Martin Finney 7mm A3

adrian

Flying Squad
Adrian,
Sorry I don't understand what you are referring to. Are you suggesting there should be a pipe that follows the red line you have drawn? Please explain.
sorry my mistake - as Steph and Mick has pointed out the obvious to me, it was the cladding band I mistook for a pipe.
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
No worries Adrian.

Of course, I now expect to see the swaged pipe, lock nut and thread ;) :cool:

Well, I've swaged the pipe, made and added the lock nut and thread, and extended the drain pipe down to the running plate. I've not added the clip to the pipe as I can't find an illustration that shows it on a 94A boiler. I still need to add the bottom of the drain pipe under the running plate as I've not run it through a hole, as this would make it awkward removing the boiler and cab.
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The lock nut is not brilliant but I think it passes muster.

Cheers,
Peter
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Thanks Mick,
Now if I was compltely mental like some on here, I'd be making the tool locker door on the tender open, so I could put in a C spanner for the lock nut. :)

Cheers,
Peter
 

mickoo

Western Thunderer
Well now that you've mentioned it :eek:

Looking through photos, most ejector drains do not have a clamp for the entire length, 60112 shown above seem to be the exception and the only one I can find so far.

Cladding in the majority is smooth, the only one I can find for certain with visible fixings is 60065 in 1963 all other top down shots, not many mind, show smooth fixings.

All show the left side on top of the right so the joint line would be offset to the right hand side of the engine centre line. Certainly all views from the left show no, if any, form of joint. Yet all from the right clearly show the joint, thus by deduction and lighting the left side sheet should be on top of the right side sheet.
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Hi Mick,
Thanks for the further information. Sounds like I've got the drain correct, and the cladding partly correct. The rear line is offset to the right, but the front is centred. The fitters must have had an off day.

In Peter Townend's book on west coast Pacifics, there is an illustration of 60058 showing the drain blowing steam. However, the pipe end is located just behind the oil pot on the axle box. That means the pipe would have had two right angle bends under the running plate to route it further back under the cab. I wonder why that was done as Townend mentions the it could cause a hot box as the steam got into the oil pot. At the time 58 is running with a GN tender with coal rails.

Genghis,
I only mentioned the spanner for the completely mental on here. So far I'm still relatively sane. :confused:
Cheers,
Peter
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
I have now added a piece of rod below the running plate to represent the end of the ejector drain. I've gone for what I believe was the most common option running vertically, rather than routing it back under the cab.
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At the front end I have made and added the riveted flanges to the top of the steam pipe covers. These were made from some strips of spare etched coal rails. First I blacked one side with indelible marker and then scribed a line down the middle lengthways using calipers. The rivet spacing was taken from the drawing in the Finney instructions using a pair of spring bow dividers and then scribes onto the strip. Rivets were then punched using the 2mm anvil in the GW rivet tool. The strip was then annealed to allow easy bending into the required horse shoe shape.
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And the other side.
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As can be seen I've also drilled holes in the saddle to add rivets which no. 58 had during the 1950s. Again having the boiler removable makes these after thoughts easy to do.

Cheers,
Peter
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
A slight digression down memory lane.

After reading Heather's ressurection build of her "Shedmaster" Ivatt class 2 tank, it brought to mind my own trials and tribulations with my build of the Oakville kit. This was my first foray into 7mm loco kit building and what a baptism of fire it was. In comparison, the A3 was a walk in the park and if I was building the Oakville kit today I'd still struggle. Here it is sitting on the article from MORILL mentioned in Heather's thread. 20180513_091316.jpg

The frames were miss matched as was one of the rear axle holes, and overall the etchings needed a lot of fettling to get them to fit. The white metal casting were mostly junk and the most important ones were replaced by brass castings from Shedmaster. The chassis was build rigid albeit with jointed rods but strangely it still runs well enough.

The excellent boiler top castings are from Shedmaster.
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And the slide bars, cross head and piston rod that replaced the awful white metal ones in the kit. Look at that lovely castellated nut on the cross head. The holes in the various valve gear rods were mostly over etched and as can be seen I left the screw head showing at the motion bracket. Might do an upgrade on it after I retire if my brother will let me, as it belongs to him.
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The cab interior leaves much to be desired, but its shortcomings can hardly been seen from normal viewing angles.
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It turned out OK in the end and I think captures the character of these nice little prairie tanks. It was lined out with 4mm scale transfers, as by the time we had spent a small fortune on the replacement castings, neither I or my brother had the cash to buy 7mm ones.
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By the way, if the hob looks dirty it is probably because some git has used up all the hob bright on other things. :rolleyes:

Cheers,
Peter
 

Peter Cross

Western Thunderer
I built the ACME one , this also caused quite a few headaches. Must be something about the class, no one wants to do a decent kit of it.

Yours looks great, I would of been well pleased if it was my first effort in 7mm.
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Hi Peter,
Many thanks. I think for a first build I was lucky it turned out so well. Doing it now I would change quite a bit, notably the rigid chassis, the valve gear and lining, but even after nearly 30 years experience it would still be a challenge.

I looked at the Ivatt 2-6-0 many times on the Acme stand at shows, but the build was so awful it just put me off buying it.

Cheers,
Peter
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
So enough nostalgia and back to the current build.
I ordered these from Prime Miniatures last Thursday and they arrived on Saturday. Great service and great value - 150 rivets for less than 15 quid. I ordered them through the e-bay shop, but they are cheaper from the website so I ordered some slightly larger ones this morning. For those of you not aware of them, have a look at the website. They do some very nice bits and pieces
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Here are 47 of them added to the holes in the smokebox saddle and fixed with super glue. This is something that would be better done before fixing the saddle to the running plate, as I found it difficult to drill all the holes at the same angle. This resulted in some elongation of the holes to get the rivet heads to line up on the outside and hence why some of the shanks are miss aligned.
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And after snipping the shanks and cleaning up.
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I only added the outer 4 rivets either side at the rear as they were a pig to get in with the sand gear lever in the way. In any case the ones further in would not be seen so why waste them . I see the one 4th from the left needs a bit of filler where I had to elongate the hole.
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I think I've covered everything now on the detailing. Running wise, it goes very well apart from on the curves on my brother's railway, which are far too tight. Hopefully I can get to the Doncaster show and give it a buzz around the test track, although I must put some lead in the boiler to increase the weight. When I build the A4, I'm going to build it with a fixed rear axle and compensated middle/front axles. If I weight them both the same more or less, it will make a good comparison between centre sprung and part compensated.

It's been a really fantastic kit to build and I wish the F7 boys all the best with the sales when they re-introduce it.

Cheers,
Peter
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
I gave the A3 a run around the test track at Doncaster yesterday and all was well. As I mention earlier, I need to add some lead to the boiler and smoke box to increase the weight. In one or two places the wheels span due to the upward force of the bogie pivot spring, but I'm sure that will be cured by increasing the body weight.

I had a nice chat with Richard Lambert on the F7 stand and compared my build to his. We have gone with the same set up for the bogie using the Gladiator side control unit, but at the rear, Richard has replaced the central wire spring on the cartazzi axle, with two operating each side. This reduces the tendency of the inside wheel to lift on curves, which have noticed on mine. I think I will change mine to the same. Here's a link to a video of it running at Doncaster. Apologies for the poor quality.


Cheers,
Peter
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Hi Rob,
Sorry I missed you to. Mick said he saw you, but I did not realise you were demonstrating until this afternoon, when happened to be looking through the show guide in the last Gazette.
Cheers,
Peter
 

P A D

Western Thunderer
Been a long while since I posted on here as I've not done any railway modelling since early 2020. However, the A3 was left with Warren Haywood late in 2019 and was returned to me some time ago. Unfortunately I'd lost my mojo and it's been in bits since then, albeit very nicely painted bits.20230107_115431.jpg

The wheels and boiler backplate were not given to Warren so I've had to paint them myself. To paint the wheels I masked off the treads and flanges and screwed them to a piece of plywood before priming and top coating from rattle cans. The crank pins were mazked using silicone tube.
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Here they are ready for fitting. The counter sunk centres were kept clear of paint by the screws so did not require any paint to be cleaned off.
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The backplate was primed with cellulose primer from a rattle can and then brush painted with Tamiya acrylics. To represent the gauge glasses I used aluminium tape, embossed by rolling a 6BA screw over the tape under a piece of wood, then painting black and rubbing off the tops of the valleys with fine emery after the paint was dry. With hindsight I should have scribed a vertical line down middle to represent the water level, so I'll give that a try when I get to the F7 A4, that Waŕren has also painted. The dials are by CPL if my memory serves me correctly.
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Here's the tender chassis after refitting the wheels.
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And the reassemble tender. Apologies for the dust, I should have given it a brush before taking the photos.
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And the loco chassis.
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Here it is after completing the reassembly.
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These images don't do justice to Warren's painting which is first class!
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I'm quite pleased with the gauge glasses. The foil wraps around the sides so the chevrons are visible through the windows as well.
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Now I have to do a similar job on my F7 A4.

Cheers,
Pete
 

Scale7JB

Western Thunderer
Very nice indeed.

My UK modelling mojo disappeared a long time ago, but I think it may be on the bus home, I miss hacking a bit of brass about to make something half decent. Picked up the Connoisseur F7 earlier and thought it might be quite nice to get it finished - along with a certain J15.

JB.
 

3 LINK

Western Thunderer
Great to see you back Pete, I look forward to your updates as the quality of your builds certainly inspire me.

Martyn.
 
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