Hi All,
It was with some trepidation that I approached this kit as I'd read Nick Dunhill's account of his build with the inaccuracies he'd encountered. However, Nick is a much more honourable modeller than me so I all too readily dispensed with any qualms about modelling scurrilousness (or cheating as it's more plainly known) and pressed on.
The wheelbase is indeed short, I measured it to be 1mm short, that is about 1 & 3/4 inches which is about the same as the twice the oversize of the 0 finescale wheel flanges (you can hear the case for the defence being crafted here, can't you...). I'm afraid, I just pressed on... You think this is bad, just wait till later on...
S-o-o-o... I added some crude suspension:
And folded up the chassis and at least it's innacuracies were consistent so it fitted together:
...and, after a bit of coupling rod easing, ran fine on DC:
The bogie was very straightforward and ran over my curves, which not all bogies do at first attempt:
However, the rear carrying wheel required much more drastic action, confirming my place in the criminal class:
After some highly unprototypical savagery, the frames now had a pronounced joggle, needed to get round my unprototypically tight curves:
Whilst in a concession to authenticity necessitated by said curves, I made up a radial axle rather than the rigid setup in the kit. The prototype originally had a rigid arrangement but derailed in the works and was itself fitted with a radial truck - see, even criminals are honest some of the time... I needed some whafty springing to get it to stay on the tracks as it negotiated the curves:
So, having butchered the chassis enough, I fitted the cosmetic brakes, adding some extra cross beams to make them double, as in the prototype:
At this point I thought it best to make sure the footplate fitted and so soldered on some valences. The kit recommends using angle not supplied; I didn't have any so I made up some valences from scrap etch, of which I have loads from previous kits. There's lots of inner bracing on the footplate but I'll need to remove some of it to clear the motor and fit pickups. I'll see what I need to do as the build progresses:
That's it for now. Onward and upward (or should it be downward in my case...).
Cheers
Allan
It was with some trepidation that I approached this kit as I'd read Nick Dunhill's account of his build with the inaccuracies he'd encountered. However, Nick is a much more honourable modeller than me so I all too readily dispensed with any qualms about modelling scurrilousness (or cheating as it's more plainly known) and pressed on.
The wheelbase is indeed short, I measured it to be 1mm short, that is about 1 & 3/4 inches which is about the same as the twice the oversize of the 0 finescale wheel flanges (you can hear the case for the defence being crafted here, can't you...). I'm afraid, I just pressed on... You think this is bad, just wait till later on...
S-o-o-o... I added some crude suspension:
And folded up the chassis and at least it's innacuracies were consistent so it fitted together:
...and, after a bit of coupling rod easing, ran fine on DC:
The bogie was very straightforward and ran over my curves, which not all bogies do at first attempt:
However, the rear carrying wheel required much more drastic action, confirming my place in the criminal class:
After some highly unprototypical savagery, the frames now had a pronounced joggle, needed to get round my unprototypically tight curves:
Whilst in a concession to authenticity necessitated by said curves, I made up a radial axle rather than the rigid setup in the kit. The prototype originally had a rigid arrangement but derailed in the works and was itself fitted with a radial truck - see, even criminals are honest some of the time... I needed some whafty springing to get it to stay on the tracks as it negotiated the curves:
So, having butchered the chassis enough, I fitted the cosmetic brakes, adding some extra cross beams to make them double, as in the prototype:
At this point I thought it best to make sure the footplate fitted and so soldered on some valences. The kit recommends using angle not supplied; I didn't have any so I made up some valences from scrap etch, of which I have loads from previous kits. There's lots of inner bracing on the footplate but I'll need to remove some of it to clear the motor and fit pickups. I'll see what I need to do as the build progresses:
That's it for now. Onward and upward (or should it be downward in my case...).
Cheers
Allan
