7mm 7mm Mick's Workbench - JLTRT Royal Scot

[7mmMick]

Right back to the bench after an age away. I've just made a start on a DJH A2/3
( K313 - LNER/BR Thompson A2/3 4-6-2: Buy Model Trains and Train Kits from DJH Model Loco. ) which to be fair is a little old school but still good quality.

My chosen loco with be 60514 'Chamossaire' seen here on flicker

c.1958 - New England (35A) MPD, Peterborough.

Before starting the build I asked some advice from friends and was told the upper works were good but everything below the footplate lacked detail. I found this to be an accurate description of the kit. With that in mind I'll take a shopping list to Bristol in the new year and visit the various casting suppliers and obtain what I need to bring the frames up to a more acceptable standard, axle box springs, sprung horn blocks, new brake blocks, pull rods, injectors, brake cross beams etc

So leaving the frames until I have what I need I made a start elsewhere. Firstly I set about removing those horrible cast on boiler bands, I hate those things. This is a fairly lengthy process and you will see here not yet fully complete. I've also lost a couple of rivets during the process but these will be replaced with scale hardware in due course. 600,800 and 1000 grit wet and dry have been used to get rid of file marks and smooth off the casing thus far;



You can see that there is still work to do at the rear of the firebox but i'm getting there. The pitting above the rear two wash out plugs is how it came to me so this may have to be filled with milliput or the like later?

Chamosairre was the only A2/3 to keep it's cast chimney until withdrawal so I had to use the DJH offering. This is where the kit shows it's age a little, the chimney not being cast through. Again I really don't want that as for me it screams model if you can't look down the chimney into darkness. Heres a picture as I was setting about it from my phone;


I also drilled through the top of the smoke box to continue the effect;

Here you can see the front rivets to reinstate and I shall also use scale hardware for the boiler top, where the cladding meets. Working on the white metal body and footplate is very time consuming so to break it up I've made a start on the tender as well. This is mostly etched brass. The sides and rear are one fold up etch with the sides pre rolled. I'm not a massive fan of pre rolling as it is often done in haste and not always accurately. The tender sides were over rolled and this had to be rectified straight away. I added all the rear detail and front handrails whilst in the flat for ease and here they are complete and just sat on the footplate. Suplied with the kit are cast lamp irons, which is a nice touch for an old kit;



The tender top supports are WM, which is nice for added weight but just over complicates the soldering process. However it is what it is and i'll sort that no issue;


So hopefully here you will see the build completed in a few months as the idea is that this loco is built to F/S and sold on afterwards to fund my other building projects. To whom yet I don't know but i'm hoping someone will be interested?

Mick.R

 

[7mmMick]

Well, evening all. I don't think six and a bit years since I posted here is too bad Thinking back across that time a lot has happened for me, a couple of house moves, some forced, some chosen. The day job has been all consuming at times and time has just got away from me. Still, lots going on in the hobby and plenty of building, so there's no better place to catch up than with the test build of the Finney7 B1. To be fair it's been well over due hasn't it but I'll stay away from that and focus on the build. A series of crap phone grabs to follow to get you all up to speed.

The frames are the usual @mickoo standard, superbly detailed and the castings are sublime. The axle box springs and horn keeps were drilled and bolted through with 12BA screws. A lot of work to get here as each frame stretcher is a series of folded up parts...

The screws can be seen here

Some shots of the frames further on with the motion brackets being fitted etc


And another shot with the cab coming together

 

[7mmMick]

I missed the below photo in sequence, but here's the firebox and ashpan being fitted

This shows the test of the firebox fit with the frames, this needed no fettling at all and fitted perfectly. The construction method is not something I'm used to, having built bodies on cradles and from the footplate up. This kit asks you to build the frames, then the cab, followed by the front end. All is then bolted together and the footplates are attached using the built frames as the jig. All works exceptionally well and serves to build a square and true model.


Next is the firebox throatplate, looking down through the frames you can see the internal sandboxes, which are etched and later the sandpipes to the sandbox lids were fitted

Footplates fitted and coming together on a messy bench !

Basic loco and tender built. The tender is a Finney7 Group Standard and is the correct version for 61010. This build followed @adrian earlier build and the only difference is this is an earlier version, pre 1955 with low division plate

Starting to build cylinders and motion...

First shot with the wheels, motion and brake gear, well on the way...

Loco and tender posed together, grubby bench shots !!

Cylinders being detailed now

And a completed front bogie. The detail here is superb and there has to be about 50 parts in this !

Finally, some prototype inspiration of the loco i'm modelling

https://flic.kr/p/229W4KY

A whistle stop tour of a few months of building on and off around other projects. More glossy (not grubby bench) photos to follow soon as the loco is almost complete. I must say it's great to be back here as FB and Whatsapp just dont tick all the boxes and I have really missed posting on WT. More to follow as I refresh other threads,

Cheers

Mick

 

[7mmMick]

With the B1 awaiting the final small castings it was time to make some headway into some commission work. Of the builds on the books I’m either waiting for wheels or etch work so it makes sense to make a start on 46140, Kings Royal Rifle Corps in early 50’s condition.

https://flic.kr/p/Tm1ZkZ

The etch work in the kit is of the later JLTRT range and not inherited from other legacy ranges. It’s very nice and fits well. The footplate folds up on a cradle to help keep everything square and true.

A couple of bits to watch out for, the instructions point out that the footplate is short at the rear where the cab meets the main footplate. I filled up a 0.4mm filler piece


Next onto the cab, which is a fold up affair with overlays for the external cab. At this point it’s worth adding some cab details to keep everything neat and tidy and also a test for of the backhead. I also drilled out the floor as I always like a mechanical fixing to allow the backhead to be removed. I’ll add the plate with nuts and screws later in the build


And some final photos of the cab and footplate overlays fitted. Onto the front end detail next

 

[7mmMick]

The challenge at the moment with this build is that I won’t have the Harris wheels to complete the loco until October. There is plenty to do in the mean time though so I have been concentrating on preparing the frames as much as possible. There were a lot of castings to clean up, which was very time consuming. Some are not quite perfect and with the range being unavailable at the minute I’m stuck with what I have so some filling and repair was needed. The frame plates were tacked together and cleaned up and then drilled on a jig for the axle box springs which need to be removable. They’re secured with 12Ba countersink screws. I modified some Finney Hornblocks to represent that on the Scot, the drawings from the Wildswan books helped here. The instructions show another type but they weren’t in the kit.
I then attached the frame stretchers I could ready for final assembly. I can’t go much further as the loco will have working centre cylinder and inside motion and I’ve yet to get my head around this. I noticed that @Ian@StEnochs fitted this detail on your build. Do you have any pictures that could help me visualise the drawings please. I’ve searched high and low for detail shots inside the frames of the preserved locos but to no avail sadly. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Any way, the basic frames so far

Next I cracked on with the cylinder block. Again plenty of nice castings to clean up, the slide bars took some cleaning and polishing ! I don’t like the cast piston rod so cut it off and drilled out the cross head to accept 1.8mm N/S wire. I then used corresponding tube inside the stuffing gland to ensure nice free movement. It’s a bit of a faff but a nicer job in the long run



The remainder of the cylinder block went together well. I won’t take this further as yet until I can be sure all is aligned properly

And finally I’ve built the bogie. The centre casting is nice but not square so needed some filling and fettling to say the least. The bogie looks a nice representation of the prototype

And finally the frames thus far


I’m now pausing the frames and will make a start on the tender

Any help with inside frame photographs will be much appreciated team WT

 

[7mmMick]

And onto the tender we go. I should be able to get well into this build without wheels. A fairly straightforward build so far. A nice solid box for the tender tank. I ran into a couple of issues that are worth mentioning. The angle
strip along the top of the frames needs to be scored and folded, like many parts with the tender. If you’re building one you need a sharp scribe and straight edge. The angle needs to fit around the strengthening webs but I couldn’t make it work so opted to cut sections out for ease, this made for a much neater job.




The rest went together to the basic structure stage very well. The rear bulkhead is just sat in for now. There’s the odd bit of fettling needed to get an accurate fit of parts but nothing major. The sloping section didn’t fit properly so I broke it off and filed back and reattached. A bit of a pain but easy to sort



And the tender thus far

More soon hopefully, the sun is shining though so reduced bench time