Gabhal Luimnigh Posted June 22 Posted June 22 Tidy work Alan, you can have your supper now, make sure you plug the soldering iron out first 1 1 Quote
Galteemore Posted June 22 Posted June 22 Fabulous work Alan. I’d never noticed that footplate narrowing before. Thankfully the SLNC tanks avoided such complications! Soldering irons can be most distracting - wouldn’t be first time I’d plunged one into a jar of flux instead of the cleaning pot….. 2 Quote
David Holman Posted June 23 Posted June 23 Better than grabbing hold of the hot end - too many T shirts in the drawer for that one. And it's not as if it doesn't hurt! Seriously fine work, Alan and speaking of pain, feel for you over that gear set too. High Level are my go to for all narrow gauge stuff, but while the quality is not in dispute, I much prefer all metal gears for reasons you describe. Managed to ruin a set of HL with the cyano you are expected to use to fix them in place, while those tiny grub screws are a nightmare! Once done, they are great, but a ready to run 7mm box from Premier Components is far less hassle. 4 Quote
Tullygrainey Posted June 23 Author Posted June 23 Thanks David. The High Level gearboxes are wonderful little devices and I nearly always use them but they do need careful building. I think we've all managed to get glue in the wrong place at least once. And those grub screws seem to have a life of their own. I lost one earlier in this build and against all the odds, found it again by trawling the carpet with a magnet! 4 Quote
Tullygrainey Posted June 27 Author Posted June 27 Time for some superstructure for BCDR 2-4-2T. A boiler was rolled from 10 thou brass with 15 thou used for the smokebox. A twist of brass wire held both together tightly while solder was run in at the edges. The smokebox will get a wrapper in due course. Much cutting, drilling, filing and under-the-breath muttering produced a flatpack set of parts for the cab. 15 thou brass again with 5 thou shim for the cab side beading. The raised rims round the front spectacle windows were a happy side effect of reaming the holes to size and just needed filing back a bit and tidying up to make an acceptable representation of the window frames. Saved having to solder bits of tubing into the holes. Then the tricky job of soldering it all together reasonably straight and square. Always a challenge and requiring a fair bit of adjusting and doing again. Not to mention asbestos fingers. The cab floor will bolt to the running plate using 14BA bolts with captive nuts. Holes were drilled and nuts soldered in place before the floor was soldered to the cab. Getting all the bits in the right place relative to one another is, for me anyway, a process of trial and error with plenty of the latter before it comes good. I find making and fitting the saddle which supports the smokebox a real trial. Luckily, the smokebox wrapper, which will blend smokebox to saddle, will hide most of the bodgery. A length of 0.7mm brass rod soldered inside the boiler slots into a hole in the cab front to hold the boiler straight and level. I think it's teatime. Alan 12 4 Quote
Angus Posted June 28 Posted June 28 Love the brass rod idea to hold the boiler level. I've not seen that before. Simple and effective I shall be using that! 1 2 Quote
Tullygrainey Posted July 2 Author Posted July 2 A bit more progress with the 2-4-2T. A front plate for the smokebox required a lot of solder, a lot of filing and significant amounts of unseemly language. The finished job conceals a multitude of sins. Next, the beginnings of a pair of water tanks. There's a lot of 14BA bolts and captive nuts holding this one together - founder members of the Little Things Sent To Try Us club - but having separate sub-sections makes painting and lining a lot easier. Alan 15 1 Quote
Mayner Posted July 3 Posted July 3 Nice to see Alan's approach to Loco/scratchbuilding using so called traditional techniques. I tend to use 10Ba bolts/nuts for general assembly, limited the 14Ba to crankpins. Nice simple geometric shapes on of the nicities of steam loco construction compared to diesels and post 1960s stock 2 Quote
Tullygrainey Posted July 3 Author Posted July 3 3 hours ago, Mayner said: I tend to use 10Ba bolts/nuts for general assembly, limited the 14Ba to crankpins. I may follow your lead on that John. The smaller ones get harder and harder to see as time goes on! 1 Quote
Tullygrainey Posted July 6 Author Posted July 6 Water tanks taking shape. 15 thou brass with 0.7mm brass rod for the beading. I find matching handrails to their holes a bit of a challenge. This handy little Bill Bedford jig helps. The tanks bolt down to the running plate at the front and will be soldered to the cab sides and front. Alan 10 3 Quote
Gabhal Luimnigh Posted July 6 Posted July 6 Beautiful workmanship Alan, I really like that jig too. 1 1 Quote
David Holman Posted July 7 Posted July 7 The wows keep coming, Alan! Reminds me I've got one of those jigs somewhere. Very handy when I remember to use it... 2 2 Quote
Tullygrainey Posted July 13 Author Posted July 13 BCDR 2-4-2T got a bunker this week. Bending the outer panel work was a bit hit and miss. I needed two goes to get the width right. It's made in 15 thou brass. Tank filler is brass tube with a conveniently sized washer soldered on. The coal rails on this one have a solid backing with no airspace between individual rails. Made here in 10 thou brass with rails from 1.0x0.5mm half round brass. The bunker has a floor which will be bolted to the running plate like everything else. Having made cab steps from scratch in the past, I was keen to avoid doing THAT again. This fine Mainly Trains etch from Wizard Models had exactly what I needed. What took about 3 or 4 hours before took about 20 minutes this time. Result! I noticed whilst working that it's an Iain Rice design. From some angles, the boiler looks to be going downhill but I've already wrestled with it a number of times and I'm done doing that. Galloping horses and all that. We're getting into the smaller details now. Chimney, dome, smokebox door, buffers, vacuum pipes, safety valves, handrails, whistle, brakes, sand boxes... (continued, page 94). And here's me thinking it was nearly done Alan 9 9 Quote
Tullygrainey Posted July 19 Author Posted July 19 (edited) A week spent sweating the small stuff. The chassis got some sandboxes left over from an RT Models kit. Then brake gear with brake pads in plastic to avoid issues with shorting (Alan Gibson 4M103, GWR Tender Brake Gear). Back with the superstructure, some whitemetal wagon springs (MJT 2284) and brass rod epoxied into place made a reasonable representation of the front springs which are visible just ahead of the tanks. The smokebox door is another whitemetal casting (Mainly Trains MT329 from Wizard Models). Chimney was made as before from brass tube, solder and a washer, shaped with files and emery paper in the electric drill. The dome was made the same way but with wooden dowel, plasticard and filler. I usually use a central bolt and captive nut to attach the cab roof but this time I tried this method which I learned from the late Ken McElhinney's (KMCE) workbench thread. The phosphor bronze wire slots down into the cab corners and holds the roof tight. It works a treat. Thank you Ken. The handrails, pipes and sundry cables are variously 0.33, 0.45 and 0.7mm brass rod. Most of the bits are just set on to see how it looks. Don't breathe on it or they'll all fall off. Getting close to the painting stage Alan Edited July 19 by Tullygrainey 9 8 Quote
Gabhal Luimnigh Posted July 19 Posted July 19 The Jedi master at work again, outstanding workmanship Alan, this is a huge learning reference for me, thanks for that and well done you 1 Quote
David Holman Posted July 19 Posted July 19 Great to see some serious cool work at the end of a stiflingly hot day! 1 1 Quote
Dunluce Castle Posted July 19 Posted July 19 That is looking brilliant, another superb model I’m the works soon to be complete! 1 Quote
gibbo675 Posted July 20 Posted July 20 Hi Alan, I like the wooden dome, it reminds me of the joke about the man that made a wooden car.........it wooden work ! Here is a wooden bicycle though: Gibbo. 1 Quote
Tullygrainey Posted July 28 Author Posted July 28 Construction work on BCDR 2-4-2T is more or less done now so the metalwork was given a final scrub with scouring powder under a hot tap followed by a waft of Halfords grey etch primer and some gloss varnish before the brass got a chance to start tarnishing again. The next three days were riveting. These are 3D resin waterslide rivet transfers from Railtec. They're available in a wide range of sizes and spacings and in my experience are a viable alternative to using a rivet embosser. Deserve to be better known. Like all waterslide transfers, they need careful handling and I'm getting quite good at stopping breathing whilst applying them but the end result is well worth the effort. I found that wetting the area with Humbrol Decalfix helped the transfers to slide into place and reduced the chance of the longer lines breaking apart in the process. It also helps bed them in. It can be tricky to get long lines straight - witness some of the wobbles in the pics below - but once overpainted, this isn't quite so obvious. The transfers were given a few days to dry before being overpainted. I think I've used a different colour for each my BCDR locomotives - BCDR green is a shade of some conjecture and seems to have varied throughout the life of the company. That's my excuse anyway. I've used acrylic paint this time - a base coat of Tamiya XF1 Flat Black followed by a topcoat of Tamiya XF70 Dark Green, both applied with an airbrush. It's not that obvious in the photo below but the end result is a bit more orange-peely than I'd have liked. I'm still at the determined bodger stage with airbrushes - airbrush in one hand, fingers crossed on the other. One day I'll figure out how to work this contraption properly. These bits need a coat of gloss varnish before I start on the lining (more interrupted breathing). I'm waiting for a delivery from Humbrol. We have the makings of a green machine. Alan 12 Quote
David Holman Posted July 28 Posted July 28 Nice. Very nice indeed. Keep having to remind myself these models are 4mm scale. 1 1 Quote
Galteemore Posted July 28 Posted July 28 Exquisite. The resin rivets are really good and shown to good effect here. 1 Quote
Tullygrainey Posted July 30 Author Posted July 30 If you've looked at any of my posts about previous builds in this thread, you'll know that I usually mess up the painting stage, and in a different way each time. Well, in keeping with tradition... I wasn't entirely happy with the finish of my air-brushing efforts but was prepared to settle for it. However, a coat of satin varnish, intended to give a smooth surface for the lining transfers, reacted with the paint and produced whitish 'bloom', for want of a better description, over most of the panel work. I thought this only happened when acrylic was sprayed over enamel but this was acrylic on acrylic! I suspect I sprayed the varnish too soon, before the paint was well and truly cured. This is what you get for proceeding without a ready supply of patience. So... hello cellulose thinners, hello again brass, hello again etch primer. Writing this whilst taking a break from riveting. Again. Forwards and backwards, in no particular order. Alan 6 3 Quote
Patrick Davey Posted July 30 Posted July 30 Definitely a riveting story if ever there was one Alan! The successful outcome of this current project is not in doubt. 1 1 Quote
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