Nick Dunhill
Western Thunderer
I have recently finished a pair of small tank locos built from Agenoria kits, both were commissions (I haven't built anything for myself for 21 years now!) I had never built an Agenoria kit until I turned professional and now I've built a few. All the ones in the range that I have built have been ex-Pete Stamper origin, and they've all been very good, especially when you consider that they are etched from hand drawn artwork. They're very simple to build and the ones without awkward structures (eg saddle tanks or the dreaded GWR bunker) should be recommended as suitable for beginners.
I think these two have turned out well. They are both pre-grouping locos absorbed into the GWR (I'm sure someone will fill me in with the origins.) Hilda (the 0-6-0T) was used as an engineer's loco and 1338 kicked around Swansea docks for ages and is now preserved. I was particularly drawn to 1338 as it has interesting valve gear, and it's always nice to build summat new.
The buffers on 1338 were a bit of a challenge and were scratch built using the etchings for the heads in the kit as a guide. They have stocks that I think are LMS in origin, but have been heavily modified. Both locos have had the saddle wrapper etches modified, or in the case of 1338, replaced. Hilda has had the bottom half of the saddle tank wrapper replaced with thinner material. This was done primarily to create the obvious joggled repair present in the photos of the loco I worked from. I'm guessing that the bottom half of the saddle tank rotted out on the real loco and some new material was welded in.
Both locos have the saddle wrappers pre formed in the kit. This causes a couple of issues, firstly you have to un-wrap it a bit to punch out any rivets, and secondly both wrappers have the dreaded half etched lines on the rear to 'aid' shaping. In reality they just leave awful witness lines and a threepenny bit profile on the finished shape (you get the same with smokebox wrapper and bunker rear etches.) The witness marks are impossible to flat out satisfactorily, especially if you've already punched out the rivets. I think that the solution here is to scrap the etches provided and cut out some new panels using thinner material. 0.3 mm thick nickel silver or brass is a better choice as it can be formed by hand round a suitable rod without the need for the dreaded etched lines! In my experience 0.45 mm sheet is just a bit too stiff to manipulate by hand.
You can see that I have replaced many of the larger castings in the box with 3D printed items (thanks Mickoo,) as their quality wasn't that great. This isn't a criticism of the current owner of the range, as I think both of my kits pre-date the Andy Beaton years.
I think these two have turned out well. They are both pre-grouping locos absorbed into the GWR (I'm sure someone will fill me in with the origins.) Hilda (the 0-6-0T) was used as an engineer's loco and 1338 kicked around Swansea docks for ages and is now preserved. I was particularly drawn to 1338 as it has interesting valve gear, and it's always nice to build summat new.
The buffers on 1338 were a bit of a challenge and were scratch built using the etchings for the heads in the kit as a guide. They have stocks that I think are LMS in origin, but have been heavily modified. Both locos have had the saddle wrapper etches modified, or in the case of 1338, replaced. Hilda has had the bottom half of the saddle tank wrapper replaced with thinner material. This was done primarily to create the obvious joggled repair present in the photos of the loco I worked from. I'm guessing that the bottom half of the saddle tank rotted out on the real loco and some new material was welded in.
Both locos have the saddle wrappers pre formed in the kit. This causes a couple of issues, firstly you have to un-wrap it a bit to punch out any rivets, and secondly both wrappers have the dreaded half etched lines on the rear to 'aid' shaping. In reality they just leave awful witness lines and a threepenny bit profile on the finished shape (you get the same with smokebox wrapper and bunker rear etches.) The witness marks are impossible to flat out satisfactorily, especially if you've already punched out the rivets. I think that the solution here is to scrap the etches provided and cut out some new panels using thinner material. 0.3 mm thick nickel silver or brass is a better choice as it can be formed by hand round a suitable rod without the need for the dreaded etched lines! In my experience 0.45 mm sheet is just a bit too stiff to manipulate by hand.
You can see that I have replaced many of the larger castings in the box with 3D printed items (thanks Mickoo,) as their quality wasn't that great. This isn't a criticism of the current owner of the range, as I think both of my kits pre-date the Andy Beaton years.
