Atlantic's works: Portable layout - Scenic details next

[Atlantic 3279]

Rest assured, I have no plans for 251.

After a spot of further filling and a coat of red primer the K2 boiler looks as if it may do the job. I'm slightly worried about some dips in the surface of the smokebox wrapper, caused by too much enthusiasm when applying Liquid Poly. I won't fix the boiler to the running plate for a few more days, just in case I conclude that "something must be done" to avoid further trouble. If necessary I'll rub down the existing wrapper then add a layer of the thinnest shim brass. That won't distort under solvent action!

The detail on the Dave Alexander K4 smokebox door is very much to my liking, and due either to our mutual brilliance or more likely a good deal of luck, it is a perfect plug-fit in my smokebox front. I do wonder however whether it ought to be a little more bulbous. Its a thin casting and I have three in all to play with, so I may try to dish one of them a little more, I hope to do that without splitting the metal, buckling the edges or wrecking the surface detail. That isn't one of Dave's chimneys in the photo. I can't show one of those in place until I drill the smokebox top.

Filling-in of the space under the running plate with 40 thou plastikard is almost complete now. I've left thin slots just behind the valances to aid the fitting of a thin skirt before I make the two piece mould. I've also left spaces above the wheels. There is extra material above the running plate in those positions so the piece should not be too thin to cast. The spaces I've had to leave to accommodate the tops of the Bachmann motion brackets are more of a concern to me. I'll see later whether I can at least get away with adding another 10 thou thickness to those areas. I can do no more in the area above the cylinders until I prepare a second chassis, dedicated to the K2 rather than borrowed from under my GN K3. More later perhaps.....

[Atlantic 3279]

Mixed findings this evening, although I think the eventual gains outweighed the losses. I haven't yet found whether I can get that little bit of extra thickness of running plate above the motion brackets, but I do now have the K2 body on a dedicated chassis and I've put the GN K3 back together without grief. In the process I've discovered that there are at least three sub-types of Bachmann V1 chassis: a convenient one, probably the earliest type, with narrow motor mounts, a less convenient kind with wider motor mounts and a third type with wide motor mounts and beefier attachment points for the motion brackets. The versions with the wider motor mounts won't be able to go inside the K2 body without a little cutting, either to remove an extra piece of boiler bottom or to remove metal from the motor mounts themselves. The latter approach would give the better cosmetic result. I'll put up a picture or two tomorrow. There may be slight differences in the cylinder mouldings too, requiring trimming of one type. The good news is that quite by luck I've built the cab floor of the K2 body in such a way that it was possible to easily cut back the plastic so that the cab floor would sit nicely at the proper height on a ready-made flat area of the very simply shortened V1 chassis block. I had previously to do much more to the V1 chassis that went under the hybrid GN K3 body. The "raw" V1 chassis as opposed to the version I had adapted to suit the K3 is also far friendlier to the K2 running plate in the area above the cylinders. I had built up the cylinder tops a bit to suit the K3, ensuring no gap under the running plate. There's a clearance of at least 1mm above the original cylinder mouldings, allowing a decent thickness of running plate in that area which can be made to look thin by some suitable overlays on the cylinder sides.

[Atlantic 3279]

As well as having a go at dishing the smokebox door a bit more, the penny has finally dropped this morning regarding chimney height. Dave's K4 chimney is a correct height for that purpose, but the LNER K2 chimneys were 2" shorter, so I'll be having a go at shortening one. It may produce a better result than the whitemetal one shown in previous pictures which I now presume is from a D10 kit as I previously suggested.

[Pebbles]

How about a LRM K2 chimney? I notice you're up to page 251; a significant number.

[Atlantic 3279]

Certainly an obvious choice. It may come to that.....

[Atlantic 3279]

Pictures of progress. I'll add notes where required another time.

[Woodcock29]

Hi Graeme

Chimney is looking good on the K2 now!

Andrew

[S.A.C. Martin]

Got to say Graeme, the K2 is looking something terrific. How will you sort the valve gear though? Is the V3 chassis one of those with push fit pins in the coupling rod ends I think?

[Atlantic 3279]

I'm fairly confident that I can changer the crosshed and slidebars to a more appropriate type then make a fairly simple cosmetic addition to the motion bracket in order to produce the desired result.

[S.A.C. Martin]

Fair enough, I look forward to seeing the finished results.

[Atlantic 3279]

After keeping myself busy over a couple of days adding more little bits of plastikard, etched washers, strips of aluminium tape and wire to the K2 body in order to create some of the details which it should be possible to cast integrally with any copies of the body, then going round with filler before applying primer to reveal results, I decided to have a break from bodywork. Today therefore, after getting other jobs out the way, I turned to the matter of valve gear adaptation in order to relieve angst among one or two watchers.

Here's the now moderately well detailed body and the first trial in position of an addition to the moulded motion bracket, the additional piece formed from 1.5 x 0.3 mm nickel silver strip with a couple of stubs of 0.45mm brass wire soldered into drilled holes to facilitate eventual firm pin-and-super-glue attachment to the moulded bracket (drilled with matching holes).

I'll have to add the explanations to the following pictures again at a later stage, but for the moment I'll just mention that the drop-link was added to the new Comet crosshead using the same 1.5 x 0.3 n/s, while the slidebars were from 0.8 x0.4 n/s strip. Much head scratching guided me slowly towards the final shape of the top slidebar. I'd contemplated doing something to make the motion bracket more prototypically massive with appropriately braced connections to the slidebars but there isn't a lot of room. The leading end of the eccentric rod comes too far forward and would foul a more solid bracket. Also the position of the plastic part of the motion bracket limits use of the soldering iron.
I reckon that the basic representation that I've produced will still be adequate in appearance when the loco is in service with the motion darkened down, although I will add a little triangle of plastic at the top of the motion bracket to fill in the missing part of the distinctive upcurve.

By the way, that is a pull-out crankpin on the driving wheel and although not shown in this picture there's a shouldered bush for the big-end of the con-rod.

The plain portion of the piston rod needs to be trimmed to 14mm. I initially got mine a shade long and found that the mechanism locked up when I tried to rotate the worm gear manually. I never apply power until I've tested things by hand!

That slight set added to the conrod seemed a wise move to avoid conflict with the long new slidebars.

One side done and it runs beautifully!

[will5210]

Genius!

[manna]

G'day Gents

Congratulations.

manna

[earlswood nob]

Good morning all

I am watching and admiring with great interest.

Earlswood nob

[S.A.C. Martin]

Marvellous work Graeme!