Tom Mallard’s Workbench L&B in 7mm scale, CR 828 in 7mm, GWR Saints in 4mm

[Tom Mallard]

Quite a lot of progress this time. B2 construction 9 shows that the new spring detail and brakegear are in place on the chassis, and the cosmetic spring/keeper plate assemembled. Unlike a very large number of 7mm scale models, many 4mm scale modellers (at least half a dozen who work in P4 ) like to have the facility of dropping the wheels as per the prototype. To this end we have keeper plates and detachable brakegear. Mainly this is for considerations of painting, fettling and tuning.

Once the boiler had been permanently attached to the cab and footplate, this formed a monocoque which meant that cutting away the valence jig was a safer proposition. This also facilitated tidying the underside of the footplate but is mainly useful for fitting the chassis to the body correctly as the model is based on a variety of sources which it is up to me to put together.

Sometimes our suppliers can offer a very variable product and this applies particularly to handrail knobs. In my case, the boiler handrail knobs are from Markits and this time were far too well fed. They went on a diet in my lathe where the head was taken back to 1mm diamter, the shank was turned parallel instead of the grossly over sized taper, and a few tenths eventually taken off the foot at the boiler end. All in all not too time consuming and I can now live with their appearance.

There's a way to go with this model, but the hard part is done now! just the cab roof and backhead area and some decorating...

Best regards

Tom

 

[Ragstone Andy]

Hi Tom,

That really does look the business. Are you aware if any of these castings are available in 7mm, especially the tank filler and axle box spring hangers, they're very nice. I started reading the green book last night on the K3, looks like even the can sides are a minefield, lots of research to do with this one,

ATB Mick

Hi Mick

Ragstone do castings for the GS tender

Regards

Andy

 

[7mmMick]

Fantastic work as usual Tom. I really like the bottom plates to retain the horn blocks, a very neat idea. In S7 I always try and use a spring casting combined with the bottom of the horn guide to retain the axle box. However I may try this approach but I can see it would be dependant on whether there would be a view through the frames from above and whether any plate would interfere with the ash pan etc. On the plus side it seems a really simple way of fitting the bottom springs to retain te axle boxes as you say, food for thought. Looking forward to further progress,

ATB Mick

 

[Tom Mallard]

Fantastic work as usual Tom. I really like the bottom plates to retain the horn blocks, a very neat idea. In S7 I always try and use a spring casting combined with the bottom of the horn guide to retain the axle box. However I may try this approach but I can see it would be dependant on whether there would be a view through the frames from above and whether any plate would interfere with the ash pan etc. On the plus side it seems a really simple way of fitting the bottom springs to retain te axle boxes as you say, food for thought. Looking forward to further progress,

ATB Mick

Thanks very much Mick.

The fitting of the chassis against the bodywork was todays main activity. Both the frames and the body are now significantly modified, with a gaping hole being cut into the underside of the boiler for the motor to pass through. As planned, this is largely invisible as the footplate and top edge of the frames obscure this feature. It should however allow the body to drop onto the chassis undisturbed, meaning the required lead blocks and so-on can be secured where I want them (the model must haul a train of Golden Age Pullman carriages up a 1:100 slope).

Yes, the keeper plates are always dependent on the depth of frame you have to play with, on top of which I usually have to squeeze the copperclad pickup plates. The whole thing is a concession to practicality, but takes a bit of thought and time to implement.

Best regards

Tom

 

[Len Cattley]

The B2 wasn't standing idle inspite of the lack of etched add-ons. Maybe I am further on with it than I think, but I cannot complete the chassis until some new spring/keeper plate etched and associated frame brackets turn up, not to mention the replacement B17 style of brake pull rod arrangement. The footplate was revised, too, preventing me from attaching all the main body together, so it'll hopefully look better soon.

Best regards

Tom

Hi Tom, I have been following your post's with interest as I build P4 for client's. Your soldering is very good how do you keep it invisible, also what do use use for the pins to mount the valve gear together?
Len

 

[Tom Mallard]

Hi Tom, I have been following your post's with interest as I build P4 for client's. Your soldering is very good how do you keep it invisible, also what do use use for the pins to mount the valve gear together?
Len

I didn't know there were any more of us around, Len!

It's a good question, and I could say the usual about soldering being a black art and so-on, but I think there are a lot of factors which combine to keep things tidy.

Please accept my apologies if any of this in any way comes across as pretty basic... The tip condition of the soldering iron makes more or less the most difference to the behaviour of the solder that you use, so I make sure it is always tinned. The solder is either 145 or 188 degree melting point. The modern 'less toxic' 145 is actually pretty hopeless stuff with little real strength but I use it the most. My Carrs 188 is really great, flows nicely and is stronger, but I use it only when there is a risk of a subassembly being at risk of disintegration or for motion parts. The quantity of solder is always kept small and with the wire form of solder I use, just picking up a speck on the end of the iron. I can always add a bit more to the joint if I need. My flux is currently a citric acid based one from Simon Varnam, as I found phosphoric based ones were starting to aggravate my respiratory tract. So the first part of clean work is to use a method which minimises the amount of solder used in the first place. Following this I am always cleaning up stray blobs and thin films of solder using a multitude of methods from scratchbrushes to small chisel shaped nickel silver scrapers to get into the corners and abrasives of all sorts.

It is a combination of things.

Oh, and nickel silver hides it pretty well!

Beyond this, the model is washed and scrubbed using something like Cif, though others always seem to have particular preferences like Shiny Sinks or its equivalent.

The valve gear is not held together with pins in the dress-making sense. All the joints apart from the return crank (which uses a small rivet) are forked and they pivot on straight wire rod of 0.6 or 0.5mm diameter.

Hope that helps a bit.

Tom

 

[45609]

I didn't know there were any more of us around.....

There's one or two of us Tom. Always interested to see what you are up to. Nice tidy work on the B2. Which one is it going to be?

Cheers.....Morgan

 

[Tom Mallard]

There's one or two of us Tom. Always interested to see what you are up to. Nice tidy work on the B2. Which one is it going to be?

Cheers.....Morgan

Hello, Morgan.

This one will be 61632 Belvoir Castle. I had to get the nameplates specially done with artwork supplied by Diane Carney and a very well done effort by PPD on taking the trouble to get them etched very nicely.

Are you at S4um this weekend?

Best regards

Tom

 

[Tom Mallard]

After thrashing around to get the B2 something like for Scaleforum, I thought to take a picture of it.

The careful fitting of the body to the chassis went well and they slot together in a very straight forward way, with the two secured with just two screws. It sounds super simple, but is rarely ever like this when fitting one person's product (Dave's) to a different person's product (mine) whilst having switched from one prototype (Dave's B1 chassis parts) to another (my B2 chassis requirements and bodywork).

Mainly small things left now: - smokebox door, lamp irons, steps (from the Dave Bradwell B1 etch), balance weights, pickups and most noticeably the ash-pan sides... And massive amounts of lead ballast to fit between the gearbox and cab.

The tender was completed barring it's wheels some time back in the spring.

Tom

 

[Tom Mallard]

A few posts back, mention was made of a Guy Williams engine I had been asked to 'look at', and as it's getting there or there abouts I have been given permission by it's owner to show it here.

Like many others I have a great fondness for Guy's work and I avidly read and re-read his books from Ian Allen and later Wild Swan, so I was keen to do my bit for it.

A lot of the model was rebuilt, refined or replaced, (partly to more closely tie it to a particular prototype) but I took great effort to reincorporate everything I could of the original. It didn't make it straightforward taking this approach but I think we can be more satisfied with the result. It will now run on a sprung chassis which uses most of the components from the original but with new frames and bogie.

Hope you enjoy seeing the model

Tom

 

[Tom Mallard]

For the Guy Williams engine, the tender chassis is the only part we thought didn't need any attention... Hence it remains painted.

Still some fettling to be done and the ride heights to refine but the chassis rolls very smoothly and this is a good start. All the Cerobend that lived in the boiler was a bit too far forward for a nicely balanced model so it was melted by placing the body in a tray of hot water from the kettle and poured out in a heap of small ingots and runny blobs. The required weight has started to be reinstated between the coupled wheels as blocks of lead and I'll add a bit to the boiler to help the bogie behave.

Paint is not too far away!

Tom

 

[Tom Mallard]

This just turned up.

Normally I wouldn't be so animated by some etches, but their procurement has been ongoing since March... A good job by PPD doing in little over a week what I should have asked them to do in the first place and not the other two firms who led and in one case are continuing to lead me a merry dance.

Just add water and simmer for 2 months?

Best regards

Tom

 

[Dikitriki]

Those look very tasty. How much of a complete kit is that (ignoring castings of course)?

Richard

 

[Tom Mallard]

Those look very tasty. How much of a complete kit is that (ignoring castings of course)?

Richard

Richard,

about 99% of the sheet metal parts. No boiler formers, boiler wrapper or gearbox sides are about the only things I can think of. I do seem to have a problem being sensible when I choose which bits to etch, but for 4mm scale (as opposed to 7mm scale) it is utterly fantastic as a process leaving only miniscule compromises i.e. no properly fluted motion parts, larger half etched rivets tend to have flat heads, etc... So much simpler than cutting stuff out manually and no chance of bending the work peice in the process. Assembly of the kit of parts is still a challenging matter though.

Some pattern components are hiding on the etch, so I'd better get on and make some swarf.

Best regards

Tom

 

[7mmMick]

Richard,

about 99% of the sheet metal parts. No boiler formers, boiler wrapper or gearbox sides are about the only things I can think of. I do seem to have a problem being sensible when I choose which bits to etch, but for 4mm scale (as opposed to 7mm scale) it is utterly fantastic as a process leaving only miniscule compromises i.e. no properly fluted motion parts, larger half etched rivets tend to have flat heads, etc... So much simpler than cutting stuff out manually and no chance of bending the work peice in the process. Assembly of the kit of parts is still a challenging matter though.

Some pattern components are hiding on the etch, so I'd better get on and make some swarf.

Best regards

Tom

Looks great Tom and very K3 shaped. I'm looking forward to seeing this one come together.

I'm just waiting for my GA from the NRM to turn up. I had a very good day about a month ago and managed to get a lorry load of drawings for the A7, J72, J25 tender and finally the correct AW batch GA for my K3 build (there were several different to chose from). As soon as that arrives I can get cracking. I still don't have a decent drawing of the centre cylinder valve gear though. Do you have a reference of a detail drawing for this area please? I could then order that aswell. If not no worries as it is there on the GA but just over laid with lots of other parts so not that clear. I have the drawings coming in digital format so in hoping I can play around with them to get what I need?

ATB Mick

 

[Tom Mallard]

I'm just waiting for my GA from the NRM to turn up. I had a very good day about a month ago and managed to get a lorry load of drawings for the A7, J72, J25 tender and finally the correct AW batch GA for my K3 build (there were several different to chose from). As soon as that arrives I can get cracking. I still don't have a decent drawing of the centre cylinder valve gear though. Do you have a reference of a detail drawing for this area please? I could then order that aswell. If not no worries as it is there on the GA but just over laid with lots of other parts so not that clear. I have the drawings coming in digital format so in hoping I can play around with them to get what I need?

Hi Mick,

I'm pleased that it looks very K3 shaped to you!

I hope your drawings are better than mine as they were what I would charitably describe as fuzzy. That's microfiche for you I suppose.

The model will be of a 1934 AW built engine.

I haven't a drawing number to hand for the motion, but I hope you have the lists of paper originals held at the NRM, as these usually have something of use right down to individual components. I'll forward them if you haven't already downloaded them off the NRM site. For example I could find specific frame and steam reverser drawings for an LNER P1 I am due to build at some point, where the general arrangement is very limited in its scope (probably not yet fully resolved at the time). The GA is a bit vague regarding the conjugated valvegear, but the only motion is just a couple of arms ahead of the cylinders leaving just the crosshead and slidebars behind. I might be able to help by giving my view on a particular drawing query if you like.

Have fun playing with the drawings. I do things 'long hand' by measuring off the GA and transposing it into AutoCAD, but I occasionally wonder about importing the drawings and working directly onto them. Historically though I have found AutoCAD to be very resistant to working effectively with such formats, as .jpg and .dwg are so fundamentally different. Raster and Vector images or something. Adobe or similar products make this easier I hear.

Best regards

Tom

 

[7mmMick]

Hi Mick,

I'm pleased that it looks very K3 shaped to you!

I hope your drawings are better than mine as they were what I would charitably describe as fuzzy. That's microfiche for you I suppose.

The model will be of a 1934 AW built engine.

I haven't a drawing number to hand for the motion, but I hope you have the lists of paper originals held at the NRM, as these usually have something of use right down to individual components. I'll forward them if you haven't already downloaded them off the NRM site. For example I could find specific frame and steam reverser drawings for an LNER P1 I am due to build at some point, where the general arrangement is very limited in its scope (probably not yet fully resolved at the time). The GA is a bit vague regarding the conjugated valvegear, but the only motion is just a couple of arms ahead of the cylinders leaving just the crosshead and slidebars behind. I might be able to help by giving my view on a particular drawing query if you like.

Have fun playing with the drawings. I do things 'long hand' by measuring off the GA and transposing it into AutoCAD, but I occasionally wonder about importing the drawings and working directly onto them. Historically though I have found AutoCAD to be very resistant to working effectively with such formats, as .jpg and .dwg are so fundamentally different. Raster and Vector images or something. Adobe or similar products make this easier I hear.

Best regards

Tom

Hi Tom,

I do so love a K3

I'm hoping the drawing is nice and crisp but only time will tell? I have the lists but thank you for the kind offer. I think I will wait to see what the GA brings and then if I struggle I'll have a trawl through the lists to try and find something suitable. The only problem I found with the K3 as there's loads of different types and GA's for different batches. I'll get there in the end though.

I would really like to get me head into AutoCad and draw up my own art work as your stuff is really inspiring. I'm sure at some point I will, it certainly beats marking out and cutting out every last bit with a piercing saw Looking forward to seeing the first test build,

ATB Mick

 

[Len Cattley]

Hi chaps just been reading your messages on drawings, I have some LMS drawings on digital and find it a great boon importing it into Cad they come as a tiff file and Qcad can import them (you have to adjust them to make the size correct) Adrian of this parish tells how to do this. As a new comer who has never learned Cad find the instructions on the Cad site hear a boon. I hope to send my cad files to PPD to have them etched.

Len

 

[Tom Mallard]

Mick, I think the test build and final build are the same thing in this case!

AutoCAD is very powerful, but I think I only use 5% of its capabilities to do what I need. However even after 18 years I am still finding features and tools to streamline what I do. Like many draughting packages the learning curve will be steep to start with but once the basics are there, the way it works starts to become more intuitive. I also expect that following the supplied tutorials will mean that at least you will know how to use it properly, unlike me.

Some of my contemporaries use solid modellers and although I've experience of using some very nice 3d packages, I still don't see them as vital to what I am doing. They could speed up some aspects such as generating component drawings, and ensuring that parts don't impinge on one another, but the prototype drawing should do a lot of this for you... Plus for those who like to 3d print their patterns it is perfect but this is not a process I am planning on using yet.

Best regards

Tom

 

[Tom Mallard]

A little bit of progress for the K3 in some patterns for the valve guides and a blowdown cock or something for the ashpan. For this model I am trying to keep pattern making needs in check compared to the O2, but of course this is dependent on the overlap of requirements between the two.

Perhaps I could explain how I do these at some point?

Best regards

Tom