Spike's folding table - Catching a Toad
- Thread starter Spike
- Start date
Dog Star
Western Thunderer
As with the Dogfish, the illustrations in the kit instructions are rather quiet on the routing of the vacuum pipe between the headstocks so we are rather grateful to Brian (@Brian Daniels) for some photographs that he posted over there
. If you are building the MMP kits and want to include the vacuum pipe then visiting Brian's post is worthwhile.
As with the Dogfish, the illustrations in the kit instructions are rather quiet on the routing of the vacuum pipe between the headstocks so we are rather grateful to Brian (@Brian Daniels) for some photographs that he posted over there
That is somewhat unfair - we do not include the pipework in the kit in order to keep the price down so why should we refer to it in the instructions. The instructions just refer to the assembly of the parts supplied.
ZiderHead
Western Thunderer
Vac pipe routing is also covered on the excellent Building 0 Gauge Online site:
http://www.7mmlocomotives.co.uk/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=6071
http://www.7mmlocomotives.co.uk/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=6071
You'll need to be careful with the choice of running number as the use of Oleo buffers restricts the model to representing lot 3331 and the very occasional use of replacement buffers in later years. Catfish (and Dogfish) mainly had a self-contained buffer until Oleos were introduced in 1959.
Paul Bartlett
Paul Bartlett
Spike
Western Thunderer
Picked up 4 parkside wagons at Reading in December. Inspired me to have a break from coaches and large logo diesels and focus on wagons and an MMP 08. Have just about finished two grampus wagons, the two hoppers I bought are still a work in progress.
Decided that I really needed a brake van to sit behind the grampus and the cats and dogs. So I have been working on a Slaters BR 20 ton brake van. Some holiday has allowed me to make progress with this and have today upgraded the kit with the addition of Slaters sprung W-irons.
Spike
Decided that I really needed a brake van to sit behind the grampus and the cats and dogs. So I have been working on a Slaters BR 20 ton brake van. Some holiday has allowed me to make progress with this and have today upgraded the kit with the addition of Slaters sprung W-irons.
Spike
Spike
Western Thunderer
The brake van has progressed to the point where only a few finishing details remain. Changed the buffers to oleo's and
swapped the axle boxes in the kit for some Parkside roller bearings left over from the grampus.
Going to tackle the interior next, I bought the castings from Slaters for the stove and handbrake column and I have decided to use the Cameo I recently purchased to create the interior walls as a learning exercise.
A trip to the show at Reading on Saturday has resulted in another brake van kit which will be set to appear across the folding table soon.
Spike
swapped the axle boxes in the kit for some Parkside roller bearings left over from the grampus.
Going to tackle the interior next, I bought the castings from Slaters for the stove and handbrake column and I have decided to use the Cameo I recently purchased to create the interior walls as a learning exercise.
A trip to the show at Reading on Saturday has resulted in another brake van kit which will be set to appear across the folding table soon.
Spike
Dog Star
Western Thunderer
The oleo buffers which have been used for the brake van came from NMRS... short body and 12" diameter head; this style of oleo was "sorted" for me at the Bristol show in January because the combination of short body and 12" head was not shown on the NMRS web-site.
The roller bearing axleboxes are indeed spares from Parkside 7mm kits, those used on this brake van were provided by another WTer, thank you Rob (@Rob Pulham) .
Peter has made mention on a second Slater's brake van which has arrived recently, this kit is to be built as an unfitted example that was "seen" in Mossend Yard circa 1989. Here is a link to the corresponding photo in Paul Bartlett's web-site and shows the vehicle in Dutch livery. This time the kit has the correct spindle buffers... the RCH split oil-boxes are not options with the kit. A chat with David White and a run through the Slater's BR wagon kits sorted the matter - an appropriate sprue was provided for a reasonable price.
The roller bearing axleboxes are indeed spares from Parkside 7mm kits, those used on this brake van were provided by another WTer, thank you Rob (@Rob Pulham)
.Peter has made mention on a second Slater's brake van which has arrived recently, this kit is to be built as an unfitted example that was "seen" in Mossend Yard circa 1989. Here is a link to the corresponding photo in Paul Bartlett's web-site and shows the vehicle in Dutch livery. This time the kit has the correct spindle buffers... the RCH split oil-boxes are not options with the kit. A chat with David White and a run through the Slater's BR wagon kits sorted the matter - an appropriate sprue was provided for a reasonable price.
Spike
Western Thunderer
After 2 months learning how to use Inkscape and the cameo and numerous "scrap" attempts in card as a result of trial and error I have finally this weekend fitted the interior to my brakevan. The kit resulted in 45 parts to create a representation of the interior as per photos supplied by Mike Cole (@Ressaldar ).
You can just see the leftovers from one attempt at cutting the parts in the top of the photo.
The top of the ends are not yet attached, they are spaced away from the end to allow me to slide in the glazing once painted.
Spike
You can just see the leftovers from one attempt at cutting the parts in the top of the photo.
The top of the ends are not yet attached, they are spaced away from the end to allow me to slide in the glazing once painted.
Spike
Dan Randall
Western Thunderer
Peter/Spike - Your interior "kit" looks a lot better than my attempt at an interior a few years ago. 
If you decide to make them available to interested parties, I for one, would be an interested party!
Regards
Dan
If you decide to make them available to interested parties, I for one, would be an interested party!
Regards
Dan
40126
Western Thunderer
+ 1Peter/Spike - Your interior "kit" looks a lot better than my attempt at an interior a few years ago.
If you decide to make them available to interested parties, I for one, would be an interested party!
Regards
Dan
Steve
adrian
Flying Squad
Blimey that was quick - I'm still struggling editing vectors! The results are looking good though.
Simon
Flying Squad
Your interior is very good Peter, but I have to admit that my G1 version will have no interior detailing as you'll have to go looking very hard to see anything inside once the lid is on!
I like the look of the prototype you are going for, mine will be a bit less "tired" as I'm in an earlier time period.
Look forward to seeing it develop.
Simon
I like the look of the prototype you are going for, mine will be a bit less "tired" as I'm in an earlier time period.
Look forward to seeing it develop.
Simon
Spike
Western Thunderer
{whilst this post is about GWR carriages I think that the ideas are useful for anyone building Slater's MR or SR coaches. If anybody is building Ian Kirk stock, please let me know if the ideas might work there}
My S7 layout - Scrufts Junction - needs some carriages for the miners and the day trippers so I have been working on some of Slater's GWR Dean four wheel stock. Glazing is to be slip glass as supplied by CPL and I have been fitting plastic strip to the interior of the sides so that the glazing can slide into place after painting. So that the retaining strips are at consistent spacing relative to the windows and to the cantrail I have made a few jigs to help in locating the strip... as here:-
The Slater's range of GWR four wheel stock covers all third, first / second composite, brake third and passenger brake van and those models require four jigs to cover all of the different window patterns. If you like the Slater's GWR Clerestory coaches then the jigs for the 4-wheel kits fit the sides of the bogie kits. Here is what the business side looks like:-
Jig for a toilet window to the left and for a quarterlight / droplight / quarterlight to the right. The jigs are made from 40thou plastikard sheet with a fence to align the jig against the top of the side. The black plastic piece fits into a window space... corners are cut at 45 degrees to minimise the work required in getting the piece to fit into the window space - the piece is required to fit only the side and the top /bottom of the window space and thereby align the left / right edges of the jig relative to the windows. The black piece has a hole in the centre so as to be able to drop some solvent into place without sticking the black styrene to the coach moulding. Here is a compartment jig in place:-
To my surprise the quarterlight dimensions are constant for first / third class compartments and the separation of the quarterlights within a compartment is constant... the photo above shows the jig in a 3rd class compartment and the photo below shows the same jig in a 1st class compartment:-
And this is the rear of a side... draw around the jig to show where to stick the glazing bars:-
With the lines showing where to fix the 10 x 40 thou (spacer) and 10 x 80 thou (retainer), this is the result:-
Things are not quite as easy as implied here... the sides are moulded and hence there is some (variable) flash around the inner edges of the quarterlights and droplights, that flash prevents the jigs from fitting smoothly. I have made a window gauge so that I can sand the openings, to remove the flash, to a consistent size:-
One black tab gives the height, and the other black tab gives the width, of the light - this gauge is for quarterlights and toilet lights, another gauge does the droplights for the compartment, the luggage area and the guard's door.
Anyone know of a source of 7mm window cleaners?
from Peter.
My S7 layout - Scrufts Junction - needs some carriages for the miners and the day trippers so I have been working on some of Slater's GWR Dean four wheel stock. Glazing is to be slip glass as supplied by CPL and I have been fitting plastic strip to the interior of the sides so that the glazing can slide into place after painting. So that the retaining strips are at consistent spacing relative to the windows and to the cantrail I have made a few jigs to help in locating the strip... as here:-
The Slater's range of GWR four wheel stock covers all third, first / second composite, brake third and passenger brake van and those models require four jigs to cover all of the different window patterns. If you like the Slater's GWR Clerestory coaches then the jigs for the 4-wheel kits fit the sides of the bogie kits. Here is what the business side looks like:-
Jig for a toilet window to the left and for a quarterlight / droplight / quarterlight to the right. The jigs are made from 40thou plastikard sheet with a fence to align the jig against the top of the side. The black plastic piece fits into a window space... corners are cut at 45 degrees to minimise the work required in getting the piece to fit into the window space - the piece is required to fit only the side and the top /bottom of the window space and thereby align the left / right edges of the jig relative to the windows. The black piece has a hole in the centre so as to be able to drop some solvent into place without sticking the black styrene to the coach moulding. Here is a compartment jig in place:-
To my surprise the quarterlight dimensions are constant for first / third class compartments and the separation of the quarterlights within a compartment is constant... the photo above shows the jig in a 3rd class compartment and the photo below shows the same jig in a 1st class compartment:-
And this is the rear of a side... draw around the jig to show where to stick the glazing bars:-
With the lines showing where to fix the 10 x 40 thou (spacer) and 10 x 80 thou (retainer), this is the result:-
Things are not quite as easy as implied here... the sides are moulded and hence there is some (variable) flash around the inner edges of the quarterlights and droplights, that flash prevents the jigs from fitting smoothly. I have made a window gauge so that I can sand the openings, to remove the flash, to a consistent size:-
One black tab gives the height, and the other black tab gives the width, of the light - this gauge is for quarterlights and toilet lights, another gauge does the droplights for the compartment, the luggage area and the guard's door.
Anyone know of a source of 7mm window cleaners?
from Peter.
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Spike
Western Thunderer
Now that I have sorted the glazing time to consider the coach ends... and the planking of the inside face. Slaters provides compartment walls for the GWR Dean coaches and those compartment walls have plank lines included in the moulding. The GWR carriage of the pre-WWI period has horizontal planks on one side and vertical planks on the other side of each partition - Slater has reproduced this quite nicely.
Things are not so good with the mouldings for the coach end where the mouldings have vertical planks:-
when the prototype is horizontal... time to think about how to make a change in the boarding starting with a jig to hold an end. The Slater's end mouldings are not flat on either face because the prototype has turnunder on sides / ends and with the gas regulator and communication gear proud of the exterior face, as here:-
All of the end mouldings have the same interior face so the picture frames are removed for the van ends of the coaches.
First step is to fit bolsters to a flat piece of plastic so as to hold an end moulding in the horizontal plane... and then to add restraints for the sides / ends of the moulding. The side pieces need to be shaped so as to follow the interior surface of the turnunder:-
into which an end fits.. with plastic packing to secure the part snugly in the jig:-
In the photo above the original, moulded, planking has been filled over the area above the seat back.
The left hand end of the jig is arranged to accept (a set of) sliding fences where the right hand edge of a fence corresponds with plank spacing. There are thirteen fences to provide the planking for a van end whilst just six of the set are used for a compartment end. Here are some of the fences:-
and here is a fence in the jig:-
Planking lines are scribed using a modified scraper-board tool, I use a slip stone to reduce the angle of the tip to around thirty degrees.
Next up is a similar jig for drilling the communication cord covers for the operating rods... and maybe one for fixing the steps, handrails and lamp iron.
Things are not so good with the mouldings for the coach end where the mouldings have vertical planks:-
when the prototype is horizontal... time to think about how to make a change in the boarding starting with a jig to hold an end. The Slater's end mouldings are not flat on either face because the prototype has turnunder on sides / ends and with the gas regulator and communication gear proud of the exterior face, as here:-
All of the end mouldings have the same interior face so the picture frames are removed for the van ends of the coaches.
First step is to fit bolsters to a flat piece of plastic so as to hold an end moulding in the horizontal plane... and then to add restraints for the sides / ends of the moulding. The side pieces need to be shaped so as to follow the interior surface of the turnunder:-
into which an end fits.. with plastic packing to secure the part snugly in the jig:-
In the photo above the original, moulded, planking has been filled over the area above the seat back.
The left hand end of the jig is arranged to accept (a set of) sliding fences where the right hand edge of a fence corresponds with plank spacing. There are thirteen fences to provide the planking for a van end whilst just six of the set are used for a compartment end. Here are some of the fences:-
and here is a fence in the jig:-
Planking lines are scribed using a modified scraper-board tool, I use a slip stone to reduce the angle of the tip to around thirty degrees.
Next up is a similar jig for drilling the communication cord covers for the operating rods... and maybe one for fixing the steps, handrails and lamp iron.
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