Last post, finally there....well almost
, David Andrews S&D 7F, not without woe in the last week it has to be said.
Generally speaking the kit is good and goes together rather well and easily, there are a couple of niggles but nothing untoward.....until you try and fit the completed body to the completed chassis.....we'll get to that later.
Couple of photos of the bare chassis showing motor mount and motor gearbox fitted, a simple tab plate to support the motor and retainer bracket is all that's needed, not too tight as to allow the motor to float a little with the suspension. One thing I added was a strip between the cylinder block and valve slide block bracket, just means it all comes out as one piece, word of caution, that bracket is too wide and needs trimming back to fit inside the valances, best done before you fit the brass bracket that hangs down.
Test fit the valve stem and cast block early on.... and this bracket, chances are the stuffing gland casting is too far outboard and the valve block jams in the bracket, fortunately the cast holes appear off centre so it's a case of rotating the stuffing gland until the valve stem hole aligns with the previously reduced width bracket.
Watch out for the front stay that secures the frames to the body, note the two notches in the frame top, this is where the stay is designed to fit, two issues with this, it's to high and impacts the screw heads (there are half etched discs to locate cheese head screws soldered to the base of the front platform), second, the slots in the stay are no where near the the fixing screws, you can't get them wrong due to the half etched recesses to line them up. By now the alarm bells should be ringing, but onward.
The only other change to the frames was the replacement rear sand boxes, they are fold up etches but the edges are too short so you end up with gaps all round the edges, you can flood it with solder but you wont get crisp sharp edges.
Don't worry about the over long pins through the expansion link, just for test running and will be finally fixed and shortened on rebuild after paint.
The overall views speak for themselves, I replaced the chimney because the cast white metal one was a little oval and poor casting in the bore.
Now the elephant in the room, somewhere, some how there's a discrepancy in the footplate, you can't build it wrong, tabs and fold up design means it can only built one way, rather well actually it has to be said. There are two above footplate frame extensions and these have raised sections for the reversing arm pedestal bearings, there are also slots in the footplate for the outer ones and holes in the footplate for the drop link.
Unfortunately they're all in the wrong place, by about 2 mm. The pedestal bearings should be directly above the expansion link and the drop link should line up with the tail end of the radius rod (which appears to be the right length). The drop link is also too short, nothing you can do about that as the drop link and crank are all one L shaped etch.
The issue also moves forward, the front drop section is too far ahead of the cylinder block, the gap appears too big. On the face of it you only need to move the whole body back, but then the rear end doesn't line up, the cab step up is in about the right place in relation to the rear driver and all the frame bits internally won't line up. You can't do this anyway as the smoke box saddle front is a fold up section and correct width, behind it is the narrow running frames and cylinder block section, the body only fits in one place.
There is only one real solution, bin the drop links and crank, enlarge the hole in the footplate rearward so that it's over the tail end of the expansion link, make new cranks and drop links, both sides. Either way something has to be done as right now the drop links obstruct the expansion link and jam the motion solid.
Other than that, a nice model and simple build, the replacement engine springs and horn guides are in the printer and will be fitted once the frames are stripped down for paint.
