7mm Finney Battle of Britain
- Thread starter mickoo
- Start date
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Thank you,
Yes it would and that is certainly the way forward in due course.
That still won't completely help S7 modellers but it'll be a big step forward and for O fine as well as you'll be able to close the pull rods up as well.
MD
Last edited:
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Correct, sadly the amount you need to skim off is much more than that normally required for S7 wheels, well, much more than Slaters wheels will tolerate. To aid clearance you can skim 0.5 mm from the rear but then you'd need to skim another 0.5 mm from the front to get the brake shoes to line up with the front face of the tyres.
At the end of the day the slightly undersized frame width (1.0 mm or so) and the slightly short brake hanger fixings (1.0 mm or so) is just enough to present minor issues with S7 wheels. But nothing S7 modellers are not already used to.
Resin brake shoes and or hangers is one method of insulation or simply mount the hangers on small dia plastic tube, I've used brass tube (doubles as a spacer to ensure the brake hanger is in the right location) with a bolt through it to hang the brakes but you could just as easily use plastic.
MD
Eastsidepilot
Western Thunderer
mickoo
Western Thunderer
No, just plastic tube, there's already enough strength from the 12BA screw down the middle thta holds the brake assembly in place. I'll try and take a better photo over the weekend that'll explain the set up easier.
MD
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Ok, small update this week, just wrapped up in real life issues so progress has been a bit slow.
Anyway, added the cylinder wrappers and progressed the front end a bit, just the fiddly bits to add and then the lower wing plates with lubricators and piping to add.
Ran out of daylight so ended up with an interior shot, not the best as the light is all wrong and the high ASA makes for a noisy image. Nice shiny plate works certainly looks nice but is a witch to photograph.
I'll get some better daylight shots tomorrow along with others promised previously.
MD
Anyway, added the cylinder wrappers and progressed the front end a bit, just the fiddly bits to add and then the lower wing plates with lubricators and piping to add.
Ran out of daylight so ended up with an interior shot, not the best as the light is all wrong and the high ASA makes for a noisy image. Nice shiny plate works certainly looks nice but is a witch to photograph.
I'll get some better daylight shots tomorrow along with others promised previously.
MD
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Ok moving on, marker lamps, as built the engines have three lower marker lights, each fitted with 3/4" conduit, the outer ones have conduit on their inner sides, the middle one has conduit on each side. A small detail is that the lamps have a hole in each side, so can be either left, right or middle fitted with the hole not used blanked off. Originally all three lamps were set the same height.
The castings come with a little divot on each side, a guide to drilling and the outer ones are a common casting, which means your left with a divot opposite the conduit entry and not a blanking plug, do we want to add this, of course we do
So, how to replicate the planking plug, in a flash of inspiration I simply drilled all of the way through the lamp, poked the conduit all the way through and simply trimmed back the excess to leave a small round blanking plug. Now as y'all old school electricians will know, there's two types of blanking plug, a round one or a hexagonal one, both retained on the inside with a round or hexagonal lock nut, not that bothers us.
So, if you want an hexagonal blanking plug then just file the brass rod accordingly and fit all the way through. Sadly the only decent picture of 110 shows the drivers side and sods law the plug has dropped out to leave a hole. Anyway, time was ticking so I went for round....if anyone finds a picture to the contrary, please keep it to yourself
You can just see the blanking plug on the outside of the lamp, it's not much but when painted will catch the eye and add that little extra, I did so want to add the inspection elbows, but that'd be a anorak too far I think, having said that I might well do if I can find an easy way to add them now everything is in place.
One other feature of the lamps is a socket on one side, this is a bolted plate, I'm not quite sure what this socket is for and suspect it'll be a place to plug a hand lamp into, I've not added these yet, they're not part of the kit so come under additional details which I'll probably add at the end.
From the front all the lamps fitted and lined up.
Now comes the interesting part, once AWS was fitted the middle lamp was required to be moved up, in addition the conduit runs were altered, a simpler route was designed with the conduit running right across the front of the engine, the middle lamp was then fed from below via an inspection T, the outer ones by inspection elbows, again from below, a set each side allowed the conduit to rise up over the battery box cover.
Winston Churchill has this set up. Note socket on the side of the nearest lamp casing.
Another variant simply has conduit in the existing side holes right across the engine as seen here on 106
34001 - 34110 West Country and Battle of Britain Pacifics | 34106 Seaton Junction 180864 HB64O384
However the engine we're interested in retained the standard conduit fit but with the middle lamp simply moved up, the result is the side conduit has a pronounced dip each side. 34001 - 34110 West Country and Battle of Britain Pacifics | 34110-ExmouthJunction-0662-RPC387-1
I like the electrician on 110, he has placed the inspection elbows with the lid on the lower side, smart guy, they rarely sealed well and it stops the conduit filling up with water it does mean they are a pig to get the cover screws out, being upside down and all.
So the next step is to fabricate the battery box cover and then move the middle lamp up accordingly, the bracket that holds it is quite
pliable so it'll move easily and the conduits are not fixed to the front plate work, simply passing through holes like the real thing, so they'll flex and bend as well.
Taking a break from the front end it was time to try fixing the cover plates on the resin body, use a suitable superglue the instructions advise, hmmm yes well. All of them fell off at some point, some three times, it's not as though the glue is not sticking to either component, it sticks to the resin very well, and I'd forgotten to wash the release agent off though I had mechanically cleaned the area first, now corrected. It also sticks to the brass as well, just not in the same place as where it sticks to the resin! In the end Roket max seemed to do the trick...so far.
I get the resin body, I really do, but the Luddite in me really struggles with adding dissimilar materials.
Overall the fit is pretty good, some areas of the resin needed trimming to allow the etch to sit properly and as much as we try to get a Rolls Royce fit the real things were battered to bits.
I do have some spare cover plates and the safety valve cover plate has a little ding in it that is kinda niggling me so it may come off and be replaced at some point.
Right, back to the front end I suppose
MD
The castings come with a little divot on each side, a guide to drilling and the outer ones are a common casting, which means your left with a divot opposite the conduit entry and not a blanking plug, do we want to add this, of course we do
So, how to replicate the planking plug, in a flash of inspiration I simply drilled all of the way through the lamp, poked the conduit all the way through and simply trimmed back the excess to leave a small round blanking plug. Now as y'all old school electricians will know, there's two types of blanking plug, a round one or a hexagonal one, both retained on the inside with a round or hexagonal lock nut, not that bothers us.So, if you want an hexagonal blanking plug then just file the brass rod accordingly and fit all the way through. Sadly the only decent picture of 110 shows the drivers side and sods law the plug has dropped out to leave a hole. Anyway, time was ticking so I went for round....if anyone finds a picture to the contrary, please keep it to yourself
You can just see the blanking plug on the outside of the lamp, it's not much but when painted will catch the eye and add that little extra, I did so want to add the inspection elbows, but that'd be a anorak too far I think, having said that I might well do if I can find an easy way to add them now everything is in place.
One other feature of the lamps is a socket on one side, this is a bolted plate, I'm not quite sure what this socket is for and suspect it'll be a place to plug a hand lamp into, I've not added these yet, they're not part of the kit so come under additional details which I'll probably add at the end.
From the front all the lamps fitted and lined up.
Now comes the interesting part, once AWS was fitted the middle lamp was required to be moved up, in addition the conduit runs were altered, a simpler route was designed with the conduit running right across the front of the engine, the middle lamp was then fed from below via an inspection T, the outer ones by inspection elbows, again from below, a set each side allowed the conduit to rise up over the battery box cover.
Winston Churchill has this set up. Note socket on the side of the nearest lamp casing.
Another variant simply has conduit in the existing side holes right across the engine as seen here on 106
34001 - 34110 West Country and Battle of Britain Pacifics | 34106 Seaton Junction 180864 HB64O384
However the engine we're interested in retained the standard conduit fit but with the middle lamp simply moved up, the result is the side conduit has a pronounced dip each side. 34001 - 34110 West Country and Battle of Britain Pacifics | 34110-ExmouthJunction-0662-RPC387-1
I like the electrician on 110, he has placed the inspection elbows with the lid on the lower side, smart guy, they rarely sealed well and it stops the conduit filling up with water
it does mean they are a pig to get the cover screws out, being upside down and all.So the next step is to fabricate the battery box cover and then move the middle lamp up accordingly, the bracket that holds it is quite
pliable so it'll move easily and the conduits are not fixed to the front plate work, simply passing through holes like the real thing, so they'll flex and bend as well.
Taking a break from the front end it was time to try fixing the cover plates on the resin body, use a suitable superglue the instructions advise, hmmm yes well. All of them fell off at some point, some three times, it's not as though the glue is not sticking to either component, it sticks to the resin very well, and I'd forgotten to wash the release agent off though I had mechanically cleaned the area first, now corrected. It also sticks to the brass as well, just not in the same place as where it sticks to the resin! In the end Roket max seemed to do the trick...so far.
I get the resin body, I really do, but the Luddite in me really struggles with adding dissimilar materials.
Overall the fit is pretty good, some areas of the resin needed trimming to allow the etch to sit properly and as much as we try to get a Rolls Royce fit the real things were battered to bits.
I do have some spare cover plates and the safety valve cover plate has a little ding in it that is kinda niggling me so it may come off and be replaced at some point.
Right, back to the front end I suppose
MD
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Back tracking to the brake gear and S7 here's a shot of the set up I have used for JB.
The bracket is threaded 12BA and the bolt goes right through both parts of the etch, the hanger is opened out and a brass tube fitted, the tube is the same length as the gap between the bracket sides and is fixed to the hanger, thus when tightened the tube stops the bracket from distorting and it also makes sure the hanger is as close to the outer edge as possible.
If you wanted to insulate it then you only need to replace the brass tube with plastic, probably a slightly larger OD and you'd need to insulate the outer face of the hanger where it might touch the bracket but other than that it should be possible.
MD
The bracket is threaded 12BA and the bolt goes right through both parts of the etch, the hanger is opened out and a brass tube fitted, the tube is the same length as the gap between the bracket sides and is fixed to the hanger, thus when tightened the tube stops the bracket from distorting and it also makes sure the hanger is as close to the outer edge as possible.
If you wanted to insulate it then you only need to replace the brass tube with plastic, probably a slightly larger OD and you'd need to insulate the outer face of the hanger where it might touch the bracket but other than that it should be possible.
MD
Steph Dale
Western Thunderer
Mick,
That's not a socket on the side of the lamps: it's the switch to turn it on and off!
Steph
That's not a socket on the side of the lamps: it's the switch to turn it on and off!
Steph
Eastsidepilot
Western Thunderer
Make it with thick walled tube then drill it out afterSteph,
Brilliant, logical and bleedin obvious
Much obliged.
Not sure if I've got any tube that is thin walled enough to replicate that, but I'll see.
MD
Col.
warren haywood
Western Thunderer
Mick, it looks to me like you have a mild case of Dunhillitis 
oldravendale
Western Thunderer
I have a 12"/ft version of one of those lamps if you want a photo or two, Mick......
B
B
Steph Dale
Western Thunderer
oldravendale
Western Thunderer
Here being Bristol? You're thinking about the lamp you found at Naburn I suspect, Steph.
My Bulleid Pacific lamp is on loan to club as part of the relics exhibits - that's the metal ones rather than the club members. I',, take some photos and measure it up on Thursday, Mick.
B
My Bulleid Pacific lamp is on loan to club as part of the relics exhibits - that's the metal ones rather than the club members. I',, take some photos and measure it up on Thursday, Mick.
B