Flyash Presflo - MKD BR 21.5T brass etched kit build.

Ellis Clark’s New release of the Presflo wagons, has prompted me to move the build of this MKD kit towards the top of the pile.
What’s in the kit?

looks a nice kit to build with a few challenges along the way. There’s some rolled shaping of the side panels to do, always a bit of fun to get right first time !! And the hopper vertical and horizontal ribbing looks like some careful soldering to produce a clean model. Might have to try and source some brass buffers as the white metal ones are non working.
So I will have a good read of the instructions and let battle commence this week......

 

Bit late for me really as well Rob,but with Pauls TMD layout coming along I have some where to run it.

 

Will do Toto

 

We’re off .......

8 parts make up the chassis frame. Rivet detailing on the sole bars needed punching out, then the simple task of bending each part up. Tags on the sole bars locate in slots on the buffer beams and are twisted to hold a basic rectangle shape ready for soldering up. The inner 3 parts use the same method to hold them together, these to subsections will be soldered up separately, cleaned and then added to the frame...........

 

Second session today has moved things along nicely.

Frame work for the chassis soldered up square.

inner support bars soldered up as a seperate unit

then soldered into the chassis

add the end flat panels, noting that one end has two hand rails added as per instructions.

cleaned up and for now put to one side.

Side and end panel come etched together with a fold line, very clever etch this one as to try and bend, then solder four pieces together would be very difficult but by bending the end and side first then forming the corner bend, you can make up the hopper into two parts.

tabs are folded over on the corners

solder from the inside first with a nice fillets of solder.

Then to hide the join line I’ve added a small amount of solder to the outside edges

filed up they come out rather nice

repeat process with the second sub assembly the solder the two assemblies together, making sure it’s all square.

There’s a fiddly job of laminating the top edge of the hopper with a small thin strip of brass which results in a beefed up top edge on the sides and curved top of the ends.

next job is to install the vertical ribs, these simply push into the slots and then you twist the tab to hold them in place, which they do really well. You could possibly get away with leaving them un soldered but I think it’s best to solder them in. Instruction tell you to install them all and then solder, but doing them one at a time makes clean up easier. This is going to take a few hours of work to complete

four down 28 to go.............

 

Yes very enjoyable Toto.
The build will move along a bit slower now as I’m on what looks, to be the trickiest part, other than painting it.
Kim

 

Well that was fun

not so pretty inside mind you.

Horizontal etches to do next..........

 

Yep, not to sure if the Flyash will cleanly pump out of it when finished

Soldering done in a few minutes, it’s the cleaning up that takes the time.

 

All the horizontal sections finally in place, plus end supports.

a thin base ring attached to the vertical ribs then the base of the hopper can be fitted. This is bent along the centre line but is shaped to give a slope towards the discharge hole.

roof needs to be formed with a slight curve to follow the shape of the end panels.

i pre tinned the inside of the roof and then sweated it onto the body...

Clean up time.......