James' non-SP model building thread

[James Harrison]

I'm having a rethink on the C4, prompted by one or two occurences not entirely in my favour.

a) One of the driving wheels came of its axle; not wishing to try to 'glue it back on again' I've instead bought some spare Hornby B12 axles and wheels. 

b) The hacked-up B17 motion I had attached seized up; so I've bought a pair of Bachmann O4 valve sets (one for the C4, one for either a B4 or B5 I have planned) and am waiting on their delivery.

c) The cartazzi truck won't attach to the chassis properly...

The intention at present, then, is to build the loco frames from balsa wood, and to replace the cartazzi truck with a wheelset extending down from these frames (a set-up identical to that I employed on the N5). 

[James Harrison]

This is what a C4/ Jersey Lily looks like (it occurred to me that I might end up utterly confusing people by referring to class designations....)



My starting point is a Hornby B12 4-6-0; to get the correct wheel arrangement, it is necessary to remove the rearmost axle.  For various reasons, it was not a case of simply doing this, but rather one of switching the middle and rear axles around (the middle axle is the one discarded). Unfortunately, whilst doing this, the insulator on one axle broke and had to be replaced... and the modern replacement was recalcitrant about fitting to a 1970s model... and has since itself broken.  Hence the need to replace the entire axle again.....  It also needs outside valvegear and motion.  I did start off with some Hornby spare parts, which seized up; I've since spoken to Bachmann and bought two sets of their 'proper' Robinson motion (one set for this engine, one set for the B5 I have in mind).  



Now then; onto the rest of the chassis.  I did attempt to graft the rear pony truck onto the cut I made in the chassis itself to remove the rear axle, but the two wouldn't come close enough (there was always some or other bit of metal in the way).  So I decided to make the running plate part of the chassis.  Like the previous model, this plate is curved.  Last time this took several weeks and endless frustration to get right; this time I decided to use balsa wood to make up the straight portions (around 90% of the plate) and deal with the curved bits 'later'.  I also made the rear pony truck out of balsa, stuck the axle between the two sides and glued it in position.  A bit rough and ready, but it will work.  

[James Harrison]

I paid a little more than I would have liked, but that is the risk of an ebay auction. 

Anyway, I'm now the proud owner of one of these....



Which shares various major dimensions (wheelbase, boiler, maybe even position of dome and suchlike) with one of these:



Sigh.  Another project I've proved myself a sucker for 

[James Harrison]

Waiting for parts for the C4 (watch them turn up today now...) and the donor kit for the D7, and having all but given up on the appropriate book and drawings for HMS Dreadnought and HMS Temeraire, I was casting about for something to do... and decided to make a start on a big project I have in mind. 

Namely, taking the old Hornby LNER stock and making it look like proper LNER stock    This largely involves a repaint to cover the 'vaguely-wooden-looking plastic finish' with an approximation of graining. 

This is a big job because my stock list runs to:

3X composite brake carriages
3X composite carriages
3X first class sleeping cars
5X clerestories

1X mailcoach kit Coronation observation car (an absolute dog to build; going to need to be stripped down and rebuilt again...)
1X pigeon van
3X ratio suburbans

Not wishing to start off by ruining a Hornby carriage, I started with the pigeon van.  A small 4-wheeled 'carriage' I built from a kit a few years ago. 

The process is ably covered by David Adair in his book 'Modellers' Guide to the LNER'.  Basically you begin by giving the sides a coat of gloss yellow and allowing this to dry, before dry brushing a teak or mid-brown hue over it, making sure to brush the right way (horizontally below the windows, vertically in between).  Then varnish it, add transfers and varnish again.

[James Harrison]

More progress on the C4...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Let's start by discussing the first photo.  Comparing it with the last photo update, it appears at first glance that precious little has changed.  However, I have built and attached the smokebox saddle.  On my previous efforts this has been fabricated using either laminations of card, paper or plastic, but this method has proved somewhat unstable when the boiler is actually lowered into position.  So; to continue the experiment of using balsa wood for the frames, I had a go at making this component out of the stuff.  A lamination of two thickness of 6mm balsa and a layer of 3mm balsa sandwiched in between gives the appropriate 15mm depth required; taking each laminate individually and gently rubbing along a coarse file produced the curved profiles.  The balsa pieces were then glued together, and for extra strength, a layer of paper was added along both top and bottom.  It was then glued into place on the frames.  The boiler was then lowered into place for a test fitting; and it would appear that it rests pretty happily on the saddle and the top of the motor. 

A further tweak to the chassis was the removal of the 'magnahesion' magnet; in the 1960s and 70s Triang/Hornby had the idea of placing a small but powerful magnet in their chassis so as to improve haulage capacity of their locos.  Unfortunately however, this results in the steel axle for the pony truck being attracted to the chassis, and the whole set of frames being inverted!  A swift shove with a pair of heavy pliers did the trick; the magnet popped out with a minimum of fuss. 

The boiler itself is a length of 20mm diameter brass pipe; this was cut to length and then had the 'bottom' cut away for 3/4 of its length with a dremel.  The smokebox wrapper was then added using a piece of 20mm diameter plastic pipe, cut through and stretched over the brass tube. 

Before I can go any further with the model (realistically) I must wait new wheels and new outside motion.  Both on order, who knews when they'll turn up?

[James Harrison]

Wheels have arrived; once the new motion turns up I can get on with it.  

In other news; the pigeon van has been teaked.  This morning I gave it a good going over with Humbrol 33 Matt Black (which I have thinned down to the consistancy of water).  As I applied it with the brush, I removed it with a cloth; the effect being to work it into nooks and crannies in the beading so as to give a weather-beaten look.  Then I gave it a good dosing on the roof as well and again removed the majority of it; no ex-works finish here!  

A final step was to apply the transfers (HMRS pressfix variety- an absolute     to get sitting right before fixing in position) and, as ever, gave it a coat of watered-down PVA as an ad-hoc varnish.  

~Addendum~

Photo of the finished carriage; the PVA is still drying....

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[James Harrison]

The valvegear turned up yesterday; deciding for me what my weekend holds in store. 

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Let's go through exactly what we have here.  I had, last time, reached the point of having a four-coupled chassis, but no motion.  Also, nowhere to attach said motion. 

I went out and bought, for the princely sum of £12.50, a set of Bachmann's Robinson motion (connecting rods, slide bearings and cylinders) which nominally belong to their O4 model (this is the point where I thank God that Robinson was apprenticed to Swindon, the home of British locomotive standardisation... otherwise this would have been difficult, if not impossible).  Basically that motion is 'Gorton Standard', meaning it will fit any (to my knowledge) Robinson outside-cylinder loco.   

The only modifications necessary are to remove the plastic footsteps at the end of the slidebars (a moulding which just slips on and off) and drill a 2mm hole in the cylinder beam.  This hole will align with a hole cast into the Hornby B12 chassis just above the middle of the leading bogie.... right about the right place for the cylinder mounting.  Drop a screw through it and we're done here.  Now I just need to file down the running plate so it will sit square on top of the cylinders....

[James Harrison]

Last night we had a bit of a 'duuuhhhh' moment.  Innocently I thought 'I wonder how well this goes around corners' and quickly found out... that it didn't.  In fact, it disliked corners to the extent that the pony truck came adrift of the frames   

Several solutions presented themselves:

1. Ream out the bearings for the rear axle until it could turn in the frames; this overlooked the fact that the frames themselves were inside the rail on the curve....

2. Remove the axle frames, create a pivotted sub-frame around them, balance the running plate on top of them. 

Fair bit of work involved, but we got there in the end.  The rear frames were taken off, a length of paper passed through the hole in the chassis where the magnet used to be, then the balsa frame sides attached to the paper.  The axle was slotted in, then a further length of paper closed off the open end of the frames.  When the running plate is in position, the whole thing sits just right. 

At the front of the chassis there were also problems; of the nature of wheel rims rubbing against the cylinders.  A few minutes' work with a file (you need to take off just a tiny, tiny amount of material from the cylinder) and this problem too was overcome. 

Then we could make real progress.  The boiler was given a wrap of paper; at the same time the plastic smokebox wrapper was removed (it had deformed) and replaced with a further paper wrap.  The dome and chimney (again spares from Craftsman kits) were attached.  I took a tracing of the firebox sides off the plan, then cut two off from paper.  These were glued into position before a net of the whole firebox (both sides and the top) was cut out, folded to shape and glued over the top. 

Running plate valances were cut from paper and glued to the edges of the balsa foundation.  I piece of 3mm balsa forms the bottom of the cab; at the front end, to take account of the depth of the bufferbeam, 6mm balsa was used, carefully cut and filed to form a curve to 3mm at the rear end. 

[James Harrison]

The projects keep piling up...

I've just bought a Hornby B12 chassis off of ebay (I needed one with green wheels....) so I can be ready to make a start on a B4 or 'Immingham' class:



List of parts accrued for this project now stand at:

- Chassis
- Outside motion
- Chimney
- Dome
- Smokebox door
- Buffers
- Safety valve

And the list of projects I'm contemplating runs at:

- LNER C4 (under construction)
- LNER W1 (chassis acquired)
- LNER B4 (parts acquired, outlined above)
- LNER D6 (conversion of a Ratio 4-4-0 kit; ready to start once the C4 is out of the works)
- Metropolitan 1929 stock (card kit acquired; parts to motorise it would be equivalent to buying an entire new engine!)
- NER #13, 2-Co-2 express electric loco (plans held in readiness)
- NER BoBo steeplecab electric loco (plans held in readiness)
- NER BoBo freight electric loco (plans held in readiness)

- HMS Dreadnought (begun, on hiatus until I can find the definitive book at a reasonable price)
- HMS Temeraire (ditto)
- Russian Cruiser Varyag (awaiting its turn, probably when I get bored of building locos)

[James Harrison]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Got a lot to talk through here....

Starting from the bottom up.  I've described how I have made the pony frames pivot so that the engine will actually hold to a curve, and how I added the outside motion (and removed the rearmost driving axle).  The frames we already know to be balsa wood, but it would appear I've altered them somehow?  I have added the valances (these were fabricated from paper) which in effect serve to hold the entire frame in one piece.  In addition to this I have added the top of the running plate in paper too.  The splashers were cut as part of the paper top, and simply folded up.  The tops of the splashers are again paper, saturated in UHU glue and gently coaxed into position (it helped that I had the foresight to add tabs to the top of the splasher sides). 

The boiler is brass tube that I have wrapped paper around, and the smokebox is simply more of the same.  The firebox began life as a length of paper, cut to the correct length and width and then folded.  The cab follows pretty much the same idea, except for the fact that when I had glued it into position, I cut a second piece of paper and folded that to form an internal brace for the cab structure.  Chimney and dome are laready in position, and are whitemetal castings from the Craftsman range. 

[James Harrison]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

More work done...

The smokebox door is a Craftsman casting; the smokebox front I cut out of paper, then cut a hole in it for the door. 

I've added a representation of the springs for the pony truck; these are just paper laminations. 

Similarly the roof is of paper; I've made it of tracing paper this time to see if this holds a curve better. 

Safety valves and whistle came off of a Triang B12 body shell. 

Things still to do are the firebox front and the running plate around the cab, and the backhead detail inside the cab. 

[James Harrison]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I added the backhead detail and cab seats from an old Triang B12... then gave it a quick coat of paint (perhaps better described as 'thinner', considering the consistency of it....).  It is surprising how even the roughest and most preliminary of paint jobs makes the whole model look more convincing. 

[James Harrison]

Nearly there now....

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I've refined the 'handrails' at the rear of the cab by thinning down the paper they were formed from.  I've also added the rainstrips on the roof (1mm wide strips of paper) and added the handrails (1mm plastic rod), and given the whole model a second coat of paint. 

Still to do, other than the tender:

-Bufferbeam
-Lamp irons
-Whistle
-Lining and numbering

I was planning to leave this one in plain black livery, circa 1935 onwards.  Unfortunately, to get an idea of what the completed model will look like, I paired it up with the lined tender of Purdon Viccars.  Yeah.  Think this one will be lined out too....

[James Harrison]

Moving away from the C4 for a moment; I've just taken delivery of Hornby's 'Brighton Belle' 5-car Pullman train:
 (apologies for the poor photos, but it is difficult to get the whole train in any detail in one shot)

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Impressions?

The level of detail and standard of finish is top-notch.  However, the engineering seems somewhat lacking.  The motor, for instance, applies to only one bogie on one car (and weighs a ton.... you feel the carriage would snap in two if picked up wrong).  The train has lamps that light up, and thus wires running its length.  On one car one of the wires is loose and just hangs down toward the track, rather than going into the coupling.  The couplings themselves are snap-locks (in theory).... the pressure needed to make them lock makes me fear I'll snap off finer detail, or slip and send the whole thing crashing to the floor.  It doesn't help that the couplings buckle as you apply the necessary pressure to couple them. 

I'm not disappointed as such; I was just expecting something a bit more rigourous for the £260 I paid.  If you want one, don't get me wrong it is a beautiful model, but beware it might be more of a 'box queen' than something you can run. 

[James Harrison]

I've just lined out the Jersey Lily- so it looks surprisingly quite a lot like the photo of one posted a few days ago.... not long now until it's finished!

[James Harrison]

Here it is!  Not much left to do now, save the tender...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Considering how much grief I had when doing Purdon Viccars, lining this one out was comparatively easy...

[James Harrison]

And here's work on the tender so far...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm using a Hornby B12 tender chassis for this one... both too short and too high.... the height I can live with (hence the deeper valancing around the chassis) but to lengthen it I cut it in three, inserted some plastic stretchers, then glued it back together again. 

The tank I've built up using my preferred folded paper technique.  Not much in the way of major jobs left to do to it now....

[James Harrison]

Revisited an old project:





The J11, with a new brass chimney (actually, found in the scrap box!) and the wire handrails replaced in 0.5mm plastic rod....

[James Harrison]

And, hopefully, I've sorted out the C4 chassis.  The problem I had was a general dissatisfaction with my scratchbuilt pony truck ( I decided to have a go using the cast cartazzi truck I had as a spare....) 

But then, how to attach it?

In the event I took a length of wire, passed it through the chassis and then around the axle to create a firm, loose and very flexible linkage.  It goes around a 438mm radius curve...

[James Harrison]

Well, I've decided that Purdon Viccars just isn't good enough. 

Then I discovered that the compound locos of the LMS were pretty much the same size as the Directors (except for the boiler being a little narrower), and I found that Hornby make an LMS compound and.... I'm sure you can see where this is going.

I'm in two minds at the moment though whether to alter a Hornby body to suit the correct wheel spacing on the old L1 chassis, or accept the 2mm discrepancy on the Compound chassis, which would simplify matters but not be right. 

I could, of course, then put the L1 chassis under a 4-4-2 tank loco.... excuse me whilst I just go into the workshop and build a loco or three...   

[James Harrison]

Couple of updates....

.... firstly my J11, after a couple of alterations (removal of handrails, clean-up of the boiler and a repaint)



.... Then my C4, after a repaint into unlined black and a first coat of paint on the tender- you can also see that I've replaced the pony truck beneath the cab...

[James Harrison]

Close to being ready for the road now.... if only I had the space for London Marylebone 

[James Harrison]

The Jersey Lily's finished 





Transfers are from the HMRS pressfix range (pressfix transfers are the bane of my life!).  On this occasion I think they've actually worked quite well....

Added some real crushed coal in the tender and varnished using my usual watered-down PVA glue.  Then I added some lamp irons on the front bufferbeam by cutting up a staple and pushing the parts into the beam (one advantage of using fairly thick balsa wood for the running plate). 

All it needs now is a closer loco-tender connection, and a rear coupling.   

[James Harrison]

Sorted the couplings, sorted a new pick-up on the second driving axle, think this one is just about 'ready for the right-away'. 

Next up is a D5; #5880 kitbashed from a Ratio Midland 4-4-0. 

Plus I've just taken delivery of a Hornby LMS 2P which I'm planning to build into another Director....

[James Harrison]

Onto the D6!











Just look at all those bits!  There is the plastic kit itself, a separate brass chassis kit (lacking some fairly major bits), two complete sets of driving wheels and a motor.  Well worth the money spent. 

And onto making a start... with the chassis.  I'm using the plastic chassis that came as part of the original kit.  The brass chassis would have been used, except for the lack of the spacers....





Wire pick-ups were made from an old stereo aerial cable...



... and we now have a complete set of chassis frames, with the gearbox and driving axle fitted...