British Railways Standard 20 Ton Brake Van in O Gauge

Hi Gary,
Hopefully revisiting this over the next couple of days to try and get it spurred on a bit.Dare I say ..... even finished. nahhhhhh ..... wouldn't go that far.
Toto

 

All I've done so far this festive period. Look through various instructions and catch up on a few threads of others who have gone before me with some of the kits looking for hints and tips etc.

Suppose I should congratulate myself on POTW. .... Nahhhhhh ..... Don't seem right.

Another brandy maybe ..... Mmmmm now we are talking.

Cheers

Toto

 

Well now I have sobered up realised the errors of my ways ....... And have been totally shamed into action by POTW it's nearly time to extracted my digit.

I have the folks round today as its mumssies birthday so we are having a meal at our place and a couple of drinks. Tomorrow, I shall be braving the elements to hit the shed. Get the heater on and bring it up to some sort of workable temperature otherwise the brass etches will be sticking to my fingers.

First on the agenda is the other verandah end. Then it's the runner board sections. Both elements reasonably easy to get me back in the driving seat. I will post up the evidence as I go as usual.

I'll get that far and then see what comes next but I suspect it could be bogies and wheels etc followed by all the smaller fittings and an experiment on the white metal scraps to determine melting points etc. Meanwhile , back to the instructions for yet another look over them. I should know them back to front by now.

Cheers

Toto

Ps .... Thanks for the kick up the buttocks Paul

 

probably will as well.

 

Question time,

There are some small angled straps that fit around the corners of the van body top and bottom. They are really small pieces. Would I be better changing my chisel tip for a pointy thingy tip on my soldering iron to try and prevent the clumsy over application of solder. Likewise with the small makers plates and the like ?

So far I have worked on a one tip does all basis.

Cheers

Toto

 

Thanks Rob,

So far, the one thing I had found on the smaller parts is that I use far to much solder and it looks messy. I have mastered to an extent the general larger parts. It's now the small bits and also the lamination or sweating of parts. Not to mention the white metal but one thing at a time.

I'll also need to get some butane for my micro torch.

Cheers

Toto

 

Ok,

I've hit the shed. A bit of a clear up needed first to create an uncluttered working space. The heater is on as its no use trying to solder when the environment and the work pieces are at freezing point ...... Or below.

Bought some lighter fuel for my mini blow torch in case I decide to give it a whirl. Got some wet and dry paper that I had ordered up. Just as an aside, my MEK also arrived this morning.

I will be starting on the other verandah first. There will be pictures to follow later tonight probably unless I take a break from the soldering mid afternoon.

Here we go again. Wish me luck.

Hey ....... I believe my motivation is back in place.

Cheers

Toto

 

I'm right ....... it is.
had a good four hours in the shed and after gutting it out got down to the main course. I had to finish the second verandah off which was the slightly easier bit of todays tasks.
we started off with this .......


and after a bit of jostling and contorting my body into every conceivable shape that I could .........


ended up with this. I just used my usual 40 watt soldering iron with the chisel end to do this but I must admit, maybe a slightly smaller chisel bit would be better. The one that is in the iron I think is 6mm. I think a 3mm would be easier if only just for access.
here is another..........


there is a bit marking where the heat has been held on longer than necessary but this will clean up and of course once painted wont matter.
i then had to turn my attention to the sole bars and things did slow down quite a bit due to the tetchy detail bits that are required. You will see what I mean as we continue.
first up, the main etch itself .........


and a bit closer up ........ you can see the etch better ........


you can see where the two 90 degree bends have to be formed .......


and there we are. I used my bending bars to form the first bend but could only do the second bend so far with the bars and then had to resort to pliers due to the dimensions of the etch and accessability of the bars.
Next up was some of the tiny etches that show some of the rivet detail etc ..........


just look for the smallest ones please .......
after tinning ( on the sprue ) and cutting out one at a time as required so not to lose any, I set about soldering them in place.
It was time for a different approach .......... get rid of the giant soldering iron tip ...... and out with the new slimline version ..........


with a tip that I thought ( and was correct ) could be more beneficial for these smaller parts .......


yes a pointy type one ............
I wanted to try this out to see if it made things any easier as the big tip was too unwieldy in my opinion. it partially blocked your view of the work piece. so ....... i gave it a bash ....... in for a penny ...... in for a pound.


first piece in, but as you can see, too much solder, but I definately found it easier to work with and certainly yielding better results to that with the bigger iron. It just meant more cleaning up etc.


the view is not good and made worse by the shinny nature of the reflection from the brass but it aint as bad as it looks. more cleaning and scraping of surplus solder still required though.


still a little bit to go and not much to show for the time put in but once finished off, i think it will be passable. again, there is not as much molten solder there than the picture would suggest. Its really just the very thin remnants of what was before. I will clean this further still.
So, only half of a sole bar detailed, the other half to go. Then there are a few angle supports and the odd plate or two still to go on. Then we will have one complete side. then its start again on the other side but I hope ( and think ) that side two will go quicker as I get used to putting less solder on and therefore less time cleaning off the excess.
that is it for today I'm afraid as I am now on mutt sitting duties but I will continue from where I left off tomorrow.
as usual ..... any comments etc ....... more than welcome.
cheers
toto

 

Hi Gary, thanks,
I did actually tin these on the sprue. I found it difficult to get the solder to move on the main etch ( flux added and etch cleaned ) so I ended up adding solder to the main etch as well.
It is something that I will have to master as the risk in doing it my way is too much solder between the parts and you can end up with the smaller part sitting proud on the main etch due to the amount of solder between the parts.
These four small etches took me ages but each subsequent one got a little easier as I progressed. I have another four to fit tomorrow followed by angled supports and a couple of small flat plates so I should be able to get my hand in a bit quicker. Just as well as that is only one side.
I'm not too fussed how long it takes as I am really trying to get a reasonably presentable end product. There will be a bit of cleaning as I go and a good going over generally at the end. hopefully paint will hide a few of the imperfections as well.
I am slowly building my skills up, slightly but never the less there are slight signs o improvement already.
cheers
toto

 

Jesus ........ don't copy me ..... looking forward to you dipping your toe in the water.

 

I've been looking around for more ideas etc for soldering in general and started a thread on the O gauge guild forum. One of its members came up with the idea of soldering a roof section over the two end verandah openings which I think I am going to attempt. it offers further rigidity. lets see if I'm still brave enough in the morning. Also thinking of adding a floor and maybe even a basic interior.
it looks reasonably straight forward. We'll see .......
been reading the destructions again and when you really get into the build and keep looking one step ahead, its amazing some of the little intuitive things that Jim has done to aid in getting things in the right location. I'll highlight a couple as I come to them. Very good and helps the novice no end.
Nice one Jim. the confidence is growing.
cheers
toto

 

Hi Rob,

I would like to attempt the veranda roof and the searing oh ..... And the floor. Maybe getting too far ahead of myself but you know what ...... I'm going to try it. It looks superb.

Cheers

Toto

 

Hi Rob,

These flaps that run along the top of the side panels, should they follow the profile of the roof or should they remain flat?

Cheers

Toto