev

Hi Simon have you noticed that the handrail holes in the spectacle plate don't line up? I contacted Dave Sharp today and after checking his masks he reckons that the brass spectacle plate has the handrail holes 3.1mm too high. You can check inside the cab because the holes in the NS are correct and don't match the brass. Obviously this is easy enough to correct but it's easier now rather than later. I'm not sure whether you've completed the chassis yet and fitted the crankpin nut thingy's. If not can I suggest Derek Mundy's crankpin set for GWR locos, they look rather handsome. No connection to him other than as a customer. cheers Kev BTW have you found the knob for the front cylinder cover below the smoke box?

Sorry OzzyO, I've no idea what I did to get that small a font. Thanks for the replies. Simon I hope you don't mind the hijack. cheers Kev

Chris you say in your reply that you sprayed with Ronseal varnish. What did you use to thin it and did it have to tbe very thin. I've tried and I end up with a faintly lumpy finish, but you have to look close to spot it. Kev

Hi Simon by the looks of it you're just a bit ahead of me in the build, I've just cut my crank and cleaned it up, that was a nail biter. I've now got to the bit where I'm working out what goes where and fixing the valve gear together. In the instructions it says to pin together the eccentic rods to the expansion links. The pictures are unclear and to me look like they're soldered up, I've no idea how to pin them together, apart from using something like 12ba nuts and bolts so can I ask how you did yours. cheers kev

Chris Simpson is the GOG member who runs the video library. I have bought a few of the DVD's and phoned him to order them. I can say that he is very approachable and only too willing to chat about all things gauge 0. Contact him through the guild, I'm sure he'll respond. Cheers Kev

Hi Simon by all means say hello and introduce yourself. We're next out at Glasgow in a few weeks, but I'm not there, work commitments won't allow it. Then we've a couple of exhibitions later on in the year at Peterborough and Wakefield. If you bring a loco, we're quite happy to run it around the layout for you if we're not too busy, beginning and end of the day is best if it's a busy exhibition. Alternatively we have 2 open days a year where we encourage people to bring their own locos. The next one is around May time, dates not yet firmed up, but they're advertised via GOG. I love the phot's of the motion and wheels, looks like a piece of art. regards Kev

It's the Aveling and Porter listed here http://www.duncanmod...s_and_items.htm . The Burrels are a little more detailed and more expensive. It's all white metal and went together quite nicely. Kev edit: I saw one of these traction engines on a layout, Ithink by Alan Searle, where he'd fixed a motor under the baseboard, taken the driveshaft through the baseboard up into the traction engine and used it turn the scratch built crank shaft and flywheel. Absolutely awesome piece of model engineering.

http://hassellharbourbridge.com/kevin.htm http://hassellharbourbridge.com/page-3.htm These are a couple of photos's of my locos on our website. The Duke was my 2nd loco, the pannier tank my first and the little blue industrial my 3rd. The Scorpio Achilles was my 4th loco and the Armstrong build is my 6th and latest build. I only now feel that I'm starting to get the hang of this, maybe with another half dozen under my belt I'll feel happier. Kev

I'll take a couple of photos if I can remember how to use a camera. The Achilles has been painted but I'm not happy with the colour of the frame red, so I'll wait and get some from Chris Wesson at the next show we're both at. If a Scorpio was your first 7mm kit then the MOK must be a piece of cake for you. Problems I had with the Scorpio IIRC, were crap instructions, but the more kits I build the easier it is to decipher instructions. Difficulty with the tender chassis, clearances are tight and it's easy to solder where it's not wanted and lock up the compensation. it's best to take your time with this and get it spot on. Brake rodding was a bit flimsy and prone to letting the brakes catch on the wheels. I had problems with the splasher tops, they were a pain to get right. The dome was not true and took a bit of work in a lathe to get it acceptable. I ended up cutting down the dummy valve gear and motion as I didn't like the idea of it, sort of but not quite, touching the leading driver axle. The quality of a lot of the castings wasn't acceptable and I ended up raiding the parts bin, and Laurie Griffins' catalogue. On the plus side it looks great!! and with the 4 wheel drive gearbox i t pulls 8 Gresley teaks around our layout, (Hassel Harbour Bridge), and the articulated loco chassis works surprising well Kev

I've built a Scorpio Achilles kit and I'm also in the process of building the Armstrong. There is simply no comparison between the kits. In the end the Scorpio made a pretty decent model but I had many challenges along the way. So far the only problem I've had with the Armstrong is not reading the instructions carefully enough and using NS wire for the splasher beading instead of brass . Good luck with the Scorpio. Kev

swmbo signed for and took delivery of the kit so I wasn't able to resue it from her clutches. I've used canon motors in the past and have always rated them, but for this kit I was considering the maxon 6W motor because more and more I'm coming to appreciate slow running and the maxon is rated very good at slow running. Another reason for trying the maxon is that I've not yet used one. I visited the scale 7 stand at Wigan and saw the MOK Standard Tank fitted with ball bearings on the axles, it's movement was silky smooth, virtually no stiction at all. Kev

I've ordered an Armstrong from MOK which arrived on Friday and was immediatley confiscated by the Christmas monitor, her excuse was I need something to open on Christmas morning. "But darling I'm 57 and may not live that long I NEED to see it now". My plea fell on deaf ears. Out of interest what motor have you ordered with the gooch gearbox? Dave Sharp mentioned that Slaters have done a batch of high quality crank pins for the scale 7 group which will go with the drivers, are you going to use these? Kev

Thanks Mike a lot of detailed info there. Closely reading your reply it would appear that these wagons would have been marshalled into a mixed goods train. I think what I'll do is to make up a stopping goods train with the roller wagon at the end and perhaps use my imagination as to what else would conceivably have been required. Kev

Thanks for the input chaps. I was hoping to make an accurate train formation. Mike, I'd be interested in any info you can find. Kev

I'm building a bogie steam roller wagon to diagram F2. These were used to transport GWR owned steam rollers and their water wagons to GWR depots, presuambly to build or repair the station and goods yards and approaches. I'm guessing that the stream rollers would have been in use from the turn of the last century through to the late 30s' ish. My question is, how would these have been marshalled into trains? Would they have been used in a dedicated train of say engineers wagons and mineral wagons, maybe a tar boiler and perhaps a bitumen tank? Would they have been part of a mixed goods train and delivered to their destination as part of a normal freight run? I have literaly no idea, and Russell and Tourett et al don't throw much light on this type of working. cheers Kev

Mega drool, looks really good. Either this one or the JLTRT King is on my list for later, I've got a Scorpio Dean single on the bench at the moment and then a Scorpio Queen, so for me that's 6 months work, not 6 days like some people Are they Dave Andrews, con. rods and coupling rods? What's happened to Gladiators website, any idea? Kev

Hi Ken like many others I watch your builds with interest as I normally pick up quite a few hints and tips frpom each build you do. Thank you for sharing. What are you using to line the loco with; bow pen? Kev