Rob Pulham
Western Thunderer
Thanks Guys
7mm Rob P's Coaching Stock Workbench - Kirk Twin Set Diag 105/125
- Thread starter Rob Pulham
- Start date
Rob Pulham
Western Thunderer
Thanks Tony
Rob Pulham
Western Thunderer
Having taken the plunge in stripping the cab of the A3 prior to making the roof removable did I continue with the F8?
Nah! I am sure that it will come as no surprise that it didn't take much encouragement from Chris for me to start on one of the coach kits that she bought me for my birthday.
This is some of what's in the box - for this particular coach I am still waiting for the underframe and bogie etches.
Having had a read of the quite comprehensive instructions available for download from the kemilway site it reckons about a hundred and fifty hours to build a coach depending on experience. Having had some of these kits in 4mm some years ago I had an idea what to expect and this is where I got to after 4 hours yesterday.
The floor pan folded up and the inner ends curved with the formers soldered in.
Both sides have their separate bottom panels soldered in.
Even though I had filed of the etching cusps I struggled with the first side to get the panels in flat etc. with a couple needing to be dropped out and repositioned. On the second side I made doubly sure that I had removed the cusps and I put a slight chamfer on the edges of each panel. This meant that they snapped into place with ease and I soldered up the second side in half the time it took for the first - a lesson learned for the next one.
Nah! I am sure that it will come as no surprise that it didn't take much encouragement from Chris for me to start on one of the coach kits that she bought me for my birthday.
This is some of what's in the box - for this particular coach I am still waiting for the underframe and bogie etches.
Having had a read of the quite comprehensive instructions available for download from the kemilway site it reckons about a hundred and fifty hours to build a coach depending on experience. Having had some of these kits in 4mm some years ago I had an idea what to expect and this is where I got to after 4 hours yesterday.
The floor pan folded up and the inner ends curved with the formers soldered in.
Both sides have their separate bottom panels soldered in.
Even though I had filed of the etching cusps I struggled with the first side to get the panels in flat etc. with a couple needing to be dropped out and repositioned. On the second side I made doubly sure that I had removed the cusps and I put a slight chamfer on the edges of each panel. This meant that they snapped into place with ease and I soldered up the second side in half the time it took for the first - a lesson learned for the next one.
Heather Kay
Western Thunderer
That's a lovely set of castings. If only other makers used all brass instead of whitemetal. 
Rob Pulham
Western Thunderer
That's a lovely set of castings. If only other makers used all brass instead of whitemetal.
It is, but the buckeyes look a little on the slim side when compared to the JLRT ones.
I wonder which are accurate?
Steph Dale
Western Thunderer
My excuse is the house move, it's chaos here 
I'm really looking forward to this build as I've got a couple of Kemilway coaches in stock to build, good luckThat's a lovely set of castings. If only other makers used all brass instead of whitemetal.
Heather,
I have ten of these Kemilway kits and actually it is the quality of the lost-wax that lets them down IMHO. At least in my ten kits there is much distortion to these parts & pitting of the surfaces. Although I like the Kemilway kits very much, I shall certainly be replacing those horrible vac. cylinder & dynamo castings with nicer cast metal ones.
I think that with cast metal you have to distinguish between pewter and almost pewter [a small amount of lead added to keep gates small & give a nice surface finish] as we use in out Mk.1s and the cheap high-lead 'margarine' metal some kits use [this is where white metal gets a bad name]. As a test we have tied and untied a knot in one of the high grade castings for the vac. cylinder feedpipe units in our Mk.1 kits and still it did not break!
I find working with lost wax can be pretty tedious with so much preperation and only the very best stuff from Slaters/Finney and MOK really acheives the surface finish you will see in the best castings. Take a look at the vac. cylinders & dynamo in the RMB kit you have there - these show what can be acheived in a first-generation casting from a brass master [no sub-mastering or other fancy messing about] direct to a black rubber mould - in the hands of one of the best military model casters in the UK [not me I hasten to add!!!].
DJP
Steph Dale
Western Thunderer
Interesting.
I recognise the castings that Rob shows above and I'm 99% certain they're done by the same person/people who do the MOK castings. They should be pretty good.
Steph
Heather Kay
Western Thunderer
I have to admit to not having seen an unbuilt Kemilway kit in the flesh, so I can't speak beyond the photo above really.
Speaking as a professional kit maker as you do, David, I can only take your comments come from experience, and I happily accept that. As you know, I have your RMB kit to savour in the new year, so I shouldn't really comment further!
Speaking as a modelmaker, I tend to prefer cast brass when I come across it. Good whitemetal comes second. Bad whitemetal (and bad brass, that soft stuff that folds up when you try and file it) I'd rather not find in the box.
As I say, I have ten of the kits purchased back-along - so its possbile the two Rob has are more typical being more recent [perhaps he has changed casters]. Mind you, I'm probably one of the few who wishes the castings in the newer MOK kits were more of a mix of lostwax and cast metal [like the 8f]! Won't stop me buying the 9F though!!!
David
Rob Pulham
Western Thunderer
The only castings that I have looked closely are the door knobs and they really are quite something - I am easily pleased
I moved on a little with this last night.
The next step or rather the previous step (it should have been done before fitting the panels to the sides) was to fit the bulkheads/toilet partitions. This is where reading all the instructions first pays off. The instructions for the body would have you fit the bulkheads/toilet partitions while building the body but then when you get to the interior the instructions have you fitting doors and the very nice cast door knobs. This would have been a much bigger and messier job to have done when the coach body was assembled so I chose to add the doors and door knobs in the flat.
The detail on the inside of the toilet compartment its quite something - the only thing missing is that there isn't quite enough door knobs provided to add them on the inside of the toilet door.
Above is the inside of the toilet compartment at one end - I didn't get the last partition in last night.
The inside of the vestibule showing the door knobs on both sides of the door.
One side of the door - the additional etch.
And the other side which is etched as part of the bulkhead.
Lastly a close up of the other toilet partition show the door knob in all it's glory!
I moved on a little with this last night.
The next step or rather the previous step (it should have been done before fitting the panels to the sides) was to fit the bulkheads/toilet partitions. This is where reading all the instructions first pays off. The instructions for the body would have you fit the bulkheads/toilet partitions while building the body but then when you get to the interior the instructions have you fitting doors and the very nice cast door knobs. This would have been a much bigger and messier job to have done when the coach body was assembled so I chose to add the doors and door knobs in the flat.
The detail on the inside of the toilet compartment its quite something - the only thing missing is that there isn't quite enough door knobs provided to add them on the inside of the toilet door.
Above is the inside of the toilet compartment at one end - I didn't get the last partition in last night.
The inside of the vestibule showing the door knobs on both sides of the door.
One side of the door - the additional etch.
And the other side which is etched as part of the bulkhead.
Lastly a close up of the other toilet partition show the door knob in all it's glory!
Rob Pulham
Western Thunderer
Hi Mike, I wish I had known I have a few that you could have had - if you need any more let me know.
Rob Pulham
Western Thunderer
The only draw back for me here Rob is that my two kits are parcels stock so no lavI'm loving this build, very neat work
ATB Mick
Hi Mick, which of the parcels stock do you have? I quite fancy the Thompson matchboard and the Gresley steel panelled ones myself. I built a couple of the 4mm Thompsons, one from a Comet kit and one from an Ian Kirk - I much preferred the Comet...
Rob -
The planking on the Thompson matchboard kit is way over scale [trench line stuff] - the lines are like the interior planking in the passenger kits. When I build mine I shall probably etch direct replacement sides in the way that Dan Randall has done for some of the u/f components for his Hurn Models Hawksworth kit.
I suspect that you might also need to be very careful when forming the sides for the steel panelled full brake kit as there are relief-etched rectangles on the rear of the lower area of the sides which will show through the minute the side comes under any stress. It would have been better with closely spaced etched lines to help with the forming. I'm also thinking that with a good few of these to build it might be worth me casting a resin curved roof end section.
The best kits in the Kemilway range IMHO are CB8 - the Dia 129 N.E.R Full Brake 52' and CB9 the Dia 50 L.N.E.R Non Corr. Lav. Compo 52'.
All this is not to say that the rest of the kits are not excellent in most ways as well! It is the bogies that are the real plus with these kits. Really quite something.
DJP
N
notascoobie
Guest
One snag is that there are no instructions for the Gresley 10ft bogies. "They're quite like the 8'6" ones to build" said Peter.
Regards,
Vernon