Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
Definitely the right approach Mick. I've learnt my lesson trying to rush things. Errors and accidents happen.
7mm Mickoo's Commercial Workbench
- Thread starter mickoo
- Start date
Definitely the right approach Mick. I've learnt my lesson trying to rush things. Errors and accidents happen.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Yeah, had one today, smokebox door hinge snapped and had to be low melt solder repaired and dressed back, not sure why as it's
to be honest but it's metal so that makes it good, right? The hinge bar was warped and distorted and needed replacing with brass wire as well.It's currently held in with double sided tape for the photos, but I know it's going to niggle the heck out of me whilst away so it'll get ripped out as soon as I get back and a 3D one fitted. The only saving grace of metal (brass or white metal) is being able to solder on the lamp iron, other than that, in my view, they should all be consigned to the waste bin.
I'll blow a witness coat of this one before I bin it and show how badly pock marked it is, I don't have the time, nor does the client have the wallet, to smooth this with filler and make good.
I've still got to sort the chimney, there's two single ones in the kit, typical JLTRT castings, nothing or duplicates....note to self, keep all duplicates for future JLTRT kits
.....one has a giant mould line down each side which will barely dress out and remain round, the second is a good mould joint but badly pitted and pock marked, either way, you're looking at several hours work to smooth out and fit.I already know the outside steam elbows in the kit are too anemic, the 70xx had the bigger fatter insulated ones so they'll have to be 3D printed as well, other than that, the rest is pretty workable and won't take long to finish off.
This evening is Google earth looking for photo spots and tomorrow photographing all my HO so I don't duplicate purchases and then begin journey mid afternoon.
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oldravendale
Western Thunderer
Magnificent, Mick.
Clarence3815
Western Thunderer
Very pretty.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
A&E #1
As a rule of thumb I won't work on other peoples work or do repairs etc, you just never know what you're letting yourself in for, however a long standing client asked me to please look at these three, the previous builder had not finished them in 22 years.
They arrived in several shoe boxes with all the parts mixed up, the overall build quality was actually pretty good and they didn't look to need much work to complete. To be fair they appear to have been through a couple of hands as some of the work is not to the same standard as the bulk.
The biggest issue was corrosion and just accumulated muck so it was stripped down and given a good wash in water/detergent mix followed by celly thinners, next a good rummage trough the boxes to see what bits we had and what needed to be replaced.
Sadly the inside crank axle fell apart as did much of the inside motion so that's where the bulk of the work was carried out.
Because of the cast wheels all new brake gear was needed and it had to be removable, new 3D springs were also needed as there were no parts in the boxes and finally some small 3D footplate tread steps. The final step was fitting the cab roof and whistles.
The tender was much easier, dress the flared corners smooth, straighten some plate work, fittings and handrails and then sort the ride height. Out of the box it sat nearly 2 mm higher than the engine as the previous builder had packed out the chassis; said packing was removed and it was reassembled....only to find all the wheels were jammed.
Therein lies why it was packed out, the tank floor was then cut away to give clearance (quite hard to do neatly on a finished model), cleaned up and reassembled.
It's not perfect and there is much more you could do, but there comes a point where more effort doesn't necessarily equate to a better/cost effective finish, that's the point where you really need to start afresh.
I've never seen a Barnum before and it's a lovely looking kit (no idea who's this is either) so it'd be nice to find one to work from afresh.
As a rule of thumb I won't work on other peoples work or do repairs etc, you just never know what you're letting yourself in for, however a long standing client asked me to please look at these three, the previous builder had not finished them in 22 years.
They arrived in several shoe boxes with all the parts mixed up, the overall build quality was actually pretty good and they didn't look to need much work to complete. To be fair they appear to have been through a couple of hands as some of the work is not to the same standard as the bulk.
The biggest issue was corrosion and just accumulated muck so it was stripped down and given a good wash in water/detergent mix followed by celly thinners, next a good rummage trough the boxes to see what bits we had and what needed to be replaced.
Sadly the inside crank axle fell apart as did much of the inside motion so that's where the bulk of the work was carried out.
Because of the cast wheels all new brake gear was needed and it had to be removable, new 3D springs were also needed as there were no parts in the boxes and finally some small 3D footplate tread steps. The final step was fitting the cab roof and whistles.
The tender was much easier, dress the flared corners smooth, straighten some plate work, fittings and handrails and then sort the ride height. Out of the box it sat nearly 2 mm higher than the engine as the previous builder had packed out the chassis; said packing was removed and it was reassembled....only to find all the wheels were jammed.
Therein lies why it was packed out, the tank floor was then cut away to give clearance (quite hard to do neatly on a finished model), cleaned up and reassembled.
It's not perfect and there is much more you could do, but there comes a point where more effort doesn't necessarily equate to a better/cost effective finish, that's the point where you really need to start afresh.
I've never seen a Barnum before and it's a lovely looking kit (no idea who's this is either) so it'd be nice to find one to work from afresh.
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oldravendale
Western Thunderer
Nice recovery, Mick.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
To be honest my part (fabrication wise) was very limited, as I said, the previous builder had built them nice, square and cleanly, the issues were all down in the chassis and motion.
A before photo shows the extent of the previous builder work.
The second tender (far right) is actually for an Aberdare with it's higher footplate, the 3000G tender (not shown) for the second Barnum is only partially built (40%) so more assembly required on that one. The shorty in the middle I think is for the 3232 which is also partially built and needs finishing.
I'm often asked to do hospital work and it's very hard to say no, but there comes a point where the expenditure is not going to justify the end result. The primary reason for taking these on is that the existing work was all neat, clean (sans corrosion) and square, I didn't have to go backward at all to move forward. Other than a few bent bits due to years of storage, what was built before only needed a clean up.
The Aberdare tender is going to need some more work than the first Barnum, there's a bad gap between the tank sides and footplate, two of the white metal axle boxes have corroded (and people are worried about the longevity of 3D) and collapsed/fallen off, the rest came off easily (glued) and will be replaced by new 3D parts. The wheels are Harris and one has a short on the insulated side, probably all the rust down in the bearing or something, so we'll see how easy/hard that is to resolve.
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oldravendale
Western Thunderer
You denigrate your work here, Mick. You've turned a nicely but only partially built loco in to something really lovely. I'm no GWR enthusiast but I look forward to seeing those painted.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Possibly so, but I also cannot take credit for anything I didn't do.
That would be unjust and poor cricket to the original builder.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
A&E #2 Unlike the Barnum, there was less to do but what needed doing was more involved. The biggest issue was the skanky grot on the metal which was a witch to clean off to attach new parts or reattach old.
Living in a shoe box for 22 years didn't do it any favours as it bent up the wafer thin footplate and cab sides (note to Finney7 self, if we re-release this kit then robustly argue for NS material for these parts!).
Like the Barnum the inside motion needed some work and like the Barnum this appears to have been tackled by someone else other than the plate work build.
New 3D brake shoes and hangers and brass linkages topped off the extra works.
The tender just required the tank side to footplate joint filling and dressing back and new 3D axle boxes and springs.
This is one model that is going to look much better when painted, in fact grey primer would be a vast improvement.
Living in a shoe box for 22 years didn't do it any favours as it bent up the wafer thin footplate and cab sides (note to Finney7 self, if we re-release this kit then robustly argue for NS material for these parts!).
Like the Barnum the inside motion needed some work and like the Barnum this appears to have been tackled by someone else other than the plate work build.
New 3D brake shoes and hangers and brass linkages topped off the extra works.
The tender just required the tank side to footplate joint filling and dressing back and new 3D axle boxes and springs.
This is one model that is going to look much better when painted, in fact grey primer would be a vast improvement.
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Overseer
Western Thunderer
Looks lovely and captures the cobbled together appearance of the prototype, although I don't think the chimney matches any of the chimneys fitted to the real thing. It is excessively tapered, the 'waist' looks too small diameter for the top. Most of the Aberdares did have tapered chimneys, just not as tapered, while some had parallel chimneys. (Mike Morant has a photo online of 2616 with a parallel chimney).
mickoo
Western Thunderer
You're correct and I do have a 3D one drawn up from another client who bemoaned that the kit one was incorrect.
But I've not been asked to change it and if I did, then I'd probably have to change some other bits, that'd highlight other errors and they'd need changing until eventually you hit the client with a massive bill he wasn't expecting and frankly, probably didn't want doing.
That's probably the hardest part of commission work, accommodating different levels of (how shall we say) detail enthusiasm...some people simply are not bothered.
That tends to fly in the face of pretty much all of social media which is heavily populated by people who build for themselves and can go to extra lengths to get the detail right, primarily because their time is free.
oldravendale
Western Thunderer
Mick - Another great catch! (Note to self - don't forget to remind MD re debate on NS footplate and cab sides! 
Brian
Brian
)
mickoo
Western Thunderer
That's interesting and I've not seen (more correctly, hadn't noticed or taken the care to notice) one like that before, I'll leave well alone in this case and run with what's fitted.
I've had a quick look through the small selection I have, some of these are copyright protected so I've just cropped the relevant area to preserve as much of the owners rights as possible.
I only have 12 images, 5 have the more distinct tapered chimney.