and a warm to Gavin 23 from a dreek Dundee Great to have you onboard, and look forward to hearing about yourself and your modelling adventures so far. Were a friendly bunch so just sit down grab a beverage of choice and dive in. Once again welcome to the forum Paul
Hi Paul, and all, thanks for your Welcome, I'm currently working on a connoisseur Fowler 4f its my first attempt at kit building, (will post a pic soon) I've been modelling American HO over the years , but I've always thought if I go British it will be O Gauge, after a recent visit to the Hampton court show at Tolworth, it sealed my fate! was so impressed with the O Gauge, so now 'down the road I go! My O gauge kit currently comprises of the Fowler, one length of O gauge track and a 6ft x 2ft base board, so it's baby steps at the moment! I do have boxes of scenics and bits I'm sure I can use, once I workout a simple track plan, with a view to add on when I have the space. My knowledge of this era (early steam) is pretty sparce if I'm honest' so I'm busy doing research, a small shunter and a few wagons will be in the mix a bit later, so I'll be looking for any ideas advice if that's ok. Many thanks and will post again soon Gavin
Welcome to the forum Gavin, great to have you on board mate!! Looking forward to seeing your 4F build, can't beat a Connoisseur kit for a first go at kit building. We've a few members build it on here so plenty of help if you need it!! Cheers, Pete.
and a warm Gavin to the forum from Yorkshire... now just a couple of tips to consider when building up the Connoisseur 4F... its a great kit but an old design one and has its foibles shall we say ... here are what you need to watch out for and deal with as necessary. The centre driving wheels do NOT make contact with the rails so there is no point fitting them with electric pick ups unless you mark and cut out the frame to take hornblocks... something you may not want to do. The boiler if built as designed becomes a sealed tube when the end radius disks are used... this will prevent you from fitting a DCC chip and / or sound speaker inside the boiler at a later stage. There is nowhere else the chip can go unless you see the tender innards as a option and again only with some butchery. The 4F is a great kit none the less and scores top points in as much as you can add in whatever level of detail you want... here is mine when in grey primer.
Thanks for the reply Paul & Pete, Paul' I'll have to rethink about the boiler if that's the case, thanks for the advice on the driving wheels also, and your 4F looks great.
Happy to help anytime Gavin... I have a similar boiler to firebox design with a Gladiator Rebuilt Patriot currently on my workbench although the Patriot has three vertically aligned holes in the end disks. My option is to bolt the rear boiler disk to the forward firebox formers to get the correct alignment then drill holes either side of the uppermost hole which will allow for a new fixing position and remove a smaller segment of the boiler disk and firebox former allowing access to insert a sliding sledge which will carry the DCC chip and speaker cube. I'll do a build thread after Christmas if that helps.
I've got this far , I'm jumping the gun with the paint work, still not started building the tender yet.
Welcome to Platform 1 Gavin, There are a number of kit builders on the forum so I am sure that any help you may need will be forthcoming.
Wow - they are in black as well, mine is still in dull brass - note to self, cut n paste last years resolution to complete 4F, for this years list as well Good looking build so far, looking forward to seeing it completion. Paul
G`day Gavin and welcome aboard Platform 1 MRC, I hope you have a pleasant journey with us. Gormo......Sydney......Australia