Scale7JB

Thanks Pugsley !! The nut and bolt head are a little on the large side, but if i find something more suitable they are easily changed.. JB.

Thanks for the info Richard. I had my eye on something similar to this http://www.axminster.co.uk/recno/7/product-Axminster-SIEG-Axminster-SIEG-X0-Digital-Readout-Micro-Drill-366133.htm twinned with this http://www.axminster.co.uk/product-Axminster-Compound-Table-for-Micro-Drill-376146.htm The chuck will only go up to 6mm, but I can't see any need to go bigger unless I finally one day build something in 5" gauge JB.

Slowly getting there still... All of the rods are detailed now I think there are only ('only' he says) 5 things left on the list now... a couple of which i still need to buy a couple of bits for... Small cab steps. Bolts for the steam fountain access panel on the roof - Scale Hardware. Sanding pipes. Injector overflow pipes. Main driver leaf springs - Hobbyhorse/Reynalds. JB.

It will blacken any ferrous metal, brass, nickel, steel, whitemetal..... I'm very curious to see how well the pain holds.. JB.

Hey Martyn... I have to admit, there is absolutely no smell at all from the product that I use... only smell you get is from the bottle itself, and still it's still not that bad, though of course, I try to not to indulge in my habit of solvent sniffing Only joking kids... don't try that at home.. :icon_thumbsdown2: JB.

Hello all... I finally plucked up the courage to do something with the roof of the K2. After about an hour scouring the endless photos in my books and mags, I made educated guess of what was on the top of the K2 roof! And just to prove that the rivets are actually rivets, and not pressed out... It would be so much better if I were allowed a pillar drill here... Although a micro pillar drill might be just as handy. Anybody know any good sources for one ? My fingers have gone numb from using the pin vices for drilling.... On the access panel above the backhead I need to use hex head's which I will get on the next order from Scale Hardware. Okay, so it's not christmas decoration, but at last, there is a major colouring (can you call it colouring?). I completely covered the tender in chemical black, and the idea is that I won't need to use any primer at all which should help in keeping a lot more of all that detail that has been put in. And also, any pint chips on corners or edges won't show up the brass underneath, which ha happened in a few places on the J39. You can all laugh at me if it doesn't work, but if the chemical black works as an etch as well as some people say it does, then it might just work :icon_thumbsup2: JB.

Absolutely spectacular... this is one of the 2 or 3 P4 layouts which makes me wish I had pursued P4 to a layout.. :icon_thumbsup2: Aaah well... JB

Another quick one whilst I'm at it... A before and after... the before is from a while back... Before.. After.. Coming along nicely I reckon, though that union link looks a bit ropey... the perils of a cruel closeup Yes! Finally! The 'infamous' screw has disappeared! PJH will be happy JB.

Only a quick one... got a picture of this with the big camera and the largest extension tube I have.. Nut and bolt, and two washers... JB.

Just checked and 0.5mm are the smallest... I'll have to stick with those... though I think they are about the right size anyway.. JB.

damn... I might have to go smaller.. JB.

A bit more done today. I finished off the oil pot on the opposite side top slide bar, and then fitted one side of the motion as in the photo's. You can see the difference with the new union link, it's not perfectly profiled, but I was worried about it's strength had it been taken down any more. People who had seen the working valve gear before now will have noticed that there was too much slop on the radius rod pin inside the expansion link, so the gear wasn't moving quite as it should, so I replaced that pin with some thicker brass rod, and now the radius rod will move smoothly up and down the travel of the EL but also give the right movement to the piston in the steam chest... which is nice Another thing done today were the 4 simulated hex head nuts holding the slide bars to their brackets. Unfortunately they don't seem as prominent as those used on the oil pots.. I think it will be a case of "well, I know they're there.." Got to finish off the union/combination/radius rod assembly from the other side, and then just have to worry about the detail for the main piston rod. Getting there, especially seeing as it was one of the last jobs that I was dreading.. 7mm/ft safety valve next to the 0.5mm threaded (working) nuts and bots to show how dinky they are.. JB.

You shouldn't joke Pint... you really shouldn't I want to finish of these three engines first, and then I can start on the opening firebox doors. I was tempted after seeing Colins E4 and the opening doors, to make the locker doors on the K2 tender open and have loads of rubbish and lamps inside, but I decided to leave it alone this time, as it would have meant a near on total strip down of the front of the tender. Next time.... next time, I have to draw a line somewhere JB.

Well, measuring it, it's actually bigger than I thought it was... 3.8mm wide x 2mm high.. The simulated hex heads are 0.7mm wide. JB.

edit..

Even more enthusiasm to do the difficult yesterday.. The K2 has an oil pot on the top slide bar which is quiet predominant in the pictures. I was tempted to only solder on a piece of brass rod, but then I thought I would have a go at making it look better with a flange and some of the simulated bold heads that I got from SH. The pictures are a bit ropey I know.. I also decided to bite the bullet and while the cylinder assembly was off the chassis, chemical black all of that area. No more all brass K2 JB.

Hi Alcazar... I know what you mean about the fluting on the union link, but looking at all the pictures in Yeadons, that link never had any fluting anyway. I think it might have been the link trying to look clever, although ultimately it isn't accurate. With a little more fettling it should look a lot better when it is on the engine. Only problem with the scale hardware nuts and bolts is that they are stainless steel, and because it is a non-ferrous metal, the chemical black won't blacken it. :icon_frustrated: JB.

Thanks for the offer Adrian, I managed with the eccentric rods, but the main rods will need a pillar drill... may well take you up on the offer if i don't get to WMHQ next week.. :icon_thumbsup2: JB.

Had another burst of enthusiasm on the work bench today. I have been playing with the Scale Hardware parts that I received a while back. Along with finding a drill bit that was perfect for drilling the hole in the eccentric rod for the oil corks, I have added the fake nut and bolt heads to the expansion link, and another piece dunked in the chemical black. I don't know if you agree, but I think this chemical black on nickel gives the perfect look for rarely looked after rods... might be a little too black perhaps, but because the CB works as an etch, it means that I can give the rods a quick spray with the airbrush if needed without worrying about priming. Secondly I have been trying to work out how best to remake the union link between the crosshead and the combination lever. On this attempt I used some stainless steel tube soldered to the combination lever, and the union link fits over the tube. I had to make some very thin brass washers, as the nut and bolt that you can see, actually are nuts and bolts!! 0.5mm thread... Makes a difference to the original thick nickel and rivet method.. JB.

...oh and of course that ruddy great screw will 'eventually' disappear too !! JB.

Hi everyone... I managed to get a little more work done yesterday. Having placed the extra added detail that I am putting into the body of the K2, it means that I really needed to have a look at all of the valve gear as I really wasn't happy with it. It works well enough with the working reverser etc, but I was never going to be happy with the look of it, so I have started to take it apart, piece by piece, detailing each piece, chemically blackening them, and then replacing them on the rolling chassis. here is a before and after.. The main part that has been worked on so far is the eccentric rod, which has been thickened by double by soldering onto a piece of scrap nickel, then filed down, but more importantly, I have added a forked joint onto the expansion link, as per prototype, and the return crank end has been reprofiled. I still need to put a cork on the return crank end, but I want to drill the hole using a pillar drill so that will have to wait until next I am at WMHQ. The return crank has been 'beefed up' and a little detail added, though it still needs a little more attention. Hopefully the rods will look as good as the rest when it is done.. JB.

I set a standard ?? I did the same recently for the buffers on the K2. I used some rivets that I got from Eileens at Telford as the SH order hasn't come through yet. I created a template on a piece of sheet brass... and 95% of the holes were in perfectly the right place... It was definitely worth doing for the K2 as each buffer stock has 9 holes... 6 large rivets and 3 smaller ones. There must have been a weakness on the real thing somewhere to warrant so many fastenings. Oh where oh where is my SH order.. I'm all psyched up for some rivet counting !! I should think the problem lies on the UK side rather than the US side what with all these promises of strikes... JB.

lovely, very very lovely... just need to spray it brown now JB.

Fitted the fitting and some pipe runs... needs a bit of a clean up ! JB.