7mm Rob Pulham's Work Bench - Back (again) to the LNER 06 (MOK 8F)

[Rob Pulham]

The painting bug has really bitten at the moment and more detail on the A3 has ensued - I need to let it dry thoroughly before handling it for painting photography though.

While that's been going on and I had the enamel paints out I had another go at some of the various nameplates that I have tried unsuccessfully to paint in the past. When I say unsuccessfully I mean that I wasn't happy with the result.

So first up is the makers plates for the turntable.



These were done as suggested by Warren Haywood, painted with "white" (actually Humbrol ivory with a drip of black in it) enamel and left to harden for a few days followed up by a coat of Citadel Chaos black acrylic which was left to dry for 10 mins and then rubbed gently with a piece of thick card to remove the black paint from the raised lettering. While not perfect - but neither was the etching.... especially the maximum load line, it's a big improvement on my earlier efforts. The next job is to strip my Charles Roberts plates and e do them using the same method which will be fiddly but hopefully and improvement.

 

[Phill Dyson]

Excellent paint effects & lining there Rob

Phill

 

[Rob Pulham]

I am still beavering away with the A3 and another bit is now complete.

I have also managed to make the roof removable while still being secure when it's attached. I will take photos once I start putting the can back together.

In the meantime this is some of the fruits of my painting endeavours.

 

[john lewsey]

Like it Rob

 

[Scale7JB]

Very nice! Did you line the boiler bands with transfer paper, or by hand?

Got to line a few engines myself soon...

JB.

 

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks Gents,

Jonathan, the boiler bands are HMRS pressfix (in fact they are PC Models so pre-date the HMRS taking the range over) for no other reason than I have quite a stock of them that I bought from Mike (I was going to spray a sheet of transfer paper and line that until I remembred that I already had the pressfix ones in stock and it would be daft not to use them up.

The rest of the lining is bow pen/compass/fine brush. I have made a couple of little jigs to help with the painting I will take some photos of them.

 

[Phill Dyson]

Very nicely done Rob

 

[oldravendale]

Hi Rob,

Please forgive my very late posting re your A3 - I'm a fairly recent member and am even now way behind in catching up with what people are doing.

As it happens I'm building a DJH A3 at the moment too. I've just about fixed the footplate today so am close to making a trial fit of the boiler. I'm also concerned at the thought of taking the cab apart to fit the back head. I'd made the daft assumption that the designer would have thought to address this part of the order of assembly. I'll be trying the back head tomorrow.

My question concerns the valve gear. I've built using the provided nuts and bolts as per instructions and it will run beautifully but at the risk of the nuts and bolts undoing themselves. I have a better method of fitting the crankpin which is pretty bomb proof but wonder whether your valve gear dis-assembles itself too? I know I can Loctite or even use varnish to hold the nuts and bolts together, but want to be able to take it apart for painting. I may go for soldered, pinned joints but then have to decide where the break points will be for the planned dis-assembly. It's complicated by the drive to the (notional) conjugated inside valve gear and slidebar trapped pistons. But the cylinders are removable which gives me a chance!

Yours looks great. The paint and lining is good too. Mine will be BR so a different type of complexity in lining. Not sure I'm up to doing it by hand but I'm going to give it a go.

Best regards.

Brian

 

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Rob,

Please forgive my very late posting re your A3 - I'm a fairly recent member and am even now way behind in catching up with what people are doing.

As it happens I'm building a DJH A3 at the moment too. I've just about fixed the footplate today so am close to making a trial fit of the boiler. I'm also concerned at the thought of taking the cab apart to fit the back head. I'd made the daft assumption that the designer would have thought to address this part of the order of assembly. I'll be trying the back head tomorrow.

My question concerns the valve gear. I've built using the provided nuts and bolts as per instructions and it will run beautifully but at the risk of the nuts and bolts undoing themselves. I have a better method of fitting the crankpin which is pretty bomb proof but wonder whether your valve gear dis-assembles itself too? I know I can Loctite or even use varnish to hold the nuts and bolts together, but want to be able to take it apart for painting. I may go for soldered, pinned joints but then have to decide where the break points will be for the planned dis-assembly. It's complicated by the drive to the (notional) conjugated inside valve gear and slidebar trapped pistons. But the cylinders are removable which gives me a chance!

Yours looks great. The paint and lining is good too. Mine will be BR so a different type of complexity in lining. Not sure I'm up to doing it by hand but I'm going to give it a go.

Best regards.

Brian

Thanks Brian,

I must admit to thinking the same and sadly not trying the back head until late on to be honest if I hadn't made a muck up of the lining I would have filed the back head down to get it to fit as per advice from others who have built them. Having taken the plunge though I am much happier with the cab roof being removable - I will take a photo of how I have did it if it's of interest?

With regard to the valve gear nuts and bolts I have fitted them with Loctite retainer -the stuff that holds them in place as opposed to holding them permanently and I have had to take them apart a couple of times without issue - indeed I am not far away from the final strip down for painting the chassis. I just re-applied it during each re-assembly.

The bit that caused me most trepidation but actually turned out to be quite simple was soldering the valve heads to the conjugated gear but as I described earlier in the thread I just wrapped the whitemetal fingers in wet tissue and went for it with the soldering iron.

I look forward to seeing some photos of yours

 

[oldravendale]

I must admit to thinking the same and sadly not trying the back head until late on

Thanks for this, Rob.

The info about the valve gear is a great help. It's the first set I've built with nuts and bolts and it runs beautifully. It's just that it unwraps itself every time I test it! But I'll try some varnish or Loctite in the knowledge that I can get the valve gear apart.

I managed to fit the conjugated valve gear without any problem - a hot iron and in and out very quick.

I tried the back head today and I can fit it in through the back of the cab without removing the roof! Whether it'll go in with all the fixtures and fittings on board is another question. It went in vertically after initially trying it "feet first". I can't explain why but it worked so I'll complete it outside the loco and fit afterwards - last time I made up a backhead I fixed it with blu tack and it's still in place.

I came up with another problem tody, though, and that's fitting the boiler. It fits fine at the smokebox end but there's no fixing apparently provided at the firebox end and it needs some screws to hold it against the footplate and the back of the cab so that it remains removable for painting. I can cobble something together by soldering a brass plate at the firebox end both vertically and horizontally which will allow use of captive bolts but it seems very strange that there's no fixing considered in the kit instructions. I'll be interested to know what method you used.

It may just be that mine is a very old kit - in fact I know it is - so the instructions may have been improved. Indeed, the 9F I'm building alongside has better instructions.

As far as pictures are concerned you might have to bend my arm a bit. I'm not a terribly tidy worker and compared with the work I see on here my locos look a bit tatty during the build. They come out alright but I generally do the cleaning up at the end.

Best regards.

Brian

 

[Rob Pulham]

Hi Brian,

This is was when I started, only my second O Gauge loco. So not really knowing any better I soldered it to the footplate making the one piece that you see in the last photo's. Knowing a bit more now it would have been much better to have had it separate for painting but I have managed.

Better planning for future builds especially the others that will be green as opposed to all black.

With regard to the instructions they are not great but I have seen a lot worse. My kit dates from late 2009 (purchase date from DJH).

 

[oldravendale]

Thanks Rob.

Your approach is the obvious one - I just wondered if there was a better way. I'll think about it for a while (I've transferred my attentions to the 9F for the moment) but rather fancy the boiler separate from the footplate and cab. However, on further consideration today it may work if the boiler is soldered to the cab - after all the boiler and cab are the same colour and the cab is screwed to the footplate.

I'll cogitate some more. If there's interest I may just be tempted to put a photo up......

Brian

 

[alcazar]

My vote is for photo(s).......

 

[Rob Pulham]

I have now completed the cab for the A3 (I think!).

As mentioned earlier in the thread I have now made the roof removable and following the lead from a gent on the Guild forum I have made the cab doors hinged and removable.









The hinge pins are made from 0.8mm nickel rod with small section of tube soldered on one end and then filed down as per the method demonstrated by Nick Dunhill.









Now for a good clean up and a final check to make sure that nothing is missing before re-visiting the paint shop - The seats will be added when it's assembled after painting I looked at soldering them in now but if I do I cannot get the backhead in.... (hmm I have been here before!)

 

[Rob Pulham]

The A3 moves nearer and nearer the finish line.

The chassis is now painted and lined. -I wasn't 100% sure that the red line ran all the way along the chassis bottom but in will be lost behind the wheels and weathering. I have only got one cylinder back on at the moment as I need a small soldering job on the other - the link to the middle cylinder came adrift as I dismantled it.







I also learned something that is worth sharing today. I use Ronseal satin hard glaze as my protective coat (the water based version). In the past despite letting it down for spraying with de-ionised water and mixing it well I have problems with blobs appearing. Today I thought that I would try letting it down with Tamiya acrylic thinners. What a difference it made to the quality of finish and the speed with which it dries. I will be trying a similar approach to spraying both matt and gloss varnish to see if it improves that too.

 

[Rob Pulham]

One step forward and three back. Having stripped and repainted the cab, I initially started to spray the exterior with Klear to get a glossy surface to line onto. It promptly ran to the bottom and sat there as a ridge Grrrr!

So being the diligent soul that I am I had read the back of the bottle so knew that you can remove Klear with ammonia. Did any of my local shops stock ammonia these days? - Did they chuff!!! Chris ended up ordering some from Amazon for me..

Anyway, it duly arrived and I eagerly painted some on and..... nothing happened!!!

DOH, so I read the instructions = dilute it 3:1 apply and then let it dry for 5 minutes. When dry scrub off with warm soapy water and surprise surprise a Ronseal moment - it did what it said on the tin.

Then onto plan B I tested letting gloss varnish down using tamyia thinners using a tin can and it works. so the next step was to carfully apply some thin coats to get a nice glossy surface to line onto.

Being as happy as I am going to get with this - it will need a bit of weathering to hide some blemishes I think...... I thought about painting the inside of the cab and painting the cab floor as weathered planks. My success with this was what got me started on weathering the Midland wagon.

I wasn't too concerned about the line between the stone and black being dead straight as the cab fittings break it up anyway.

All the painting has been done with a mixture of Anitas Acrylics and Vallejo Acrylics

That's enough of a preamble here are the photos

 

[Rob Pulham]

In between my efforts at weathering stock I have still been beavering away lining, and glazing the cab.

Here are a few cruel close ups. There are still a few smudges of white that I need to remove. But this one is going to be weathered not ex works so any blemishes will blend in.








Hopefully the transfers will go on the cab and tender over the weekend.....

 

[Rob Pulham]

Like buses, nothing for a while then two posts at once. As alluded to I am still working patiently away on the A3 in the background I am doing it this way so as not to get disheartened when things don't go as hoped.

The tender is now almost there just a bit of black lining around the buffer beam to go.
Since the sun was shining I took the opportunity to get a couple of photos outside.

 

[john lewsey]

Very nice Rob very nice

 

[Rob Pulham]

Thanks John,
Like British Rail, it's getting there