James' non-SP model building thread

[James Harrison]

Build photos from the weekend (perhaps I should pose her with my Warspite to really highlight the necessary alterations?)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

First, an overall view of the hull and maindeck.



Detail shot of the extended 6'' gundeck.  The first four guns are from the Airfix kit; the after two are constructed of plastic strip and paper. 



And, finally, showing the work necessary to complete the hull (plating up to deck level from aft 6'' casemates, prop shafts and rudders).

[James Harrison]

As Barham progresses almost as a kit-build (or, rather, kit-bash), and the recent discovery of a scale drawing of Malaya with deck plans for that massive foreward tripod mast removes by far the biggest headache I have yet thought of, so my mind goes forward to the next project. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/120855150111?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Airfix, tender-driven, apparently a good runner.  We'll see how well I can build a tender engine now- after Barham shall come an LNER J11, of much the same construction as my N5 tank loco as chronicled recently. 

[James Harrison]

Working on this as I do, only at weekends, makes this probably one of my slower projects.  Last night, for instance, I only managed to add the upper hull aft and some grey paint.  Today I added the propellor shafts and rudders (four and two, respectively), the anchors (three of them) and the lowermost deck of the superstructure.  I also added what I term the 'working coat' of paint:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The working coat, I should point out, is the base layer of paint for my models and provides the following services:

1. A good foundation for later final coats of paint- never rely on a single coat to finish. 
2. An idea of how the final colour scheme will appear- does the grey go with the anti-fouling red, is the deck perhaps too dark?
3. An idea of the covering power of each paint- will some require four coats whilst others only two or three?
4. A degree of paint cover to places that are difficult-to-reach when the time for final painting comes- and when gaps in paint coverage can collectively ruin the model. 
5. The pyschological effect that progress is being made- avoids the danger of getting caught in a rut and abandoning the project (which did in fact happen to the N5 locomotive- between buying the parts and actually completing it was a good 12-month gap of inactivity).
 

[James Harrison]

A little more progress today; another deck or two of the control tower built.  

For those taking notes, I'm trying to build as much of the model as possible from the parts in the kit (considering I've paid for the kit I'm loath to in effect pay twice for bits...).

So; this is how I've done it so far.  

Take part 32 of the kit (lower-most deck of the control tower) and attach to the main deck.  No alteration is necessary.  
Take parts 33 and 34 of the kit (the halves of the main control tower) and glue them together.  This is a hexagon which resembles a triangular form, three decks high.  Now sand off all of the detail, except for the portholes, and put it in a mitre block.  Cut it so that when upright it is now only one deck high.  Glue this shortened element onto part 32 as per the instructions.  
Take part 35 of the kit (lower-most deck of the bridge) and sand it down entirely flat.  Using the locating nibs underneath lie it onto parts 33 and 34, and mark off where they meet.  Remove part 35 and cut or file it down to this new profile, then permanently re-attach.  A slightly different way of doing this is to sand the part down so it is a snug fit inside the rim of parts 33 and 34.  

This gives us the lower two decks of the main control tower, which is as far as I'm prepared to go until the whole thing has hardened off and been given a coat of paint.  

Moving aft, there is a secondary control position (another, much smaller, triangular form) located forward of 'X' turret (on British battleships turrets are labelled from fore to aft A, B, X and Y, with [on 'proper' Dreadnoughts] P and Q amidships).  Careful examination of photographs shows that on Barham this had the same plan as Warspite, but not elevation.  

To remedy this, take parts 51 and 52 (the halves of secondary conning) and glue them together.  At a point midway along the sides, make a vertical cut down to about half the height.  Then, working from the wider end of the triangle, make a horizontal cut to meet this vertical cut.  You should end up with something that looks like a backwards 'L' shape...
Then take part 55 (the deck for secondary conning) and mark up where the vertical cut aligns with it.  Cut across this line and then glue the two pieces into position.  To fill the vertical gap between the two, I then simply took a small piece of paper and coaxed it down the gap before cutting it to size.  

To show that I'm on about:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This model of Warspite shows a triangular aft conning tower that is built as-per the kit.  


Whilst this detail of the same area on a model of Barham shows how the aft conning tower has the same plan, but a cut-down profile.

[Will Howard]

A little more progress today; another deck or two of the control tower built.  

For those taking notes, I'm trying to build as much of the model as possible from the parts in the kit (considering I've paid for the kit I'm loath to in effect pay twice for bits...).

So; this is how I've done it so far.  

Take part 32 of the kit (lower-most deck of the control tower) and attach to the main deck.  No alteration is necessary.  
Take parts 33 and 34 of the kit (the halves of the main control tower) and glue them together.  This is a hexagon which resembles a triangular form, three decks high.  Now sand off all of the detail, except for the portholes, and put it in a mitre block.  Cut it so that when upright it is now only one deck high.  Glue this shortened element onto part 32 as per the instructions.  
Take part 35 of the kit (lower-most deck of the bridge) and sand it down entirely flat.  Using the locating nibs underneath lie it onto parts 33 and 34, and mark off where they meet.  Remove part 35 and cut or file it down to this new profile, then permanently re-attach.  A slightly different way of doing this is to sand the part down so it is a snug fit inside the rim of parts 33 and 34.  

This gives us the lower two decks of the main control tower, which is as far as I'm prepared to go until the whole thing has hardened off and been given a coat of paint.  

Moving aft, there is a secondary control position (another, much smaller, triangular form) located forward of 'X' turret (on British battleships turrets are labelled from fore to aft A, B, X and Y, with [on 'proper' Dreadnoughts] P and Q amidships).  Careful examination of photographs shows that on Barham this had the same plan as Warspite, but not elevation.  

To remedy this, take parts 51 and 52 (the halves of secondary conning) and glue them together.  At a point midway along the sides, make a vertical cut down to about half the height.  Then, working from the wider end of the triangle, make a horizontal cut to meet this vertical cut.  You should end up with something that looks like a backwards 'L' shape...
Then take part 55 (the deck for secondary conning) and mark up where the vertical cut aligns with it.  Cut across this line and then glue the two pieces into position.  To fill the vertical gap between the two, I then simply took a small piece of paper and coaxed it down the gap before cutting it to size.  

To show that I'm on about:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This model of Warspite shows a triangular aft conning tower that is built as-per the kit.  


Whilst this detail of the same area on a model of Barham shows how the aft conning tower has the same plan, but a cut-down profile.

The first picture shows Warspite aground in King of Prussia Bay postwar after decommissioning.  If I remember correctly, she was not refloated & taken to the breaker's yard, but was cut up there.

[James Harrison]

Quite so; I believe her keel, double bottom and one or two boilers are still there now (though in large part buried below the sand). 

And, in a way, I'm glad she didn't go to her end quietly.  It wouldn't quite have become a ship that (with only three of her sisters as back-up) took on 18 other dreadnoughts at Jutland, suffered 13 hits there (and was sent back to base only because her rudder was playing up), then 25 years later navigated shoals and narrows into Narvik to halve Germany's entire fleet of destroyers, scored a hit on an Italian battleship in 1942 that to this day is a record for long-range naval gunnery, survived a direct hit from a flying bomb (of a type that sank a completely 'modern' Italian battleship only a few months previously) and subsequently provided gunfire support off Normandy... to end her days at a scrap metal dealers in Rosyth. 

[James Harrison]

I'm breaking my own 'one model at a time' rule.  Yesterday myself and my Father got into the loft above the garage and brought down about 4 years' worth of old Railway Modeller magazines, primarily because I wanted one drawing in particular (good news is, the LNER J11 can now go ahead)... this morning I was glancing through an excellent book, Modellers' Guide to the LNER by David Adair, and noticed how the main chassis dimensions of an ex-GCR C4/C5 4-4-2 are close to those of an ex-GER B12 4-6-0. 

I've now ordered the spare parts for the outside motion of the Hornby B17; the plan being to graft these onto a Hornby B12 chassis (and alter the wheel arrangement of same- take one axle off and replace the tyre-less wheels on the middle axle with 'proper' ones), and have a go at a C4.  I guess the 'Sam Fay' (which I was intending to build after the J11 and D10) will have to wait a while longer....

[James Harrison]

Meanwhile, work is actually progressing on Barham; but for some reason although I have the time in the evenings, I just don't have the motivation, except on Thursdays and Fridays (most of the work gets left until the weekend).  Thus the week's progress is shewn in the photographs below. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I've concentrated, these last few days, on giving the hull a second coat of paint (hopefully it won't get so messed up as to need a third).  The idea of paying extra for good brushes and other sundries has come good for me too- the last shots (the detail shots) show how the raised deck details really come into their own if, with a really fine brush with a fine tip, they are painted.  The brush I used to do that is a size 'OO'- and is brand new.  The rest of the model I used a fairly old, fairly thick brush, which gives a nice even finish.  Different brushes for different uses I guess is the lesson to take away here. 

The lower-most superstructure decks I described last week can also be seen here to good effect.

[James Harrison]

Another weekend, a bit more work 

Taking the drawing from the old Airfix Magazine article, I scaled up the various half-plans for the decks by a factor of two and drew these out onto paper, which was then cut out and glued (with PVA) to 0.5mm plastic sheet.  Once this had dried I used a scalpel to cut out these decks, and started on the control tower proper.  This is, essentially, just a box which appears more complicated than it is, what with the overhanging decks and canvas shrouds.  At the moment I have just the box itself built- no detail on it as such- and it looks, well, rather odd. 

We shall have to see how this goes.

[James Harrison]

Another hour or so on the model today gets us this far (well, that and the two or three hours spent on it since Thursday night):

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

My 'anxiety' about the control tower so far looks to have been unfounded; once painted, glued into place and fitted with the canvas shrouds around the decks it looks 'right'.  Not exactly right; I'm pretty sure that there is a deck missing and the central core of it looks too large- but fairly right.  I've also painted and added the support stands for the hull (I don't want accidents of it rolling over and wrecking my hard work) and the propellors. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Considering they came from the same kit (albeit about a decade apart), there's quite a difference, no? 

[James Harrison]

Because work has once again decided to much about my hours I find myself with a few hours in the day to work on it now. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Bit of a difference...

The guns and turrets came out of the kit.  The barrels themselves I gently turned against a file to remove the excessive flare to the muzzles; a little job that really shows up, especially when compared to the ones on Warspite, which I didn't alter.  'A' and 'Y' turrets (those on the main deck fore and aft) came out of the box and went straight onto the model.  'B' and 'X' turrets (those a deck higher) did need some modification.  Warspite was fitted with AA guns on the roofs of these turrets, whilst Barham had flying-off platforms for floatplanes instead.  A quick rub over with a file to remove the AA platforms did the trick; now I just have to fashion these flying-off decks...

The funnel caused me a little grief.  It's a fairly complex shape and I had little to no idea how I could fashion it out of plastic or paper and get it right.  So I compromised.  I took a piece of 6mm balsa and produced the rough shape with a hacksaw blade, then used a couple of fine files to get the curved ends and the gap at the base where the original two funnels are trunked into one.  The compromise of course, is that it's a solid block instead of being hollow... I think I can live with that, once the cap has been fashioned.  There is still a fair bit of work to do even on the rough base though.  It needs, ideally, to be sanded, filled, sanded again and given another two or so coats of grey paint just to remove the suggestion that it's a block of wood.  Then there are all manner of smaller details to add- steam pipes up the sides and, at the rear, so-called 'coffee box' searchlight platforms. 

[James Harrison]

Whenever I build something there comes a point where it suddenly turns from being an amorphous 'mass' that could become anything within reason to definitively being recogniseable as a specific 'thing'.  I mentioned this on my previous project, when with the addition simply of the safety valves a model locomotive went from being a generic 0-6-2 to specifically being an 'N5'. 

I think I may have turned that corner this morning; from being a 'generic' battleship it's suddenly become recogniseable as a Queen Elizabeth-class dreadnought of the period 1924-37, with the addition of a fairly minor component. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The reason for the odd-looking gap between 'B' turret and the control tower becomes obvious; as does I suspect why said control tower didn't look right to my eye when first fitted.  The gap is for the conning tower and fire control equipment.  The conning tower was a simple matter of cutting and filing a slip of 3mm balsa to the correct shape and size; the fire control director comes straight out of the kit!  Turns out that the Warspite retained her original gunnery directors, they were just moved around on the ship... so part 57 of the kit, the aft director, actually used to be the primary forward director (and has been restored to such status on my Barham). 

Just adding that small part made the whole fore part of the ship suddenly snap into 'focus'. 

The funnel I've carried forward from yesterday.  I started by gently sanding it to remove the rough texture of the woodgrain brought up by the paint, then used model filler to give the whole block a thin coat.  Once this had dried I again gently sanded it to bring it down to a smooth finish, then gave it another coat of paint.  I'm happy with the result; now it just needs the detailing....

[James Harrison]

Spent another hour of or so on it today and, I would submit, some fairly impressive results. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I bit the bullet and decided I couldn't put the foremast off any longer.  I began by taking a 6mm length of 0.5mm plastic pipe and wrapped paper around it until I built up a 3mm thick tube, which was then attached to the top of the control tower.  I then attached the third of the decks I cut out of 0.5mm plastic sheet last week, which is the searchlight/director platform roughly half-way up the mast.  On top of this I added a second 6mm high, 3mm thick plastic/ paper cylinder.  I also took one of the smaller directors from the Warspite kit (parts 41/42) and gently removed the extrusion toward the bottom, then filed the base flat and glued it to the platform to suggest a director. 

The fourth deck cut from 0.5mm plastic sheet was the spotting top- the very top deck of the superstructure.  I didn't want to build this up in-situ- I felt there was too much potential to knock the whole thing over- so I glued the plastic sheet to some 3mm balsa, then cut around it, before glueing the balsa/plastic component to the paper cylinder. 

Now came the fun part!  It's a tripod mast; the fore leg is the thicker one whilst two much thinner ones angle back and out, from the spotting top...

The way I did this was to take some more 0.5mm plastic pipe and cut it to length; there are four pieces needed all told.  The first two go from the top deck of the control tower to the underside of the searchlight platform.  Above this the other two go from the platform to the underside of the spotting top.  BUT- the angles have to be the same!  Trying to get these pieces to look 'right' from the front and side (and then get both identical) was probably the most delicate and frustrating operation in the whole build to date.  But worth it in the end. 

Finally, I took another director from the Warspite (part 44), filed the base flat and glued it to the top of the spotting top, then added a short length of 0.5mm plastic strip behind that for a topmast. 

Now of course I just have to paint it whilst making sure I don't break it....   

[James Harrison]

Now we enter the 'endgame'. 

Turns out I chose to build the foreward mast in two stages, only the first of which I documented Thursday. 

The second stage was to wrap paper around the platform halfway up the mast, to suggest the canvas/steel shroud, then add the cross at the top, just below the spotting top.  I also added a further layer of plastic to the front of the control tower, to suggest the distinctive 'jutting out' of the bridge. 

And there she stayed, from Thursday until this morning. 

I began by painting the tripod mast, then leaving that to dry for a few hours. 

Then I built the 4'' AA guns out of the Airfix kit and glued them onto the deck around the funnel.  I considered utilising the smaller AA guns (that should be fitted to the main turrets on Warspite), but then found evidence that larger, twinned guns were more appropriate. 

Then I took the other small gunnery director from the kit (having used the first for the director on the foremast), and attached it to the after superstructure.

Now comes a difficult part!  Building the after tripod mast... using lengths of 1mm circular section plastic, and tiny slivers of 0.5mm plastic sheet, using the 'starfish' from the mast of the Warspite kit.  Three attempts later and I had something I could glue to the ship.... once it had all set, only then did I realise that the wrong legs are set up to lean... I may just call it a day on that score. 

I've also added various steampipes to the funnel sides.  There are three of 1mm plastic that are absolutely straight, which were fairly easy to produce.  The fourth one on each side though... follows the trunked forward funnel in a long bend... this I had to form from brass wire to get right.  It's not quite there but somehow looks 'right'. 

Finally I cut a pair of 12 x 8mm rectangles from plastic card and glued them onto the tops of 'B' and 'X' turrets to form the flying off platforms.  I may yet use the aircraft from the kit, or at least one of them.  On the other hand.... I might just leave aircraft off entirely.

[James Harrison]

And here are the photos of where I left off last night; all painted up (well, except for the searchlight platforms....)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[James Harrison]

Barham is finished and has joined the Second Battle Squadron of the Jacobite fleet....

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Where do I begin with all the finishing details and how I did them? 

The jackstaff on bow and stern were provided with the kit, as were the forward and aft capstans. 

I found a profile drawing of Barham which shewed some of the bridge decks extending aft to abut the smokestack... surgery followed, of the nature of shaping some 0.5mm plastic sheet to the profile of the deck and then rolling some 2mm paper slips over it. 

I also found a good photo (or series, rather) of midships and smokestack detail.  Somehow I missed out an entire deck (!).  I took some 6mm balsa and cut four lengths off of it to create the deck houses around the smoke stack.  The pom-pom guns came out of the Warspite kit (of which four are provided) and the sponsons they are fitted into also come courtesy of Airfix.  Take the main hangar deck of Warspite and simply cut two of them off...

Ship's boats are all Airfix; specifically the four fitted above Warspite's hangar and the five fitted around her 'X' turret. 

Barham was fitted with a fairly heavy-duty crane on the portside abaft her after superstructure.  I began this by drilling a 1.6mm hole into the main deck, then taking one of Warspite's cranes and filing away the large 'lump' of plastic moulded to the side, before drilling the webbing through.  I then took the crane job itself and also drilled this through; the 'aztec step' ladders and solid crane details of Airfix battleships are one of the things that have come to make me consider them dated...

The final job was to take some 2mm slips of paper and fold them into shrouds for the 4'' AA guns around the smokestack. 

And there we have it.  Yes, it is possible to turn Warspite into Barham, and much of the work is fairly easy, but the real difficulty is finding information for the details.  Consequently there are probably many, many things 'not quite right' or 'just plain wrong' with my attempt but, in all fairness, who else can claim to have an Airfix Barham?

[James Harrison]

....And the next project is now officially afoot. 

I began however by revisiting a 'finished' piece.  I'm not very happy with the funnel for my LNER N5; I think it looks too coarse and not like the delicately formed original at all.  Going through the remaining contents of the Airfix HMS Warspite box, I found two pretty heavy duty lengths of sprue, and set to work thinking.  Offering up a length to the drawing of the N5 I found that to all intents and purposes it was just thick enough to be worked into a new funnel, so that is what I did.  Again using my dremel as a lathe, I set the length of plastic running at 2,000 ROM and set-to with a file.  As it turns out, plastic is a far, far better material to turn in this fashion.  It's still not quite right; but far better than that which went before. 

And as I had the dremel set up, I repeated the procedure and formed the funnel for my new project, an LNER J11 goods engine.  Once I had my plastic armature, I then wrapped some paper around it and finished off with some milliput to make good any seams or creases. 

Ian Beattie's drawing of the J11 (to be found in the August 1998 Railway Modeller) suggests a boiler diameter of 22mm in 4mm scale.  I began by taking some 19mm brass tube and cutting it to length (77mm), then as per the N5 wrapping this in paper until I have the required diameter.  To create the Belpaire firebox, again as per the N5, I took a short length of paper, 78mm length and 22mm depth, and folded it so as to give two lengths of 28mm either side of a 22mm length.  This I then simply glued onto the end of the boiler; the front plate of the firebox will be fabricated later. 

In contrary to the N5, this time around I'm using the boiler as a base on which to build the rest of the model; thus the next step will be the footplate and the smokebox saddle and wrapper.  Once this is complete, and married to the boiler, I can start to think about re-using the screws from the old Airfix 4F I'm using as a parts donor as a way of semi-permanently joining body and chassis. 

[James Harrison]

Photos; I'm hopeful there's a degree of progression from the 'bodge it and hope for the best' approach I took to the last loco:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I used the same approach to build the boiler as I found on about the third attempt on the N5; a length of 19mm brass tube and an overwrap of paper to build the correct diameter.  This time however I made a crucial alteration; marking on the line of the handrails and drilling holes before going any further.  Then lacing through a series of lengths of 1mm plastic rod, then gluing a further length of rod above this.  The result?  Seperate handrails- a bit of an improvement over those on the N5 (which are present but lack the gap between rail and boiler lagging). 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The chimney.  On the N5 this was simply a length of crudely turned timber (which I replaced with a slightly better effort yesterday).  For the J11 I began with a short length of fairly thick Airfix kit sprue.  I turned a slight taper onto this, then wrapped paper around it to again get the right diameter.  This was then covered with milliput, to smooth the surface.  To create the cap I took a very thin length of paper and again wrapped around to create the thicker top edge, then a length of 0.6mm brass wire was wrapped around this and trimmed to length before being pressed over the lip and glued into place.  It is a little bucked; the wire is not as forgiving as I would like.  I have copper wire which may give a better finish, but the pay-off for this is that it is much, much thinner and there fore would need more turns (with more potential for getting in a flap)... 

[James Harrison]

Rather than present a blow-by-blow account of what I did, I think this time I'll present a few photos as more of a 'shows you how' post. 

I was contemplating how exactly to go about building the running plate in such a manner that it can be screwed and unscrewed from the chassis, and eventually decided to have a go at re-using the running plate on the existing body. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We begin by taking the 4F body and gently removing the cab (this is a separate moulding and should come away easily enough).  At this point also take care to remove the safety valves, whistle and most importantly the handrails.  When you see what follows you will appreciate why. 



I removed the majority of the body using a dremel cutting disc running at the lowest power setting.  Even on this setting however the plastic began to melt... I would not recommend a higher power setting for this job.  As you can see I took opne cut down each side of the smokebox, then a further cut on the boiler barrel itself to free the front end from the running plate.  At the firebox end I followed the groove the cab sits in- and if you don't first remove the handrails you stand primed to recieve a face-full of metal shavings. 



To finally remove the backhead from the carcass I used a piercing saw and cut along the length cab footplate.  Do this carefully- you don't want a 'wonky' cut...



You should now have something that looks like this.  The body is around 95% gone, but you've only done about 25% of the work!  We still have to remove the lower edges of the smokebox and the firebox, plus unneccessary running plate details.  Break out the piercing saw, hack saw blade, scalpels and files...



...After an hour or so's work you should end up with this.  Ready to attach the new body.  Before doing so however, a test fitting would be prudent.  Make sure the new boiler sits level on the running plate and smoke box saddle, and if necessary make up some brackets to support the firebox from plastic card (don't forget, the firebox is merely a folded length of paper- it won't support the weight of the brass boiler...)



Voila! 

[James Harrison]

  . 

Bachmann announced a J11 Pom-pom for their 2012 range this morning.  On the bright side, it means I can have a scratch built one and a RTR example to judge it by....

They've also announced a D11/2, which may hold possibilities for hacking back into a D10 'director' or D11 'improved director'. 

Is there any point my even starting a D10 after the J11? 

[Mécanicien de Vapeur]

. 

Bachmann announced a J11 Pom-pom for their 2012 range this morning.  On the bright side, it means I can have a scratch built one and a RTR example to judge it by....

Ah... I wondered if you'd spotted that.

They didn't pick any of my scratch-building projects...
Though I will stop work on various kits (brace of Parkside SR CCT/PMVs and Lima 101 DMU reworkings...) bah.

They've also announced a D11/2, which may hold possibilities for hacking back into a D10 'director' or D11 'improved director'. 

Is there any point my even starting a D10 after the J11? 

Can you do a GE Claude Hamilton next please?? 

[James Harrison]

Can you do a GE Claude Hamilton next please?? 

Not with the chassis I already have, but a Bachmann Midland Compound could be a good starting point. 

Comparing the wheelbase dimensions in my 'bible', David Adair's Modeller's Guide to the LNER and a GA drawing on page 1620 of The World of Trains, we get:

GER 'Claude Hamilton'

3' 9'' leading wheels at 6' 6'' centres

8' gap

7' driving wheels at 9' centres

MR Compound

3'6'' leading wheels at 6'6'' centres

8' 3'' gap

6' 9'' driving wheels at 9' 6'' centres

At 4mm scale any discrepancies are 2mm maximum, which could be lost/gained/disguised. 

Oh blast.  I already have a B12 so why can't I build a D16 to go with it?  Did they ever appear on the London Extension?

[James Harrison]

And, thinking about it, getting hold of their Aspinall 2-4-2 means I should be able to build an LNER F1 too...

I made the mistake of going on the Bachmann website and catching sight of the D11/2.  Despite the fact they never worked south of the Bodrders, despite the fact that they have cut-down cabs and boiler fittings that give them something of a 'Bill and Ben's Big Brother' look and despite the fact that to run one into a model of Marylebone would be just plain wrong, the model is a handsome brute.  Pressure's going to be on to make my D10 look that good.  

And if Bachmann decide to make further use of their Robinson chimney and dome moulds for the O4... I guess my wallet will have to stump up for a D11/1....

Meanwhile work continues on the J11.  I cut out the cab side sheets yesterday, offered them up to the model and thought 'well that doesn't look right'.  I checked them against the drawing- they were the right size- and then the model against the drawing as well.  It turns out, that I am an idiot.  When I cut down my running plate I assumed all was well and attached the boiler.  As it happens, the smokebox saddle on a 4F is a good 6'' higher than on a J11 (unless of course you're modelling one of Mr Thompson's altered ones), hence the boiler was sitting 2mm too high and the top of the boiler was riding somewhere about cab roof height.  Surgery with a file followed. 

So; cab sides take 2 this morning.  Beginning by tracing the side sheets onto a sheet of tracing paper, I cut these out roughly (with around 3mm overlap to each side) and glued them to 0.5mm plastic sheet.  Once this had dried I took a scalpel and cut the sides out.  It helps to have two scalpels- one larger one for the long straight edges, and a smaller one coming to a a fine curved point to create the concave cut-out 'windows'.  With this done I took 0.8mm dremel drillbit and on each sheet drilled out two holes for the handrail knobs.  Then gently remove the tracing paper and give a gentle rub-down with a file to remove any traces of adhesive.  Now of course, I just have to actually build the cab...

[James Harrison]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now that's looking a bit more like it!  Now for the cab roof, dome, smokebox details, oh and the tender.  And a crew.  And.... and.... and....

The next step of course is to prise that smokebox front off so I can out the cast metal weight back inside.... Bletchley's Madness strikes again...

[James Harrison]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

No, I've not gone mad and tried my hand at a J11/4F cross-breed (well, technically I have, but...).  No, just checking the body for clearances on the chassis, whilst the tender still has its 4F body on. 

Yesterday I re-fitted the weight inside the boiler.  Nothing ever running smooth, it turns out that a 4F boiler is longer than that on a J11... and the weight had to be cut down before it could be coerced to fit inside.  A 2-minute job thus became a 15-minute one... with this finally done I was able to turn to the cab sides and add the handrails, in the same fashion as the boiler rails have been made (1mm plastic rod). 

The big jobs to do on the loco now stand at:

-Dome
-Cab roof
-Safety valves
-Smokebox saddle frames

The smaller jobs:

-Reverser
-Smokebox dart
-Smokebox handrail
-Boiler wash-out plugs

I'm now starting to think about the tender, and how much of the 4F one can be re-used.