Paul's workbench

[nzpaul]

Hi All
Thanks to Hornby's post Christmas sale, I purchased another Book Law with the idea of producing Papyrus a bit more easily than by redecorating the BR A3 I picked up last year. I don't usually complain much about minor defects with models but this one deserves a mention. Unlike the first one I bought, this thing was a real mess when it arrived. I suspect it's taken some knocks on the way over as the valve gear bracket was badly bent on the left side rendering the chassis unusable until corrected. Worse than that was the abysmal assembly of the body, the running plate in the area indicated was not in contact with the fire box causing a noticeable s-bend under the cab, it's a lot better now but still not perfect.

Thankfully it had been assembled with so little glue as to simply pull apart to access the offending area and move the parts around until an acceptable alignment had been arrived at and then re glued properly.
While it was in bits, I figured I may as well sort out the change of identity so after a few hours of fixing up, scrapping away the cabside number and applying new transfers and nameplate, this is progress so far. Sadly Papyrus was never attached to a NT type tender during the 30's so I'll have to dig out a corridor tender to suit the condition in which in achieved it's speed record. Before that I should really get back to the C15.

After taking the photos it occurred to me that the reversing lever was missing as well, searched the box and the kitchen floor to no avail, not a glowing example of how to put a model loco together I'm afraid, beware this one, it really can be as bad as has been suggested on both this forum and on the dark side.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
Quick correction to the previous post, should have said Papyrus didn't run with a NT type tender until 1937, by which time it had its cab modified to small cutouts so NT tender supplied with Book Law no use to this model.
This is an older corridor tender, resprayed with Tamiya XF5 green which I think was suggested by Atso as a good Doncaster green match, I concur. The colour was a little flat before varnishing but with 2 coats of clear gloss, it's really close, not perfect but closer than Railmatch or Precision pots that I've got. Also managed to track down a reversing lever from a Comet A3 valve gear fret.

Still pottering away on the C15 as well, I've fitted the frames bellow the front of the boiler, I'll need to alter the shape a little as the curve up to the smokebox from the rear isn't quite right. Also extended the bunker so it's now the correct length. I'm not a fan of the X04 motors at all, but this one has had virtually no use by the look of the gears so I'll see how it goes, well I hope.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
Starting to look a bit like a c15 now. Today's effort included plumbing for the boiler and compressor and sorting out the front bogie. This included one of model makings most pleasurable activities, sawing off a chunk of the mazak block to make space for the rear wheels of the bogie. If you haven't already had a go at cutting the stuff I'd recommend you do, it will teach you what perseverance means. I've given the chassis a long run on a rolling road and the X04 is exactly as expected, a little noisy and reluctant to rev freely,although the running in did improve the gear noise quite a bit, I'm curious to see what a decoder can do for it.

Next I'll need to make up the frames above the bogie and under the bunker and I'll have to put some thought into making a trailing truck that will keep the tail from wagging around.

Cheers
Paul

[Graeme Leary]

Hi Paul, Your latest makes interesting reading because as you know I'm about to start on a 'makeover' (I dislike that Americanism intensely) of a Hornby BR Green A1 (Brown Jack) into LNER Wartime Black, 'Flamingo'/95. I should look at the retailer's websites more closely as, if 'Book Law' came with a GNR tender (and I had waited anyway until the sale), notwithstanding the issues you found with the model, I guess I could have just repainted/renamed/renumbered this into Flamingo as the GNR tender was the sole reason I bought the Brown Jack model. THis would have also saved having to remove the double chimney and replace with the single you kindly sent me.
Even though I haven't started the Flamingo project yet, bear me in mind if/when you wish to get rid of the GNR tender as I have another 5 or 6 A1/3 nameplates and could easily be tempted into another 'revamp' when Flamingo is completed, in LNER Apple Green with GNR tender, which as yet I haven't got in my 'stable'.
Great work anyway; my work is be ho-hum by comparison.
Regards
Graeme

[nzpaul]

Hi Graeme
I think ho.hum is a bit harsh on yourself, your layout's a lot better than mine I'd say.
I do have a spare gn tender floating around somewhere, it's an older one though, I'll email you with details when I find it.

Cheers
Paul

[Graeme Leary]

Hi Paul, Thanks for the compliment but not even in 'the hunt' as far as modifications etc go. Look forward to getting the GNR tender details. Possibly a trip down your way in April/May, will keep you posted.
Regards
Graeme

[nzpaul]

Hi All
I've sorted the trailing wheels by using a piece of brass, bent to an L shape with a tube soldered to it for the axle to run in, secured to the chassis with self tapping screw, it's a bit crude but it works and allows a degree of springing to keep the wheels on the track. I've also made up some plastic frames for the areas bellow the smokebox and bunker and added the smokebox wing plates. Cab cutouts have been extended to a more rectangular shape and the beading made up from 10amp fuse wire. I have some brake hangers and shoes left over from the D34 kit so I'm going to have a go at making up a removable brake rig on the old pick-up insulating plate. Next update should be of the finished model, hopefully unrecognizable as the M7 I started with.

Cheers
Paul

[manna]

G'day Gents

Excellent looking rebuild, who would have thought that this loco started life as a M7, wonderful adaption

manna

[nzpaul]

Thanks for the compliment Manna, very kind of you to say. This has been a very enjoyable project and I'm even a bit surprised how well it's turning out.
I do wonder sometimes if my ramblings are of any value to anybody, I'm certainly no G.King, J Weallans or MickB (Insert any others you'd like) and I'm not making anything that someone else isn't doing better. I find the most difficult part is writing about things without sounding self centered, Tony Wright is the master of explaining how to build something and be informative and entertaining as well as seemingly inviting you to have a go, a talent I sadly lack. I'll keep trying though, plenty of models on the to do list.

Cheers
Paul

[Manxman1831]

Paul, if you can explain what you are doing in such a way that another person (or persons) can follow your thinking and produce similar results, you are doing very well indeed. For my own sins (and I have seen it time and again elsewhere) I have gotten to the stage where I'm doing my modelling by instinct rather than a set method that I am possibly incapable of explaining how to do something without getting frustrated, either with myself or the observer.

I've enjoyed following your M7 to C15 conversion and definitely look forward to your next one.

[nzpaul]

Hi All
It's been a while, due to installing DCC decoders into a couple of friends locos and various musical endeavors, but I have some blog worthy progress on the C15. I'm very close to wrapping this one up now so, the chassis has been fitted with some brakes, the shoes are the correct NBR pattern with heavy blocks but the hangers lean the wrong way, probably not that noticeable if I didn't mention it, but better than no brakes at all I suppose.

I've kept the wiring for the decoder tidy by fixing a piece of vero-board to the chassis and attaching all wiring to it, worked out well since I managed to connect everything backwards the first time, made it easy to fix. The X04 tossed its toys out after the last running session, thankfully turned out to be one of the windings had become disconnected from the commutator and was fairly easily re soldered and got running normally.

The body was finished with spray can matt black and then the smokebox dirtied up a bit with a black/brown mix brushed on and transfers a pressfix again.
From what I can gather, C15's were not lined out so one less job for the bow pen, although they seem to have been lined in BR days so any info to the contrary gratefully received. I've chosen the last built and quite deliberately, another Carlisle Canal resident ( at least I think it was, again from the limited info I have).

The finished article has ended up a lot closer to scale dimensions than I expected, the centreline of the boiler is only about 1mm too low and the cab roof is almost spot on, not bad for a model that is only meant to give a reasonable impression of the prototype, maybe it's more of a caricature. Either way, I'm keeping it.

Cheers
Paul

[manna]

G'day Gents

Looks good, well done.

manna

[nzpaul]

Thanks Manna, it was a good bit of fun and worked out quite well. I have a similar project, but a much bigger loco on the to do list. In the meantime here's a teaser of the loco I started tonight, I think a few on the forum might recognize what's in the pic. I'm guessing I'll be working on this one for a while.

Cheers
Paul

[nzpaul]

Hi All
Next build is this SE Finecast W1 in original guise. I've had this kit stored in the cupboard for 10 years or so, waiting for the confidence to give it a go. This is the result of about 4 hours of soldering to assemble the basic body parts. I thought that being SEF it might be much higher quality than the kits I've built so far, but it turns out that even their parts warp and wobble a little bit, so it took a while to get the top boiler seam lined up for soldering. Other parts require adjustment and straightening as well so the V4 and D34 were good practice. There's a few build blogs of this model on RMweb so I wont go overboard with updates.

I've always found the W1 far more fascinating in its original form, to my eyes one of the most aesthetically challenging loco's ever built, anywhere. I think it's quite striking, maybe so ugly it looks good, not for everyone though I guess, my wife thinks it's awful.

Cheers
Paul

[Manxman1831]

Hush-Hush looking good I look forward to seeing how you get on with this model.