MOK 8F - LMS 8425

Hi Gents,

Yes, there is a half etched overlay to go on later in the build.

 

Before going any further I started to make up the bulkheads which are made up from multiple layers. Here the instructions (or my interpretation of them) let me down again and I managed to get the overlay for the top of the front bulkhead out of sequence meaning that I had to cut a section out of it to prevent having to undo a lot of work meaning that it sits around the lockers not behind them (it was quite easy to do with scissors due to it being half etched). It isn't visible in the end result but I know I had to do it.

Front Bulkhead





Fire Iron Tunnel

 

Thanks Paul,

I have always been just as happy to share the errors as well as the triumphs, it's the errors that you learn from.

 

This is what it looks like with the overlays on the body. You get two options included in the kit either welded or riveted. I chose riveted because it adds a little more to the character.







These latter two show the front bulkhead now it's fitted and the fire iron tunnel which fitted perfectly.

 

Wow, 2018 since I last looked at this. No wonder Chris is muttering.

Any way I picked it up again yesterday and I started by making a couple of replacements for castings and turning the tank vents so that they at least sit flat and vertical to the tender top plate.


These are the water scoop dome and brake cylinder. The latter is oval in shape and the former quite badly pitted.



Replacements machined and since this phot was taken fitted.

 

I do keep it busy, but it's not always railway stuff. I must confess, if I could have made the firebox on the lathe/mill, that would have been my first port of call.

Happy New Year to you too Ken.

 

A little discovery here specifically for Paul @paul_l when he gets to this point on his tender build.

Having made the replacements parts, yesterday afternoon was all about fitting them. Besides fitting the castings I started to fit the small pieces of etch that represent the backing plates for the rear steps and those just above the foot plate on the rear of the tender.



Once I had added them I noted that there was quite a big intermittent gap along the bottom. I read and re-read the instructions and couldn't see where I had gone wrong. There are not too many bits of etch left and one of them that I couldn't find a home for is part 146. After much head scratching I worked out that although completely omitted from the instructions it fits as outlined in red on the image below.


This is on the top side of the tender footplate (thankfully at this point I had only retained it by the tabs so it was easily removed). As if omitting it from the instructions wasn't bad enough, there are no positive locating marks and in this photo I have it slightly too far towards the tender rear so I need to take it off and move it back a touch or the tender body won't sit down and close the gaps.

What was I saying about soldering allowing you to take it off and adjust it...

 

Once I had sorted the errant part 146 and made the tender top fit I also fitted some rivets strips around the edge of the top plate that I had missed, moved on to adding the details to the tender front.

Brake and water scoop windlasses, water gauge and water scoop indicator rod. Plus another couple of levers whose role escapes me.







The windlass handles were soldered to the cover castings using 295 degree solder and then the castings were soldered in place using 100 degree solder to make life easy.
The backs were tinned with the 100 degree, add a drop of flux, pop them in place and a small waft of heat from the micro flame and they were fixed. The water gauge was treated in the same way. a small blob of 100 degree solder applied to the pin pop in place then waft with the flame until the solder melts and the castings sits down in place. If it moves out of position it's easy to reheat and adjust with tweezers.

 

Some time ago a fellow modeller who was building the same kit had some 3D printed brake shoes done. He very kindly sent me a set and they have been sat waiting patiently ever since.

While working on the other bits over Christmas I have been pondering the best way how to tackle fitting these. The brake hangers on Stanier tenders are curved so to replicate these my thoughts ranged from turning circular strips from sheet to bending strips from flat bar. In the end I gave my self a mental kick and thought why are you trying to 'save' the castings, you will never use them now that you have fitted 3D printed replacements.

So the next thought was right I need to remove the cast on, shoes from the hangers. Ian, the guy that had supplied the printed shoes also sent a note with some suggestions as to how to go about it. His first suggestion was to use the pips on the cast shoes as the location for drilling out the hole for the pin. I duly filed the pip down on one side of each casting until it was just a witness mark and then punched it. I used a pin vice to drill the first one and though sod this for a game. I drilled a hole in a lolly stick to take a 1mm drill bit (the same sized hole as the top of the hanger). I popped the leg of the hanger in the vice along with the bottom of the drill bit, which was inserted through the hanger and then the lolly stick. This held the casting firm enough to drill through it with my Proxxon mini pillar drill. The rest of the drilling was done in no time.

I tried the same set up to hold the casting to file off the bulk of the cast on shoe but using a file was hard work so my thoughts turned to milling them off. To use the mill I needed to hold them much more securely than a piece of lolly stick would allow. So I made a fixture from a piece of brass bar.



For the first side I just drilled a couple of holes at the appropriate spacing to hold the leg of the casting and the drill bit passed through the hole as before.

For the reverse side I didn't have the leg to give me the secure holding so I milled a bit off cutting art way through the leg hole





Which gave me this.



Once both sides were milled I used a mini sanding drum in my Dremel to take off the last bit and restore the inner curve.



The last task was to insert some brass pins and superglue them in place while allowing the shoe to still pivot.

Next job is refitting them to the tender chassis as I had already fitted them some time ago.

 

A bit of frustration followed the post above. I got them all assembled on to the hangers as photographed but when I came to fit them to the chassis I managed to snap one in half... A mercy call to Mr Moss had just missed the posting of the firebox parts for the Princess.

I quickly adapted the brake blocks that I had drawn for the princess tender and they have been cooked and posted. Thanks again to Mossy.

I had planned to turn buffer heads this morning for the tender but recent talk of printing works plates by Paul and Mossy got me thinking about the fact that I had managed to find an auction house image of the actual plate fitted to my loco which I downloaded. I managed to find it again today and shared it for comparison purposes only. When scaled and enlarged the font doesn't match anything that I could find so I ended up drawing each letter/numeral individually.


The image is much enlarged with the text and rim being only 0.2mm deep

 

Is that because they won't print any thinner or did you settle on that as looking good? - this has a 0.2mm backing + the 0.2mm text at the minute. Easy enough to change but I was trying to emulate what might get done by etching.

 

Ahh got you, I am thinking that I might have these cast in brass so that I can rub the hard edges off the letters. Sadly the way that they are drawn means that I can't put a small fillet on them and as you say they may be a bit delicate to do that with resin ones.