Some few months ago, 'SR Man' posted a couple of pics of his diesel brake tender built from one of these kits, and since, like him, I've a liking for the unusual, I bought one and got around to building it in between other projects whilst waiting for parts/ inspiration/sanity etc. They are quite a cheap and simple kit, £15 in the UK, although you need to add the wheelsets (Hornby 14mm) to this price, and you have the choice of soldering or Araldite to construct, as it's a white metal kit, soldering with 100 degree solder was my choice, and it's very easy to put together. Here's what you get for your money.
The kit body went together very easily using 100 degree solder, likewise the bogies, although it's necessary to drill the bogie sideframe axlebox castings 2mm to accept pinpoint bearings superglued in place. The only 'fiddly bit' with the bogies is that you have to assemble the bogie side frames with the wheelsets in place as it's not possible to either fit or remove wheelsets once the sideframes are soldered into place! A third hand is useful for this, alternatively, 'Blu-tack' will hold everything in place whilst soldering up. Here's the body assembled.
At this point, I fitted handrails and lamp brackets. I make the lamp brackets using 0.5mm brass wire, gently hammering the end few mm's flat, bend over and cut off, then repeat as needed........as I'm a "Southern" modeller, that means 6 brackets each end. Once done, it's primer spray time.
As usual, priming shows up odd 'dings' that were missed, so it's fill/sand/reprime as needed until all looks ok. That's the body ready for finish coats, here are the bogies assembled and painted.
After finish coats, I applied the "Fox Transfers" decal set for these tenders. They supply the yellow end panels as decals, but you have to (A) cut out for the lamp brackets before fixing, and (B)apply the white panel decal sets first, then the yellow on top as this stops the base green body colour from showing through. It's a bit of a 'faff', and as a precaution, I clear varnished the whole body after applying the white decals, then another coat after fixing the yellow panel decals. As I've been building this kit in between several other projects, I could leave the decals/varnish to set and do something else in the meantime, otherwise I'd have been 'watching paint drying!' Here's how it looks on completion.
Nicely done, Keith. Yours has overtaken mine, which is still in its raw metal state and lacking the add-on details.
Excellent result Keith, Isn't it odd that whitemetal kits in their raw unpainted/primed state look blooming awful, unlike unpainted brass/nickel which almost beg not to be painted
Nice build Keith and the finish is excellent. I have seen these tenders on other layouts (magazines, internet) and I did not really understand what they were used for, you have answered my question. Cheers, Gary.
