There's a few ways you can uplift a model, you can faff around the outside titivating here and there, or you can just go Viking with the axe and horned hat.
I did a quick appraisal last night and noted some uglies that would need a little more than titivating this evening. It started with the removal of the boiler/tank top fittings and using the gas axe buckled the laminates, bugga
, in my defence they were not fitted that well anyway and I was pondering the best way to fill the gaps along the edges. Then I looked a the smoke box front and a mass of.....something
......around the firemans injector feed pipes, turns out it was low melt solder, used in a bad attempt to fill the gap between the tank and cab front.
It was about this time that I grabbed the black marker and marked everything that was sacrificial, applied the war paint and just dived in. The important parts survived and once cleaned up will be reused but most of the etch work is in the bin; or it will be once measured and redrawn on a new repair sheet.
The fundamental problem seems to stem from the left tank side not being fitted correctly, this distorted the smokebox front laminate and left a gap at the rear in front of the cab. The feed pipe cover obscured most of it but the rest had been filled with low melt solder, probably poured in from the top as it had run right down and onto the injector fitting.
It also didn't help that I had no idea how the core structure was constructed, but it revealed all with more heat
Anyway the pictures, those devotes of GWR and soft of nature, are advised to go and watch a BBC nature program for the next part
you were warned.
This is the basic tank/boiler assembly, you can see the mass of solder at one end to fill the gap, on th eleft the smoke box core isn't the best in the world, but some cleaning up and filling of gaps will save it from the bin. A new set of top covers and smoke box front will be etched. I'm also going to make a new tank core, the original is suffice but I want something a bit more Viking...robust.
I've also seen some pictures that show the cover at the front around the chimney has a gap to allow the chimney to poke through, rather than being plonked on top like the kit, the plan is to have a lower level under the main covers for the chimney to sit on, then two half covers at the main level with a gap around the chimney base. The dome and top feed covers might be the same, essentially I'm not going to replicate the original.....for better or worse.
It's fairly clear now that this isn't an unfinished build, but a high mileage work horse that's had the upper works dipped and paint removed, pretty well actually.
The coupling rod bush holes are seriously worn and the cusps have not been removed, they are also buckled one one of them, rather than tart around with them a new set will be etched, much faster/cheaper. Most of the working motion is slathered in oil and the compensation beams are seized solid, on a plus note, it's fitted with a nice and good running ABC motor gearbox combo.
The cab front on the left bears witness to the mass of solder twixt it and the water tank. With the tank/boiler removed it's clear to see the model has been painted before, it was these areas seen in the murk that I wanted to clean up and the one of the primary desires in wanting the tank/boiler off.
The footplate laminate hasn't been fixed down properly so is bowed in several places, I'm hoping that once the fittings are off and some judicious clamping is applied then it'll all pull down and secure nicely.
Given the mass of solder on the cab front it might pay to pull that off and etch a new one, you could get most of it off with solder braid and finish off with mechanical cleaning, but it might be quicker to just etch a new one. I'd also like to get the back head out and being as it's a mass of cast brass then I suspect the cab front is going to buckle and my mind made up anyway.
The last part will be the cab side removal and new ones etched.
A little more work than originally planned and sane people would run a mile, but you know us Vikings, can't use sane in the same sentence, all mad as dogs barking at the moon