Adams T3 Kit Build - Retrospective Ramblings

[Blandford1969]

These are great posts, please keep them coming for all of us who it helps, if only working out how to put some of our kits together. 

[Battledown]

So, moving onto the loco body, as I mentioned previously, the kit features a jig to build up the footplate. This helps keep everything true and level and avoid any twisting as the cab, splashers and boiler assemblies are added.  There are additional strengthening pieces that are removed as the build takes place.

 

First thing is to solder the footplate to the jig, the top section of which includes the valences. It is important to make sure that the solder joint is a generous and continuous seam to avoid any distortion when the jig is eventually removed. Buffer and drag beams are added to complete the basic foundation structure. 

 

The assembly sequence is to build from the footplate upwards. First up is the front frames, slide-bar access hatches and crankpin splashers.

 

[Battledown]

There are two options for the cab sides / splashers depending on what era you are modelling. The locos were originally embellished with brass beading but this was removed by Drummond in the early 1900s. If you are modelling without the beading then you get full thickness cab sides and splashers. If, like me, you are modelling with beading then you get half etch which equates to about 6 thou of soft brass so great care is needed. 

 

Slots and tabs are used to fit the integral cab sides and splashers but until the cab front and spacer tops are added they are very vulnerable. Once assembled, however, the assembly is surprisingly strong and rigid. The cab sides are strengthened further by the cut-out beading which is formed and soldered in place before fitting to the footplate. The cab front comprises two laminations with half etched details, providing further strength. The front outer lamination includes the splasher tops which, being half etch, are relatively easy to form. I used some old iced lolly sticks to support the footplate during this exercise - they can just be seen in the photos.

 

 

[Battledown]

Next came the boiler and smokebox. The smokebox is a separate assembly comprising a fold up former and additional backplate around which a single wrapper is formed. 

 

The kit comes with two boiler options, one with bands etched in and one without. I have only ever used the ones without so cannot say which one makes life easier or more difficult. You could probably form the boiler more truly with some roller bars but the brass is soft and only about 6 thou thick and I managed with a steel rod on an offcut of heavy duty foam backed carpet. The kit also includes a number of formers to help with assembly and it all turned out ok. There were a couple of minor kinks that were gently polished out with fine wet and dry emery paper on lolly sticks - starting with 600 grade and gradually finer to 1500 grade.

 

 

 

 

It is best to fit small details prior to permanently fixing the boiler and smokebox to the footplate and cab front. These included the sanding lever mechanism in front to the splashers plus lamp irons and handrail knobs to the smokebox front. Side handrail knobs were left until after assembly to ensure they were horizontal and the correct height and angle. 

 

The Victorians liked a lot of polished brass, copper and steel on their locos and I was keen to fit these parts after painting. To aid this I used brass tubing inside the boiler to make it easier to glue items such as the whistle and clack valves to what would otherwise be about 6 thou of brass.

 

The smokebox is screwed to the front former of the boiler and then to the footplate, locating the rear former of the boiler onto a small length of wire soldered to the cab front. This ensures that everything is the correct height and enables the boiler to be rotated to accurately  position and fix the firebox to the rear splashers. The smokebox is also soldered to the footplate and the screw removed - the fixing hole is actually used as the front securing point of the chassis.

 

The cab roof was then formed and fitted in place but not fixed - I left fixing until after painting to make cab detailing easier.  

 

 

 

 

[Blandford1969]

How did you find screwing the boiler onto the smokebox, did it work well as its one part of the M7 I am very nervous about

[Battledown]

10 hours ago, Blandford1969 said:

How did you find screwing the boiler onto the smokebox, did it work well as its one part of the M7 I am very nervous about

I didn’t find it a problem. I left the screw joining the boiler and smoke box finger tight until the firebox end was soldered up then tightened it up before soldering the smoke box to the footplate. Don’t over-tighten, though, as you can strip the thread - the front former of the boiler is only about 18 thou thick.

[Battledown]

There only remained final detailing of the upper works - well, when I say only I actually mean quite a bit of effort. 

 

First up were the handrail knobs and blower valve, which were threaded with 0.45mm wire then soldered in place making sure they were straight and in line with the relevant holes on the cab front. Next were the smokebox door, chimney, dome and safety valves. These are all excellent white metal castings that only need a small amount of cleaning up - providing your boiler and smokebox are perfectly round they are an excellent fit.

 

The clack valves, vacuum ejector and whistle manifold are lost wax brass castings that need to be polished then built up with copper wire. These are not fixed in position until after painting. Other lost wax castings including various Injectors, lubricators and vacuum pipes were soldered in place. The injectors are built are mounted on the rear step which are a separate subassembly trapped between the chassis and footplate assembly.

 

As for the reversing rod, this alone is assembled from eight parts!

 

 

Then came the time to remove the jig from the valences. This is achieved by cutting through all the support braces on the bottom face leaving two separate jig pieces attached to the valences by short half-etched sections. These are very gently rocked back and forth until they break off. As long as the solder joint between the valences and footplate are strong then this is pretty straightforward, although there is a lot of cleaning up to do afterwards to smooth out the bottom edge of the valences and remove all the excess solder.

 

Only now could I attach the chassis to the upper works but the design of the kit ensured it all fitted after a bit of trial and error. The instructions suggest leaving the cylinder wrappers off until this stage to ensure an accurate fit. As you can see from the photograph I didn't get it right first time, although this was more a case of the chassis not sitting right home than getting the wrapper in the wrong place.

 

 

Final detailing and cleaning up resulted in a basically complete model of engine and tender that perfectly captures the graceful lines of what I think is one of the most handsome locomotives that ever ran on British rails, certainly south of the Thames (I also have a soft spot for the Midland's Johnson Spinner).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 2021 by Battledown

[Battledown]

It was at this stage that my problems started. Having put it all together again, running was very intermittent. There was a short somewhere and I began to doubt my decision to use the ‘American’ method of current pick-up. After seeking and receiving much advice from fellow members on the Scalefour Society forum I checked and ensured that it was not the brakes touching the wheels, or the tender and loco shorting together, or the motor can shorting to the boiler. I thought I had insulated everything but eventually isolated the problem to the bogie splashers touching the outside faces of the bogie wheels - clearances there are but a ‘fag paper’. Nonetheless I followed advice and epoxied some of my son’s roll-your own Rizla paper onto the inside faces of the splashers. Problem solved, but that means the loco will only negotiate very wide (probably prototypical) curves.   

 

Tell tale scotch marks on the wheel rims

 

It's all very tight and compact under there!

 

Motor connected to chassis - brass tube soldered to chassis with live wire from motor connected via split pin.

 

Motor return from tender using the same method

 

 

[Battledown]

And here it is running on a very short piece of track. And yes, that is a gin & tonic on the bench - was I drunk in charge of a locomotive?

 

 

[Blandford1969]

A really nice build with helpful photos and comments on the Finney kits. Hopefully we will see more from what you have done / are doing. 

[Camperdown]

Great work.  Just the small matter of painting it.  On the video, there is a slight lift of the RHS of the body as the crankpins enter the splashers.  Looks as if there is a small foul there.  Easily fixed, I'm sure.

[Battledown]

5 hours ago, Camperdown said:

On the video, there is a slight lift of the RHS of the body as the crankpins enter the splashers.  Looks as if there is a small foul there.  Easily fixed, I'm sure.

Well spotted - I was hoping no one would notice that! In actual fact it was actually the rear of the LH rear crankpin catching on the hornblock as it wasn't quite fully countersunk into the back of the wheel. Clearances within the splashers is fine - just!

[Battledown]

I have no photos of the various stages of painting, just the finished locomotive.

 

First everything had to be completely dismantled for the paintshop.

 

 

I am reasonably proficient with an airbrush, so painting was relatively straightforward. I used two part etch primer and gloss Adams pea green from Phoenix Precision Paints, then masked everything off and sprayed the major black areas, plus the inside frames and cab in light tan and buffer beams red.

 

So far, so good, but now came the lining. So into the box it went while I went away to practice with a bow pen, but try as I might, I still cannot get to grips with it. Sometimes it works but not consistently enough to give me confidence that I would not ruin everything. After six months of prevarication I eventually decided to try a different approach and resorted to a combination of Pressfix LNER lining transfers and very fine hand brush. It was time consuming but in the end effective. 

 

Following a coat of 1 part gloss, 2 parts satin varnish applied with the airbrush I was reasonably happy with the result. My methods will probably horrify the purists but a Brankenborough or Rathbone I aint! I need more practice to acquire the ability to use a bow pen. 

 

It was then time to add final cab details, buffers, couplings and all the bright parts and put everything back together. Final test running revealed that dismantling, painting and reassembly had not interfered with clearances or alignments so job done. 

 

This kit is undoubtedly a challenge, to say nothing of painting and lining, but I have to say I am pretty pleased to have fully completed the model. Well, strictly speaking I haven’t quite completed it; I have not glued the coal load into the tender - I just don’t want to permanently cover up all those rivets!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Camperdown]

Thanks for sharing.  The end result is splendid; the lining is better than I achieved on mine.

[Battledown]

Now that this is finished I will start a new thread showing other models I have built and current future projects.

 

'Battledown's Workshop Ramblings'