Cookie's G3 Workbench

[Steve Cook]

Shepshed was rather fruitful if your bent is Brake Vans in Gauge 3 Mike (Williams Models) actually had a GER Brake Van in stock at the same time as I had a cheque book, its only taken three attempts! Slaters had also brought along some of their new MR Brake Van kits - one of them joined the GER van in my shopping pile behind Arty's demonstration table whilst he just threw in the fact that he has drawings for the Kipps Incline brake van too...

Bodies decanted and mocked up, Slaters on the left, Williams Models on the right (its an A3 cutting mat if you're trying to work out the size)



Both bodies needed a good scrub to get rid of the release agent - my preferred method is warm water, Jif and a toothbrush. It doesn't take too long, but whilst everything was out the other G3 resin body kits came out of storage so they could be done at the same time. Dried off and ready for packing away again, we have Slaters on the left, the MR van at the back and the brake at the front, Williams Models on the right with a GER Van at the back right and the Brake Van at the front, all led by a WM LNWR D1 wagon to replace the one I sold.



The problem with having five of the things out is it seems a shame not to start one The GER Brake Van won the toss so all of its bits were laid out for the customary photo



I like to try and get most of the prep work done up front, leaving the final fettling (if required) just prior to fitting, I find the build flows better for me that way. The W iron assemblies have had the V hangers removed and all the of the laser cut steel parts have had the edges filed and the small bump at the laser end point removed. The whitemetal springs had a quick swipe with a file whilst the buffer housings have had drills passed through to ensure smooth buffer operation. The three links and coupling hooks all met the file, then I got distracted by the hand wheels. The kit supplies the centre 'spider' and an outer rim as two etched parts to be soldered together. Getting an even radius on those bits by filing is the kind of thing I'm not very good at so I resolved to make a new outer rim from copper wire and solder in the kits spider. The thought was it would end up being quicker...

Well, lots of scrap bin use later and I finally ended up with a pair of reasonable wheels I started out by stripping lengths of twin and earth cable, using the thicker of the two wires and winding it around a socket. It took a couple of go's to get the right combination of socket, then I changed my mind and used the earth wire as it looked more in keeping size wise (neither were right, it was a choice of thicker or thinner). Some careful trimming of the spider took place before it was soldered into place - bit of a juggle but I'm quite pleased, its the first time I've made a set of wheels



A bit of 0.7mm wire was soldered into a hole drilled through the rim to represent the handle, I think I might sleeve it up as it looks a bit undersized. Everything was scrubbed up and dunked in some chemical black.

The next distraction was the extra rings supplied in the kit to represent the additional fixing between spoke and rims that was present on some vans. I punched the rivets out, but decided I wasn't happy with the visible method fixing them into place. I used the same idea, but substituted L shaped pieces of 0.5mm brass wire instead, the aim is to araldite these into place.

Original on left, alternative on right

On location



Its a small change and will probably be barely noticeable behind the running boards, and not at all when its moving, but I think it looks a little cleaner. The only tricky bit was making sure that the wire was not too close to the rivet, thus preventing the latter from lining up with the centre of the spoke. As luck would have it, just scribing in line with the half etched mark gave a 'no closer than this' reference so it was all plain sailing (as long as I remembered to solder on the inner edge)

Part way through showing the ring clamped in place using the original mechanical fixings



Blackened up and mocked up (albeit not yet central)



I normally hate blackening up wheels axles and buffers but today I used scotchbrite and mounted everything in the lathe - 35 minutes for the lot, magic The buffers have the outer edge rounded off and the turning pip removed with a file before they were polished up with the scotchbrite and blackening. The same routine was used on the wheels, they were just mounted on one slave axle so I could get through all four quickly before doing both axles.



The axle boxes have been drilled out to clear the lost wax residue from the axle running surface and the coil spring mounting, I've finished filing them down and cleaning them up so my hands are killing me - hence the long post The last few castings and the body next...

Steve

 

[Dikitriki]

Steve,

It's really not fair posting builds of quality gauge 3 items....or 1/32 and above come to that. I struggle enough to resist temptation, and then I see you doing a terrific job on what are obviously well thought out kits.

Got to go and lie down in a dark room now.

Yours

Richard

 

[Steve Cook]

Sorry 'bout that Richard They are grand (in all senses of the word) kits, for safety's sake don't ever go down the 'just one route', I did exactly that and I'm sure Mike is delighted In my experience they go together well which means there is never the concern of how much am I going to have to do to get it to fit, its more about how can I make it 'mine', because I can rather than because it needs it. Down that road, pleasure and happy modelling lie...

You'll be pleased to know that the distraction works in both directions though - I look at what you and the other 7mm chaps get up to with the range of options available and temptation looms large Mind you, I console myself with the mess I would get into if I added yet another scale / gauge distraction to my portfolio...

Steve

 

[Arty]

for safety's sake don't ever go down the 'just one route'

Yes, very dangerous

 

[Simon]

Great kits and models and phenomenally good value too.

Looking through Mike's stand and the diversity and (high) quality of his myriad wagon building parts etc, I couldn't help but reflect on just how poorly served the 1/32 market is. It is almost as if modellers in the 7mm camp who are looking to get bigger simply step across the whole "Gauge One experience" and head straight for Gauge Three.

Of course there are exceptions, notably Mr Dale of this parish, and I also suspect the current attractiveness of Gauge Three is also very much aided by Mike Williams and all his endeavours and encouragement, whilst not forgetting Slaters (wheels) and Cliff Barker who did the track.

And no, I'm not going to succumb to any of it

Great build by the way, I will look forward to buying Slaters' 1/32 version of the Midland brake van which will be with us early next year from talking to David (White) at the weekend.

Simon

 

[Steve Cook]

Great build by the way, I will look forward to buying Slaters' 1/32 version of the Midland brake van which will be with us early next year from talking to David (White) at the weekend.
Simon

I might have to succumb and get one of those too

Its an interesting one - the 1/32 market is not badly served, it just doesn't appear to be as well served in parts terms in one place as per Mikes stand. It would probably help to have a one stop shop that can fulfill a fair few requirements, what is available does seem to be a bit scattered for want of a better phrase Horses for courses though, 1/32 is better if you want a variety of live steam kit options...

Steve

 

[Steve Cook]

All the basic prep work for the brake van is now done. The window apertures on the rear faces of the guards compartment were carefully scraped out, mainly to give a larger purchase area for the canopy glue I'll be using, but also to make them tolerant enough so I only need one template (since made from some of Mr Kellogg's packaging).

Original on left, modified on right.


The body had the supports removed from each of the veranda ends, then I went round the whole thing, cleaning up the odd bit here and there. I'm sure I'll have missed something but hopefully I'll pick that up during the rest of the build. A gentle bow in one side of the body was removed using the hot water / cold water technique, I'm happy with the overall straightness now. The remaining castings for brake shoes, footboard brackets, brake wheels mounts and door handles have all been cleaned up and are ready for mocking up.



There has been lots of looking at the reference pics and mocking up of various bits this afternoon, I'm going for the early livery and need to make some adjustments to suit. There is a fair bit of man-handling to do to the body now so I'll glue the compartment ends in place tonight to give the body some extra rigidity, then I can scrape off the unwanted brackets and fabricate replacements around the inside of the verandas. There are some 58 holes to drill too, all the footboard brackets will be pinned in place and I'm adding an extra two horse staples along with the handrails, lamp irons etc, glad I bought new drills at the weekend

Steve

 

[Steve Cook]

The compartment ends needed a little trimming to sit nicely within the sides - they are a touch oversize which pushes the body sides out. I used a shooting board (minus its stop) to trim very small amounts off the width until it was just a sliding fit within the body.



Although a stop is normally used to provide a reference to get a good right angle, you can use the board freehand by aligning the item to be trimmed hard up against the plane (that squares it up to the reference edge on the base of the board) then the plane can be drawn back (keeping off the edge of the item) before being pushed quickly down the side. This way you can shave 2 - 5 thou at a time from something that is already square, a lot less messy than filing or sanding.

With the width sorted, the relative heights were adjusted - both compartment ends being too low in comparison to the sides and the projected crown of the roof. Strips of plasticard were glued to the van floor under where the ends sit, then small shavings were taken from the bottom of the end panels until they ended up the same height along the van.


I want a neat finish at this point, I'd like to plank the roof and it will be clearly visible in this scale - sometimes its a blessing...

I needed two strips to run down either side of each compartment to hide the slight gap between them and the body - the gap was big enough to annoy me but would have been difficult to fill. I hadn't got any strip the right thickness, so glued two thinner strips together and shaped the ends to fit with the exiting paneling on the compartment ends. I can't tell whether the prototype had them or not, there looks to be a hint of one in the photos I've got, in most of the others the join is well hidden in shadow. I've taken a punt, it certainly looks neater.



The brake wheel is loosely resting in place - I needed to confirm I could mount it before the ends were finally fixed into place. A hole had been drilled through the wheel mount, then a 14ba nut was drilled out and a length of 1mm rod soldered into place - this then goes through the hole in the wheel itself and will eventually be glued into the mount.
Right, time to go and do the other end.
Steve

 

[Steph Dale]

Steve,

That's cracking piece of kit, but I have to admit that I'm struggling to get a feel of how big it is. Can you give me anidea of the overall dimensions/weight?

Steph

 

[Steve Cook]

Steve,
That's cracking piece of kit, but I have to admit that I'm struggling to get a feel of how big it is. Can you give me an idea of the overall dimensions/weight?
Steph

Sure

As it stands now
Length: 226mm
Width: 103mm
Height: 108mm
Weight 390g



Any good?
Steve

 

[Steph Dale]

Any good?
Steve

Yep thanks!. I'll stick with 7Up tho...

Steph

 

[Steve Cook]

Yep thanks!. I'll stick with 7Up tho...
Steph

Go on, whats the worst that could happen

Starting off on the Swiss cheese routine now, there are about 62 holes to drill in the body shell...

The first set are nice and easy and just gave some extra clearance for the buffer rams - the blocks themselves are for mounting parts of the brake system. I ran a 6mm drill through from the outside to get a centre spot, then drilled through with 2mm and 4mm bits in pin vices - the resin is nice and soft so not a difficult job at all. It should all centre up nicely once the housing is glued into place.



Handrails were next, there are 9 holes per side to get aligned (four vertical rails and a centre support on one horizontal rail). Using the drawing provided in the instructions, the top and bottom of the handrails were marked out with pencil. The kit recommends using 1mm wire (located in holes) due to issues with cast components. The only downside to this is you loose the characteristic mounting bolts at each end of the handrail. Having tried and failed to make some in brass (they need to be about 1.6mm in diameter with a 1mm hole through the centre for a fixing bolt) I gave up and carried on marking out whilst the brain cells worked on what to do.
Bugger.
Drawing through the centre line on one side (the veranda door handles line up with the horizontal handrail) I noticed that the plank edges were not parallel to the drawn line. They aren't far out and it only affects two planks, but as it (or should) runs parallel to the handrail, it sticks out. I could't leave it, so filled the offending planks edges and left them to harden. You can just make out the issue, the faint pencil line is the handrail location and the plank edge drifts out as you move away from the lens.



You can also see where I had a minor moment and drilled holes for the horse staples in the wrong place - brain thinking about planks and not concentrating Never mind, they were quickly plugged and filled and holes drilled in the right place, this time replacing one of the rivets for the W irons.
The other side with parallel planks and horse staples mocked up.



When the filler was dried I re-scribed the two plank lines - not a particularly easy task. The top plank (right hand on the photo below) went OK, it effectively had to cross through the original scribe line to twist it back into alignment. I've had to increase the width of the line because of that bit, but at least it is now parallel to the projected handrail. The lower line needed to create a Vee with the original and it didn't go too well. The compromise has been to increase the chamfer on the lower plank, I'm hoping the hard top edge will act as the defining edge with a bit of weathering to help fool the eye - we'll see how it all comes out ...



For the handrails I decided to make some plasticard discs, they will then be glued into place above and below the handrails and have some nut detail added. Murphy's Law has it that I don't have any of the right size rod in stock, so I made a punch to knock some out of strip instead. My last bit of scabby mild steel bar, it was a fairly easy turning job and nice to do something a bit different. Shown below with the resulting discs - 1.6mm in diameter, punched from 0.5mm thick strip.



Whilst in a tool mood, I've made a quick handrail forming jig, two turned brass stubs soldered to some brass angle (makes it easy to hold in a vice). It works OK as long as the first bend is formed then the wire is held against the stops with a bar to stop it deforming as the second bend is made.



That should make it easier to get all 8 handrails the same, now the first one has been made I shall create a drilling jig from that part - a fancy name for a bit of strip with two holes in it In theory I only have to mark out the bottom hole for each handrail and just the vertical centre line for the top one, I shall report back.

Steve

 

[Steve Cook]

The jig. Seems a grand name for a bit of etch chosen because I could make one side into a handle A centre line, two holes at the right distance apart and a bit of filing, job jobbed. Shown here next to the bending jig and a resulting handrail



Once all of the holes had been marked out and drilled for the bottoms of the handrails, a short length of 1mm rod was pushed through the jig and into said holes. I could then line up the scribed line on the jig to the centre line of each post, and using a pin vice, drill through for the top handrail hole.



And the end result - level handrails. I'm afraid it all looks a bit wonky in the photo, in fact the ruler appears bent, but its OK in the resin. With the body shell resting on the desk, the ruler was held in place across the top of the handrails and the distance between ruler and the desk surface measured at both ends. I'm pleased to say the results were the same end to end and side to side



Was it worth the effort? Well, I don't think I saved any time overall, but its been a fairly stress free experience to get all 8 handrails formed up and inserted. They need trimming to length now where they protrude through the posts - I'll do that tomorrow I think.
The veranda doors and compartment doors have all been drilled and the handles checked for fit - it is a lot easier if one follows the instructions and does the compartment ends before gluing them into place
Nearly halfway through the Swiss cheese exercise, more fabrication tomorrow.
Steve

 

[daifly]

......and using a pin vice

Is that pin vice what us non-engineers call an Archimedean drill?

 

[Steve Cook]

That one is, it was too late to look up how to spell [copy from daifly post ] Archimedean drill [paste from daifly post]. Thought I might get away with it as they are all small tools to hold small drill bits Steve

 

[lancer1027]

That looks very good Steve. I like the jig youv'e made. well worth the effort IMO.

Rob

 

[Rob Pulham]

That looks very good Steve. I like the jig youv'e made. well worth the effort IMO.

Rob

I agree with Rob, I like to make jigs where possible. I have a tub that I keep them in for next time

 

[Steph Dale]

I agree with Rob, I like to make jigs where possible. I have a tub that I keep them in for next time

All marked up with permanent marker so you know what they're for, I hope!

Steph

 

[Rob Pulham]

All marked up with permanent marker so you know what they're for, I hope!

Steph

Oh Yes!

 

[Steve Cook]

Foot board brackets up next. The basic casting is used for all of the mounts - the parts not required are simply cut off. There are four brackets per side, two outers which support the top foot board under the veranda doors and the lower foot board that runs the full length of the vehicle. The centre brackets support the long foot board only. As supplied in the kit:



The outer brackets require that the top vertical section be removed whilst the centre brackets require the small up turn to be removed - this facilitates fitting underneath the solebar and in front of the solebar respectively.

The centre brackets were chopped as directed, then the top horizontal bracket part was filed down to better represent the cast leg that drops down to the lower bracket (Mike provided some extra photographs and drawings to help me decide how to treat the parts here ).



The instructions recommend drilling and pinning all of the brackets in place - it is a G3 kit after all, so most of them will spend their lives rattling round garden lines. I was a bit nervous about soldering next to resin, but we've got away with it so far...

The outer brackets are mocked into place, a 1mm drill bit is run through the mounting hole in the bracket casting into the solebar, then a piece of brass rod is inserted. With the bracket held tight against the solebar on the inside, a quick dab of solder joins the pin to the bracket.



The assembly was then transferred to a separate bit of wood where a small 0.5mm thick spacer was inserted over the pin. The effect of this is to lower the bracket by half the thickness of the foot board, the foot board then sits in the correct position against the solebar.



A bit more flux and and the whole lot was soldered together and cleaned up - the pin being left proud to represent a fixing bolt.



The drawing that Mike provided also showed the width over the top foot boards to be 8'8", but only 8'4" over the lower foot boards. This is quite a distinctive feature when looking at end on reference photographs and I wanted to capture it as best as I could. The top foot boards provided are the same width as the bracket and have a small protrusion which is expected to be glued to the base of the solebar. Figuring I could get away with just increasing the size of the foot board to get the profile pretty close to what I wanted, new ones were cut from 0.9mm thick sheet brass (hence the piercing saw thread ).



As I was getting rid of the method of supporting the inside edge of the foot board, another bracket was made, this time a 3mm wide strip from the same sheet of brass to match the size of all of the existing brackets. This bracket was also drilled ready for pinning to the solebars and had the same thickness spacer soldered in place. Its been deliberately left long here to aid in positioning and soldering - it was cut to length when all the work had been completed.



The outer bracket is soldered to the new foot board



The inner bracket was fixed in next, two blind holes being drilled to allow 1mm rod to be soldered into place as dummy fittings. A short length of the strip was also cut to represent the vertical part of the inner support bracket (it lines up with one leg of the W irons), this was also drilled and pinned so it does not have to rely just on glue to hold it in place. The idea is the inner bracket looks like it is cast from one piece as per the other brackets...





The same pin, spacer and solder technique was performed on the centre bracket



Then all the bits were mocked up on the solebar, along with the W iron and one of the horse staples



This photo shows off both the positioning of the foot board in relation to the bottom of the solebar (half above and half below) as well as the bracket subterfuge.



The poor old handrails have taken a right battering whilst all this work has been going on - they are protecting the sides of the van though so they will continue to get mucked around - should anything bad happen then at least they are not glued in yet, and making another one is easy with the jigs.
Anyway, thats one corner done, I hope the next three are going to be a bit easier...
Steve