My 7mm dabblings
- Thread starter mickoo
- Start date
adrian
Flying Squad
Yes that's what I was trying to describe, although I wouldn't drill all the way through 5/16". If you leave the bearing slightly proud then there is barely 1/16" of the bearing outer race in contact with the brass hornguide. My reservations are the difficultly in ensuring that the bearing is square on to the hornblock. With boring out a 5/16" recess in the hornblock it allows the bearing to be pushed up tight against a square face and provides a depth stop for the bearing as well.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Fair point that, Mark wood makes some machined 1/4" axle boxes, reasonably priced too http://www.markwoodwheels.co.uk/wheels/miscparts.htm there may be enough meat on them to bore out to 5/16", certainly more than Slaters! The only downside I can see is the thickness of them and the size of the guide slot but it could be a workable solution. Can't recall any others in my 1:32 dabbling.
Kindest
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Adrain, yes I follow that, for once the ball races small size works against it, in which case I'd probably opt for my initial idea of the bearing on the inside and no outer face for the frame guide, side play being controlled by the bearing on the other side, in other words, only two side thrust faces and both outward. In reality I suspect with normal frame guides only one or two faces ever have an impact at any one time.
There is of course one other very easy option, sweat the new bar to existing Slaters horn blocks, much easier than the original tube idea, preserves the original flange guides plus gives full support for the ball race and ensures squareness, outer race rotation is prevented by the existing flange guides.
CSB fulcrum ensures loco weight is directly over ball race and thus no twisting of bearing on the shaft.
I am not sure if the Slaters axle box slots are in the centre of the axle box?, some images I've seen seem to show that the inner frame guide is thicker than the outer guide.
adrian
Flying Squad
That keeps it nice and simple which is a plus in my book. As for the Slaters axleboxes I have it's the other way round the outer guide is 1/16" wide and the inner guide 1/32" based on a very limited sample, one set of 6.
S
Simon Dunkley
Guest
Ironically, I use Slater's 7mm components...
On the drill issue, I have a Proxxon TBM220, and also the KT70 coordinate table. I found the drill column a little short at times, so bought a 14" long piece of steel bar. Transfroms the usefulness of the machine by orders of magnitude - amazing what a couple of extra inches can do... Fnarr, fnarr!
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Adrian, is there a marked inside and outside, looks to me as if the axle box can be placed in the guide either way around? I'd of thought the inner side would have been thicker to accept a CSB fulcrum point, mind we're talking 1/32" difference here, it looked more to me in the photos I saw. Hopefully the pack of six will arrive next week and I can begin to experiment.
Of the three possible solutions I think the MkIII is the easiest to achieve but does push the bearing further away from the frames, but only by 1/32" if you have the thin side inside. MkII will have the bearing closest to the frames but will require soldering of new guides which might take a bit of time and jiggery pokery....which is a perfect reason for Capt cock up to make an appearance!
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Simon,Ironically, I use Slater's 7mm components...
On the drill issue, I have a Proxxon TBM220, and also the KT70 coordinate table. I found the drill column a little short at times, so bought a 14" long piece of steel bar. Transfroms the usefulness of the machine by orders of magnitude - amazing what a couple of extra inches can do... Fnarr, fnarr!
Slaters are fine if you want plain bearings, I want to try ball races (on the cheap) which kind of throws a spanner in the works.
Drills, yup, I'd looked at that combo too but thought the addition of the mini compound table would push the work too high for the drill space, didn't know that the drill support spindle could be replaced, thanks for that info, that makes that set up just about bang on in my books for a bench drill set up. I especially like the idea of the compound table as it'll make it much easier to adjust the work to drill in the exact location required, probably not essential but will certainly make life a little easier. Is it possible to fit a larger chuck, one that'll say take up to 5/16" drill bits?
Kindest
Stevesopwith
Western Thunderer
Adrian, is there a marked inside and outside, looks to me as if the axle box can be placed in the guide either way around? I'd of thought the inner side would have been thicker to accept a CSB fulcrum point" [/quote ]
The Slaters boxes are fitted with the thick side outside, the thinner inside face also has a thin circular flange around the bore, about 1/32"deep. I also found this odd, reasoning that the thicker flange should bear against the hornguide faces, but they don't. I don't think CSBs were about when these bearings were designed.
The instructions for Hobby holidays ball-raced hornblocks point out that the bore is an interference fit on genuine ground 3/16" S/Steel rod, and that if side play is required, the axle ends should be reduced fractionally by linishing in the lathe. I assume the bearing would continue to function due to the friction between the axle and the bore being greater than within the ball race? If you are planning to use Slaters wheels and axles, I found the drawn mild steel axles can be a thou' or so undersize, so they are a sliding fit in these races anyway.
Instead of a handrail knob on the bearing, I'm thinking of a length of threaded rod, say 10 BA, fitting into a threaded tube with a hole at the top for the CSB wire; allowing ride height adjustment once the total weight is known. ( Sorry no 3D images.... I can barely draw it with a pencil)
Cheers... Steve.
Stevesopwith
Western Thunderer
Oops..... Mick only said the first two lines above..... the rest is me.
Never mind 3D images.... I can't even post properly.
Steve.
Never mind 3D images.... I can't even post properly.
Steve.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Steve, no problems, all you need do is edit the post that's wrong (#89), delete the [/quote] from the end of all the text and then add it back in near the top where you want my quote to end so it'd be ....fulcrum point"[/quote] then save and viola only my text will be quoted.Oops..... Mick only said the first two lines above..... the rest is me.
Never mind 3D images.... I can't even post properly.
Steve.
Thanks for added info on the Slaters axle boxes, that raised edge would have to come off, unless your going to use is to centre the new brass bar before opening out to 5/16" for the ball race.
Your right on the Slaters axles they do slide quite easily through a 3/16" ball race probably not enough for side play though, but no movement is preferred as then the race is not doing anything, though I think as the race has less friction then the axle isn't going to move that much in the ball bearing, some Loctite should resolve that.
Like the idea of a threaded rod on top of the axle box, I was trying to figure some way of perhaps adding in some vertical adjustment along the way, handrail knobs as you say are not adjustable.
Kindest
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Well Mr Pat and his cat turned up with a nice package from Slaters and a few hours later pitfall number 1 has arisen. I had intended to just use the Slaters axle boxes direct in guides cut in the frames, I had guessed that the slot in the axle box would have been just that, two slots either side, but no, it's a circular slot all the way around, makes sense as it'll be square bar and the slot cut with a parting tool. All this means that the axle box will freely rotate in the guide, fortunately the CSB attachments will prevent that.
Anyway, thats not the problem, the problem is the kit frames, they have been pre etched for solid bearings, with a nice 6.6mm dia hole, the problem is that the Slaters axle boxes need a slot of 6.37mm, the sharp witted amoungst you can see where this is going, a lovely 6.37/6.4 mm slot that suddenly widens to 6.6mm exactly where the axle box will sit at nominal height and then narrow above it. Now had the axle box slots been slots then the axle box would probably have passed cleanly over this 0.2mm widening just fine, but being as it's a circular affair it'll wobble like mad in that area.
I'm going to guess that 0.2mm longitudinal play is a little outside the accepted S7 tolerances for axle box play LOL especially the drivers. I opted for the insulated hornblocks (7960) and there are nice half etch lines in the frames to remove these holes to accept these horn blocks, I didn't really want to use the plastic horn guides, primarily as I have no idea how to secure them to the brass frames! Plus it just another complication to deal with.
Thinking left field and taking on board the circular frame slot I mused if it would be possible to make a circular hornblock, whose slot would be 6.6mm wide and whose rotation would be prevented by CSB fixings and whose inside diameter would be large enough to secure a ball race, 12mm rod would suffice, maybe even get away with 10mm.
Of course cutting that slot with a very narrow parting tool might be problematical but drilling that 5/16" hole no longer requires a pillar drill but can be performed on the lathe.
Removal of the outer flange will make for easier construction and side play will be restrained bythe tight fitting of the ball race on the axle.
Failing that I can cut out the axle holes at the half etches and insert new solid material and cut 6.37mm slots, or even better yet, just make up new etched frames with a 6.37mm slot already in, that'd work for the tender but a non starter for the main loco frames. The only other option is to get a set of brass hornblock guides and make them up as required.
Actually, blood rush whilst typing this, cut an 8mm slot in the frames and then on the outside solder thin strips of 28thou to give a slot of 6.37mm, it'd only push the bearings out by 0.7mm each side which if retaining FS frames might work? Probably better on the inside for the loco frames if they can be seen through the spokes.
Right time to watch Tarrant and ponder solutions LOL.
Kindest
Anyway, thats not the problem, the problem is the kit frames, they have been pre etched for solid bearings, with a nice 6.6mm dia hole, the problem is that the Slaters axle boxes need a slot of 6.37mm, the sharp witted amoungst you can see where this is going, a lovely 6.37/6.4 mm slot that suddenly widens to 6.6mm exactly where the axle box will sit at nominal height and then narrow above it. Now had the axle box slots been slots then the axle box would probably have passed cleanly over this 0.2mm widening just fine, but being as it's a circular affair it'll wobble like mad in that area.
I'm going to guess that 0.2mm longitudinal play is a little outside the accepted S7 tolerances for axle box play LOL especially the drivers. I opted for the insulated hornblocks (7960) and there are nice half etch lines in the frames to remove these holes to accept these horn blocks, I didn't really want to use the plastic horn guides, primarily as I have no idea how to secure them to the brass frames! Plus it just another complication to deal with.
Thinking left field and taking on board the circular frame slot I mused if it would be possible to make a circular hornblock, whose slot would be 6.6mm wide and whose rotation would be prevented by CSB fixings and whose inside diameter would be large enough to secure a ball race, 12mm rod would suffice, maybe even get away with 10mm.
Of course cutting that slot with a very narrow parting tool might be problematical but drilling that 5/16" hole no longer requires a pillar drill but can be performed on the lathe.
Removal of the outer flange will make for easier construction and side play will be restrained bythe tight fitting of the ball race on the axle.
Failing that I can cut out the axle holes at the half etches and insert new solid material and cut 6.37mm slots, or even better yet, just make up new etched frames with a 6.37mm slot already in, that'd work for the tender but a non starter for the main loco frames. The only other option is to get a set of brass hornblock guides and make them up as required.
Actually, blood rush whilst typing this, cut an 8mm slot in the frames and then on the outside solder thin strips of 28thou to give a slot of 6.37mm, it'd only push the bearings out by 0.7mm each side which if retaining FS frames might work? Probably better on the inside for the loco frames if they can be seen through the spokes.
Right time to watch Tarrant and ponder solutions LOL.
Kindest
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Right, slowly acquiring the required tools to get started, or replacing old knackered ones with new and better quality ones, today my SOBA machine vice turned up and very nice it is too, thanks to Steph for his mini review late last year which persuaded me to jump for one after hand wringing eyeing them up for some time 
Second is a home made drill table, I'd looked at Metalsmiths and thought I can make one of them, had to really as theirs is out of stock and no date for a new production run. So in my usual dock over engineering way I wandered down to the trailer shop to see if there were any steel plate off cuts, the polite chaps asked "waddya want mate" to whit I replied "steel plate, flatish and about yay big" gesticulating with ones hands, "what's it for" with a sideways glance, "home job mate" to which he broke into a grin and disappeared to return in swift fashion with said lump of steel.
Now I'd had in my mind to replicate Metalsmiths affair, but this lump of steel was significantly larger, it was after all part of a trailer rave (lump of steel at the corner of the trailer to stop 60T sliding off) and it's bleedin heavy, perfect I grinned, that's not going to go anywhere I thought.
So with said steel in ones hands....plural... I wandered next door to the turners shop and asked if I could 'borrow' some machine tools, "whats it for!", "home job mate", "ahh help yourself". So I did, 40mins on the 40" band saw found the sides squared off...as square as I need them....and another hour on the 24" swing lathe found me in the possession of a beautiful clean and flat piece of steel, trimmed up it weights in just a touch over 10Kg.
The only down side was the lathe cross feed auto speed was knackered and company cut backs have seen it not repaired, the auto cross feed works but only at the set speed, when turning large faces you need high speed, problem is the nearer you get to the centre the relative speed of the work decreases and so your finish suffers and the tool starts to rip the material. The auto cross feed speed works by speeding up the lathe the nearer the centre it gets, starting at the outside of the work at about 200rpm and should end up at the centre at maybe 1800rpm to retain the surface finish.
Sadly this has resulted in the outside of the flat faces being almost mirror finish but nearer the centre it's started to tear the surface so the whole lot will need dressing with ever finer abrasive papers in the power sander, in reality it's perfectly usable but looks a dogs dinner...to me anyway.
Final task was to drill and tap some 6mm holes for the clamps, haven't decided how many holes to drill so left it as the five shown here for the time being.
Why do I need a drill table, simples, I have four Stanier tender sides to bend along the cant rail and for all my back room bodgings I cannot tolerate in any slightest form curved areas that are not uniform in radius or have any sort of kink (of course now I'm going to be at home to Capt cock up on at least one bend). Cant rail curves are the most obvious in your face radius you see on a model so if you mess that up....it's going to show, hence the inordinate effort to make a drill table, procure correct radius stainless steel rod and clamps (need two more) before I even open the kit box, oh and the dozen or more practice attempts, luckily we use shim brass for motor alignment and there's plenty of off cuts lying around in motor rooms from previous shimming and motor replacements
, so the odd bit makes a run for. In short I can practice bending brass until I fall asleep LOL.
The Stanier tender bend is around 4" long so that's quite a length to get a uniform radius....for me anyway....and no, broom handles never did work very well for me, except, as broom handles, but never as brass former material LOL.
Next step is to machine up some flat bar so that I can bend square edges, the bar shown here is Aluminium and would probably do for small stuff like lamp irons, actually a steel rule would work better as it's thinner and easier to handle and see your work, but a nice steel sharp edged bar would be nice to add to the table.
So, getting closer to the doing stage, slowly slowly catchy monkey as we say around here, granted you probably don't need any of these tools, but I like em and I enjoyed making the drill table. Just now waiting for the tool order from Squires to be ready to cut from etch and dress ready for bending and soldering
Second is a home made drill table, I'd looked at Metalsmiths and thought I can make one of them, had to really as theirs is out of stock and no date for a new production run. So in my usual dock over engineering way I wandered down to the trailer shop to see if there were any steel plate off cuts, the polite chaps asked "waddya want mate" to whit I replied "steel plate, flatish and about yay big" gesticulating with ones hands, "what's it for" with a sideways glance, "home job mate" to which he broke into a grin and disappeared to return in swift fashion with said lump of steel.
Now I'd had in my mind to replicate Metalsmiths affair, but this lump of steel was significantly larger, it was after all part of a trailer rave (lump of steel at the corner of the trailer to stop 60T sliding off) and it's bleedin heavy, perfect I grinned, that's not going to go anywhere I thought.
So with said steel in ones hands....plural... I wandered next door to the turners shop and asked if I could 'borrow' some machine tools, "whats it for!", "home job mate", "ahh help yourself". So I did, 40mins on the 40" band saw found the sides squared off...as square as I need them....and another hour on the 24" swing lathe found me in the possession of a beautiful clean and flat piece of steel, trimmed up it weights in just a touch over 10Kg.
The only down side was the lathe cross feed auto speed was knackered and company cut backs have seen it not repaired, the auto cross feed works but only at the set speed, when turning large faces you need high speed, problem is the nearer you get to the centre the relative speed of the work decreases and so your finish suffers and the tool starts to rip the material. The auto cross feed speed works by speeding up the lathe the nearer the centre it gets, starting at the outside of the work at about 200rpm and should end up at the centre at maybe 1800rpm to retain the surface finish.
Sadly this has resulted in the outside of the flat faces being almost mirror finish but nearer the centre it's started to tear the surface so the whole lot will need dressing with ever finer abrasive papers in the power sander, in reality it's perfectly usable but looks a dogs dinner...to me anyway.
Final task was to drill and tap some 6mm holes for the clamps, haven't decided how many holes to drill so left it as the five shown here for the time being.
Why do I need a drill table, simples, I have four Stanier tender sides to bend along the cant rail and for all my back room bodgings I cannot tolerate in any slightest form curved areas that are not uniform in radius or have any sort of kink (of course now I'm going to be at home to Capt cock up on at least one bend). Cant rail curves are the most obvious in your face radius you see on a model so if you mess that up....it's going to show, hence the inordinate effort to make a drill table, procure correct radius stainless steel rod and clamps (need two more) before I even open the kit box, oh and the dozen or more practice attempts, luckily we use shim brass for motor alignment and there's plenty of off cuts lying around in motor rooms from previous shimming and motor replacements
, so the odd bit makes a run for. In short I can practice bending brass until I fall asleep LOL.The Stanier tender bend is around 4" long so that's quite a length to get a uniform radius....for me anyway....and no, broom handles never did work very well for me, except, as broom handles, but never as brass former material LOL.
Next step is to machine up some flat bar so that I can bend square edges, the bar shown here is Aluminium and would probably do for small stuff like lamp irons, actually a steel rule would work better as it's thinner and easier to handle and see your work, but a nice steel sharp edged bar would be nice to add to the table.
So, getting closer to the doing stage, slowly slowly catchy monkey as we say around here
, granted you probably don't need any of these tools, but I like em and I enjoyed making the drill table. Just now waiting for the tool order from Squires to be ready to cut from etch and dress ready for bending and soldering
mickoo
Western Thunderer
So, what's new this week, well some more tools from Squires turned up today and the soldering iron is in the post , soon I will have run out of excuses to not build something LOL, so with that in mind I've been fine tuning my interests and standing a long way back to decide what I really want to do, woods and trees and all that malarky.
The race has been narrowed to two horses, the rest haven't died on the hurdles, just sensibly retired to future pastures, life's short and too many 'doing' anoraks are simply impossible to accomplish, doesn't mean they are dead and buried and I'll still collect pictures and info on them.
I still have flights of fancy and they will never go away and I will do the as and when I feel the time is right, but for the majority of the time it's sensible to wear one anorak and stick to it, that's a bit of a revelation to me LOL.
So the two horses in case no one has already worked it out are BR 62 preferably LMR and BR 78-82 and to be fair the BR period is currently wining hands down, it's my era and that has the strongest pull for me so that's what's being researched right now very heavily.
Anyway, enough deep and meaningful blather, where does that leave me now, well the recent threads on wagon springs got me thinking, if you can do it on wagons, can you do it on locos?, not many locos with leaf springs to be fair, 08, 40, 44-46 & 76...oooh there's an anorak ready to pounce! Now I already have one of those, the others are planned and to be fair the JLTRT class 40 isn't really the easiest of locos to try the conversion on. Driving past the sidings today I chanced across an 08 so duly took some inspiration images.....like I need more detailed shots of 08s!....with my trusty tape measure.
Y'all can see where this is going by now I'm sure LOL and yes purchase was duly made, the beauty of the 08 is that it fits both current interest bubbles and for the time being my stock will try and do that until one gee gee crosses the line victorious.
Now I've no idea if its even possible to add leaf springs or of 19 layers will even deflect and may well drop back to MMPs neat method of getting the axle boxes to move whilst the spring remains static, having said that, this months WM meet saw some super stock on show and when asking why, the answer was, "because I can and I want to do the best I can", cheers, you have no idea the personal moral can of worms you just opened there LOL
It'd also be nice to add ball bearings but I think that's going to be a trite difficult especially if using the outer (correct) axle boxes to carry the load, mind the 08 doesn't have roller bearings so not adding them would at least be prototypical.
The steamers, oh they're still there and will be picked over as time progresses, but one has to start somewhere and being as I've a real 1:1 loco I can just walk up to for reference material I'd be silly not to use that source to get to grips with scale 7, shame there are no decent Class 66 models around LOL, yes I know, outside my preferred time zone so they are lumped into the flights of fancy models.
, soon I will have run out of excuses to not build something LOL, so with that in mind I've been fine tuning my interests and standing a long way back to decide what I really want to do, woods and trees and all that malarky.The race has been narrowed to two horses, the rest haven't died on the hurdles, just sensibly retired to future pastures, life's short and too many 'doing' anoraks are simply impossible to accomplish, doesn't mean they are dead and buried and I'll still collect pictures and info on them.
I still have flights of fancy and they will never go away and I will do the as and when I feel the time is right, but for the majority of the time it's sensible to wear one anorak and stick to it, that's a bit of a revelation to me LOL.
So the two horses in case no one has already worked it out are BR 62 preferably LMR and BR 78-82 and to be fair the BR period is currently wining hands down, it's my era and that has the strongest pull for me so that's what's being researched right now very heavily.
Anyway, enough deep and meaningful blather, where does that leave me now, well the recent threads on wagon springs got me thinking, if you can do it on wagons, can you do it on locos?, not many locos with leaf springs to be fair, 08, 40, 44-46 & 76...oooh there's an anorak ready to pounce! Now I already have one of those, the others are planned and to be fair the JLTRT class 40 isn't really the easiest of locos to try the conversion on. Driving past the sidings today I chanced across an 08 so duly took some inspiration images.....like I need more detailed shots of 08s!....with my trusty tape measure.
Y'all can see where this is going by now I'm sure LOL and yes purchase was duly made, the beauty of the 08 is that it fits both current interest bubbles and for the time being my stock will try and do that until one gee gee crosses the line victorious.
Now I've no idea if its even possible to add leaf springs or of 19 layers will even deflect and may well drop back to MMPs neat method of getting the axle boxes to move whilst the spring remains static, having said that, this months WM meet saw some super stock on show and when asking why, the answer was, "because I can and I want to do the best I can", cheers, you have no idea the personal moral can of worms you just opened there LOL
It'd also be nice to add ball bearings but I think that's going to be a trite difficult especially if using the outer (correct) axle boxes to carry the load, mind the 08 doesn't have roller bearings so not adding them would at least be prototypical.
The steamers, oh they're still there and will be picked over as time progresses, but one has to start somewhere and being as I've a real 1:1 loco I can just walk up to for reference material I'd be silly not to use that source to get to grips with scale 7, shame there are no decent Class 66 models around LOL, yes I know, outside my preferred time zone so they are lumped into the flights of fancy models.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Today I was threatened by the Postman, not to buy any stuff LOL, he was going to take away my credit card!
Soldering station duly arrived and amazingly in almost warp like postage, two items from MMP, bought Monday arrived Tuesday, staggering and impressive, as are the contents of the kit, which is no surprise as I already have three of their kits. Which led me to dig out the part built one and consider conversion to S7, actually quite easy as the bogie centres are only just mocked up.
I changed a lot on the loco when I started it a few years back, at that time MMP locos had the floor integral with the sides and the roof soldered onto that which makes a very nice solid box but difficult to get into later, nay impossible. I see on their site that the new locos planned have changed to the more traditional separate floor and sides attached to roof, brilliant.
So after much hacking and added material I was left with thus (below) and that's about as far as I got, I wasn't happy with my roof forming, even when annealed so may pop these off and try running through the rollers I now have and using my drill table and clamps to get much better and smoother radius.
I also altered the underfloor of the loco considerably, MMP has a flat floor and when your eye level its really obvious the missing engine room fish belly floor to accommodate the engine block, so after much brass and shaping a new lower floor was built and new fuel tank built, with MMP parts added. You see, not all 57s have the same fuel tank, from memory I think there are three types of tank and that depends on the donor loco and I seem to recall the kit did not have the tank I required for the chosen loco I wanted. There were also some issues with the under floor drag box sides and their taper, not much but enough to niggle me, but other than that almost everything below the floor is new.
These photos are very old and if I get time will get some new ones with the new bigger camera and the roof at #1 end has been added and that's the section I'm currently most displeased about, not the kits fault by my lack of experience at that stage of modelling, and not having the right tools of course.
Note solid floor means no motor access, hence my close following of Stephs work on his Class 60
Soldering station duly arrived and amazingly in almost warp like postage, two items from MMP, bought Monday arrived Tuesday, staggering and impressive, as are the contents of the kit, which is no surprise as I already have three of their kits. Which led me to dig out the part built one and consider conversion to S7, actually quite easy as the bogie centres are only just mocked up.
I changed a lot on the loco when I started it a few years back, at that time MMP locos had the floor integral with the sides and the roof soldered onto that which makes a very nice solid box but difficult to get into later, nay impossible. I see on their site that the new locos planned have changed to the more traditional separate floor and sides attached to roof, brilliant
. So after much hacking and added material I was left with thus (below) and that's about as far as I got, I wasn't happy with my roof forming, even when annealed so may pop these off and try running through the rollers I now have and using my drill table and clamps to get much better and smoother radius.
I also altered the underfloor of the loco considerably, MMP has a flat floor and when your eye level its really obvious the missing engine room fish belly floor to accommodate the engine block, so after much brass and shaping a new lower floor was built and new fuel tank built, with MMP parts added. You see, not all 57s have the same fuel tank, from memory I think there are three types of tank and that depends on the donor loco and I seem to recall the kit did not have the tank I required for the chosen loco I wanted. There were also some issues with the under floor drag box sides and their taper, not much but enough to niggle me, but other than that almost everything below the floor is new.
These photos are very old and if I get time will get some new ones with the new bigger camera and the roof at #1 end has been added and that's the section I'm currently most displeased about, not the kits fault by my lack of experience at that stage of modelling, and not having the right tools of course.
Note solid floor means no motor access, hence my close following of Stephs work on his Class 60
Osgood
Western Thunderer
Mick - how about using a few metal leaves and making the rest from plastic / nylon? That way you'll be able to achieve whatever deflection you need
mickoo
Western Thunderer
That is certainly a real possibility, the others could be from Plasticard but to keep their shape they could be mixed between the phosphor bronze ones, you could mix and match to get just the right deflection, I'd need to finalise the weight first, mine may well be pulling some quite hefty loads so suspect some extra ballast will be required to aid adhesion. The kits have arrived so now I can pour over them, and in my usual way, work out what to modify or change LOL, not necessary I'm sure but that's just me.Mick - how about using a few metal leaves and making the rest from plastic / nylon? That way you'll be able to achieve whatever deflection you need
Spikes thread and posts about the front buffer beam got me thinking about that area and I wasn't sure if the MMP kit came with a footplate overlay, the real locos have a sheet floor that overlaps the solebar by a few mm, it's thin but it is prominent and I may add that from 5 or 10 thou sheet brass, it'll also allow me to add the rivets to that upper surface which to date I cannot seem to see in the kit, they are small but as this is for S7 and they are 'so' particular at WM it'd be letting the side down if they were missing LOL, there's some seriously gifted modellers at WM and I'd hate to be the one that lets the side down. Besides, I have to keep the uber detail assassins fingers off their triggers some how LOL. I am also seriously considering making the cab floor removable from below once the frames and wheels have been taken off and the extra thin layer on the footplate will aid that and hide the join when looking inside the cab
Steph Dale
Western Thunderer
Mick
I'll let you know when the Class 60 gearboxes are 'available', if you know what I mean....
Steph
I'll let you know when the Class 60 gearboxes are 'available', if you know what I mean....
Steph
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Mick
I'll let you know when the Class 60 gearboxes are 'available', if you know what I mean....
Steph
mickoo
Western Thunderer
I'm looking at the etches, well quite a few really, 08, Jubilee, 57 etc and specifically the half etch rivets, now I have a GW riveter and unless I'm really thick (actually after today at work that'd be a resounding yes.....bad hair day today), it only seems to be able to do one type of 7mm rivet and to be blunt it's quite sharp on the test pieces I've done. As can be seen above in the 08 images, especially the rear buffer beam and cab, the 08 has two distinct sizes of rivet, more actually but for 7mm they're close enough to group as two, and as can also easily be seen, are very domed.
I'm concerned that when doing the larger ones by allowing the rivet to be formed deeper, it's going to end up more like a cone than a dome. I have a niggle that I've read somewhere that some people modify their impression tip to give a rounder head? Was that a figment of my imaginative mind or have others approached this via another way?
I'm concerned that when doing the larger ones by allowing the rivet to be formed deeper, it's going to end up more like a cone than a dome. I have a niggle that I've read somewhere that some people modify their impression tip to give a rounder head? Was that a figment of my imaginative mind or have others approached this via another way?