Scale7 JB Workbench.

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Well not that much progress today really, but that front area is one of those that needs patience to get it right. It had to be neat and tidy or it would have ruined the whole look of the loco.

AAB5FD1C-E5DB-478C-B988-08B190E858EB.jpeg 55ED7D4D-C26B-4BBE-A9CA-FFF08EE17F73.jpeg 196C44FC-A09B-4AF7-A881-E4136CE2247D.jpeg

I’ve had a quick look at the Bissel Truck, and I had envisaged that it would have some kind of a wobbly bogie effect to it to give better road holding but it’s solid. It’s a very short wheel base so should be fine, however im tempted to do something else with it to give some kind of springing. Will have a further look tomorrow.

EA2B6F53-3C47-4064-9C30-B65FE11C0B2C.jpeg 1324773B-592D-4961-A7C4-53E136CDA65C.jpeg

JB.
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Another slow day unfortunately. The instructions are quite intense and take a very good read through two or three times as it’s very easy to get something wrong on such a part heavy kit. I’m not looking forward to doing the instructions for the D16!

1535F880-E822-4484-A0F0-173DA2AB035B.jpeg C44473E4-F78B-436E-8E72-8342718BDB3B.jpeg

I shall leave it there for 2020. Happy new year everyone. Let’s hope we can all meet at a show some time next year both socially and to support our suppliers.

JB.
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Well as kinda expected, the firebox has turned into a bit of a time thief.

In hindsight I should have soldered the whitemetal front on after I’d attached the banding. No damage to the casting, but the whitemetal solder started flowing through the joint to where the beading was attached so had to be removed and cleaned up for a second attempt. Nearly done though and quite happy with it.

C0AEB066-AB27-4116-B448-DBE69A1F16C8.jpeg ED7FBDC1-29DA-45B0-9D1E-9F693969FB01.jpeg 56CCF5E7-8487-450E-B1BC-68C1191BC5FE.jpeg 7D4E37FC-32E0-4CDA-9EF4-757D188E9314.jpeg 648E3EBF-500A-4BDC-BCB1-47FFA005AC7A.jpeg

JB.
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Hello everyone.

Well that 3 months was a bit of a nightmare. The first two lockdowns I could handle pretty well, but lockdown 3 and homeschooling since January have been very hard indeed.

some work has been done on the Australian though nowhere near as much as I would have liked, though now Fred is back at school things can start to speed up again. I have taken a few pictures along the way so I shall update over the next day or two.

Back in January I was still working on the firebox wrapper..

The wrapper was too short either side by about 1mm or so and didn’t touch the footplate down I had to find a way to extend the sides just a little. A bit of angle soldered from the insides gave a nice strong method of attaching an extension.

6779744E-34A8-41A6-9027-4BEF7B3CE364.jpeg 069DCC0A-A95F-4F04-A201-9293606560F9.jpeg 2905D2F3-2BEC-48EA-8479-7F695A492C8D.jpeg DCD7AEE1-FB1A-43F6-91B9-A81363B3A088.jpeg

Things then started to come together, and the tender was knocked up pretty quickly. There is a small problem with the tender at the moment. I’m hoping to use split axle pickups as ever with a tender loco, I just haven’t found a way to do this yet...

0AA6A33F-BA63-410E-9356-14334CB513F0.jpeg 3A1A680D-4112-492F-935E-8E3C931586C3.jpeg

JB.
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Up next, the smokebox.

We had decided initially not to go down the detailed smokebox route, but having started the kit and seen that the door was indeed intended to be hinged anyway, it was a no brainier to go down that road.

I’m constantly amazed with now many engines these tube plates seem to fit either regard their size.

8D1043FE-EB14-4584-B309-9BC4E6619B9E.jpeg CDD287F8-F18B-4AB6-9408-6B1FA307A497.jpeg F681BC3F-378D-4C2B-9C46-C891E3758905.jpeg 1E8F50A5-F777-4DEE-8B9C-16EC0A834B11.jpeg

It looked good until I realised, it was wrong...

JB.
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
So initially I thought the blast pipe was just too big so a smaller diameter tube was used. Then realised it was completely wrong. The loco has steam pipe covers on the outside of the smokebox which suggests that the exhaust pipes come from the top of the cylinders rather than from the middle of the casting. I then checked the drawings I forgot I had and it was confirmed.

so starting again, a ‘y’ shaped blastpipe was required.

up next was the smokebox door. Now the kit does allow for the smokebox door to open as mentioned previously. What I thought was optimistic though was the included scale hardware rivets for the door hinges. Never going to work as the holes in the hinge straps were far too big, and so short lengths of brass wire were used instead. Bit of a battle with the door but got there in the end.

4B3D1485-0DE2-488A-BB41-9A953A94093D.jpeg DA31F572-5D54-4219-B1F7-E43690875936.jpeg B0406A92-7281-437F-9D92-437C500CD639.jpeg C710E560-E609-4305-A50D-FB73DE075A0F.jpeg 146531AB-C421-40E7-8DE9-563B37CA7651.jpeg

JB.
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Looking good.

Wouldn’t there be a petticoat below the chimney? And a spark arrester around the blast pipe up to the chimney? Not sure if NSWGR used mesh or rods for their spark arresters. If it had been VR I could have provided a drawing.

Youre absolutely right. I found a picture would you believe and so a few more bits to go in there yet :thumbs:

JB.
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Been a while.

I’ve been keen to push forward with the aussie whilst Fred has been at school so updates have been sparse at best. My apologies.

It’s coming along though, as these shots are from back in February I think. I’ll get up to date shortly.

First up, detailing the connecting rods. As with most kits, the large bolt that passes through the marine bearing was simulated by a small area of half etch. Obviously won’t do, so the laminations were soldered together, drilled through and then the area at the rear filed off to expose the long hole that had been drilled from top to bottom.

This hole was then filled with real nuts and bolts and trimmed to size. A huge difference.

The oil pot etch area was then filed flat and replaced with some suitable wire. I must take some photos of how they finally turned out as the below are during the mentioned modifications.

23A2FABA-A2A9-479D-A017-1DD75CF22E57.jpeg 8C89422F-AFCA-47F8-8F53-4AAB2D45ADCD.jpeg
JB.
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Next up, assembling the slidebar and crosshead castings and motion brackets.

This really took something thinking about and was definitely a very strange decision during the kit design stage.

As per the instructions this assembly should remain attached to frames... but the cylinders are attached to the body, and so a BIG modification required. The body and frames were placed together, and the slidebar casting inserted to its correct position and soldered in place to the etched motion bracket. Then the motion bracket was unsoldered from the frames, carefully so as not to unsolder the slidebars.

Now that I had the correct positioning I could go to town with the supplied cast slidebar brackets. Only thing being that there were only 6 supplied instead of 8, and so I knocked a couple up from some old brass sprue. Nothing too taxing. To add to this, 16ba nuts were soldered to the rear of the bracket to simulate the nuts. Surprisingly the kits doesn’t cater for the detail in this area.

Afterwards, the assemblies were soldered to the body rather than the frames to aid splitting the engine and keeping that area nice and strong.

E59B116B-3950-4AA2-86AE-3BF43F362ED5.jpeg A12E6A2B-AA1B-4AA5-8D76-B7DA0A3A854D.jpeg D32A958C-EFEC-4D1E-A1E7-4232DC7CF872.jpeg BA650A54-E653-4FA2-85BE-E74A7BD20FC5.jpeg 667E2BD2-42B2-4881-BD8A-6DF4EEA019C3.jpeg A9DF9838-D675-4FCB-8511-1D51B17ACC9B.jpeg E60F02CE-47C5-4CD7-8E51-6568EBEFE5DB.jpeg CADE0D97-9018-4D00-8095-E3FEEF5800C2.jpeg

JB.
 
Top