Gladiator 7mm GCR 11F 4-4-0

[P A D]

The brake rigging is now completed.



And with the wheels in.



And with the body on.





And some views with the loco. That's a chunk of lead in the cab as it's front heavy at the moment.


Its starting to look the part now.





That's the bulk of the superstructure work done with the rest mainly detailing and of course fitting the motor and pick ups.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[Scale7JB]

Very smart!

JB.

 

[Focalplane]

Encroyable!

Paul

 

[P A D]

Before starting this afternoon I took a few duplicate shots from yesterday in daylight, such as it was.








Here's a view of the rear tender top plate showing the replacement handles on the water filler etc. I have a picture of Butler Henderson that shows the lifting brackets need rotating by 90 degrees and that the part with the hole is sloping not vertical, so I'll change them later.


At the rear end, the buffers, steam heating and brake pipes have been added. The brake pipe is removable via a long spigot which I added in place of the original short one on the casting. Three layers of waste fret have been soldered behind the beam where the locating hole is to provide some purchase to glue the spigot after painting. At the moment, it is a firm sliding fit. The handrail and grab rails will attach in the same way.


And with the brake pipe located. The white metal buffer stocks were fixed with epoxy.


At the front end, the brake standard, water pick up operating wheel and other sundry castings have been fitted, with only the fire iron bracket still to add.
Speaking of the fire iron bracket, the kit provides a "curly U" shaped brass casting. Very nice, but incorrect as it should be a cruciform type. Does anyone have a better shot of the one on Butler Henderson than the one below, to allow me to make a reasonably accurate representation? It would be good to see it from higher up to be able to better work out the dimensions and see how and where it is fixed


I added a handle to the ships wheel as per Butler Henderson.


Cheers,
Peter

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

As an idea would the ships wheel be better if the handles had a blob of solder on each side to give a 3D effect. As it looks now it appears rather flat.

 

[Genghis]

As an idea would the ships wheel be better if the handles had a blob of solder on each side to give a 3D effect. As it looks now it appears rather flat.

We are going to start packing two of these. They can be laminated and then fettled to make them a bit more 3D.

 

[P A D]

As an idea would the ships wheel be better if the handles had a blob of solder on each side to give a 3D effect. As it looks now it appears rather flat.

We are going to start packing two of these. They can be laminated and then fettled to make them a bit more 3D.

Hi Dave,
I agree it looks flat and I considered ways of improving the ship's wheel including blobs of solder and laminating it. However, I did not think the time and effort involved was worth it, as it would be very difficult to get a consistent result from handle to handle. Filing the spokes and rim would be a real test of patience as well. Life's too short so pragmatism prevailed.

David,
Having two wheels to laminate and fettle up will be slightly better, but in my opinion the best option would a brass casting.

When Warren Haywood has worked his magic on it and it's all decked out in GCR finery, I think (hope) the eye will be drawn elsewhere.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

An option might be to search for ships wheels among ship modelling suppliers.

 

[Tim Watson]

The handles are basically a bit blobby. Maybe a few strokes with a file to bring them to a point would do the trick. It is a very vulnerable component however. I have some etches for my Valour tender, but they will be one of the last bits to go on.

Tim

 

[P A D]

Hi Tim,
The penny has just dropped and I see what you mean. The handles outside of the rim have discs on the ends which I assumed were to represent spheres. Seeing your comment I've just looked again at the photo of real thing and it's clear the etch it wrong. I must have had a "not seeing the wood for the trees" moment! I'll take off and fettle it up.


Dave,
My apologies it you meant the same as Tim. I can see how your suggestion would make sense now.

Anyway, onwards. I was hoping to finish the tender today, but if was not to be. The rear lamp brackets have to be knocked up from a strip of etch to the below dimensions. It took a lot longer than I expected but I got there in the end.

I bent, soldered, added a mounting pin and fettled up the first one as close to the measurements as I could, and then made two more to match. At the bottom the first of the lower ones, with the other two above, and bracket for the flare at the top.


All four fettled up. After getting two wrong, I decided not to try achieve the required length at the fold, but to fold them longer and then cut back and file. The pins are rivets from Prime Miniatures.

Here they are pushed home in the holes in the rear tender plate. The grab rails and hand rail were also made up and pushed into the fixing holes. All the items on the rear plate, including the brake pipe, can be removed to facilitate lining after painting.





The lifting brackets have been repositioned and angled to about 45 degrees as per Butler Henderson's tender.


That just leaves the water scoop, guard irons, fire iron bracket and correcting the ship's wheel to complete the tender.

Cheers,
Petef

 

[Tim Watson]

Might be worth trying a squeeze of the blobs with a pair of pliers before filing Peter.

Tim

 

[dibateg]

Pete - I might have a spare DA cast ships wheel, let me check my O1 doesn't need it..

 

[P A D]

Tony,
That would be great if you can spare it.
Cheers,
Peter

 

[dibateg]

If this will do, pm me your address Peter. I need the other bits on this sprue!

 

[P A D]

That's perfect Tony.
PM sent.
Many thanks,
Peter

 

[P A D]

The water scoop which is a 3 part casting was epoxied together before fitting. Easy enough to do but when you come to fit it to its location point on the middle frame spacer, the fun starts. Even with relatively small fingers I found it impossible to locate it under the brake rigging and hold it to solder in place from above. Epoxying would also have been a pain, so I cut off the locating pin and drilled and tapped it 6 BA. I was then able to screw it in place.


Once is was lined up I soldered thr screw and casting rather than relying on the threads in the white metal.


To complete the detailing at the rear end ghd guard irons were added along with the stowage chain for the steam pipe.


And at the front I made the cruciform fire iron bracket from 0.9 mm nickel silver rod. The handle on the brake standard was too low, so I cuf it off and replaced the stem with a longer piece of rod to raise it. When I receive the ships wheel that Tony Geary is kindly sending me, I will fit it in place of the etched one.


So back to the loco. At the front I drilled through the valve chest cover und running plate and soldered a short length of tube to support the brake pipe casting. It's a firm push fit but can be removed for painting then glued in afterwards. The footstep on the cover has also been fitted.


On the boiler the hand rail pillars have been fitted, but the rail has been left loose to fit after painting, apart from the section around the smokebox.


On the left hand side there is a gap in the rail where a casting who's name escapes me will fit, and there are two extra pillars. The footstep on the smokebox front ring has also been fitted.


The ejector pipe is just a length of brass rod located into a ho,e in the smokebox and cab front plate. There is a flange at the front whichI made from waste fret.


And a closer view of the flange.


Again, as an aid to the painting/lining of the cab sides, the grab rail is just a push fit into the locating holes. To increase the purchase of the rail in the thin etch cab sides, 16 BA nuts were located on the inside and held with a sharpened cocktail stick for soldering. They were then drilled through to suit the rod size.


And wit the grab rail located.


Here's a couple of views with the handrails and ejector pipe in place


The loco footsteps have now been fitted as have the grab rails above the forward steps.


Cheers,
Peter

 

[Scale7JB]

Lovely, will the front coupling swivel in the slot?

JB.

 

[P A D]

Thanks JB.

It just a standard Gladiator coupling so no, not without some modification.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[Scale7JB]

If it helps, on my G5, I simply bent the tail of the coupling casting through 90°, drilled a hole in a suitable place and put a (mr) spigot through the hole to hold in place and let it swivel.

JB.

 

[P A D]

Sounds good JB.
Cheers,
Peter