Depending on where you mount the motor - the cab end I beams may need to be removed. See where and why I mounted mine.
Re flux and wipe the solder along the inside face with a chisel tip iron... this will add strength too... no need to clean away. Great start Toto... best get me finger out ... the 15 off the starting block is looking good already.
Hi Steve, I had a look at that and they do foul one end. ( the cab end ) so I may take these two out. However, I thought they'd do no harm for now just to keep the frame more rigid not that it really needs it as it is a pretty solid structure. The other alternative would be only fitting one motor but I think I'd prefer the two. If I only fit the one, I'd still pick up power from the cab end buffer in order to have the efficiency of having as many pick ups as possible. To be decided but I think the two motors will win over in the end. I actually found the soldering of the T section beams quite straight forward. I thought at first I'd find it quite awkward. One thing I'm am looking at is the cab window etches. Wether or not I try to solder these from the inside or not to try and keep the soldering a bit neater and avoid as much clean up as possible. I'm hoping a smaller 25w iron will do the job as well. A smaller tip and less solder. Cheers Toto
Hi Yorkie, I'll do that. Just thin it out and dress it up. I have the bits and bobs from Paul. I will package that up shortly and get in the post today. I'm just up. Two nights sleeping like a log ... luxury. Took advantage of that as I dare say it will be back to normal again soon enough. Cheers for now Toto
Reopened this thread as seeing Steve's kit progressing made me start thinking. This'll be first out of the block once I finish getting the shed sorted out for kit production. The build has a bit of a duel purpose as obviously I want to build my first complete kit but it is also being used to see where any changes can be made prior to it being reintroduced back into the range. There are already one or two areas which I think could be improved. Nothing actually wrong as such, more just certain elements that can be changed to aid the builder. Especially the novice builder as I am keen to make all the Highlander kits more appealing to all levels. Anyway, a few weeks away but the instructions are already back out.
Relaxing today so did some remedial work on the Class 15 Bogies. This included fabricating some brass for small items of detail I'd dropped and lost as well as adding some brakets for the sandboxes I'd forgotten to do. Now I'm adding the white metal. I've tried soldering but as the brass is months old it's awkward to clean so I'm using Araldite. This will take several day's as it's the 24 hour version which I bought by mistake ages ago but may as well use it. Starting at one end and working my way round here are the front sandboxes.
So first proper post, here is my attempt at the steve beattie class 15, just about ready for a clean up and prime, picture below, will add my thoughts about the kit in due course.
There are a couple of cock up's on that which I must get round to resolving. I'll do it when/if Toto wants the copyright. looking good though - must finish mine at somestage.
steve, when all is said and done, its a good kit, there are some issues as you say but nothing that would take a lot of effort to sort and then it would be a really good kit, if i recall this one was your last one and therefore the price was reduced, so mistakes accepted! When i have a little more time i'll provide more feedback..
I'll be taking it with the rest Steve. I'm just getting back into go mode now. I'm off this week so time to catch up. I'll look forward to any feed back Gareth and keep it in mind when I revise the kit. Cheers Toto
Looking forward to this, I may give me an incling into the new masters that would be required if Toto decides to go for the Cl 15 (damn - just read the above post) Paul
ok so my findings; starting with the bogies, generally the etches are good, crisp and well thought out, severely let down by the oversized holes for all the brake rigging, using 0.7mm rod and the hole is over 1.4mm diameter, on pretty much all of it, sand boxes provided but nothing for the actual pipes and valves (i used a set from MMP). Generally the castings were not good, most needed attention, for example sandboxes (real ones) are made of sheet steel, but these cast ones you can see the 3D printed lines in the flat surfaces, suggests the moulds could have done with a little fettling prior to use. Onto the running plate, definately an issue here as the loco is too high on the bogies, but the cross members already rub on the sides of the running plate, i haven't done anything about this, ride height needs investiagtion as against slaters, parkside conniosseur and david andrews items its high and i couldnt see a fix without aborting the build. Also on the running plate, when offering the body, the body position is located by some half etched area at both ends, which i like but the loco body is short, i had to add 3mm at one end to make it fit. I don't like the idea of the cab interior being trapped in at an early stage, so i made the body and running plate bolt together, using scrap etch and a set of 8 8BA nuts and bolts. the nose end castings were really poor, if this hadnt been an end of line reduced price purchase i would have been asking for replacements, they took a lot of work to make presentable, again quite a lot of witness marks from the 3D printed moulds, fitting the nose ends and roof domes was easy enough, just needed lots of materials removed and the filler and sanding as you can see in my picture above to get a good representation. The 3D printed parts are unnecessary, it adds nothing to the kit, the parts could easily be etched or cast, i chose not to fit some and make alternatives, i have yet to assemeble the cab interior and am considering my options as the castings are again not upto a standard that i would like. The buffer beam, i only used the steam heat pipe from the kit, everything else was from my scrap box and are MMP fittings. To conclude, the etches were good, many fitted well with the slot and tab method, castings poor but accepted this was the end of the production, the instructions i found to be hit and miss, some parts on the etches arent mentioned but are numbered, the bogie instructions are not quite clear enough and some photos of an actual model would have been nice or an exploded line diagram. Items not in the kit, or at least missing from the one i had, no windscreen wipers, no lamp brackets or headcode discs. Dont be put of, this is a challenge, not for a beginner mind, i like a challenge and prefer brass and whitemetal kit bulding, suits me fine, hope to have mine in the paintshop very soon. So would i build another class 15 yes, would i build another kit from this manufacturer yes, actually i have a 17 in the cupboard, and awaiting developments in regard to the 24 and 'cobo' Plus if you would consider making a DMU bogie containing this amount of detail i'd be ordering lots....
oh forgot to mention the biggest cock up, the smaller bonnet is supposed to be flush (at roof level) with the cab, instructions not clear about this and the 1/2 etched lines in the cab ends lead you in the wrong direction, i did mine then looked at some pictures, many words were uttered but too late, looking on the internet it seems i'm not the only person to make this mistake..