DavidinAus
Western Thunderer
I'm looking for advice or hints as to how I could go about building an MOK kit which I've had for over a decade on my shelves.
As an aside, this seems to be a common situation amongst railway modellers: we see a kit we'd really like to build, buy it, but then don't have time to make it for years. A little while ago I told myself I had to stop buying more kits until I had built the ones I already had on the shelves! Perhaps I could even use the money I saved to do the already-purchased products better? It has taken me a couple of years to get to the stage of only having one kit left - for the Stanier 8F. So, after building nothing longer than an 0-4-0 before, I have decided to try a 2-8-0, with near-scale dimension frames.
I sent a request for advice to the old S7 forum just after Christmas and it's only just appeared. It obviously takes a long time from Australia ..... However I now realise that this forum is where more action takes place.
After waiting a while I tried another track: I contacted Dave Sharp (who runs MOK). He has been amazingly, wonderfully, helpful. In fact he is doing some special etches to adapt his 8F kit to Scale 7 ! We (well mostly him of course) have been working on this for a little while, but don't know how well it will work as yet. Basically my request of him has been to set the outside frame width at 29mm (I think 30mm is the perfectly correct width, but Dave and I concluded that it was not realistic to try to construct the model using that dimension). The layout of the custom etch that he has suggested would re-make the central frame stretchers (if that's what all the parts which go between the two vertical frames are called), the motion brackets and the cylinder parts.
At the moment we don't know if this is going to work, especially with an eight-coupled locomotive. However my reasoning was a little like this: I gather the MOK Ivatt S7 kit uses 29mm frames, and the 8 wheels rather than six will actually need less sideways movement on the inner axles, as the two inner axles are not at the mid point between the outer axles.
I intend to make it with Slaters wheels, and get them altered to S7 profile; I don't know how I could obtain anything else, anyway. I'm probably going to use split-axles if I can learn how to do this (can anyone point me to a good article on how to do this with Slaters wheels?). However I could try the "American" method of loco and tender pickups on opposite sides, or even go for radio control. The last of these is attractive, but I know nothing of it as yet, and am going into (for me) the unknown anyway, as this is my first non-tank engine as well as first with more than 4 coupled wheels! Which way to go?
I had been thinking of an RG7 motor, but having seen some posts on WT, perhaps I should go for an ABC Mini-7 gearbox and a different motor. What do WT readers recommend? - I've saved money not buying that Lankykits bogie box van, those nice JustLikeTheRealThing wagons, that LNWR G2 kit I liked the look of, etc.
If it works, I hope this will be another kit that Scale Seven Group members will buy, for Dave Sharp's sake: support from him and others like him is what S7 needs, in my opinion.
Any advice gratefully received.
David C
As an aside, this seems to be a common situation amongst railway modellers: we see a kit we'd really like to build, buy it, but then don't have time to make it for years. A little while ago I told myself I had to stop buying more kits until I had built the ones I already had on the shelves! Perhaps I could even use the money I saved to do the already-purchased products better? It has taken me a couple of years to get to the stage of only having one kit left - for the Stanier 8F. So, after building nothing longer than an 0-4-0 before, I have decided to try a 2-8-0, with near-scale dimension frames.
I sent a request for advice to the old S7 forum just after Christmas and it's only just appeared. It obviously takes a long time from Australia ..... However I now realise that this forum is where more action takes place.
After waiting a while I tried another track: I contacted Dave Sharp (who runs MOK). He has been amazingly, wonderfully, helpful. In fact he is doing some special etches to adapt his 8F kit to Scale 7 ! We (well mostly him of course) have been working on this for a little while, but don't know how well it will work as yet. Basically my request of him has been to set the outside frame width at 29mm (I think 30mm is the perfectly correct width, but Dave and I concluded that it was not realistic to try to construct the model using that dimension). The layout of the custom etch that he has suggested would re-make the central frame stretchers (if that's what all the parts which go between the two vertical frames are called), the motion brackets and the cylinder parts.
At the moment we don't know if this is going to work, especially with an eight-coupled locomotive. However my reasoning was a little like this: I gather the MOK Ivatt S7 kit uses 29mm frames, and the 8 wheels rather than six will actually need less sideways movement on the inner axles, as the two inner axles are not at the mid point between the outer axles.
I intend to make it with Slaters wheels, and get them altered to S7 profile; I don't know how I could obtain anything else, anyway. I'm probably going to use split-axles if I can learn how to do this (can anyone point me to a good article on how to do this with Slaters wheels?). However I could try the "American" method of loco and tender pickups on opposite sides, or even go for radio control. The last of these is attractive, but I know nothing of it as yet, and am going into (for me) the unknown anyway, as this is my first non-tank engine as well as first with more than 4 coupled wheels! Which way to go?
I had been thinking of an RG7 motor, but having seen some posts on WT, perhaps I should go for an ABC Mini-7 gearbox and a different motor. What do WT readers recommend? - I've saved money not buying that Lankykits bogie box van, those nice JustLikeTheRealThing wagons, that LNWR G2 kit I liked the look of, etc.
If it works, I hope this will be another kit that Scale Seven Group members will buy, for Dave Sharp's sake: support from him and others like him is what S7 needs, in my opinion.
Any advice gratefully received.
David C