7mm Scale Gladiator J6

Discussion in 'Loco Builds' started by Rob Pulham, Feb 19, 2018.

  1. Mossy

    Mossy A classic grump Yorkshire man Full Member

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    Well you drew them, all I had to do was re-orientate them and plug on 6 light supports, they very nearly printed themselves.

    Send over the D2 brakes and anything else you think would benefit from 3D printing when you need them.

    Mossy
     
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  2. Rob Pulham

    Rob Pulham Happily making models Staff Member Administrator Feature Contributor

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    Will do,

    Thanks mate.
     
  3. Rob Pulham

    Rob Pulham Happily making models Staff Member Administrator Feature Contributor

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    I got to fitting the rest of the 3D printed brake shoes to the J6 brake hangers today and then refitted them onto the pull rods. I don't think I have shown the loco sat on the body since it's pretty much complete. Just a few final bits like wiring it up and testing it before painting the chassis and weathering the whole thing

    Gladiator J6 Brakes fitted.jpg

    Gladiator J6 Brakes fitted 2.jpg

    I also fitted the back head a couple of weeks ago but didn't take any photos

    Gladiator J6 Brakes fitted 3.jpg

    The rear view shows that making up the brake cylinders was worth it as they are quite visible when the loco is separated from it's tender.
     
  4. Walkingthedog

    Walkingthedog Full Member

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    Brakes look great at the correct distance from the wheels.
     
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  5. Rob Pulham

    Rob Pulham Happily making models Staff Member Administrator Feature Contributor

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    I agree, if I hadn't already painted the tender chassis I would be tempted to do that too but since the brakes are hidden inside the frames they wouldn't improve much visually.
     
  6. Rob Pulham

    Rob Pulham Happily making models Staff Member Administrator Feature Contributor

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    Over on Western Thunder there was some discussion on the merits or not of Slaters Plunger pickups from a gent who had used them for the first time I mentioned that I was about to wire up the tender for the J6 with Slaters Plunger pickups and I offered to take photos as I went along. I thought they may be of use to someone else who may be contemplating using them but hasn't seen them before


    First I guesstimated the lengths of wire needed to reach from the plunger to the connections on a piece of Vero Board. These I soldered to the tags provided with the plungers


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    Mini Plug and vero board.jpg


    Connection between the tender and loco is to be by a mini plug sold for PC's and bought via eBay some time ago.


    One thing that makes life a little easier when dealing with the 12BA nuts on Slaters Plungers is a pair of flat 12BA spanners available from Eileen's Emporium


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    Here it is all wires connected to the plungers and ready to solder to the Vero Board


    J6 Wired Chassis.jpg


    Finally all wired up. - The observant amongst you will note that the size of the Vero board has changed in the last photo. I made a right pigs ear of soldering the first piece managing to bridge the gaps between the strips with solder so I did it again. Thankfully I hadn't got all the wires on before I cocked it up.
     
  7. Mossy

    Mossy A classic grump Yorkshire man Full Member

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    Hi Rob,
    The brake shoes look great. I'm thinking of becoming a multi-millionaire by printing brake shoes for customers at say £2 a set, well one can dream. :avatar:

    Mossy
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2022
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  8. ianvolvo46

    ianvolvo46 Staff Member Moderator

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    :tophat::tophat::tophat:
     
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  9. Rob Pulham

    Rob Pulham Happily making models Staff Member Administrator Feature Contributor

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    Not too much done on the J6 this week but it's almost there now.

    I had a bit of a fright when I fitted the motor and I couldn't get the body on but thankfully I had just put it in the wrong way round.

    What it did need is a motor mount/steady to stop it moving backwards and forwards inside the body. I cut a small piece of nickel sheet as a slding fit between the frames and then cut out the mounting hole. I worked out where I needed to fold it and then decided to give the bending shear on the MiniFormit a try. I am pleased o say it bend it perfectly. Not being used to using it, to make bends. I didn't follow the bend through to a right angle. instead I finished it off in my hold and fold.

    IMG_0002.JPG

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    I just need to solder it in now.
     
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  10. Rob Pulham

    Rob Pulham Happily making models Staff Member Administrator Feature Contributor

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    Contrary to my last post I decided to see if I could make the motor mount removable. It proved not too difficult to add a screw and retaining nut to the adjacent frame spacer.
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    The motor mount also made a convenient place to mount a piece of Vero board which means that I can now remove both the motor and mount together without having to unsolder any wires which I count as an unexpected win.

    The hole in the tender plate which supports the bottom end of the pivot pin was much bigger than the screw itself (8BA) and after fiddling around for about 10 minutes trying to get the screw to engage in the nut I decided to turn a small bush to centre it.

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    I am getting dangerously near to painting the chassis.
     
  11. Rob Pulham

    Rob Pulham Happily making models Staff Member Administrator Feature Contributor

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    The wind dropped enough for a couple of short bursts of painting outside. This enabled me to get the chassis primed and then top coated.
    I also did all the other little bits that I missed when doing the body and tender, fall plate, doors etc.

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    Before risking gumming up the motion I asked Warren Haywood and Tony Geary how they painted inside motion. Tony hand paints his and Warren sprays it. Warren did suggest that since the brief for this is weathered black rather than red to metal black it. Thinking this a good idea I had a go. I gave the chassis a liberal dose of acetone to hopefully remove all the oil then a liberal dose of Birchwood Casey Brass black. It kind of worked, the motion itself looked fine but the insides of the frames and motion plates etc. were quite patchy.

    In the end I bit the bullet and lightly sprayed it with black etch primer. Thankfully it all still moves as it should but I did mask it before putting the final coat of the rest of the frames.

    IMG_0004.JPG
     
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  12. Rob Pulham

    Rob Pulham Happily making models Staff Member Administrator Feature Contributor

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    In between cutting down the weeds on the railway embankment, I indulged in a little figure painting.

    Not something I do very often so I am quite pleased with how the loco crew turned out

    Loco Crew Front.jpg
    The fireman's shovel is still work in progress

    Unfortunately this one looks like they are taking a leak...
    Loco Crew back.jpg
     
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  13. Mossy

    Mossy A classic grump Yorkshire man Full Member

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    If he is having a leak, it looks to me that he is trying to slake down the coal dust on his shovel, either that or he doesn't want a wet left leg.
    Sorry best whitty answers I could come up with. :facepalm:

    Mossy
     
  14. Rob Pulham

    Rob Pulham Happily making models Staff Member Administrator Feature Contributor

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    Of course he may just be well endowed....
     
  15. Rob Pulham

    Rob Pulham Happily making models Staff Member Administrator Feature Contributor

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    A bit more tinkering with the crew has the driver sporting a red kerchief and the fireman with a shovel full of coal. What a job I had trying to get the coal to stay on the shovel with my ham fists.

    IMG_0001.JPG
     
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  16. Mossy

    Mossy A classic grump Yorkshire man Full Member

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    So he is well endowed but only with a big shovel of coal. :avatar:
     
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  17. Rob Pulham

    Rob Pulham Happily making models Staff Member Administrator Feature Contributor

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    Recently while attempting to finish off all the little details of the J6 I had a bit of a conundrum. While I had fitted the front buffers previously to check that they went through the holes okay (I have had them in the past that haven’t and the hole had needed easing) I hadn’t actually tried to fit them with the body on.

    What I found was that the 8BA nuts fouled the strengthening plates on the chassis and that the threads on the actual buffer heads hadn’t quite been threaded deep enough to pull the thicker part of the ram into the buffer stock. I recalled that David Hill of Gladiator had built one of these kits so I emailed David to ask how he had overcome the problem of the nuts fouling the chassis and I also mentioned about the threads not being deep enough. At this point although I could turn some replacements, the easier route would be to just run a die down them to make the thread a little deeper. What I was struggling with was working out the eternal problem of how to hold it securely to thread it.

    As I have always found when emailing David, he responded very promptly and advised that he had filed flats on the nuts to clear the strengthening plates and he apologised about the threads and offered to replace the buffer heads. Now by this time I had my thinking head on and had worked out how to hold the existing buffer heads to add a few more threads.

    Last night I decided to have a go. I had short stub of 16mm aluminium bar which I drilled 4mm x 5mm deep. Then I parted off a 5mm length and made a slit down one side to allow the centre hole to be squeezed to grip the buffer head.

    Sadly, the buffer ram behind the head was 3.8mm and having drilled it 4mm (the nearest sized bit that I had) I found that the aluminium wasn’t quite flexible enough to tighten and grip the ram. I quickly sawed the rest of the way through making two halves these then gripped the ram and a few more threads were quickly added to both of them.

    Next was what to do about the 8BA nuts fouling the chassis. I decide to see if I could drill out a 10BA nut and tap it 8BA. The 1.8mm drill bit was either two big or two small to be gripped tightly in the myriad of pin vices that I have so in the end I gripped the drill bit in a spare Jacobs chuck and used that to ease out the hole in the nut. I used my 10BA nut spinner to hold the nut while drilling and tapping to save faffing about trying to hold it squarely in a vice.

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    The next small issue was that the tail of the buffer was visible beyond the valence. To overcome this, I took 5mm of each of them and they became a snug fit behind the buffer plank (while still retaining some movement against the spring) and invisible once the body is on the chassis.

    IMG_00010.JPG

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  18. Mossy

    Mossy A classic grump Yorkshire man Full Member

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    Rob,

    I have had similar problems with an old Class C I built years ago, my solution was to simply leave the strengthening plate off, an amateurs solution rather than you more complex and elegant solution, I also didn't bother trying to hide the location nut just smothered it in black paint. :facepalm:
     
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  19. Rob Pulham

    Rob Pulham Happily making models Staff Member Administrator Feature Contributor

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    I haven't posted any images of the finished and weathered J6 as I planned to enter it into the modelling competition at Guildex.

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    I was really pleased to take third place "Commended" from the judges but was even more pleased and surprised to get the "Runner Up" award from the "Public vote".

    The winner of the public vote was the same crane that took first in the rolling stock category, which meant, that in the eyes of the public who voted that the J6 was the best loco in the show.
     
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