7mm Scale Gladiator J6

When posting the above about making up the vacuum pipe I completely forgot to mention the making of the pipe elbows.

In the past I have used a square file to file a V groove in some tube and then created the bend. This time I thought that I would have a go at doing it with the mill

I set a collet block at 45 degrees using a set square and then used a 3mm end mill to cut the slot.

 

Hi Jim,

They are, if you buy 'one' I would suggest getting both square and Hexagonal versions that way you can mill nuts and bolts to your hearts content.

I got mine from Arc Euro and you have to buy the nut as a separate Item. I already have a couple of nuts so I just bought the one which I swap between the two blocks as and when I use them.



https://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Collets/ER-Collet-Fixtures/Stevensons-ER25-Collet-Blocks

No connection with Arc Euro just a satisfied customer. When looking for specialist bits for machine tools I tend to check prices on ARC, RDG and Warco to see who is offering the best deal at the time.

I do buy the odd item via eBay but I am conscious that if you are not careful you may end up with import duties when buying from China or India for exactly the same stuff as you are getting from ARC etc. as pretty much everything is produced in China or India these days.

I must confess that whenever I need to make anything these days, my first thought is can it be done by lathe or mill.

 

After resolving the Injectors pipe work so that I could indeed fit the wheels I realised that I didn't have a brake cylinder for the loco.



A look at the GA revealed that the J6 actually had two 18" brake cylinders side by side.

A couple of hours later I had knocked a pair up from brass rod.







Wot no 5P, I completely forgot it when taking the photos....

 

Then the world turned black.

I had initially primed the tender body a couple of weeks ago when the sun last shone. I took the opportunity of sun here in the dales to get the body primed yesterday afternoon.

I am greatly impressed with the finish of the Clostermans etch Primer. I have used it and the cellulose top coat before but only on loco chassis and you don't really get the same effect.

It's also an absolute b***r to light properly for decent photos.

These are my third attempt.

 

No not a fool, you are correct. But I needed some thought time on the cylinders for the Princess and this does need finishing so I moved this along as well.

 

The sun shone again over Wensleydale this morning so I took the advantage to get the top coat of cellulose on the J6.

This is without doubt the best results that I have ever had from rattle can paints.

 

As I mentioned in the Princess Build thread in between punching out rivets which is a little tedious to say the least I have also done a bit more on the brakes for the J6

The brake hangars are single layer etches and being an older hand drawn kit the holes are a bit on the big side for lengths of wire. I also wanted to make the brakes removable so I turned up some hangar brackets cum spacers.



These are soldered to the chassis and the brakes hang off them.

This meant temporarily re fitting the wheel, and spring hangars (so that the axles didn't keep falling out.




Which allowed me to make up the brakes and have them removable. The GA drawing shows that there were turnbuckle type adjusters at the cab end so I knocked a couple up on the mill.

I also fitted the brake cylinders which requited yet another frame spacer to be milled out.... That seems to be a theme at the minute.

 

While working on the brakes I made a small discovery which made things a bit awkward. When rebuilding the springs and dampers from the original Ragstone castings I had set the dampers much too low under the springs. That combined with them being slightly over size and a few of them not quite being round meant that when testing the wheels rubbed on them and the brake pull rods wouldn't seat properly.

An easy fix I thought. I will turn up some slightly smaller dampers which will be round and it should be an easy job to pop the dampers off and reseat the replacements flush under the springs.

Oh no when I tried to get the dampers off I ended up pulling the whole thing apart



Replacements duly turned I also decided to add the quite prominent nuts on the bottom




I decided it would be easier to just assemble the dampers onto some new pins and then fit them to the springs and hangers

 

Most definitely, back when I did these originally, I did have a lathe but I wasn't very proficient with it. I seriously doubt that I could have made one of them to a definite size, let alone the dozen which I needed.

 

During the week in between other things I got the rest of the dampers refitted to the springs and then tried the brakes again. A much better fit.







I still need to sort out the cross rod and the levers to the brake cylinders.

 

This last week also saw the transfers applied to the J6 a Job I always dread...

Not the best photos in the world but you get the idea.






I also got some paint on the plates and the buffer beams


The loco is to be weathered so I wasn't too fussed that the cover of the white on the numerals isn't perfect.