West End Workbench

[jwealleans]

Why thank you. It's always a bit of a wrench painting them when they're in this state. I can understand why some people leave them in the brass.

On the other hand you can see all the evidence of my cack handed soldering.

[45609]

Hi Jonathan,

I, on the other hand, cannot understand why someone would want to leave a model unpainted. A coat of paint brings it alive. Even if it is a basic black loco a bit of paint, numbers and identifying marks turns a kit of parts flying in close formation into a scale replica of the real thing.

You have acheived a nice result from what was an incomplete kit. Well done.

Happy New Year and all that.....Morgan

[Atlantic 3279]

An attractive model of an attractive loco.

[60526]

"It's a Crownline J19. The loco chassis was built and is free running and square. The footplate had also been built - all I've done this evening is add brakes and guard irons. There's a 1424 and multibox with it - not necessarily what I'd have chosen but I think I can see how he intended to mount it and I don't really want to undo all that good chassis work to move spacers. We'll see how it goes."

Jonathan, what motor/gearbox would you recommend for this kit?

[Robpulham]

Happy New year to you Jonathan, and what a way to finish 2012. That's a handsome looking loco.

[jwealleans]

Fret ye not, good sir Morgan, it will be black - and in fairly short order too as we're out at Nottingham with Thurston in March and I want it running by then. Incidentally, does anyone know who does a smokebox plate for a J19? 247 and Modelmaster are my usual suppliers and neither of them offers one.

what motor/gearbox would you recommend for this kit?

Good question - I didn't really look as I had one with it. I use High Level gearboxes in just about everything, so whatever of those fits and has a grubscrew final drive - I can't be doing with the ones you Loctite on. One of the RoadRunner series probably. The first builder had reduced the size of the boiler aperture so I had no choice but to put the motor in the firebox, otherwise it might have gone along the boiler with drive on the rear axle. Once I've chosen the gearbox, the biggest motor which fits.

Thank you everyone for your kind words. I'm pleased with it and now it's done I quite enjoyed it. It's much more interesting having to think on your feet and get through problems.

Now, to the next victim: I don't suppose there'll be too many more of these built:



This came in the same job lot as the J19, one of three. The sides had been assembled, the floorpan bent up and the bogies made, so I spent the best part of an hour last night looking through the parts and instructions, then about four hours this afternoon and early evening after I came back in putting it together.



What an excellent kit. I've not built any of Mike's before (and I'll say now that I much prefer them to open along the solebar than the roof) but this was like falling off a log. Clear, thorough and extensive instructions and information, bits which fitted, sensible hints and construction ideas... if Ebay fills up with these because of the new Hornbys then you could do worse than snap them up. I have a stack of Kirk non-vestibuled stock so it's unlikely I'll rush out and build many more of these but that shouldn't detract from how good it is. I shall look forward to the other two much more after this one.

[jwealleans]

Been a painting and decorating day today. Trains, not domestic. First up the J19, now with boiler bands, handrails, works plates and in Stratford's finest black.



As expected, after I'd soldered up the crankpins and test run I had to remove some material from under the splashers where they had been lowered and a 'lip' left under the running plate. No real hardship and she goes well now. Here she is with a J17 I built in 2005 from the same manufacturer:



I've also located a smokebox numberplate at the Old Time Workshop (with thanks to whoever posted a link to them on here and jogged my memory).

The coach has also been through the paintshop:



I'm going to take a leaf from Tom's book and do this one as a refurbished post war example, now due for another works visit and looking a bit tired. There were teak coaches on the GE until at least 1956 so I can get away with this on Thurston.

I've also been painting this, which is a Kirk I bought second hand at the New Year's Day swapmeet in the Marton Country Club, if anyone remembers those. It's had new underpinnings, MJT bogies and roof vents and the previous paint job was removed with Modelstrip.

[Atlantic 3279]

Very good!

painting and decorating day today. Trains, not domestic

So the "kits not kitchens" campaign worked in the end?

[jwealleans]

So the "kits not kitchens" campaign worked in the end?

Only after I'd finished the kitchen!

[jwealleans]

Painting and decorating goes on, but none of us likes watching paint dry... so we're into another project. This is a dining car to go with the Restaurant First I built for Thurston. It usually ran with an ex-GE RTO, but the etches I have for that are prior to its rebuild so I thought we'd try for a substitute, a GE section D27B. It's a while since I did a Kirk kit so here are some of the steps I go through with them. Not much of the original kit gets used, in point of fact.

This coach will run at the head of a set of Bachmann Mk1s, so proprietary bogies seemed the way to go to avoid coupling problems. The centres are packed up to allow them to pivot against similar flat packing on the coach floor.



The body, at least, is assembled as you might expect. This is kit 8853, D 186 TTO.



I throw away the floor and use Paxolin. This is cut to be a snug fit inside the body. The old floor can be used to mark the bogie fixing positions, here with some packing added to get the ride height correct. Solebars are Evergreen channel or - as here - I-beam, 1/8" deep.



The coach will separate at the solebar. To fix them together I stick a piece of 40 thou plastikard in the end vestibules. This is spaced up the thickness of the Paxolin. Then I solder 10BA nuts to some scrap etch and use that as a guide to drill out holes in the plastic. The holes are then continued into the floor and the nuts and plate secured with superglue. The floor assembly can then be bolted to the body up from underneath.



Now at this point last night my brain burst into life and I remembered that a D186 is not quite like a D27B and needed altering. This is much easier to do on flat sides before you stick them together. The beading needs changing so as to have 3 side panels not 5. Additionally on one side the toilet is blanked out and there's a 5 panel section behind which were luggage shelves. I managed to do this without wrecking the thing last night:



I should have pointed out that the Paxolin goes copper side down so you can solder all the undergubbins to it. Most of these came from Comet as they're what I had in stock. This is this evening's progress - I've also added the beading to the side panelling. The slight stain on the roof is filler - Kirk roofs are always too long and rather than file the ends and make them even more bulbous (some think they start too bulbous) I cut a couple of mil out just by the end of the roof board holders and then stick the two halves back together.

[Manxman1831]

Coach looks rather nice. Why do you choose not to use the supplied flooring?

[jwealleans]

Thank you, Brian. It's because I don't use the Kirk underframe bits - there are much better ones available from MJT and Comet which also have the advantage that being white metal they give you ballast where you need it. I used to use ABS bogies as well but they're not so easy to come by now. Using the copperclad means you can solder all these brass and whitemetal fittings on instead of gluing.

[jwealleans]

Fitted my standard BB coupling and tested with the accompanying RF, along with a Hornby Gresley I remembered I had to check clearances on curves.





I'm pleased with that panelling. I've used the Kirk corridor connector here so we don't risk fouling the RTR coaches this will run with. They aren't mine, so I can't test them until the next show, which is a bit late really.

I also made a start on the interior. I don't have any suitable seats so an order will be off to Southern Pride tomorrow. I'll use the Kirk tables although some will have to be shortened (these were 2 + 1 rather than 2 + 2).



Most of the rest of the afternoon was spent painting passengers, a job I hate doing.

[2512silverfox]

I have attached a photo of a Kirk BTK which shows how I approach the fitting of the roof on these vehicles. There is a 10 thou plasticard strip along the top of the vehicle side which has a rainstrip attached so that the suitably reduced kirk roof fits into a box thus disguising the join. It also allows you to shape the end view properly!

[jwealleans]

Thanks, Nick. I do that as a matter of course on brass sides but only on Kirks when the edge needs tidying up (as it does on this one, clearly). Can we see an end on shot to see what you've done there?

You've also reminded me that I've forgotten the rainstrips on those other two I've just done...