Model Loco/DJH Rebuilt Merchant Navy kit build.

Yes, at last I've got around to making a start on this kit, which I've had for over a year, an Ebay buy for a very reasonable price, complete with wheelsets (which often add considerable cost to a kit!). All it needed was the 'suggested' motor/gearbox combination of a "Portescap RG4", now discontinued and not many around, but luckily Paul (York) came to my rescue as He had one spare since being 'converted' to 0 gauge, so thanks again, Paul. As this is a far from 'new' kit (I understand that "Model Loco" later became DJH, though how long ago, I don't know) I am rather hoping it's complete, which it appears to be, but the instructions are.....how shall we say.....vague in places! It's one of the "fit part 20 to parts 23 and 24 etc" kinda kits, so I'm not sure wether that's better or worse than the ones I've had which said something along the lines of "fit the double handled bell crank to the right angled doofer etc". If you don't know the technical term for the bits you're expected to assemble, then it's just as much a puzzle as the numbers game.......we'll see! Anyway, here's the box for starters.

 

........and most of the contents.



As can be seen, there's quite a bit of white metal, nice nickel silver valve gear, boiler is also white metal, all nice crisp castings, wheels look to be Alan Gibson, so quartering will be easy, shame they're not black though!

 

Plenty of very bright etched brass with hardly any tarnishing, despite the kit not exactly being 'new'.

Portescap and drive gear also.

 

I had heard previously about the DJH tendency to use 'rather thick' chassis sides, and here we are, not exactly 'Battleship' proportions, but I don't think there's much likelihood of the chassis twisting! 0.9mm, whereas most 00 gauge kits are a good bit thinner than this!

 

There are plenty of instructions and general 'bumph' included.

 

So anyway, after a perusal of instructions, I made a start. Two of the frame spacers are the screwed type, not ideal, and to make things worse, the screws are 'cheese head', so stand out from the chassis. I'll be going to the Lincoln Model railway show this coming weekend, so a visit to "Eileen's Emporium" will be on the cards for some countersunk 2mm brass screws to replace these, I'll be drilling the chassis sides countersunk to match, then filing flush and soldering. The 2 other chassis spacers are soldered, as are the 6 wheel bearings, so with these in place and chassis assembled temporarily, I fitted the wheels, axles and the Portescap for a trial fit. All is good so far, but the instructions then say to black the chassis at this point, and as I don't have any 'Gun Blue' or similar, this will also be added to next weekends shopping list plus a pack of sprung pickups as one side of the wheelsets is insulated, chassis is the other side. Looks like if I want to get any further with this build, I'll have to start on the tender, but here's what the build looks like so far.
Keith.

 

As I'm stopped with the loco chassis build presently (and I prefer to build chassis first then any adjustments to make the body fit as I build, rather than have to modify a 'finished' body to make it fit the chassis) I decided I'd get stuck into the Tender. Where soldering brass to brass is concerned, I prefer to use what is basically 'Electronics solder', ie 60/40 Tin/Lead, as the higher proportion of Tin to Lead will make the model stronger, Lead being a relatively soft material. This means that it's not a 'low melting point' solder, so when it comes to washing all the flux etc off the model in hot water, I won't end up with a 'kit' and have to start again! As the white metal parts on the tender are few and quite small, I've used Araldite 'Rapid' to fix them, as components such as the six lamps on the tender rear are so small, even using 'low melt' solder, I'd be tempting providence to risk an attempt at soldering. As it stands, the tender is now complete, tiny amounts of filler may be needed between the white metal and brass sides where the front handrails are, and the whole lot needs a thorough clean and polish up with '0000' grade steel wool beforeI look at primer/undercoat etc. This is the result so far.

 

I've not assembled the sprung buffers yet, that'll come after painting, but the buffer baseplates are soldered in ready.

 

This is the first 'DJM' kit I've built and so far it seems pretty comprehensive and well thought out (a bonus compared to some kits I've built!). This last pic is of the topside, all with much cleaning to do!

 

I'll need to disassemble the underchassis/wheelsets to blacken the wheels as per the loco ones, but it can be done whilst painting, and it should make painting the body easier with less masking needed. Can't imagine why the manufacturer used grey plastic for these wheels since all the Bulleid/Firth Brown wheels had black centres.....just another job to do I suppose!

 

Got a little further, white metal castings this time in the form of the loco's front bogie and rear pony truck. These needed soldering with 100 degree solder and the adjustable temp soldering iron to assemble, and until I have some sort of blackening agent (or black paint) I can't finally complete assembly of these components as both wheels and bogie/truck need the treatment. Hopefully Sunday's trip to the Lincoln Model Railway show at Newark will yield the odds and end I need. The tender was assembled using only my Iroda gas torch on the brasswork, but for white metal soldering, I'll stick to the variable temp soldering iron. (Which reminds me, anyone needing one, Lidl have them in stock this week around the £9 mark). Here are bogie and pony truck ready for the blackening treatment.

 

Ah, but wait 'til I get to the loco body Rob, that's where the bulk of it is white metal, so that's where the fun starts! I do love a challenge.

Keith.

 

So a bit more progress made, got the cab built up on the frames, footplate was fun to do, 4 small supports under the brass 'floorboards', then solder that to the white metal cab base without melting anything or losing any bits.

 

Next job was to solder the 1 piece white metal boiler to the white metal firebox, low melt solder to the rescue!

 

I drew a blank on various bits I was hoping to find at the Newark show, as "Hobby Holidays" and "Eileen's Emporium" were not in attendance, and the Carr's chemical blackeners were a waste of time (and money!), so I had to revert to black paint for the chassis. Some parts (including the brake rods) will need either a second coat or cleaning off and repainting as I'm not satisfied with the finish, but having drilled and fitted plunger pickups to the right hand (insulated) wheels, fitted cylinders and rods, lots of fun with the valve gear (I hate valve gear as it's so fiddly in 00 gauge!), finally completed chassis assembly and it runs a treat.

 

I decided against using the supplied rivets to fix the valve gear, fortunately I had some brass 14BA screws and nuts available so used these instead, threadlocking the screws on assembling. As it happened, there were only 2 rivets supplied, though 4 would have been needed had I not used screws and nuts. As they're quite small, hopefully they won't really be noticed, and I can always paint them to camouflage them if necessary. The loco will be DCC fitted on completion, hence why I haven't bothered soldering on the motor supply wires, just tested the running with a 9 volt battery. Luckily, I have a Hornby Rebuilt Merchant Navy loco to copy when assembling the valve gear, next job will be back onto the white metal body.