It arrived today - the latest Steve Beattie Developments kit a class 26. Yet to decide which loco I'm to insult with my version of it, but like York Pauls 27, this one will also be in BR blue. The loco was weel packaged With the body pre-formed ..... phew Lots of beautiful etches - I still have them wrapped up so I can keep them together and un damaged by clumsey hands playing with them. We have a couple of bags of resin castings, some 3D print Lost wax brass castings White metal castings 1 bag of small casting and one of the cab front and roof. Also a bag of bearings assorted nuts and bolts and a set of Markits 22" Oleo buffers. Not too kind a shot of the front end as the parts haven't been cleaned up but just placed together, and Steve will be sending me a modified STL file to print the cab bits in Resin as an alternative test. This will the numpties build, a sort of painting by numbers, as this will be only my second O gauge loco build, and my first Diesel build. Fingers crossed Paul
Very nice Dundee, they are impressive kits and will make up into lovely models. Just what the doctor ordered me thinks.
I like these wrap around front brass etches. They look very good. I'll need to get wheels ordered for my two now. Toto
Just ordered up the wheels and 10T sprockets and chain to give drive to all axels, will still need to order 2 x motors and gearbox + 20:1 gearsets Paul
Just to explain, the extra pack tacked onto the packaging was the roof plates that I managed to leave out of the box and then discovered.....
Happens to us all Steve. Ordered up a few books on the 26 & 27s from amazon to help identify the victim. Rail Rover: Scotland in the 1970s and 1980s Seventies Spotting Days Around the Scottish Region Looking back at Class 26 & 27 Locomotives a bit of picture surfing coming up, as well as reading the instructions, still need to order up motors and gearboxes. Paul
I'd start with the upper framework build. Probably one of the easier sections. Just to break you into it and get the soldering techniques warmed up. You should also see some good progress that way which will hopefully act as a confidence booster. Good luck with it. ......... all eyes are on you ...... no pressure now.
Good plan... make sure you get the radiator and boiler ends of the bodyshell the correct way round on the skeleton when it comes to soldering the both together.
Hi Paul Steve sent me the Head code file I have modified it to take LED's if you want a copy I can email it to you. Bob
Well a couple of parcels arrived - I have posted this on Toto's thread by mistake as well Wheels Reading material And no I didn't buy the wrong book, the class 24 / 25 book is supposed to be there. I do have a 24 in OO, and you never know, the 26 may get another Suzler to keep it company. Paul
So combined with the above books and a couple of bits o contraband, slipped across Hadrians wall, or in Stokie 'adrians wall + = probably some dubious decision making Paul
Another package arrived today from Swift Sixteen - thanks York Paul for the link, A pair of Delrin drives. Just got to get the motors and gearboxes. Paul
Nice one Dundee, now don't go pressing these cogs onto the axle because you won't get them off, there is a sequence which I'll describe when I get to the bogie part of the build. I need to point out that the Delrin cog which is fitted to the worm axle MAY need to be thinned a little on its collar because of space. The gear cog and motor may also need to be set offset of centre, however not to worry I'll confirm what must be done when I get onto the bogies. The Swift Sixteen Derin sets are somewhat cheaper than identical ones PRMRP sell or indeed the similar Slaters version.
Wow, it's been a while Following on from York Pauls build, I thought I'd better extract the finger ...... One of the great things I like about these kits is you don't have to follow the build order as laid down in the instructions, so rather than start on the bogies - probably the most difficult part of the build, I jumped ahead to Step 3 - the body skeleton. Two main frets The required parts were cut off (the rest stored back in the box), and then cleaned up, removing the burrs from the removal process. Next up was to form up the struts. Another first - out with the bending tool Now to assemble them up I have a flat 6mm steel plate (approx 100 x 300 mm), with a piece of 25mm ally angle which allows me to clamp the piece in place and give a verticle surface to clamp to. I had an issue with the brass covered magnet - I managed to solder it in place But progress was fairly straight forward. Next up the roof formers Paul did notice that that the when he soldered the body in place on to the frame it tended to warp a little, so to prevent this 2 strips of 6mm x 24 thou brass were soldered to the lower frame and struts. The strip was tinned in the overlap areas, and the rear of the struts were also tinned. This made securing them in place a simple sweating job. Next the strip was soldered to the cross members Finally time to join the dots Time to clean up and get back in the good books and sort the tea. Paul
Indeed I did notice the "little" warping trick but what the Forum didn't notice was the 1mm of twist caused as the skeleton base plate failed to maintain an even keel despite efforts of using heat sinks and fixing the skeleton to a flat work base in the initial construction. The added inclusion of side strengthening pieces overcame this fault when I built the second skeleton and made for a very solid framework, I used 25 thou brass strip from Model Engineers which did the trick. On the Class 24 kit skeleton the sides along with the top and base frames are rectangles and not angled columns which when assembled together create a very strong structure and in effect give the same result as our additional side strip bracing method. Oh the joys of being test builders but now thankfully the Highlander Models version has resolved issues like this.
A little progress this evening - a little is better than nothing - so the boss keeps telling me. The four securing nuts were fitted The screw was fed through from the under side and the nut run down it, with the last 3 - 4 mm still to go a drop of oil was put on the thread and the nut tightened. Flux was applied to the upper surface and to the nut sides, then soldered in place. For all the assembly so far I have been using a Weller 75W soldering Iron with a 10mm chisel bit, and 180C solder with Liquid safety flux from Building O gauge Online ( www.7mmlocomotives.co.uk ) Note for Toto - this needs adding to the instructions before the skeleton is assembled, this would make it easier to do and produce a cleaner result. Paul
It doesn't look like the solder has taken very well to the nut. Maybe not clear from the photo. As you point out, easier done prior to the frame being assembled. A good tip to beginners with the oil on the screw etc preventing the solder running down through the thread. Toto
Same problem with the skeletons I did, in my case I tacked the nut from one side to hold it in place then tacked it on the other side making sure to chase the solder round the nut, the trick is not to overdo things with heat or the work will just float away in a sea of hot tin. Now a word about the cabs Dundee, dress the cab fronts first then solder to the bodyshell but DON'T solder the cab bottom edge to the skeleton because you will have a devil of a job trying to get the resin bits to fit properly afterwards. Another tip DON'T fit the etch cab roof (the piece with the two vents in) until you are satisfied the resin front fits neatly as a dry fix. The etch roof needs to have a transitional curve put in and if you don't do this then the cab sides will be pulled in unnaturally and throw everything out of alignment. The problem for all this cascades from the poorly formed curvature on the bodyshell sides... its a good job I have a lot of patience but we only discover the pitfalls afterwards, thus the reason for our test building.
Needless to say I not teaching anyone how to suck eggs here, just that this is the process I've realized from making mistakes having built this cab the hard way... it's a learning curve for me too with this kit abate a damn steep one... no disrespect intended of course.