halfwit

Paranoia Man In Cheap Sh*t Room - the Fall

Man Size - PJ Harvey

Ludd Gang - the Fall

Fit And Working Again - the Fall

This is a kit for a Thomas Hill Steelman Royale 4 wheel diesel hydraulic loco. These were built for the MoD. The kit is etched brass with resin detail parts and sits on a Black Beetle motor bogie (not supplied). You have to supply your own buffers (Gibson). Prototype photos can be found in 'The Bicester Military Railway' (OPC). Instructions consist of 3 pages of text, an assembly drawing, a page of detail photos and a parts list. Construction starts with the platform. The frames and valances are soldered to the footplate, locating in half etch lines. Note these are handed. The next stage is to solder on the valence ends, these have half etch lines in for the steps. Bufferbeams are laminated from 4 layers and I clamped them together with a clothes peg and ran solder around the outside edge after punching out rivets on the inner layer. The buffer beams are then soldered in place after cleaning up.

Started this one on the old rmweb. I'll post a link to it if I can find it again. Anyway, it's almost finished now. Here's a photo of the body in primer (Hycote acrylic white car primer) being prepared for the top coat. And here's the body finish painted and resting on the chassis: Jobs left to do are glazing the cab and attaching and rigging the jib. Which leaves me with a dilemma... The angle/load indicater (semi-circular bit) on the jib needs painting. I've seen a photo of one from a smaller crane with coloured bands on it yet another source says it should have black and white bands on it like a barcode. The only crane that I've been able to examine first hand has no paint on the indicater. So until I decide what to do it sits on the shelf... Heres a photo of a the part that I'm talking about (this one is at Rowsley and belongs to the Heritage Shunter Trust): As you can see the paint has worn off. I know that its only a small detail on a pretty obscure kit but I would like to get it right... Paul.

Flycranks. Cut them from the etch, soldered them together (laminated from 2 layers), cut an axle from 1/8". Broached out the holes to suit the axle and the crankpins (Romford). Checked them against the wheels and guess what? The crankpin throw is different from the wheels... There was no mention in the instructions as to what wheels to use neither are there any alternative cranks to suit different wheels included (which could be easily done...) Making new cranks should be easy, just a case of sweating 2 layers of suitable brass stock together, marking out, drilling and tapping before cutting to shape (quite distinctive on Hunslets) and seperating. But right now I can't be bothered, not untill I can sort out the cab/bonnet discrepency anyway. So it sits on the shelf, waiting. Sorry, no photos this time.

Pictures Of Lily - The Who

The chassis was fairly straightforward. I built it rigid, as I'm still new to chassis building I'll save compensation etc. for later efforts when I'm feeling more confident. Wheels are Romfords, lathe turned supplied by West Coast Kit Centre. Gearbox is a High Level Loadhauler+ 108:1. The motor is a Mashima. I chose a Loadhauler+ to move the motor forward out of the cab. It still protrudes slightly but I can live with that. Here's a mock-up: Coupling rods are laminated from 2 layers. I broached the holes out to 1mm on the centre rods as on this one, unlike the others, has a hole on one layer only so it needed setting to length before clamping together and soldering. I used the turned shafts from some old Kean-Maygib chasis setting jigs to set the middle rods to length as well as check the other rods. (Hopefully the photo should make this clearer).

Thats what I thought. No excuse for it really as its the kind of mis-match that should have been picked up at the test build stage. I would be a shame to scrap the bonnet as the etched detail is actually quite nice...

Soldered up the cab next. All fairly straightforward, although care is needed with the sides which needed bending to match the ends and are quite flimsy until the doors are fitted. The doors are inset with 2 frame sides which I soldered in place before fitting the doors. Oddly only 2 frames are supplied, enough for one door, so I had to file up 2 out of scrap fret. Not difficult but unnecessary... Putting the cab and bonnet together on the footplate I noticed that the bonnet top angle and the angle of the front windows don't match. I can only assume that the fold lines on the inside of the bonnet are in the wrong place, which would explain why the front of the bonnet didn't match the sides. So, what to do. I could unsolder the bonnet and refold it, although straightening and refolding would be very difficult. I could even try using a resin body kit, either whole or just the bonnet mated to the etched cab and footplate. Hmm...

Baby Turpentine - Crazyhead. Anyone remember them?

This is my 3rd etched kit. I started with the footplate, as you do. Rivets punched out the bufferbeams were laminated together from 2 pieces. Whilst doing this I noticed that the holes for the buffers are out of line with each other! Solder now, sort later... Bonnet next. Punching out the rivets made it bend so I had to straighten it after. I use a slide-hammer type riveter. Top curved the bonnet was bent up and the front soldered in place. However there were big gaps around the angled upper part. I wasn't too worried at this stage as I could use plenty of solder to fill the gap. The corners were to have a curve filed on them anyway so a good fillet of solder was needed. Paul.

And This Day - the Fall

Latch Key Kid - the Fall

If The Kids Are United - Sham 69

My New House - the Fall

This Is Not A Love Song - P.I.L. Currently playing...

Stagger Lee - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

United States Of Whatever - Liam Lynch

Youwanner - the Fall

Wonderfull Night - Fatboy Slim

The Way To Salvation - King Missile

Shoulder Pads 2 - the Fall

On - Aphex Twin