7mm Dikitriki's Dark side: A WD 2-8-0

[Dikitriki]

That radial tank...gorgeous loco! Is it a scratchbuild or Lanky kits or something else?
Only things that don't look quite right to my untrained eyes are the front number plate and the bunkerside numbers. Is it me or are they a little small?
JF

Hi Jon

It's the kit that's now with Lanky Models.

You may be right about the numbers - but they did vary on these tanks. P152 MRJ215 has a picture of this loco in this condition, and both the numerals and smokebox plate are smaller than one might have expected.

Richard

 

[7mmMick]

I love the Lanky tank Richard. As you say if looks really well built and with your magic touch I'm sure it will look the business. If I'm right, which I may not be, but is the original kit one of George Norton's ? The patriot looks great as well, you can really get a feel of how powerful it will look when complete,

ATB Mick

 

[bogusman]

well impressed Richard almost tempted to move up a gauge and abandon the western region. as for the numbers they look ok to me.

Pete

 

[Dikitriki]

I love the Lanky tank Richard. As you say if looks really well built and with your magic touch I'm sure it will look the business. If I'm right, which I may not be, but is the original kit one of George Norton's ? The patriot looks great as well, you can really get a feel of how powerful it will look when complete,

ATB Mick

Thanks Mick

I believe the Lanky tank originated with George Norton. I'll ask next time I see the builder.

Richard

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi

Good steady progress has been made on the Patriot. I decided to form and attach the front footplate before the valances - I felt the valances on their own would be too flimsy and vulnerable, and after a fair amount of trial and error resoldering, to match the valance drop ends, this was duly achieved. The 2 valances were then fitted after much testing that all was square and level, and the front end strengthened with the dummy top front frames and angle under the footplate joins. It now looks like this....





I'm really pleased to have successfully got to this point as I now have a sound basis on which to build the body. I shall have to use some filler in various places, which I regard as a personal admission of failure, but probably to be expected in the circumstances.

......And a step backwards. Immediately on attaching the chassis to the body, a (to me) glaring error was evident - one I can't live with, so a bit of a rebuild is called for.

Does it jump out at you as much as it did me?

Cheers

Richard

 

[JimG]

......And a step backwards. Immediately on attaching the chassis to the body, a (to me) glaring error was evident - one I can't live with, so a bit of a rebuild is called for.

Does it jump out at you as much as it did me?

Richard,

The gap between the actual frames and the cosmetic frames at the front?

Jim.

 

[7mmMick]

Hi Richard,

I'd agree with Jim, the gap in the frames in front of the cylinders doesn't look right? However the front footplate itself looks great and its all coming together very nicely. Can you rescue the smoke box front ? It look pretty terminal at the bottom ?

ATB Mick

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi Jim, Mick

Actually it's not the frame gap. It's not as bad as it looks in that you will not be able to see daylight through when the smokebox front and middle cylinder cover are added - though I agree I need to do something to make it look better, under the footplate. What that is is the penalty we narrow gaugers have for not building to S7 standards. The chassis frame is to finesclae standards, and the visible extensions above the footplate are to the correct dimensions. hence the step. There's nothing to be done about that.

I'm not being coy about the problem I spotted, I genuinely wondered whether other people percieved it as I did.

Mick, the smokebox front was to come in a later post, but I might as well consider it now. The following 2 pics are of the smokebox front and door (a one-piece, very thick casting) as I rescued it.




It's got a big fracture, it's distorted at the bottom, and the thickness of the lip various enormously round the rim. Pretty much a disaster. I shall have a try at rescuing it, and let you know.

Cheers

Richard

 

[Simon]

My guess is that the cylinder wrappers are hard up against the footplate valance when on the prototype I expect there was more of a gap.

I've just looked at a picture and I think the above is probably what's bugging you, if I'm wrong and it's something else then I'll wish I hadn't said anything

Simon

still in "da shop" and with a load of stock to check in...

 

[adrian]

My guess is that the cylinder wrappers are hard up against the footplate valance when on the prototype I expect there was more of a gap.

As well as the gap I'd have said that the cylinders don't protrude out enough, the cylinders on the real thing seem to stick out wider than the valance. Whether the photo's are deceptive or not is hard to tell. Everything else seems to be in proportion, wheels in the right place, firebox length correct etc. etc.

 

[Dikitriki]

You're right Simon, there is supposed to be a gap between the bottom of the valance and the top of the cylinder...
http://www.lms-patriot.org.uk/photos11.html
I think the cylinders are wide enough - they are in fact some 1/2 mm wider than the footplate each side. I'm not at the moment sure where the error is. I'm hoping they are deep enough and I just need to remove some metal from the top of the formers. Whatever, It's a good job I can unscrew the cylinder unit from the chassis as it will be much easier to work on.

Bit of a pain though.

Richard

 

[Simon]

It'll be well worth doing though, the whole build is looking really top class.

I must try building a big engine one of these days

Simon

leaving "da shop" right now

 

[7mmMick]

Hi Richard,

That's a handsome prototype picture and when you point it out I see what you mean. But like you say you've spotted it at the right time and the build method allows you to tackle it with relative ease? I also have to agree with Simon, the build is top class and I should also get on with a big engine soon !

ATB Mick

 

[Dikitriki]

Sorted!





with the help of some Scale hardware nuts and rivets and some scrap etched rivetted strip. Remember too that all this is behind the deflectors.

Richard

 

[Bob]

That smokebox door has come up a treat.

This build is proving to be compulsive viewing.

I heard through the grapevine that the frames from the full-size replica project will be at Warley this year.

 

[dltaylor]

Lovely job,
Cheers, Dave.

 

[Dikitriki]

Hi

Model from Hell Update......

OK, I had a big think and measure up in respect of the cylinders over the weekend. I have come to the conclusion that the nickel silver chassis etches, including the cylinder formers are from a Black 5 kit - hence the discrepancy in the brass chassis overlays, the fact that the kit's original cylinder wrappers were too narrow, and the cylinders were right up against the valance like a Black 5.

Bit late to send the chassis back on several counts......

So I have to turn a Black 5 chassis into a Patriot chassis. Well the wheelbase was set with Patriot milled rods, the body was built from the Patriot components and is fine now, and the body is in the right place compared with the chassis wheelbase, so it's not such a big issue. It has meant a change in the order of doing things though.

I am now going to build the bogie and mount that on the chassis so I can get the spacing between trailing bogie wheel and leading driver right, scratch build a new set of cylinders, fit the cylinders to the chassis in the right place, then think about attaching the body to the chassis.....again. In scratch building a new set of cylinders, I will lose both the cylinder to chassis fixings and the front chassis to body fixing.

I bit the bullet yesterday afternoon - not in the best of moods I can tell you - and 20 minutes or so ago, ended up with new cylinder formers (ironically cut from scrap etch from a Jim Harris Black 5!).....



I know I shall be much happier with these cylinders, but it's a faff I was not expecting.

Cheers

Richard

 

[7mmMick]

Hi Richard,

The new title "model from hell" is it seems quite apt. As I started reading the update it sounded like you would have to scrap the lot but by the end it's almost back on track. The new cylinder parts look bang on and will look right when done and it will be all worth it. Good news is that you didn't turn her into a shelf queen once this happened, I have to admit I may have put her into the too hard to do box and came back to it twelve months later looking forward to seeing the progress

ATB Mick

 

[Ressaldar]

Richard,

as WSC says....KBO, KBO..... it will look great at the end of the day

cheers

Mike

 

[Simon]

I'm sure it's good for your soul though Richard - and you are going to end up with a stunning model that has even more of you in it than the original build would have done, which can only be a good thing.

A lot of extra unexpected work though

Simon