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RedgateModels

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  1. RedgateModels

    'Boxing Clever

    By RedgateModels,

    Thanks to houseman for showing the Smart Models signal box and interior kits here I now have 16 levers for the Fourgig East 'box
     

     
    Still some touching up to do (can't get the grey felt pen into the nook between the lever and latch and the white levers need some paint) but should do the trick once fitted to the Scalescenes 'box I made a couple of years ago now.
     
    Also Thanks to beast66606 for his continued signalling advice sorting out lever order based on the signalling plan he has also drawn up for me
     
    I have some furniture left over from the camping coach that should also help to set the scene, now how to put a miniature version of Mr Skipsey at the levers .......
  2. RedgateModels

    "As Built"

    By RedgateModels,

    I've had a few requests to see the 2-8-2 in unlined "as built" black, so in homage to Hornby's latest Britannia offering here's 91000 before lining out and naming
     

     

     
    Keen eyes will observe the digitally removed cylinder lining and the fact that the return crank is not actually soldered to the crankpin
  3. RedgateModels
    Thought I'd check the tender to loco coupling as the extra 4mm length at the back was concerning me. Glad I did before going any further. For those who do not know, the current spec Brit chassis connects to the tender via a pin under the cab fixed to the chassis not the pony as in earlier variants.
     
    Here's the result on the widest setting of the drawbar
     

     
    and this one shows how it all connects
     

     
    Fine if I don't expect the loco to go round curves!
     
    The plan is to lose the chassis pin and fit a new one to the pony truck that is approx 3.5mm further back than the current item. This should give me the clearance I need for 2nd radius curves and still give me the option of close coupling for display/straight track
  4. RedgateModels
    Those who made it to the Member's Day will have seen the 2-8-2 quietly simmering away on Summat Colliery.
     
    For those who didn't here's a couple of shots showing off Roomey's "2 weeks into service" weathering that sets it off perfectly 🙂
     

     

     
    Now, must get that article finished for Model Rail .....
  6. RedgateModels
    OK, I admit it, I played with the 2-8-2 for a lot of the day at Trains4U and it behaved itself quite well. Stuggled over the "hump" that appeared at one baseboard joint and proved that 14 wheel pickup isn't necessarily enough
     
    Lots of questions from customers about what/why etc it has been modelled. Anyway here's a few pics
     

     

     

     
    So now it's on with the bodyshell detailing. I bought some brass tube to fabricate the counterbalance spring for the RHS weighshaft bracket and some 10 thou' evergreen sheet to do the cab doors/fall plate etc - more to follow!
  7. RedgateModels
    OK, the decision seems to have been made. The Airfix kit and Bachmann tender appeared yesterday and last night I offered up various bits of kit to the chassis and boiler.
     
    There is a difference in mould quality, I had hoped that by using an original airfix kit the plastic might be crisper than the Dapol kit, oh well.
     
    A few issues to consider:
    The motor is wider than the outside dimensions of the firebox lower/ashpan
    The nice painted backhead does not fit the airfix footplate - and the airfix backhead includes part of the cab wall anyway
    I either need to cut the bottom of the smokebox off to set it into the footplate, or cut the footplate with a curved front to accept the smokebox as is. If I cut the smokebox the, frankly silly tubeplate detail behind the door will have to go.

    I've also printed out the Beattie drawings for the 3MT and 4MT to compare, and Beattie not withstanding there are some obvious differences between the two apart from the boilers
    The footplate narrows above the cylinders much more on the class 3 than the 4 - filing needed, bye bye rivet detail ....
    The sloped section of footplating at the front is further back on the 3MT - this will have to be ignored.
    The blower tunnel is shorter and the control valve is more to the front on the 3MT with consequentially different pipe runs
    The frame cutaway for the ashpan is deeper on the 4MT - not a problem as I will have to fabricate dummy sides to cover the motor etc once the Airfix bits are hacked off to get the footplate over the motor

    Next step is to get some photos of the RHS of a class 3, as I need to confirm pipe runs/injectors etc. The plan is to use the Airfix injector lump at the moment, shouldn't look too bad once painted black ....
  8. RedgateModels
    So seeing as folks will be getting their new Hornby versions in their 7 car packs next week I thought it high time I made one to go with my 1980 set
     
     
    looking at the tgs it seemed that with a few cuts the under frame could be fabricated from two examples, kinda like this
     
     

     
    so out came the razor saw
     

     
     
    and they go together like this
     

     
     
    The body shell was used to hold the under frame in place and glue applied to the one join needed
     

     
     
    the visible join should touch up really well, probably won’t have to respray the whole underframe. Slots need to be cut to allow for the end clips. The side clips have been cut off and will be re glued in the right place. I’ll have to use power car/pacer coupling bars rather than the ones from the tgs’ as the tgs ones are too long. Good job I have some in stock

  10. RedgateModels
    Ok, the plan to use ndm/pacer couplings on the dev coach was a non starter. They were too long by about 5mm to give a consistent distance with the other cars. Here’s the dev coach to ndm compared with the tgf…..
     

     

     
    So the tgf couplings received a 2.5mm hole drilled as close to the blade end as possible
     

     
    and then shaped to approximate the ends. Here’s an untouched one and one I’ve attacked next to it. A lot shorter
     

     
    Fitted to the bogie, gap much more acceptable
     

     
     
     
  11. RedgateModels
    I had a conversation with Pete Harvey of PH Designs at the Derby Show about getting some brake gear sorted for my Warren Shephard Sentinel. Well, yesterday this dropped through the door
     

     
    It all goes together like this:
     

     
    Superb quality as ever from Pete, going to make the rest of the kit look a bit basic
     
    Soldering iron at the ready .........
  12. RedgateModels
    Well, I've finally managed to get Pete Harvey's excellent etches soldered together and fitted to the Sentinel, and mighty fine they look too!
     

     

     
    Just need to do some final fettling with a glass fibre pencil and then it's primer time. Should have it in satin black for the Member's Day.
  13. RedgateModels
    I know it's been a while, but the weather has been good so gardening and mucking about with my car took priority. 
     
    Finally I have made the extended tank tops and filed them down to fit.  First photo shows the tops glued together and a card template I made to help with the fitting to the much wider 9F boiler.
     
     

     
    A large file was used to knock them down to size - not one of those tiny little things that we modellers mostly prefer. Here's a shot of the body with tank tops bonded on
     
     

     
    So, just a bit of filler to tidy up and I'll be redy for some primer to see how flat the joins are etc. Then more black paint!
  14. RedgateModels
    Things have moved on a bit since the last update. The body fabrication has been completed and the base coat of satin black applied. Buffer beams repainted (which are Hornby class 31 for info) and the body fittings replaced. Nothing left now other than tackle the lining 
     
    The chassis has also had black paint applied to the fabricated bits and so I could do an (almost) final assembly the cylinders had their red lining applied and satin varnished. Just need to get a Zimo sound decoder and 9F sounds before hard wring it all in.

     
    Last thing I indulged myself in a pretty pointless exercise of detailing up the cab a bit. Most will never be seen, but I'll know it's there
     

     
    The crew came with the donor 9F and were good enough to drop in without any further work.
     
    Hours of painstaking work with the Pressfix awaits .....................
     
     
  15. RedgateModels

    9MT - Done (for now)

    By RedgateModels,


    General
    So another stay in hospital gave me the time to get the lining finished on the 9MT so here's the right hand side completed.
     

     
     
    Only thing left is weathering, glazing and real coal added to the bunker.
     
    Loco is now back together and sitting in a modified Triang 9F box for safe keeping until I can find the time to fire up the airbrush. 
  17. RedgateModels

    9MT - Lining Started

    By RedgateModels,


    General
    Nothing else for it, the lining had to be started. Ease myself in, do the boiler bands first
     

     
    After this the problems started. I had forgotten that the HMRS/PC Models sheet 22 was originally drawn for LNWR locos not BR standards. The shapes really do not match the later locos. To compound this I'd used most of the useful bits off the two spare sheets I had on the last loco, which would have been the 2-8-2 Neverwazza. An order in is with Wizard Models for a couple more sheets.
     
    I'll crack on once they are in my possession.
  18. RedgateModels

    9MT - Rear Bogie

    By RedgateModels,


    General
    This has been bugging me for some time. The loco has been running a triang princess one with current spec standard 4 4-6-0 wheels. Main issue is those LMS footsteps. Also there was no representation of the sliding plate between the wheels. 
     
    I had a spare 9F front bogie left over from a previous project and of course a couple of the GBL rears from the donor 4MTs. So here's the bits. 
     

     
     
    After a quick go with the hacksaw
     
     

     
    And I am glad I now have a milling slide for my lathe, made short work of machining the triang frame to accept the new parts
     

     
     
    Parts loctited together and after a quick coat of satin black I'm happy 
     

     
     
    Here's it in place 
     

     
  19. RedgateModels

    9MT - Rot

    By RedgateModels,


    General
    As I've mentioned before, I bought the 9F donor knowing it was on the Mazak rot list. It was sold without the tender so there was a good chance that the tender chassis had suffered, but I might have got away with the motor fixings.
     
    No
     
    The tell tale signs were there and so I ordered a few sets from Hornby for a couple of quid each. This is what I found when I took the front one off
     
     

     
    As I said, expected and a cheap fix thankfully. They were coming off anyway for a full chassis strip ahead of machining. Onwards!
  20. RedgateModels

    9MT - The Bigger Bunker

    By RedgateModels,


    General
    A class 9 loco with class 4 coal capacity was never going to work, also the twin axle rear bogie kicked out beyond the rear buffer beam. The end of the bunker was cut off where the footstep indentations were on the bunker tops and then slits cut to separate the sides from the coal load and supporting structures. Two scrap bits of plastic were cut to the right size to splay out the sides so they were parallel and more supports glued in to hold them. A steel rule clamped to one side helped to get things square.
     
     

     
    After 24 hours another bunker section was cut from gbl loco #2 from immediately behind the rear cab sheet and glued on. 
     
     

     
    Much bigger 🙂
     
    After a quick going over with a file once solvent had set to see where we are with joins we start to get an idea of how it will look.
     
     

     
    You can see that I've added a section of the gbl body lower that carries the cab backhead and pipework. Again another section was grafted on under the bunker, both screw fixings used to hold it all steady while the solvent set.
     
     

     
    Needs tidying and the "pipework" under the bunker extending up to the weighshaft area. Sadly the 9F chassis will need some metal shaving off to allow the cab floor to sit right on it, which will mean a complete strip down so I don't get aluminium particles in the gears etc. The motor mounts suffer from mazak rot in any case and a new pair are on order from Hornby. Guess why the loco was cheap .......
  21. RedgateModels

    9MT - Underpinnings

    By RedgateModels,


    General
    Once the bunker was fixed in place the underside of the loco needed to be sorted. Main problem is that the main body fixing on the 9F is through the bottom of the chassis into a boss under the cab floor. A floor that is no longer there as we are using the 4MT cab.
     
    After a lot of thought the following pic shows what I came up with
     
     

     
    A section of 4MT floor under the cab area with the 9F boss turned down in height and bonded on, with extra sections from the other 4MT grafted on to take account of the bunker and tank extensions. The front section left solid and screwed to the 9F boiler lower. As the chassis now screws to both the boiler lower and the cab floor it all ends up being a solid unit. I'll use the under bunker screw fixings and the original 9F front slot arrangement to secure the body on.
     
    The boiler lower needed to be filed down a bit as you can just see so that the section of 4MT floor fitted properly. Much cleaning up and a lick of paint needed, but that's one more engineering problem off the list. A representation of the rear frames above the rear bogie are needed too. Will probably be in plasticard bonded to the floor.
     
    Time for an assembly and track test before moving on to the details and finish.
     
    Do I butcher what's left of the 9F cab to get the backhead or just keep the smaller 4MT one, hmmmmmmmm
  22. RedgateModels

    9MT A Razor Saw Let Loose

    By RedgateModels,


    General
    So, one loco drive Hornby 9F, plus two GBL 4MTs were attacked with a razor saw. 
    There's a lot of bits.... 
     

     
    Here's all that is left of the 9F body 
     
     

     
    And I've cut and shut two sections of tank and cab from the two GBL Class 4s to make this 
     
     

     
    Also been experimenting with a Triang Princess bogie for the rear. If this works ill replace the wheels with larger more prototypical ones and this will set how long the bunker needs to be. 
     
    More razor saw! 
  23. RedgateModels

    A dirty gathering

    By RedgateModels,

    After doing a little more tweaking of the Crosti I'm building for Gavvy2 I took the opportunity to take a low light snap of all three locos recently received back from Roomey.
     

     
    My Crosti is behind '021 with an O1 at the back. The O1 has had real coal added and the detailing pack fitted before weathering. A Paul Chetter (pauliebanger) L1 Zimo sound chip awaits, which whilst not strictly accurate is at least a Thompson 2 cylinder loco
     
    First outing for my two new locos will be the Lincoln show first weekend in June. I hope to have my class 20 disesel sound fitted too by then
  24. RedgateModels

    A Grey Day

    By RedgateModels,

    Grey primer that is - it's a lovely sunny day really
     
    Various chassis parts have been stripped down and given a coat of Hycote grey primer ready for some satin black
     

     
    The loco and tender bodies have also been treated to a coat or two, but are hardening off in a darkened room
  25. RedgateModels

    A Growth Spurt

    By RedgateModels,

    Following two consecutive weekends helping out on other's trainsets I have unashamedly nicked sought inspiration from Ian Morton's shake the box for track plan and Chris Nevard's Catcott Burtle for the water feature at the front and have come up with the new, bigger, improved 4gig
     

     
    I've got to extend the depth of the current 4ft board by 6" and make another 4x2
     
    I'm currently cobbling together a Scalescenes goods shed, again the OO kit enlarged on the printer to O scale to ensure it will all fit in. The siding next to the shed and coal staithes will be inset, so I'll probably use DAS clay and then scribe some concrete type joins in it etc.
     
    So, Santa, please bring loads of cash for a shopping trip to Marcway for lots more sleepers and BH rail. The double slip looks fun to make
     
    The layout is already penciled in for Wycrail 2013, so I'd better get a move on
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