Continued from Part 3.
01/03/18
Like the rest of the bodywork, the boiler bands are etched brass. The etching process leaves a ridge on the edges of the parts, which I think looks better removed. 2" at a time, the bands were placed in my little bench vice and very carefully smoothed out with a flat needle file. I took my time with this job, as any over-filing will result in unsightly gouges in these prominent components.
I tried test fitting the boiler cladding and bands without removing the boiler from the chassis. It was a nightmare - Seriously, don't bother with that shit, and just pull the boiler & cab off to fit the cladding.
Now, the cladding appears to be too short. Initially this was highly annoying, but I've found the discrepancy can be hidden by careful placement of the cladding relative to the boiler bands..
I've since realised this is normal for the Fowler.
I don't like that, because it means the boiler band at the cab end is around the boiler itself, flush with the cladding, whilst the others are all wrapped around the cladding. Just another one of those absurdly small details that I get annoyed over..
When I first fitted the smokebox over the boiler, I found they were a sloppy fit. I'd guess it's because I used 50mm tube for the boiler. Roundhouse use 2" which is slightly larger, and fits nicely in their smokeboxes. I resolved the issue by gluing a strip of 0.5mm aluminium around the front of the boiler, as a shim, using JB Weld. The boiler is now a nice snug fit in the smokebox, and the part of the shim that sticks back from the smokebox will be hidden by the front boiler band.
04/03/18
I'd pickled the smokebox to de-oxidise it prior to paint, as I'd done with all other non-ferrous parts to be painted in this project, without issue. Out of habit, I'd previously done this with the headlight after tinning it - so I should've known better. As shown in the last update, this results in the surface of the solder turning dull or even pink, from the surrounding brass.
I had to heat and reflux the damaged headlight solder. This was easier to do if I removed the headlight from the smokebox entirely. Needless to say, all the heat from removing the headlight and subsequently resoldering it to the smokebox, resulted in everything being oxidised and coverered in firescale again. Fuck's sake.
05/03/18
Another fuck up rectified and the entire smokebox has been wire-wheeled and cleaned with meths, ready for etch primer.
The cladding was deoxidised with steel wool and wiped down with meths.
07/03/18
The aforementioned aluminium dart I made on the lathe. The handles are too short so I'll make new ones.
Excess paint (those inevitable seeps under the masking tape) removed, longer, round-ended handles made for the dart, and everything assembled ready to cure in the oven.
I should never have loctited the M3 screws into the front of the smokebox. The idea was to fill them in with the solder, then file it all flush to hide everything. However, the solder will not flow into those remaining rings because of the loctite, regardless of how well it's pre-cleaned. So now there's permanent rings on the front of the loco. Plan B was to fill them in with paint using a brush, sand it all flush and finish with a final overspray to hide it all. As you can see, I've forgotten to do it prior to spraying. I'll have to fill them in with a brush during final touchup, and hope that's not too visible after weathering..
16/03/18
A dummy throatplate was made from spare 0.5mm aluminium, to cover up that ridiculous U-shaped cutout under the boiler in the cab front. I use permanent marker as marking blue, and scribed the overall dimensions. A piece of veroboard is then superglued onto the metal, as a jig. The holes needing to be used were then highlighted with the marker. Can't have extra dimples anywhere..
The scribe is then lightly tapped in with a hammer to leave a dimple, as a locator for the larger center-punch later on..
The "throatplate" will be glued to the front of the cab on the model, whilst the real loco's cab is a bit different.
Note all the braces, angle iron, bolt/rivet heads etc. on the frames. I seriously considered taking the chassis apart to add all this shit. If I was just starting this build now, I'd almost certainly do it. At this point however, it's too much of a pain to do, plus I'd wind up having to strip/repaint/ the frames. Still, the overly-plain frames are likely to drive me nuts eventually..
An ashpan was made from 0.3mm aluminium (the stuff I turn into corrugated iron for buildings). This one was soon replaced as it's held on from the top side, which prevents me from fitting the cab/boiler retaining screw from underneath the loco.
17/03/18
Now, I never really liked the shape of the standard whistle in the kit, so I fitted it to my Krauss.
I'll machine a nicer whistle for Victoria, a miniature of the real B9's whistle at ANGRMS Woodford. I'd love to overhaul this one and see how it sounds, on steam..
My crude method of getting measurements. Saves me carting a pen and pad around (and inevitably losing said pen), whilst I've usually got my camera with me at Woodford anyway.
27/03/18
Been having a fuckload of problems with painting lately, and I've no clue why. I mean, I know what I'm doing, I've been spray painting models with this stuff (and others) for years..
The cladding's taken 3 weeks so far, mainly because I'm getting fish-eyes in the wet paint. (never mind the issues I had priming the bastard) Normally this is because there's some oily residue on the surface to be painted, and the only fix is to wait till the paint cures, sand it all flat, clean it thoroughly and try painting again. This happened twice on the jacket alone. Happened once on all 4 of the sand dome parts. I was using this same can of paint when I did the cab and tender kit months ago. I had some minor fisheyes on those too. I'm starting to suspect a containment in the paint..
At least it's finally done and curing.
The steampipe in the cab has been lagged with two layers of sewing thread, which is then soaked with ordinary superglue, followed by two coats of white engine enamel. Errant white paint was removed from the nuts but that's removed some of the lagging's paint. Lots of touchup needed on everything..
Smokebox has been clearcoated and baked again.
05/04/18
If you don't know what a Summerlands Chuffer is, you're in for a treat - look it up, makes a huge difference to the sound of your live steam loco. In my book, it's an essential part of any loco I'd own. Price is pretty good, too.
I've made a Summerlands-style chuffer, rather than buying one. The creator of this chuffer published an article on making these things, in a garde railway magazine a few years back. A friend emailed me the article. I figured I might as well have a go at making one, and if it works, save around $60AUD (inc. post).
Fitted to the chassis and running on air, it sounds just as good as a bought one. Just doesn't look as pretty, not that it matters..
The throatplate is done. I used a center-punch to form the stay heads, then lightly tapped the scribe point through the middle of each "stay" to represent the telltale holes. The bottom edges were made wider than the rest of the plate, so they could be formed to represent the rounded front corners of the firebox. The radius was traced from the boiler and finished with files.
Paint was scraped from the cab front, and a "grid" of heavy scribes were done to help the JB Weld adhere.
A new ashpan was made, this time it's held on by the pony wheel pivot screw underneath the loco.
The pony frame needed a little more removed from it's spine, so it could swing sideways. It's still plenty rigid, and I highly doubt any derailments will damage it.
Though the "throatplate" is stuck to the front of the cab, I think it does a good enough job.
I'd recently realised the paint on the wheels and motion wasn't adhering well at all, constantly chipping off when you so much as look at it. 2 minutes on Google revealed that nickel-plated wheels and stainless motion need to be etch-primed prior to paint. I didn't know this when I first assembled the chassis almost 2 years ago. Fuck it, enough's enough, I'll bite the bullet and redo 'em. This time, I've masked the Lego "mobile" so it doesn't get covered in overspray.
09/04/18
Wheels are done. Topcoat was some cheap matt stuff I'm trying to use up 'cause it's not real good.
I did shorten the fall plate but realised it was still too long. Shortened again (along the scribe line).
A gentle bend was also made in it - Now it finally fits properly between loco and tender at prototypically close coupling. I also realised Victoria'll never do 2ft radius with the tender close-coupled, but that's fine as I'm moving house in the coming months and the new railway (wherever that'll be) will have larger radius curves..
Motion parts hanging in the oven at 125C, instead of trying (and failing) to wait 2 months for the paint to cure. Thankfully, 125C yielded no discoloration of the red paint and all seems properly hardened. Forgot all about redoing the reverser, union link & combination lever which is annoying.
10/04/18
Motion parts cleaned up ready for assembly. Cotton buds and enamel thinners were used to remove paint from the working surfaces. Much quicker and easier than masking beforehand.
The sand dome bottom castings also needed adjustments to fit properly.
After much careful filing, and annealing/adjusting the sand pipes, the sand domes and pipework fit nicely. Despite letting the domes sit for 2 months after painting, they were still unusually soft. That whitemetal dust from filing is not sitting on the surface of the paint - it's been rubbed into the paint. That's really fucking irritating. Now I have to take them off, sand the paint, rub it down with alcohol and respray..
The hole for the blower pipe was located and drilled without removing the smokebox. Rags were carefully placed to keep the swarf away from the motion.
All pipework (save for the headlight wiring conduit) is done.
18/04/18
The sanding rod is aligned at the rear dome, but at the front, it needs some bending to fit.
Now, Roundhouse supplies some Phillips-head self-tapping screws to hold the sanding rod on. There's no way in Hell I'm allowing those monsterous things to be visible, so I drilled and tapped the screw locations for an M2 thread.
Now, the Roundhouse instructions say to bend the sanding rods like this, and to leave the main rod straight.
As can be seen, there isn't enough material for the short arms to bend them like that, so for the arms to reach the domes, a long joggle had to be put into the main rod going to the cab.
A slight bend with the serrated pliers has the front end aligned. The teeth marks look worse than they are, and will be filled with paint. I'm not concerned.
The sandpipe slots were found to want a little additional filing.
I have some very tiny copper tube in my metal box. No idea where it came from, but it'll fit a single HO scale point motor wire inside (with lubrication). The other wire for the headlight, will be either soldered onto the ends of the pipe, or I'll mechanically ground it to the loco itself.
Here, I'm marking where the pipe will need to be sitting when I soft-solder it to the existing pipework erm, "unit"..
More experienced modellers will be familiar with this technique, but here's a quick rundown for those who don't know:
1. Put the bolt in a die that matches the bolt's thread - M2x0.4 in this case.
I used the dremel with a cutting disk to cut them off nearly flush with the die. Careful use of a hacksaw will also work.
The bolt is then unscrewed with a nut driver. A borderline-essential tool for this sort of thing, in my book. A small spanner will also work.
As the bolt unscrews from the die, the die cleans up the cut threads automatically, saving me the trouble of filing a taper on the ends of these now tiny, 4mm long bolts.
The worksplate for the boiler arrived from Narrow Planet a few weeks ago.
Scratched a patch of paint from the backhead, and stuck it on with JB Weld.
Next, I decided to machine the whistle. As I wasn't sure how exactly to shape this one, I did a "dry run" with a bit of hardwood scrap. Seems to have gone well enough.
So I jumped into making the real one. The scratches are from shaping the radii with needle files. Apparently my subsequent sanding wasn't quite enough. In person, these scratches aren't noticeable.
The whistle does sit 1.5mm lower than I intended, as I turned the bottom section too small. It's now hidden through the roof, but it'll do me.
26/04/18
Current state of play. I'm still having no luck at all in getting the timing right, and the thing has always had a very bad knock, both under air and steam. I thought this was normal and would disappear with running in, but I'd say it's fairly run in, and it's only gotten slightly worse.
I would now say I've over-enlarged some holes in the motion, and the resulting tiny lack of movement in the motion is preventing properly-timed valve admissions. New coupling and eccentric rods are on order. Everything else has zero slop in it.
Smokebox has been clearcoated and baked again.
05/04/18
If you don't know what a Summerlands Chuffer is, you're in for a treat - look it up, makes a huge difference to the sound of your live steam loco. In my book, it's an essential part of any loco I'd own. Price is pretty good, too.
I've made a Summerlands-style chuffer, rather than buying one. The creator of this chuffer published an article on making these things, in a garde railway magazine a few years back. A friend emailed me the article. I figured I might as well have a go at making one, and if it works, save around $60AUD (inc. post).
Fitted to the chassis and running on air, it sounds just as good as a bought one. Just doesn't look as pretty, not that it matters..
The throatplate is done. I used a center-punch to form the stay heads, then lightly tapped the scribe point through the middle of each "stay" to represent the telltale holes. The bottom edges were made wider than the rest of the plate, so they could be formed to represent the rounded front corners of the firebox. The radius was traced from the boiler and finished with files.
Paint was scraped from the cab front, and a "grid" of heavy scribes were done to help the JB Weld adhere.
A new ashpan was made, this time it's held on by the pony wheel pivot screw underneath the loco.
The pony frame needed a little more removed from it's spine, so it could swing sideways. It's still plenty rigid, and I highly doubt any derailments will damage it.
06/14/18
The boiler and cab are re-test-fitted with the new mods. Everything seems to fit nicely. The screws sticking up through the boiler cladding are for the sand domes. The screws have been marked to have about 1/8" removed so the domes fit together.
Though the "throatplate" is stuck to the front of the cab, I think it does a good enough job.
I'd recently realised the paint on the wheels and motion wasn't adhering well at all, constantly chipping off when you so much as look at it. 2 minutes on Google revealed that nickel-plated wheels and stainless motion need to be etch-primed prior to paint. I didn't know this when I first assembled the chassis almost 2 years ago. Fuck it, enough's enough, I'll bite the bullet and redo 'em. This time, I've masked the Lego "mobile" so it doesn't get covered in overspray.
09/04/18
Wheels are done. Topcoat was some cheap matt stuff I'm trying to use up 'cause it's not real good.
I did shorten the fall plate but realised it was still too long. Shortened again (along the scribe line).
A gentle bend was also made in it - Now it finally fits properly between loco and tender at prototypically close coupling. I also realised Victoria'll never do 2ft radius with the tender close-coupled, but that's fine as I'm moving house in the coming months and the new railway (wherever that'll be) will have larger radius curves..
Motion parts hanging in the oven at 125C, instead of trying (and failing) to wait 2 months for the paint to cure. Thankfully, 125C yielded no discoloration of the red paint and all seems properly hardened. Forgot all about redoing the reverser, union link & combination lever which is annoying.
10/04/18
Motion parts cleaned up ready for assembly. Cotton buds and enamel thinners were used to remove paint from the working surfaces. Much quicker and easier than masking beforehand.
17/04/18
I reassembled the motion on the Right-hand side, but I'm having trouble getting the timing set, again. Leave that for another day..
So the dummy pipework was offered up to the loco. It needed numerous adjustments to fit nicely, so I annealed the whole thing, being careful not to melt the soldered joints. I figure it's silver-soldered for strength, as soft solder would've melted long before I got the surrounding areas red hot.
Where the pipes bend up to meet the cab front, I'd found the bends were too far back, as the sand domes wouldn't sit properly. This was annoying, but no huge problem to correct. Another round of bending, annealing and more bending later, the pipework was done.
The sand dome bottom castings also needed adjustments to fit properly.
After much careful filing, and annealing/adjusting the sand pipes, the sand domes and pipework fit nicely. Despite letting the domes sit for 2 months after painting, they were still unusually soft. That whitemetal dust from filing is not sitting on the surface of the paint - it's been rubbed into the paint. That's really fucking irritating. Now I have to take them off, sand the paint, rub it down with alcohol and respray..
The hole for the blower pipe was located and drilled without removing the smokebox. Rags were carefully placed to keep the swarf away from the motion.
All pipework (save for the headlight wiring conduit) is done.
18/04/18
The sanding rod is aligned at the rear dome, but at the front, it needs some bending to fit.
Now, Roundhouse supplies some Phillips-head self-tapping screws to hold the sanding rod on. There's no way in Hell I'm allowing those monsterous things to be visible, so I drilled and tapped the screw locations for an M2 thread.
Now, the Roundhouse instructions say to bend the sanding rods like this, and to leave the main rod straight.
As can be seen, there isn't enough material for the short arms to bend them like that, so for the arms to reach the domes, a long joggle had to be put into the main rod going to the cab.
A slight bend with the serrated pliers has the front end aligned. The teeth marks look worse than they are, and will be filled with paint. I'm not concerned.
The sandpipe slots were found to want a little additional filing.
I have some very tiny copper tube in my metal box. No idea where it came from, but it'll fit a single HO scale point motor wire inside (with lubrication). The other wire for the headlight, will be either soldered onto the ends of the pipe, or I'll mechanically ground it to the loco itself.
Here, I'm marking where the pipe will need to be sitting when I soft-solder it to the existing pipework erm, "unit"..
23/04/18
I've some spare brass M2 bolts, so I cut down 4 to use on the sand domes.More experienced modellers will be familiar with this technique, but here's a quick rundown for those who don't know:
1. Put the bolt in a die that matches the bolt's thread - M2x0.4 in this case.
I used the dremel with a cutting disk to cut them off nearly flush with the die. Careful use of a hacksaw will also work.
The bolt is then unscrewed with a nut driver. A borderline-essential tool for this sort of thing, in my book. A small spanner will also work.
As the bolt unscrews from the die, the die cleans up the cut threads automatically, saving me the trouble of filing a taper on the ends of these now tiny, 4mm long bolts.
The worksplate for the boiler arrived from Narrow Planet a few weeks ago.
Scratched a patch of paint from the backhead, and stuck it on with JB Weld.
Next, I decided to machine the whistle. As I wasn't sure how exactly to shape this one, I did a "dry run" with a bit of hardwood scrap. Seems to have gone well enough.
So I jumped into making the real one. The scratches are from shaping the radii with needle files. Apparently my subsequent sanding wasn't quite enough. In person, these scratches aren't noticeable.
The whistle does sit 1.5mm lower than I intended, as I turned the bottom section too small. It's now hidden through the roof, but it'll do me.
26/04/18
Current state of play. I'm still having no luck at all in getting the timing right, and the thing has always had a very bad knock, both under air and steam. I thought this was normal and would disappear with running in, but I'd say it's fairly run in, and it's only gotten slightly worse.
I would now say I've over-enlarged some holes in the motion, and the resulting tiny lack of movement in the motion is preventing properly-timed valve admissions. New coupling and eccentric rods are on order. Everything else has zero slop in it.
After that last shortening, the fall plate's been stripped and repainted as before.
Over the last 2 months I've been having a bizzare spate of problems with painting. Sometimes I'd made finish-ruining mistakes I don't normally. For years, I got away with spraying at night, during cold or wet days, etc. More recently, it seems my luck's run out. Looks like I have to play by the usual rules again..
A more serious problem is the Brunswick Green paint I'm using on "Victoria", and my other loco "Baron". Note the yellow flecks in the paint on this piece of timber for example. I've been using this enamel range (and colour) of paint for years without issue. It's cheap ($4-5AUD in early 2018) but decent stuff.
Now, my last 4 cans of green have had problems. 1st was that can I suspected of being contaminated with oil, causing fisheyes, even with different nozzles - so I binned it. The next 3 all spit flecks, and sometimes spray a much yellow-er shade of green. Regardless of how much shaking before and during use, and any prewarming I did.
I was able to make it spray most of the time without spitting yellow, by keeping the can totally level and moving the can very slowly so as to not disturb the yellow in there. However, it means I'm using thrice as much paint, and run the very real risk of putting too much paint on things and getting runs. I'm lucky to not've gotten runs yet. Sometimes it still spits yellow, so using this stuff is a huge pain in the arse. Considering three cans from two different shops have had the same issue, it's surely gotta be a batch defect. Needless to say, I'll be making a complaint with the manufacturer and attempting to get my money back..
The headlight conduit has been soft-soldered to the main pipework "unit", and all the pipework and sanding rod painted.
The steam dome cover was a nightmare. So many attempts over 6 weeks or so, I've honestly lost count. Sometimes I didn't notice dust in the paint; Sometimes I recoated too early and caused the underlying coat to shrivel up; Sometimes I sprayed too heavily and got runs in the paint. Then of course, there was the yellow fleck issue. That alone was at least 2 do-overs..
It didn't help either, that there was a small dent in the dome. It was like that when it arrived, so I guess it was dropped at the factory. 2 shots of filler primer fixed that, but it added time to every attempt.
After letting this final coat dry for maybe a week, I'll try baking it in the oven at 160°c for two hours. Hopefully then, it won't go soft or tacky on the hot loco, and I can pick it up with a rag and refill the boiler after a run, without having to wait an hour for everything to cool down.
The sand domes were rubbed down, re-etch-primed and given two coats of the screwy green. The spectacle plate was a bit scuffed from rattling around in boxes for months, so it too was rubbed back and recoated on the front side.
Well, that's that long-overdue update sorted.
Part 5 here.
Part 5 here.
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