I just put this together from some left over bits and I think I can turn it into something useful. Chassis: Tri-ang/Hornby Coronation, minus rear end extension. Insulated wheels: replaced with uninsulated spares from a scrap Coronation chassis Tender chassis: Dublo 8F complete with pickups Tender/Loco coupling: bar from Dublo 2-6-4-T bogie and front tender coupling part from Dublo City of London tender. Front bogie (not fitted yet): from something Tri-ang/Hornby (not sure what it's from) The wiring between the tender and loco is just a temporary set-up at this stage. I tested it earlier and it's running quite nicely.......
I will be refitting the valve gear, but the cylinders I have are the wrong shape, so I've ordered a (present day) Hornby spare part that looks near enough. That won't arrive for a few days though....... The next step is to fashion some new cab sides and shorten the smokebox by 4-5mm:
Well, the cylinder block I'm going to use arrived today (in a box about half the size of a shoe box!) but I haven't got around to fitting it yet. I have fitted the valve gear to the chassis - it's not the original one, which was damaged, but a similar set from the remains of a (present day) Hornby tender drive Duchess. In the meantime, I have fashioned new cabsides from styrene sheet and shortened the smokebox by removing about 4mm of whitemetal from the rear (it's a separate casting from the boiler, which made that process a bit easier). In case anyone is wondering, the locomotive in the photo behind the TPO apparatus is nothing to do with this project.
I had forgotten how badly some whitemetal kits fitted together. I can see I will have to use quite a bit of filler.....
I think I'll strip the Duchess back to bare metal and start again. The blue, while it looks better in daylight, is not quite right - not what I was expecting, as the A4 I sprayed with the same can of paint came out looking reasonably close to BR express blue. It seems that the colour of the paint underneath affects the end result more than I was expecting as, in both cases, given that the original paintwork was sound, to make things easier (or so I thought) I just sprayed over it rather than stripping back (the paint used by Meccano Ltd adheres so well that it sometimes needs three or four applications of paint stripper to remove it all), however the A4 was BR green but the Duchess was BR maroon, and they didn't come out quite the same.
Oddly, I was told years ago, for a red top coat, give it a yellow undercoat. I tend to use white and grey primers, sometimes black or the oxide. Yes the primer does make a difference to the later top coat colours. Andy
Hello All, 1 / years ago the late David Jenkinson, in an article on Midland Red, LMS Red, and BR Maroon, commented that BR Maroon was intended to be the same colour as Midland Red. He had also found out that Crewe used a Grey undercoat, whilst Derby used a Mineral Brown / Bauxite undercoat. As Red is an opaque colour, the undercoat colour does affect its final appearance. The use of Yellow, in lieu of Bauxite, to enhance a Red or Maroon sounds interesting. 2/ A house painter also told me years ago to use a grey undercoat to " kill " the colour underneath it. He also said that a modern light colour topcoat on a grey undercoat will result in a fresh light colour without the previous darker colour showing through. Presumably, a White intermediate coat would not go astray if you felt the Grey would darken the top colour. 3 / What type ( chemical ) of Paint Stripper was used on the Meccano Hornby Dublo paint please ? 4 / years ago I used Caustic Soda in cold water ( pour Caustic Soda into a container of water, NOT the other way around ) which I left overnight. This effectively stripped paint off an HD A4 and a N2 without damage to the Mazac ( aluminium, copper, magnesium, zinc ) ( now commonly known as Zamak or Zamac ) casting. ( The addition of lead causes metal fatigue and crystallisation. ) This mixture also works on plastics, though the subsequent cleanup can be a pain. 5 / on ( www.thespruce.com/remove-paint-from-metal-4178842 ) How to remove paint from metals, suggests the use of boiling water, and after 5 minutes, when the paint has bubbled, scape of with a soft scrapper and soft brush. This is intended for old metal fittings in a house such as cupboard handles etc.. Best wishes and regards, Echidna.
Hi Following on from Echidna, for modern acrylics (works for models over the last 30 years I have), I use neat Dettol - the original brown wariety. Best used in a sealed container to keep the smell down, I use a Systema Spaggetti container. The paint will wash off, but use gloves as its a gooey mess, and probably best done in a stainless steel sink, as the residue sticks like ........ Paul
I have a medium sized tin of paint stripper anyway, so I might use that instead. Something to do later anyway. Here's the loco that was the subject of this thread beginning to take shape. The awkward thing with this one is that I'm going to have to fabricate a new footplate while using most of the kit's other parts with only minor modifications, and then fit the result on to a chassis it wasn't intended for. The boiler, smokebox and most of the cab have now been put together. I had to remove the boiler bands, as there weren't enough of them and they were in the wrong place for what I want the end result to represent. The cylinders are just sitting on the chassis at this stage, but the valve gear is all fixed in place.
Boiler bands are easily 'fabricated' using thin strips of pvc electrical tape after painting, then overcoating with clear lacquer to seal in place. Keith.
Yes, I'm trying to make up my mind whether to do something like that or whether to just rely on the transfers conveying the impression of boiler bands.
Well, I’m not quite satisfied with the appearance or performance of the chassis yet, and I might rethink the method of picking up the current from the centre rail, so I’ve shelved this one for a few weeks and I’ve decided it’s time to assemble a GEM North British “Glen” 4-4-0 and turn it into something that’s not North British……
