7mm Martin Finney 7mm Duchess

[Dikitriki]

Hi,

Ken, if you look at photos of City of Birmingham in the ThinkTank - and this went straight out of service into the museum - the pipes seem to be painted black, or at least are so discoloured as to be black! Modelling the latter days of steam, my Duchess of Montrose will be in green and grimy, so no bright copper to be seen.

One of the things I like about the Duchess kit, is the way it is designed to be built in sections. This makes handling much easier, particularly when adding detail, and with a little thought, it's possible to have all the sub-units bolt together. I have been working on the cab. All the bits fit, and the only thing you need to watch is that the front of the cab exactly matches the rear of the resin firebox.





The inside of the cab is nicely detailed, and there are proper frames for the windows. The trickiest bit here is bending the etched rear part of the firebox to match the profile of the casting for the backhead. As part of the bolt together ethos, I have added a brass plate to the bottom of the cast backhead (more later) and drilled some holes in the cab floor so I can screw the backhead in after the cab has been screwed to the back of the resin firebox.





The rear of the cab bolts to the footplate, but I altered the design slightly. I reinforced the inside of the 2 tabs with milled brass angle, and soldered the bolts to the outside of the tabs. These were subsequently filed back and retapped, but it means that the cab rear can be screwed home without pulling the tabs out of shape, and will survive being removed many times.



Richard

 

[mickoo]

I have to laugh, even the blu tack blob supporting the cab is neat and square

The cab windows do look nice and fiddly.

MD

 

[Dikitriki]

I have to laugh, even the blu tack blob supporting the cab is neat and square

MD

I know, I can't help it. At least I didn't mic it to ensure it was a true cube

 

[Dan Randall]

I have to laugh, even the blu tack blob supporting the cab is neat and square

Brilliant and something I hadn't noticed. We'll probably all start doing it now!

Regards

Dan

 

[warren haywood]

Brilliant, yet again

I have however noticed an error
The two rivets at the bottom of the left hand side cab front are not rivets, they are holes for the pipes for the AWS pipes to the small cylinder on locos so fitted.

Hope you don't mind me pointing that out

 

[Len Cattley]

Really enjoying this thread.

 

[Dikitriki]

Brilliant, yet again

I have however noticed an error
The two rivets at the bottom of the left hand side cab front are not rivets, they are holes for the pipes for the AWS pipes to the small cylinder on locos so fitted.

Hope you don't mind me pointing that out

Thank you Warren. I would rather any errors were pointed out now while they are easily corrected than later. Duchess of Montrose was AWS fitted in December 1959 so for the loose Heyside period - late 50s, early 60s - I could add it or not as I choose. At least I know where the holes should be, and I can eliminate the rivets should the need arise.

Richard

 

[farnetti]

Thanks Richard, I suspected they not be bright shiny copper. The cab looks fabulous..

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi,

I mentioned that I'd soldered some brass across the bottom of the backhead. This provided a firm base and enabled me to tap the holes 10BA so I could screw the backplate to the cab floor.





The outer holes were the first drilled, before I realised access was impossible when the cab was attached to the footplate. I'd forgotten that I had to have access to the firebox/cab screws first.



And here the cab and backhead are shown assembled to the footplate.





Smokebox, boiler, firebox next. I want to get to the stage where all the main components are fitted together before I begin detailed work.

Richard

 

[Scale7JB]

The backhead casting is just beautiful! Cut your finger on it, it's so crisp and sharp..

JB.

 

[Dikitriki]

Slight diversion into the cab roof. The supports are built on a cab roof cradle, the roof formed to shape and soldered on, the cradle removed and hey presto!, it fits. The vents and rainstrips are added and that's pretty much it. Well, there's a fair amount of riveting.....





Just placed on the cab, it will probably be stuck on after painting, as I won't be able to get the backhead in otherwise.





Richard

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi,

Back on the Duchess now

One of the great strengths in the kit is the provision of the smokebox, boiler and firebox in resin. I know not everyone likes the use of resin, but it sure saves a lot of time, and with modern adhesives, there shouldn't be much of a problem in making a secure join between disparate materials. The firebox and boiler is one unit, and the smokebox is another. I glued the two together with Araldite to allow for fine adjustment.



There was one niggle, and this is probably just me, as I have never seen it referred to before - when held up to the light, a slight dip could be seen in the resin at the bottom of the boiler near the smokebox. Now, the Duchess footplate is so cluttered that any imperfection would probably be quite invisible on the finished model, but I'd noticed it so I had to deal with it. I used a very thin layer of Milliput white, rotating the boiler all the time against a strong light source, and while I was at it, I tidied up the join at the bottom of the boiler - well, the front part, as the back half is below footplate level anyway - and a couple of mould join lines. The resin is good quality and surprisingly hard, so the Milliput could be sanded (if carefully) without any risk of biting into the resin. I then locally sprayed it with primer to check the results. That had bugged me on and off for a while, so I was glad to get it done and move onwards.




You can see in this picture the 8 holes for the self-tap screws to join the body to the footplate. There are 4 more joining the cab to the firebox, so it really is securely mounted.

A couple of detail shots of the front and rear:





The chimney was Araldited on, anything with a spigot was glued on with Loctite superglue.

Richard

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi,

Smoke deflectors.

The smoke deflectors are fairly subtly shaped with a kink at the bottom and a curve at the top. Various parts have to be added to them, and in particular the handrail clips need to be at exactly the right height, especially if the deflectors are to be made removable, as I wanted to.





You will note that there are 5 spigots on the bottom of the deflectors that engage in holes in the footplate. If the handrails on the engine and deflector line up, it is possible to feed in the handrail and keep the deflectors firmly in place, but removable.


The handrail has the end 'button' added. It's simple to do from a 0.8mm inside diameter tube segment and finishes off the exposed end nicely.



And finally, putting all the components to date together:



It's beginning to look like Stanier's mighty machine.

On to the chassis next.

Richard

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi,

Bogie; this is a reasonably complex kit in its own right. The kit allows for compensation, but I didn't feel it necessary, so built it solid. There is a choice of main bogie pivot points to restrict the rear wheel swing, but I chose to use the normal centre pivot and restrict the rear swing with 2 pieces of nickel-silver wire which go through holes in the main chassis. I also filed back the bogie/chassis bearing plates and the bearing cup to allow for swing behind the drain cocks and vertical movement in the bogie relative to the chassis. For those with very generous curves, the kit faithfully models these features. I need to get Montrose round 6 ft curves.










Just got to fiddle around with the wheels for a bit before I put it back together.

Richard

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi,

The wheels used are Slater's reduced axle diameter for Finney kits. They are a force fit onto the axle, but I very, very carefully ream the centres out until I can press them home - and they stay there - but with a bit of a twist, I can get them off. Duchess wheels were hollow, so I put the axles in the lathe and drilled them a little way to give the hollow appearance, and then countersunk them just a bit with a larger drill, hand twizzled.







Pony truck next.

Richard

 

[Scale7JB]

What a difference the hollow axles makes..

JB.

 

[Dikitriki]

And on to the pony truck. This was straightforward and rather more simple in construction. I didn't bother to hollow out the axles.






Richard

 

[Cliff Williams]

The leading leaf Spring hangar will eventually need chamfered for clearance, it derails the front bogie. Looking fantastic.

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi,

I've been working frantically on the chassis in the hope I can have something decent on the stand for Telford. It's beginning to pull together, but there's nothing like a deadline!

It's a big engine







The rear axle is driven and fixed, the centre is sprung a little up and down, and the front axle is sprung down only


I am making the valvegear demountable and dismantleable, and part of this is I have had to cut a slot in the top of the chassis for the reversing shaft. In addition the springs for the two leading axles are screw on so I can drop the hornblocks.


The motor mount is from the scrap box. It would be easy enough to solder a bearer across the front of the firebox and retain the motor with a couple of wire straps.





Lots of lovely detail



The wire from the rear chassis stretcher restricts the swing of the pony truck. In practice, it will need to be set up when the locomtoive undergoes track tests.



Richard

 

[Dikitriki]

And a couple of detail shots......

The exhaust steam injector is a lovely one-piece casting.



The ash pan is an exercise in brass origami, but it all fits perfectly .



The next thing to do is the inside valve gear. It can't be got in once the outside cylinders are on......as I discovered.

Richard