7mm Parky's Workbench

[parky]

Still to do the pipework on the roof of the dining car, but pushed on with the interior and the maroon exterior. Reminds me I need to do the ends in black at some stage

Meanwhile I got the Class 37 bogies built up and painted. I did as others have done and bolted the frames to the bearers soldered to the main bogie frame. It might not show well in the photo, but the loco then sits way too high on the bogie pivots



So out with the gas flame and remove the bogie mounts from the body. Turn them over and bend a few bits out of the way and they went back in good and solid


Too much glare from the window, but the tumblehome sits just above the bogie sideframes now. Also got the fuel tanks soldered together and now the clip up inside the bodywork so still allowing all the other bits to be fitted
The bodywork shows all the crippling from when I was trying to improve the overall shape, but hopefully when painted and on the move that will be less apparent. I did put two body formers inside as part of reshaping and I took the profile of them from the Peter Clark cab interiors that I intend to fit


Finally all the collection assembled with test runs to do on the top four coaches before fitting the gangways. The dining car needs it's ends painting and the roof sorting then onto the Class 37 to try and get the bonnets, windscreens and cab roofs to look something like the prototype

Meanwhile might call in at the Heywood running day on Saturday and then the following Sunday 17th is take the Summers hoppers back over to Wirral for another run on their open day

 

[parky]

Rather than be a trailblazer with this build I feel I am following up and filling in the gaps now that the few builds that were documented are gone from the other place both current and archive. No doubt the GOG forum has builds still around. How times have changed from when I bought this kit like so many others did. For not much more than what I paid back then plus the materials to finish the job you can now have a 'never run' Heljan RTR including postage. Back then this was about half of the new Heljan.

On a positive note and comparing it with the Heljan, for a hand drawn kit from the 1980's it is amazingly similar so it shows how good David J Parkins was back then only to surpass these with his MMP range



So we are on the home straight now as the bonnet and screens are attached and filler starting to be applied to connect the bits that fit where they touch. Hoping to get the last bits done this week and have at least the primer on before next Sunday's trip to Wirral O Gauge

It's been a good exercise and far easier now that I have so much other brasswork completed. It's also a good base for what I want to build next without spending on a Heljan when it won't get fully utilised

 

[parky]

I forgot to mention the most important part of the build of one of these kits is to fix the cab roof. Some years ago I found a comment from David that the original artwork had the cab roof as a sort of tongue which allowed it to be shaped correctly. Over the years the artwork has been 'improved' I assume to make the overall etch more stable to handle. The cab is then the same profile as the rest of the roof meaning that the cab windows bow out
Over on the other channel I found a 'WoodyFox' who took a saw to the back of the cab roof and down the centre line to form a T cut which works but the pictures are now lost (I grabbed a copy ages ago knowing I would have to do this). David's description of the fix was to imply cutting the roof in line with the original design and to cut either side along the cant line and in from either side at the back leaving a section in the middle so giving the tongue to work with. As can be seen with my attempt I chose the later approach and so far it's not turned out too bad, filler and paint will tell the full story