7mm Skinhead

[Andrew Thompson]

Doesn't appear to have been any updates for some time and the tips part is no longer available unfortunately, as the part dealing with how not to build a kit actually dealt with MMP Class 31 build that needed stripping down and restarting .
Andrew

 

[farnetti]

Yes, I remember that but unfortunately it had gone before I started this.

I am interested in how you formed the roof profile, and in what order. I am leaving them and the cab ends till last to give myself lots of thinking time, viewers attention brought to both, so need to be right.

Ken

 

[farnetti]

So here are the inner chassis holes filed to align with the cross member indents. The cross member indents have been drill through and tapped 12 BA.


The cross members attached to the brass chassis.



And a couple of photos of the side frames temporarily in place, they fit perfectly. The cast frames don't look quite square to the brass chassis but is due to camera angle.

I decided against screws to position the butt joints as all I wanted to do was to stop things moving around while I soldered the joints and used 1mm wire instead.



The wires were then glued in the cross members with tiny amounts of Loctite 480 and the sideframes sat over them and positioned until set.


Now, as things were firmly in position, 70 degree solder was applied to the joints with plenty of flux. The soldered cast frames were then removed from the inner chassis



A few bits still to fit.



Ken

 

[farnetti]

I have been working on the buffer beams today and relaxing this evening with a glass of Australian Shiraz found this relevant video which has lots of lovely detail.

Hope it works.

 

[simond]

I love the accent & emphasised pronunciation - "vac-u-um" and many others. Takes me back some 50 years!

Thanks for posting
Simon

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

BBC received pronunciation of course. The narrator is none other than the former BBC television newsreader Richard Baker.

The class 31's looked very smart when new.

 

[Peter Insole]

What a glorious film! Lovely shots of Ipswich, Manningtree, Audley End and many other GE locations as well as a little bit of Kings Cross near the end!

Hands up all you good folks who spotted how many of the loco's had London Transport trip cocks fitted...?!

Pete.

 

[simond]

Dave

I spotted that it was Richard Baker, though I very much doubt I'd have been able to tell just from the voice, I think he was rather younger that I remember him!

I didn't spot a year, (very?) early 60's?

Best
Simon

 

[farnetti]

What a glorious film! Lovely shots of Ipswich, Manningtree, Audley End and many other GE locations as well as a little bit of Kings Cross near the end!

Hands up all you good folks who spotted how many of the loco's had London Transport trip cocks fitted...?!

Pete.

Not me Peter, or why. Where were they used on LT lines?

Best,

Ken

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

Where were they used on LT lines?

Met widened lines KX to Moorgate I suspect and possibly on the District towards Upminster.

 

[Yorkshire Dave]

I spotted that it was Richard Baker, though I very much doubt I'd have been able to tell just from the voice, I think he was rather younger that I remember him!

I saw the name first then realised part way through after listening. Took me back to when the BBC evening news was on at 5.40 pm after the cartoon!

 

[farnetti]

So a little more progress



Various hoses and jumpers fitted. Buffers and couplings temporarily in place until i decide whether to fix them (and the subsequent drag box cover) before or after painting. I have not fitted the seats or the the control panel assemblies yet as, although the instructions say the floors may need a small amount of filing for the resin cabs to fit, I suspect more maybe needed and have glued some square section in place to support the seat pedestals for this purpose. The black jumper hoses are over length and will be removed for painting and then trimmed before refitting. I was wondering whether it was worth fitting pipes and conduits to the rear cab wall as they will only be seen from this photo and the next.



So even though won't be seen from these angles worth doing I think but not just yet.

I decided to move on to detailing the bogies



Here we have the axle boxes, speedo drive, transverse springs centre wheel brake shoes and hangers for the springs.



Here I have added the axle boxes and speedo drive to the bogies, and also the AWS gear and the lifting brackets. The lifting bracket castings have a pieces missing which I glued on using sections cut from a scrap bit of roof fret.


This bit I found a bit difficult. The brake hangers and shoes (bottom right) have to be attached to the transverse springs (above). They are at right angles and need to be at 90 degrees in all 3 axis, and the area to be fixed is only 1.5mm square, and unable to clamp the two parts together. Therefore I could not pin it as I had the bogie frames and spent much of Saturday trying to get the (sodding) parts mated and failed. Took Sunday off searching t'internet for possible solutions. The one that seems to have worked is use plenty of Carrs red flux, soldering iron at 200 degrees and (contrary to my normal practice) loads of solder on the iron tip, seen on the left above. I am overjoyed but there maybe trouble ahead, they are fixed to the frames, instructions just say make sure brakes are clear of centre wheels, no other location marks.



The outer wheel brake hangers and shoes. Clockwise from top left, as they come, some need the bar removing and an etched piece added, extra casting added to the outer ends, and 1mm square brass bar added to the final four as the castings aren't handed.

I think I won't follow the sequence in the instructions for the bogies so I can get some reference points for some of these sub assemblies, especially for S7 clearances.

Ken

 

[djparkins]

This bit I found a bit difficult. The brake hangers and shoes (bottom right) have to be attached to the transverse springs (above). They are at right angles and need to be at 90 degrees in all 3 axis, and the area to be fixed is only 1.5mm square, and unable to clamp the two parts together. Therefore I could not pin it as I had the bogie frames and spent much of Saturday trying to get the (sodding) parts mated and failed. Took Sunday off searching t'internet for possible solutions. The one that seems to have worked is use plenty of Carrs red flux, soldering iron at 200 degrees and (contrary to my normal practice) loads of solder on the iron tip, seen on the left above. I am overjoyed but there maybe trouble ahead, they are fixed to the frames, instructions just say make sure brakes are clear of centre wheels, no other location marks.

View attachment 68721

The outer wheel brake hangers and shoes. Clockwise from top left, as they come, some need the bar removing and an etched piece added, extra casting added to the outer ends, and 1mm square brass bar added to the final four as the castings aren't handed.

I think I won't follow the sequence in the instructions for the bogies so I can get some reference points for some of these sub assemblies, especially for S7 clearances.

Ken

Ken -

Why are you trying to solder these pieces together at all? You fit the central brake shoe units directly to the rear of the sideframes. The leaf springs are fitted with the side brackets [with one shortened to clear the brake shoe] and fitted, again, to the rear of the bogie sides. The adjacent surface of the centre brake shoes simply abus the top section of the leaf spring but at no point do you need to fix them to each other!

Of course, if you are seeking to make the brake gear detachable in some way, then this is beyond the scope of the kit and any difficulties faced by you should not reflect badly on same.

In my view, you'll have a pretty hard job getting all this to work in S7 too, but I'm sure if anyone can, it's you! Just don't blame the kit, as way back then when the masters were made, S7 was the last thing we had in mind.

BTW - be careful not to **** any of the bits up or lose them. The kit is OP at present and will be in a totally different format when it re-appears [and I have no date for this] so can supply no replacements for castings or etchings - not that we do for S/H kits anyway.

DJP/MMP

 

[farnetti]

David,

Thanks for your input here. Yes I see what you mean now, I misinterpreted the instructions. Will probably take them apart now, glad I didn't glue them.

The centre brake shoe castings can be filed down to bring them closer to the sideframes for S7 which is what I intended. I'm still thinking about how to deal with the brake assemblies on the outer wheels,

I have no intention of blaming anything on the kit, my choice to buy it 2nd hand, my choice to build in S7.

Aware that there are no spare parts available but many included in the kit anyway. An enjoyable build as always.

Ken

 

[farnetti]

Haven't posted for a while due to family and socials events, ongoing house building, and 3-4 weeks of proper man flue.

But slow progress has been made.



The etched steps shown in post 23 have been folded up and fitted, the ones on the right with the brake actuators fitted. The steps are very delicate parts and do not suffer repeated bending. As the instructions suggest a hold and fold tool is a must here. Currently the outside ones look acceptable, the inside ones need a little bit of tweaking. The top for actuators are for the inner ends of the bogies.



These are the inner brake shoes on the outer axles with the linkage attached. The instructions show the outer brake shoes being fixed in the holes at the left hand end but I found, on initial investigation, they seemed to be to far apart. After Davids' advice about S7 clearances I will fit these to the bogies last.

So the bogies in their current state. On top is the No 1 end with the speedo drive. Transverse springs were eventually fixed with Loctite 480 a the top to locate and then soldered at the bottom.





Finally a couple of photos to show how it might look. Been busy bending the roof panels as a diversion. The left hand one is easy, second has to match the first and has half etched exhaust lines, third has big large doors with longitudinal half etches, and fourth has big holes for fans.

A way to go there yet to get them to fit but it is beginning to look like a 31.

Ken

 

[farnetti]

It's been months since I last posted and slow progress has been made, mostly due to lack of inertia on my part.

I have added the pipework to the cab interior and fittings to the buffer beam (hoses will be removed before painting).



I have added all the detail to the roof panels. In the photo they don't seem to line up but when fitted to the body they do. Getting these right has taken a lot of time, especially between the ends of these and the resin cabs.





I have finished the bogies one of which is waiting for an ABC motor/gearbox.





Finally I have detailed the outside of the cabs. I have added extra handrails and details after painting for 5520 early 60's.



Painting is near but a lot of detail to add after, lower cab fairings, cab interiors, marker disks, lighting, roof fan, glazing and windscreen wipers.

Ken

 

[richard carr]

Ken

That's all starting to look really good.

So what did you need to do to get the roof panels right ?

Richard

 

[farnetti]

Ken

That's all starting to look really good.

So what did you need to do to get the roof panels right ?

Richard

A lot of delicate tweaking but coming together nicely.

Also all the black stains are my favourite Loctite 480 superglue, Araldite doesn't seem to work well for me between brass and resin.

Ken

 

[farnetti]

Just bought a little motor for the roof fan, arrived promptly from Europe but in a stupidly large box.


Rotational speed 8 -80 rpm on a voltage of 2-18. Probably need to double up the speed for the fan to look good but all other small motors I could find just wizzed way too fast.

ABC motor and gearbox should be arriving next week for the bogie. Loksound or Zimo for sound decoder for this, any views?

Whilst waiting started on an S7 MOK 4MT build, just doing the chassis at the moment and what a joy. Adrian has done a build of this already so I will just post occasional stages on Dikitrikis' What's on your workbench.

Ken

 

[Mr Grumpy]

Ken,
I had a Loksound with the Legomanbiffo sound in my 31, and it was superb I gave him the loco for a few days and he rigged up independent lighting and fan to run in conjunction with the fan sound. Complete with different horn and starting sound options. I also have his Hymek sound with a @Cliff Williams speaker...superb