murrayec

Here is a video of Merlin running on it's home layout;- Eoin.

Brakes up Next;- Brake shoes for the loco & tender being drilled and cut from Tufnol sheet. The shoes are 3mm thick. The back of the shoes were then cut with a .5mm slitting saw for mounting on the hangers fixed with brass pins. Some soldering work was needed on the tender chassis, those two brass mounting plates were soldered to the top of the chassis frames to give a bit more rigidity. The tender chassis being drilled for the brake hangers. All the brake parts for the loco & tender are ready. Missing from the photo are the loco brake pull rods! Soldering the hangers and cross bars. Parts jigged up for final soldering together, the full assembly can be removed for painting. Done. Removed. Loco chassis about to go through the same process. All soldered. The brakes are complete. Drive and valve rod machining is next........ Eoin.

This is a Leinster Models Class A Gauge O, someone took it apart to do some repairs but never got it finished! The motor mounting bracket needs to be machined and fitted, new electrical pickup system to be installed, and the lot wired up to run. The bits as delivered. The motor mounting bracket was drilled for the motor and bolt mounted on that block of brass between the frames. Axles being setup with spacers to keep the gears on centre. After setting up the drive gears the motor was installed to find the motor gear wheel had been drilled out off centre, this causing a massive wobble! The photo shows the gear wheel held in a collet chuck on the lathe and the centred hole being bored out oversize to take a brass sleeve to fit the motor shaft. Drive gear finished with brass sleeve pushed in with a bit of Loctite. The sleeve has a hole drilled in it to allow the grub screw to pass and lock on the motor shaft flat. Runs smoothly now. Setting up the front bogie for electrical pickups- first a slot was machined in the top of the bogie, with a screw installed in the chassis to stop the bogie rotating to much when mounted and damaging the wiring! Soldering in two cross frames to hold the pickup board. Cleaned up and mounting holes drilled and tapped. .6mm NS wire was used for the pickup wires. Pickups complete. Wiring complete, with a DCC 8 pin socket installed. Chassis under test on completion. I forgot to take a photo with the body on! Eoin.

With a break from modelling over Christmas and my place turned upside down due to a housing development going on beside me, I've got very little done on these models! Though back into it now...... All masked up and ready for a bit of green. Maskol was applied for the badly kept coach! Base green undercoat applied. Two satin top coats applied. Humbrol discontinuing their enamel paint range is a pain in the ass! All my colour mixes from over the years are now redundant and I have to start all over again....... Eoin.

A chap- Jay Kovac posted this on fb recently, its 1:13.7 scale live steam and runs on gas Stunning model. There is a video of it running on fb also;- Irish Garden Railways Eoin

Is there a DCC spring wire in one of the problem points? this would keep the siding track live! Eoin

A bolt epoxy glued into the coach floor to extend down through the bogie with a nut under to hold the bogie on, some plastic card would need to be glued to the bogie top and bottom with a hole through for the bolt to pass, also you may need to adjust the coach downstand spigot with a file to get the height right. When the height is set use your favourite shade of nail varnish to lock the nut in place and allow a bit of play for the bogie to wobble side to side, nail varnish is better then threadlock as it open easier and wont break the epoxy holding the bolt in! Eoin

I think I can claim poshness as I have four of them even tough no hooks Eoin

No hooks on mine! Eoin.

@Broithe yes they are very handy, and yes the plastic does not like sharp impact, I have four of them with two suffering the problem you have. Eoin

I got a bit done on the internals of the 'Lathe Shed' 50x35mm treated timber studs installed. The shed roof steel sheets were raised up with 10mm thick plastic washers at the eaves! The grey material on the roof sheeting is a drainage sheet, it's stops condensation dripping off the ceiling, but because the sheets were screwed down to that steel eaves beam the water in the sheet drained onto the beam- this would cause the timber to rot over time. 50mm roof insulation installed, ridge pelmet test fitted to see where the light fitting would end up, height wise. Pelmet modified, fitted and insulation installed. Light! Eoin.

The February Fair Date;-

Stunning

Mayner does a etch Fish Van Kit;- Eoin.

You'd have a better chance by contacting him through his website email, he does take time to respond...... Eoin.

As Robert says- the furry nature of the model will have it's touch up problems, I would go with the thickest paint (leave it in the palette to dry a bit after spraying) to cover the black runs. Thin paint from a brush might do the same thing- running into the black! Maskol fluid could be used on the edge of the black line to stop running if it happens. Cellulose or Universal thinners is for cellulose paint..... Eoin

Looks real. Eoin

Alclad is the best metal paints I reckon;-

Yes, I do similar- making mock models, for layouts and buildings I use CAD more as I'm setting up the parts for say a building/buildings I can 3D them to get massing and fit ideas, then modify accordingly The same when building model locos CAD is very handy, but I also make up mock models in styrene to check fit- especially for scratch valve gear and motion rods. This is one example, 'Hibernia' the styrene model was constructed to work out how the brass chassis could be made, it was also used to work out the tolerances on the valve gear, drive rods and bellcranks. It was well worth doing as I found a number of difficulties to be sorted before starting the brass model;- Eoin

January Fair Date;- Happy New Year

Have you any information/detals on the 071 kits, and when they might be available? Eoin

I would be interested in the 071 and Duetz kits Eoin

I still have these;- Eoin