7mm Ressaldar's Workshop - a paintshop diversion

Phill Dyson

Phill Dyson

Western Thunderer
Sorry to hear the split gear issue has reared it's ugly head on your 33 Mike :(.........no doubt we will be posting in a couple of years time about split gears on Heljan Westerns :rolleyes:

Phill ;)
 
Ressaldar

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Hi Phil,

thanks for your concerns - it seems that I may have not put the motor fully down in it's clamp (a suggestion from Brian Daniels - over there) thus cause the rubbing on the underside of the fan, so I'll be stripping everything down again this morning and checking dimensions against the other bogie. Fingers crossed for the Westerns and the 31s.

cheers

Mike
 
Ressaldar

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Having read the various comments regarding the JLTRT & WEP kits for the Fruit D I have decided to combine the two kits to make one model.

I have now made a start on combining the underframe parts from the WEP kit onto the JLTRT chassis on the Fruit D. I used a razor saw to cut a slit at the end of the crossmembers where they meet the solebar, there is already a slight recess where the whitemetal W iron goes, so it is basically a matter of joining up those two recesses. The WEP brass etch for the W irons was cut out and reduced in depth by 1.5mm so that the angled part of the W iron meets the solebar correctly.

IMG_3563.JPG

The two etched strips with the W irons are placed in position, they will be epoxied in once the trusses have been soldered on. Further trimming to the crossmembers will be needed to take the angled parts of the trussrods where they fit behind the solebars.

IMG_3564.JPG

I had already decided that I would use the WEP underframe brasswork, the compensation unit was cut out of the baseplate etch, folded up and the framing marked out and removed - and is placed in position and will be bolted in position the first photo shows the other baseplate also placed over its final position, ready for that framing to be removed tomorrow.

More to follow in due course.

cheers

Mike
 
Ressaldar

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
today's progress has 'centred' around the wheelsets. First job was to form a rebate in the underside of the floor to accomodate the fixed element of the rocking arrangement as this would have been part of the floor itself in the WEP model, it was achieved by scraping away with a scalpel and offering up (down) the baseplate as I went, when I was satisfied both with the depth and the pivot alignment to the centre line, I used thin superglue to hold it in place.

IMG_3570.JPG

The rocking element was folded up, the bearings inserted and with the wheels inserted, it was temporarily fitted in place .

The fixed hanger was easier as on the WEP model, this would have been bolted to the underside of the floor, so there was no requirement for the rebate here. The unit was folded up, the bearings soldered in, offered up and it's position marked out on the chassis framing. With the framing cut out, the unit was again positioned, clamped and the pre-etched holes used as markers then 10BA clearance holes drilled through the floor. With the unit aligned and bolted in position, the wheels were installed.

IMG_3568.JPG

IMG_3566.JPG

Next was checking levels etc.

IMG_3565.JPG

so with all well - a quick push along the track to check running and then the lid placed on - just for the camera

IMG_3572.JPG

Tomorrow I am at the Club all day assembling some of the new baseboards for the New Brighton layout so the next report will hopefully be Thursday - the starting the trusses and possibly the brakegear.

cheers

Mike
 
Ressaldar

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Hi Len,

thanks for your comment, I think that I bought it many years ago in Messengers in Guildford, I have seen similar ones on sale on the Squires stand at Telford.

regards

Mike
 
Ressaldar

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Aunties shopping trip turned out to be longer than expected, so modelling time on Friday was quite short, so here is the promised update.

IMG_3573.JPG

The trusses/W iron assemblies were epoxied in on Thursday and left overnight, having first made sure that they were true and square. So on Friday, I laminated the brake hangers - very fiddly due to the almost non-existant spacers but by threading the parts onto a pin vice fitted with a 0.7mm drill bit things proceeded without too uch trouble and then cleaned them up ready for fitting today. Gardening duties kept me out of the workshop over the weekend.

IMG_3576.JPG

So today it was a question of preparing the rest of the brakegear, threading each piece on and when I was happy with the fit, the soldering iron was used wherever possible and only resorting to cyano where the brass met the resin. The only 'problem' is that I should have put the vacuum cylinder on 'on the angle' and kept the arm straight, so this will be corrected tomorrow. The last things to be attached were the brake guards, these are the WEP parts and located in the JLTRT pre-formed holes in the underside of the floor.

There is a slight binding on one of the shoes on the 'rocking' axle so this will be dealt with tomorrow, again once the cyano has had a good time to go off.

IMG_3580.JPG

Beginning to look the part

Cheers

Mike


 
Ressaldar

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Hi Rob,

Glad you are likeing the progress.

I think that it's called .............life!

I still think that for what you pay for JLTRT kits, you should be getting the doggies doodahs - but it seems that they lose interest with those parts of the kits that cannot be produced in resin. I'm toying with the idea of using one of their kits for an Inspection Saloon conversion so this exercise is helping me to see how the material can be formed/shaped etc.

As for the WEP model, it is well etched and the parts that I have used so far have gone together well. It's just a shame about the ribs and solebar issues, which could be rectified and therefore a really good model would be produced. But again, like the JLTRT kit, the whitemetal parts are a bit iffy in places.

I'm enjoying the build - my main concern is what BR livery to use to finish the model - door opens for suggestions.

cheers

Mike
 
Scanlon

Scanlon

Western Thunderer
I'm enjoying the build - my main concern is what BR livery to use to finish the model - door opens for suggestions.
cheers
Mike[/quote]

Hi Mike,
I'm pleased to read about your exploits with this kit. I've stuck with the old whitemetal bits and mercifully it is starting to look the business. Problem is the whitemetal looks massive!!!!

As for livery, in BR days they were maroon or BR blue. If you are thinking of the former there is a super photo on the back of Dorset Steam by Michael Welsh of one ex works. Someone else has told me they were in Carmine but I cannot find any evidence.

What will you do for transfers??

Regards
Roger
 
Ressaldar

Ressaldar

Western Thunderer
Hi Roger,

Glad you are liking the tome.

There is reference to Carmine in the one of the sets of instructions - would that then be with black ends? I rather like the Carmine, especially with the Cream centre:thumbs:

As for transfers, I think that I have enough on various sheets to cover most eventualities - other than the Blue period:eek: looking at Paul Bartlett's website, it shows Blue liveried examples and they have a number of black patches with various data tables on top and this causes problems - none of the photos shows the detail enough to copy/make a template etc. I even bought a sheet of WEP's own waterslide transfers, but they only cover the GWR period. At the end of the day, I think that they were so dirty that you could not see what was there anyway - especially the Blue:))

There is no rush - I will not be painting until at least the end of next week:)):))

At the end of the day, it might just be down to what is in stock at the time.

regards

Mike
 
3 LINK

3 LINK

Western Thunderer
Ressaldar said:





As for the WEP model, it is well etched and the parts that I have used so far have gone together well. It's just a shame about the ribs and solebar issues, which could be rectified and therefore a really good model would be produced.
Click to expand...

Hi Mike,

Could you please elaborate on this problem as I am halfway through building the WEP fruit D, and apart from the amount of time it has taken just to build the body, I am very happy with the kit so far.

ATB,

Martyn.
 
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