GNRi Class V Merlin Gauge OO Build

[Galteemore]

That’s mighty work Eoin. Reminds me of a late night footplate trip I had once on 171 with the crew silhouetted like that against the fire….

[murrayec]

Parts for the tender chassis removed from the fret and cleaned up for soldering.

Frame spacers folded and soldered up.

Frame spacers being length sized with a file and holes opened up for soldering jig to fit between the frames.

Jigged and ready for solder.

Soldered.

Bending up and soldering the .35mm pb wire for the two front axle suspension.

Tender body parts removed from the fret, cleaned up, and a cad template was prepared for doing the rivets. The kit parts do not have the rivets, the rear steps are not provided, and the rear handrails with the kit are the wrong size and fitted to the back face- where the current tender being used has smaller rails fitted on the side rear.

The rivet template stuck onto the brass body and rivets being pressed out.

Footplate and top parts ready for soldering.

Rivets done and part folded up.

Soldered up.

All main parts being test fitted for working out fitting the tender together so that the body can be removed easily to install and access the DCC sound in the future.

Fitting a Seuthe No 28 into the smoke box.

The smoke box top hole need opening up and and the chimney casting drilling out.

Fitted, but needs some support under and wiring to be worked out.

Eoin.

 

[Galteemore]

Very clever idea re the rivet template….better than my scribed lines  

[DB JOE]

Will you build my kit too please????

I just won tonights lottery and I might just be able to afford your services

[murrayec]

Carrying on with the tender;-

Valances, frames, steps, brake parts, buffers and axle springs were cut out and cleaned up. The springs will be fixed on after painting.

The valance step parts will be reinforced with a brass strip behind.

Buffer shanks had the end bead filed off and the buffer beam holes opened up to take the buffer furls.

Buffer test assembled.

Valance reinforcing strips and buffer furls soldered on.

Soldering the valance to the tender running plate.

Inner frames being soldered on.

Done.

Buffer beam soldered on.

Working out the drag bar and tender rear coupler. The instructions and the kit goes a bit wrong here- the instructions reference the draw bar part no. 1, but there is no such part in the kit! There are extra tender parts in the kit and one of these can be used for the drag bar, it's part no. 87, some mods will be needed but it should work. The coupler is a Dapol type, which will need mods also.

After that was worked out next was to decide how to mount the DCC chip and speaker, also a plan for access to the chip & speaker in the future. So it was decided that the best solution is the have the upper tender body removable from the running plate. This will need a few holes drilled in the running plate, screws and captive nuts to be installed!

The rear captive 10BA nuts installed on a brass strap soldered to the upper body and screw fixed to the running plate.

With the rear nuts soldered in the upper deck of the tender is now soldered on.

Then after drilling holes in the front of the running plate, position for captive nuts are marked up and nuts soldered on the underside of the tender step.

After the 10BA screws are sized the parts were bolted together. 

All fits nicely after slight adjustment to the screw holes in the running plate. This will also be handy for painting.

Next is the tender body rear steps, these were scratch made from fret offcuts as these steps are on the prototype but not in the kit. A soldering position guide was made from the drawing used for the rivet embossing, holes are cut out for the steps.

Solder being applied to the back of the steps.

The guide was taped to the tender body held in a vice.

Soldered.

Cleaned up.

Next the brakes n rods, brake shoe parts were sweat soldered onto the hangers.

All cleaned up and ready to fit.

First the .5mm NS chassis cross wires were soldered on, with the hanger spacers on so that the solder wicks through the hole and grabs them too. Bits of tracing paper was installed behind the front axle springs because the cross wire is right on top of the spring and we don't want the springs soldered!

Then the hangers and the lower cross wires are fitted, only the lower cross wires are soldered to the bottom of the hangers. The upper hole of the hangers are left dry so that the brake gear can be removed.

The pull rods were then installed outside of the wheels.

Brakes complete.

Running plate removed.

Brake assembly removed.

Eoin.

 

 

[flange lubricator]

Outstanding craftsmanship Eoin . 

[murrayec]

Continuing on with the Merlin tender;-

The upper side laminate parts are prepared for sweat soldering on.

Soldering is done with the help of Dinky clips to hold the laminate in place.

With the soldering cleaned up its time to put the top curve in the sides. This is the clamping arrangement with a 6mm dia bar and packing under the tender body to stop it slipping down while the brass is burnished over the 6mm bar.

Part way there, the burnishing was done with the ball end of that out of focus hammer on the bench in the background.

Curve complete and cleaned up- the burnishing left a few marks which were sorted out with files and emery paper.

The top back part was curved over the 6mm dia rod and soldered in place. Upper deck parts were prepared for soldering on.

Edge beading to tender tops being soldered on.

Beading after clean up and now preparing the end loop to hold the handrails.

Water filler up-stand n cap, the coal sheet, and front tool box sheets soldered on. The coal sheet top corners had to be curved to fit the curved tender sides.

Next are the side steps and draw hook.

The steps are fiddly parts, with the aid of a Dinky clip to hold them the job worked OK except for burnt fingers! Dinkys are great because they are aluminium and the solder doesn't stick to them but they act as heat sinks- ouch!

Rear lamp brackets bent up and ready for sweat soldering on.

Hand brake and other handles prepared for fitting. The kit provides a white metal brake handle with a spigot for fixing, so I used a .8mm od brass tube for the riser with .5mm id to glue the handle into. The other rods are .4mm NS wire.

Handles soldered on.

That completes the tender assembly except for a few small items- the springs require clips to be soldered on, and the draw bar pin which I'm going to wait until the loco and tender are weighted and on the track to decide on the details......

Eoin

 

 

[WRENNEIRE]

Must give that a go, have a few free days over the Bank Holiday weekend 

[murrayec]

The tender spring clips/brackets- after studying a few photos of Merlin's tender I noticed the spring brackets are mounted above the springs with a gap between. The kit instructions suggest fitting the brackets directly on the springs, but it would look better and prototypical if a gap was provided!

I decided to epoxy glue the brackets to the tender outer frames as soldering would be impossible, I used one of the springs with .4mm styrene bits stuck on to act as a jig for placing the brackets. The brackets were folded up and the outer ends were curved downwards with a round nosed plires.

This is the jig set-up, its quite difficult to insert and position the brackets so the epoxy is going to be a bit messy. When the tender is painted and standing on the track one will never notice!

One side done.

Both sides done, the springs are propped up for this photo.....

Eoin

 

[murrayec]

Back to the loco now, with some of the fiddly bits;-

The steam ejector pipe bent up from .9mm brass wire with a .3mm pb split pin to bracket fix it to the boiler body.

Test fitted, this will be painted separately and fitted after the boiler lining is done- I think, not decided yet!

Smoke box door handrail being fitted.

Some of the front end bits cleaned up and ready for test fitting, bending and soldering. The front footplate lights will follow later.

Sizing up the bridle rod, reversing lever and splasher mounting bracket.

The reversing lever is mounted across the footplate central space on a .7mm brass wire.

Cab roof, roof hatch, cabside beading, cab seats and cab doors cleaned up and ready for folding soldering and fixing.

Roof tacked on the cab and adjusted before soldering fully.

The jig is very handy for doing this, using a bit of wood to hold down the roof and protect the fingers from the heat.

Roof hatch cover soldered on.

Cab sides and roof beading soldered on and needing a bit of a clean up.

Bridle rod with the back fork bent up and soldered on, the front end has a .3mm pb wire soldered in the hole to hook up with the reversing lever. The lever is cranked outwards to meet the pin in the bridle rod end.

Splasher bracket folded up and soldered in position, the splasher has etched marks to locate the brackets position. The bridle rod and reversing lever will be fitted after painting.

Reversing stand and cab seats folded up ready for soldering.

Soldered, the reversing bracket crankwheel has a .3mm hand crank soldered on.

Cab side handrails being fitted after cleaning up the roof and beading.

Cab side wind shields folded up, with .5mm brass rivets for mounting on the cab sides.

Just before soldering the wind shields on I made up the cab end/roof rails with the cab side beading folded around the rails. 

Then the wind shields were soldered on from the inside.

The rivets need cutting and filing flush inside the cab.

Testing the smoke generator before the chimney and the smokebox door are glued on, once these fittings are on there is no access to the generator again- so checking it now...........

First smoke......

Eoin.

 

 

Edited April 13, 2022 by murrayec

[leslie10646]

Totally gobsmacked by the standard of work and the methods used.

Just brilliant, Eion -

and I say that about a COMPOUND -

it's not a VS which is a nicer looking loco to my youthful eyes.

[murrayec]

Onto the loco lights and cab detail stuff;-

Warm white micro LEDs, 10k resistors and Springside white metal loco lamps.

Drilling out the lamps with .8mm for the lens and 1.2mm to underside for fitting the LEDs in.

Drilled.

I Inserted an LED to test under power to find the LEDs are not warm white, but yellow! Also the 10k resistor needed to be upped to bring the LED intensity down. I settled on a 5 ohm resistor as the best, which is what's running the LED in the above photo. Warm white is now on order!

The kit does not provide a vacuum ejector so I setup a few bits for one- from 1.5mm square brass box, a 14BA screw, .3mm pb wire bent up for the operating handle, and a brass strip to finish the body of the ejector and to fix the assembly to the backhead.

Vacuum ejector and pipework setup for soldering.

Combination injectors, water gauges, regulator handle, hand wheels, and pipe work prepared for the backhead. The pipes are .8mm & .4mm copper wire. The combination injectors will be fixed to the backhead now, the remainder will be fixed after the backhead is painted.

Eoin

[murrayec]

More bits on Merlin;-

The vacuum ejector body and bracket soldered to the backhead.

The combination injectors being epoxied onto the backhead with a bit of .8mm copper wire glued on the back to allow the later pipes to fit in behind!

With the injectors glued on the vacuum ejector pipe work is bent n sized in .8 & .6mm copper wire. The backhead is now ready for paint- the first part for painting!!

The white nano leds for the head lamps have arrived, the electrical pickup board and ash pan are ready do go on, and the smoke box 'Enterprise' sign was cut out from .25mm brass.

Close up of the sign, it's artwork for making the decal, and a safety valve steam deflector was cut from the .25mm brass sheet also- so the crew don't get electrocuted by the overhead lines!

The deflector folded up over a 2mm brass rod.

It will be epoxied onto the safety valve later.

Th ash pan folded up and drilled to take a 12BA captive nut to hold the electrical pickup pcb board.

The pan was soldered onto the chassis from the inside.

The pcb board bolted on and the .3mm NS wire wipers soldered onto the pcb board.

Wipers under test- after the motor and pickup board was wired up. It alive!!

Next was the front sand boxes, these had to be filed on the side to get them to fit without fouling part of the footplate detail.

One can see they just squeeze in front of the weigh shaft bracket on the footplate/running board.

And the final bits for the chassis- the cylinder drain cock pipes in .3mm pb wire and actuator brackets.

Test fitted after the pipes were soldered together and the bottom of the cylinders drilled out, these parts will go on after painting. The chassis is now complete and ready for painting.

Testing the fit of the smokebox sign which hangs on the top lamp bracket and has tabs that go in behind the smokebox door rail, also working out the lamp fixing........??

.......testing the new leds, which are white and no electrical shorts on the lamp bodies.

Just a few more fittings to go onto the loco body and it will be ready for painting........

Eoin.

[Mike 84C]

Brilliant stuff Eoin! have you tried lamps from Lanarkshire Models? I have found them very fine , a good range and lots of other detail parts in whitemetal and good to deal with.

Also, you should make and sell those holding jigs. They look like a very well thought out tool and so flexible.

   Mick

[murrayec]

17 hours ago, Mike 84C said:

............ They look like a very well thought out tool and so flexible.

   Mick

Yes, the jig has turned out to be very handy, it was originally made to hold the Worsley Works Class F cab while soldering, it is now used in all model building by changing the central mounting to suit the current job or jobs......

Eoin 

[murrayec]

I worked out the front lamp mounting and commenced painting;-

The LEDs under test, the lamps will be mounted on the running board using a bit of stripped wire insulation threaded over the LED wires and glued into the lamp base. The lamps will be epoxied on when painted and assembled.

Centre front lamp bracket soldered on and this photos shows the drilled holes for the LED lamps.

Steam dome and safety valves were epoxied on, the whistle assembly was soldered onto the firebox with the steam pipe dry fitted into the cab front, also the safety valve steam deflector plate was epoxied on the valves.

Wheel threads masked up for painting.

 

Wheels and small parts etch primed and under-coated.

First colour- eventually got to the blue stage!!

Eoin.

 

[popeye]

Lovely, this is the time when it starts to transform into a work of art.

[murrayec]

Painting continues;-

The chassis, cylinders, brake gear and backhead were sandblasted and setup for painting.

Etch primed and undercoat.

Satin Black.

The loco wheel tyres were hand painted satin black before the masking was removed.

A bit of off white being dabbed into the gauge faces on the backhead.

The Merlin name plates and manufactures plates are mounted on upside down masking tape for painting.

Painted.

Then sanded down with wet n dry paper with plenty of water, now ready for a bit of lacquer.

The backhead with water gauges, pipework and hand-wheels epoxied on, now just needs the regulator handle stuck on and then its also ready for a coat of lacquer.

Eoin.

 

[DB JOE]

Euro Millions draw is worth 130million . When I win i just might be able to afford  your model making services!!

[murrayec]

Painting continues;-

Loco and tender body parts sandblasted.

Etch primed.

Undercoated and colour started, there's going to be some complex masking to do the black on these parts!

Tender chassis springs painted.

Starting to assemble the loco chassis, first is to install some lead in the ash pan under the motor. This is done with 10x11x1.7mm sheet lead stacked, which will be epoxied into the pan in front of the gearbox. The one with the hole in it is for the bottom of the stack to allow for the captive nut which holds the electrical pickup board on the underside.......

Eoin.

[murrayec]

well, more technology problems- after the phone memory wiped it's self, my workshop/internet computer's power supply decided to follow suit with the phone and go up in smoke! It's an oldish machine but luckly I found a man that could source a replacement power supply.

I lost a few photos of the work on this kit, not very important stuff- just masking for the black painting and the chassis assembly.

Satin black done on tender body and the loco smokebox.

These are cab internal masking bits for painting the cab interior.

The cab interior is painted a red/brown but the cab side beading is blue on the inside so these masks should aid doing that.

When I went to the kits decal sheet for the tender chassis lining- there was none! I then noticed there was'nt any for the loco valance also! So I prepared artwork to have them printed and awaiting return. Do you like my Windows 2000 setup.....

Gearbox drive axle with flat milled for grub screw seat.

Chassis wheeled up and quartered. The crosshead slide bars needed a bit of fettling- removing the paint to get smooth running.

The crankpin set supplied with the kit did not have long bearings to take the coupling and connecting rods on the one pin, a small bit of brass tube was used temporary until I find long enough bearings. The connecting rods were bent a little at the boss end as the rods are at an angle out to the crosshead, the bend keeps everything straight on the crankpin bearing.

Motion gear up n running smoothly under power.

Eoi.

[murrayec]

Masked off and painting the read buffer beam & valance.

Masking off the red and blue to paint the cab roof, the running plate, and the underside satin black.

Black done.

Cab painting complete- out of focus!

The tender chassis assembled with electrical pick-up installed and the outer frames have the springs epoxied on.

Looking good.

Smoke box door straps masked off while removing paint from the straps with a fibre brush.

Done.

Safety valves and steam deflector are painted black.

And the whistle had the blue paint removed back to brass.

Eoin

 

[murrayec]

Setting up a wiring loom so that the body can be removed from the loco chassis in the future.

With the LEDs epoxied into the lamp bodies its time to glue them to the running plate.

Working out the wiring- I'm going to install the LED resistors in the splashers!

Lights wired up.

Testing.

Time to install cab and running plate bits.

The oil pumps have .3mm PB wire pipes and hand wheels epoxied on.

Regulator handle being acid blackened.

Cab handrails too.

All epoxied on........

Eoin.

 

Edited November 2, 2022 by murrayec

[murrayec]

Decals going on- this is not for the faint-hearted or anyone with a pacemaker!

The kits decals have some very fine lining and the sheet supplied with the kit had damage, so I sprayed some lacquer over them to try and hold it together. I also ordered a new sheet should disaster happen- and it did!

3 coats of satin lacquer applied.

Started on the boiler first, strips of the lining were cut from the sheet and applied by wrapping the decal on the backing paper around the boiler, then applying water with a paint brush, encouraging the decal to slide off onto the raised boiler detail.

The decals still broke up but with patiences I could get the bits to line up, overlaying small cut strips on top of the bad bits also works.

The cab sides and the valance decals were cut into sections and applied, these will need some touching up.

Same again on the buffer beam.

I'm still waiting for issue of the valance decal sheet, described above some time back, to finish the back-end of the valance. This lining is tiny and brakes up into many bits!

A few more bits to go.......

Eoin.

[murrayec]

More decals & stuff;-

The tender's red makers plate about to go on with Pledge floor polish!

Buffer stocks being epoxied on.

Blackening some of the final parts.

Black.

Smoke box door handle epoxied on.

Ready for a few paint touch-ups.

When doing the touch ups and installing the buffers the decals were coming free, I'm going to fix and wash them over again with Micro Sol, then lacquer the parts, do paint touch ups then, and lacquer again.......

Eoin.

[Westcorkrailway]

25 minutes ago, murrayec said:

More decals & stuff;-

The tender's red makers plate about to go on with Pledge floor polish!

Buffer stocks being epoxied on.

Blackening some of the final parts.

Black.

Smoke box door handle epoxied on.

Ready for a few paint touch-ups.

When doing the touch ups and installing the buffers the decals were coming free, I'm going to fix and wash them over again with Micro Sol, then lacquer the parts, do paint touch ups then, and lacquer again.......

Eoin.

Now THAT is the kind of job I’d love to have done to a bandon tank. 
 

Superb stuff Eoin! 

[murrayec]

The final assembly and testing;-

Preparing the coal for the tender, this is a bit of coal from Merlin's tender.

Taking advantage of the coal space by adding a few bits of lead. The tool boxes have been epoxied on at the same time.

Coal in and squirted with dilute PVA n some washing liquid to ease the tension.

Installing the wiring loom from loco to tender.

 

I turned up a tapped brass pin for the tender drag bar, these bits will be chemical blackened eventually.

Test fitting, the tender will be permanently fixed and held with the second screw.

Setting up the lead weights for the tender, the loco relies on the weight of the tender on the drag beam for maximum traction, so a lot of lead is the trick, with more weight to the front.

And more in here!

8 pin socket wired up in the tender, the speaker and DCC sound chip installed with sticky pads.

Ready for the first track test run!

oops! nearly forgot to install the whistle pull cord!

The first test run did not go well- electrical shorts everywhere and the model would only run on radius 3 track. To repair the shorts the model had to be dismantled- nerve racking as it was not easy to put it together in the first place, which caused a bit of paint/decal damage.

The chassis and tender was test run without the loco body, which made things simpler.

General views as to how the wiring was run from loco to tender.

The front bogie had a small spring added to its fixing to the chassis- the suspension beam acts on the front of the bogie which caused the rear wheels to rise up off the track and not rotate. The spring did the trick.

The bogie rear wheels would rub off the chassis on curves causing a short, not enough to trip the chip but it just looked wrong with sparks flying, so out with the file to shave the wheel arches back a bit.

After 3 days of tweaking, dismantling the loco twice, eventually we have a constant running loco. A few minor issues to be resolved, final delicate parts to go on, paint/decal touch ups, and final lacquer........

I'll post up a better daylight video soon.

Eoin.

[popeye]

It's been a long build but it looks and sounds great.

Now take a break over Christmas and then start the next project. 

A master crafter 

[RobertRoche]

Looks, runs and sounds great!

[LARNE CABIN]

Outstanding work, Eoin. Have followed this build all the way through. Your work is so inspiring. Agree with popeye, you're a master craftsman.

[murphaph]

Inspirational work and an invaluable thread for anyone hoping someday to tackle a kit like this. Thanks Eoin!

[Galteemore]

Beautifully done Eoin. The deep joy of fiddling and fettling a metal engine - always worth it in the end. The  ‘face’ of the loco is captured to perfection. 

Edited December 19, 2022 by Galteemore

[Flying Snail]

Read back over this thread with a cup of tea this morning. It really gives a great sense of what is involved in kit building and as others have said, it's invaluable for someone thinking about building their own SSM kit. It shows the amount of problem solving, fettling, and additions that a really good modeller does to put their stamp on any kit. Excellent work and it really is inspirational!

[murrayec]

Thanks all for the very kind comments and likes, it does help the brain immensely knowing that I'm not alone hacking away in my workshop......

Happy Christmas

Eoin.

 

[WRENNEIRE]

One very happy customer this Christmas Eoin
Jordan, not me!
Taken at our last show of the year at Bray Wheelers