7mm Martin Finney 7mm Duchess

Isambarduk

Isambarduk

Western Thunderer
"Can I suggest you remove the front tender buffers and set them right back against the drawbar?"
"what!!, you haven't 'sprung' them??"

I spring mine; it's not so difficult and does ensure that the buffers are always up against the drag beam. Here is an example on my Stanier 3500 gallon tender (built from a David Andrews kit; captioned pictures of the build at: LMS Stanier 3500 Gallon Tender )

3500gUFrames01.jpg​

I am following your thread with interest as I have a Finney Duchess in the queue. Given that Martin has now sold the 7mm side of his business, perhaps a Finney Duchess kit will not be such a rare animal?

David
 
Dikitriki

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Hi David,

I like that. I'll see whether I can get in to do something similar........Just looked, I have enough room without interfering with the fit of the inner chassis.

I fancy a little bit of lathe work coming on:).

Richard
 
Steph Dale

Steph Dale

Western Thunderer
I've seen that some people use Alan Gibson 4mm scale buffers, which are assembled the wrong way round and inserted into the front face of the drag beam. It's a neat idea I'd be tempted to use myself.
Steph
 
Dikitriki

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
The front bulkhead -1

There is a lot of detail on the front bulkhead, and it pays to put as much of it on - as Martin recommends - before assembling the main parts.

We start with the top front and rear by impressing the rivets.

P1010129a.jpg

There are some extensions on the front part (left-hand side above). This marks a line you have to skrawk to form a 90 degree bend. Once that bend has been made and the ears filed off, the detail is added to both front and back.

P1010139b.jpg

P1010140b.jpg

I have not used the etched lamp irons in the kit, but replaced them with cast LMS ones from Peter Roles, which are much finer and more accurate than Laurie Griffin's IMO.

Now to solder these parts back to back.

Richard
 
Dikitriki

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
OK, bit of a problem solving exercise tonight.

The problem is that I have an unwanted, quite large etched hole bottom right of the lower front, viz

P1010141a.jpg

Clearly a fault at the etchers. I could contact Martin to see if he had a spare, but I wanted to press on, so decided to repair it. The problem is it's half etch, so thin, and close to some etched rivets. My solution was to use some scrap etch to fabricate a shaped plug. I covered some etch in black marker, put the hole over it, and using the tip of a knife blade, marked the exact shape of the hole. The bit around the 'hole' was filed back to create my own half-etched plug.

P1010145.JPG

Incidentally, the patch on the rear of the front is not visible on the completed model. Had it been, plan B would have had to announce itself.

From this point, it was just a case of making sure the front levels were the same (or the plug a very tiny amount proud) and using 60/40 solder, solder the plug in. I was pretty generous with the solder to fill any imperfections in the join.

After filing back and using wet and dry to eliminate witness marks, we are good to go......

P1010146b.jpg

Onward and upward.......

Richard
 
Scale7JB

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
I'm guessing that it was just a dry run in the tender frame pictures, and you'll be soldering everything together shortly..?!

JB.
 
Dikitriki

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Hi

I've been working on the lower front bulkhead; again, most of the detail is added at this stage:

P1010147b.jpg

P1010148b.jpg

I have also soldered the top plates back to back and formed and fitted the top of the coal door space:

P1010150b.jpg

I'm at the stage where I need to unite top and lower front bukheads, and then there's just a little more detail before this section can be signed off.

Richard
 
Dikitriki

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
warren haywood said:
It all gets covered with paint:)
Click to expand...

You are right of course, but the sharper the edges, and the more solder that is taken off, the better the painted model will look.

Last night's work saw the upper and lower front bulkheads united, and a few brass castings added. I took some time lining up the sections, and particularly making sure that the back was flat and the folds were at 90 degrees.

P1010152b.jpg

I more good session should see this section finished.

Richard
 
Dikitriki

Dikitriki

Flying Squad
Hi,

I've now finished the front bulkhead. I like the coal space watering pipe which was a bit awkward to form - a couple of nice castings are provided and detail is on the drawings provided. I added a couple of clips which are the only additions not provided in the kit.

P1010155a.jpg

P1010156a.jpg

P1010157a.jpg

The white metal castings were soldered on (Carrs 100 degree) with a microflame which I generally find much quicker and neater, especially if I can't get in from the back. Nor do you need to go all the way round if the fit is good - they are only soldered to the fallplate.

That concludes this section.

Richard
 
Richard Spoors

Richard Spoors

Western Thunderer
Richard, when using the microflame do you apply heat to the brass from the back/underside of the white metal until the solder flows?
The coal space watering pipe is a nice detail.

Cheers

Richard
 
Ian@StEnochs

Ian@StEnochs

Western Thunderer
I have another Finney Duchess to build and recently got a set of Mark Wood wheel castings for it. My last Duchess had Slaters wheels which didn't quite look the part even when reprofiled to S7. I had an order in with AGH but it was never fulfilled before he went out of business.

However these wheels are a bit different with proper oval spokes already cast in. The photo will give you an idea of what you get. I just need to get in the mood for a turning session!

Ian

image.jpeg
 
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