7mm 7mm Star Class

[Phil Harding]

Hi all, first post but have been reading others for a while.

The YouTube link is to my Star, named Princess Charlotte after my granddaughter. It's a Scorpio kit modified to correct the wheelbase, with a Maxon/ABC power unit, Zimo decoder and Slater's brass and plastic hornblocks down each side with split axles. I machined the wheel castings from Mark Wood without insulation. The four cylinder valve gear fully works, made from scratch, or acquired castings from very helpful fellow modellers. Most of the whitemetal castings from the kit were used as masters for locally made brass castings. The chassis bolts together using over 40 x 14BA nuts and screws, so it can all be stripped down if required. A few bits still left to fit, I need to source some mud hole covers as the bits in the box were just blobs of white metal. Number plates, outside steam pipes etc still to be done as well as LA shed code on the valence. I may have made some errors as I normally model the Southern west of Exeter.
Phil.

 

[mickoo]

Re washout covers, pop along to Malcolm Mitchells site he has some that may be of use, very thin brass and easy to form to what ever curvature you need. No affiliation, just a happy customer.

Items for sale

I fitted them to the County.

 

[P A D]

Hi Phil,
A very nice build and paint job. I don't know much about GWR engines but it does look the part.

Mick,
I've never noticed mud hole covers on the boiler before, either prototype or on your build. I need to start looking at things more closely.

Cheers,
Peter

 

[LarryG]

Lovely model. Re the sound, which speaker did you fit?

 

[Phil Harding]

Lovely model. Re the sound, which speaker did you fit?

Larry
I fitted a 40 x 22 base in the tender sitting in a sealed box just smaller than the tender width (makes a big difference) and a small speaker in the smoke box, the two wired in series, 4 ohm each making an 8 ohm load on the decoder. My phone made a rubbish recording as it sounds much better in the flesh. All bits from Digitrains. When I get my test track out over Christmas I will take another video in the warm sunshine (Victoria) .
Phil

 

[Phil Harding]

Re washout covers, pop along to Malcolm Mitchells site he has some that may be of use, very thin brass and easy to form to what ever curvature you need. No affiliation, just a happy customer.

Items for sale

I fitted them to the County.

View attachment 114311

View attachment 114312

Thanks for the kind comments and the link. Fantastic, I have emailed Malcolm to see how much to ship a few to Australia.
Just shows the power of the WT forum to have an answer to a need so quickly.
Thanks very much.
Phil
Back to Southern modelling soon.

 

[freelance7]

Phil,
A very nice model, I have always liked the Stars, along with the Saints.

Paul

 

[GrahameH]

Phil,

Thank you for posting, absolutely lovely model.

May I ask why the modifications were made to the wheelbase of the Scorpio kit please.

Grahame

 

[Phil Harding]

Phil,

Thank you for posting, absolutely lovely model.

May I ask why the modifications were made to the wheelbase of the Scorpio kit please.

Grahame

Grahame
The distance between first and third driving wheels is correct on the etched side frames, but the position of the middle wheel in the kit is moved rearward. If you add up scale size wheels plus 7 mm FS flange heights, first. And second wheels touch each other (6ft 8 1/2 wheel v 7 ft wheelbase). To correct the matter requires mods to the wheels, side frame, connecting rods, running plate and. Splashers. It's about 1.5mm wrong.
I have seen some kits of GWR engines recommend much smaller driving wheels, but I didn't want to do that.
Building The Star kit as instructed would have been OK as most would not notice, but I would have. Perhaps I was a nerd, but it would have bothered me.
Hope that helps.
Phil

 

[paulc]

Very nice job Phil , cant wait to hear it close up .
Cheers Paul.

 

[GrahameH]

Grahame
The distance between first and third driving wheels is correct on the etched side frames, but the position of the middle wheel in the kit is moved rearward. If you add up scale size wheels plus 7 mm FS flange heights, first. And second wheels touch each other (6ft 8 1/2 wheel v 7 ft wheelbase). To correct the matter requires mods to the wheels, side frame, connecting rods, running plate and. Splashers. It's about 1.5mm wrong.
I have seen some kits of GWR engines recommend much smaller driving wheels, but I didn't want to do that.
Building The Star kit as instructed would have been OK as most would not notice, but I would have. Perhaps I was a nerd, but it would have bothered me.
Hope that helps.
Phil

Thank you, very much appreciated and understandable.

 

[Phil O]

In 4mm it's recomended to use the next size down drivers, unless working in P/S 4, as EM/00 wheel flanges foul each other.

 

[Isambarduk]

In 4mm it's recomended to use the next size down drivers ...

Please don't do this in 7mm Finescale; it is quite unnecessary and it spoils the model.

Why would you fit 6' 6" King drivers to a Star that should have 6' 8½" drivers? And please don't say that the wheels were turned down in service - the tyres are/were turned down not the wheels, so the rim appeared thinner as time went on; the wheels remained the same.

Also, if you fit King wheels, there is the issue of the crank throw being wrong (too large at 14", should be 13") so the crosshead has too long a stroke ...

I fitted the correct diamter wheels to my Finescale GWR Saint; I was prepared to remove a few thou from the flanges of the leading and centre drivers (that part of the flange isn't doing anything anyway) but it wasn't necessary.

David