A 'tiny' bit of work

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John Bateson
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A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby John Bateson » Thu Feb 24, 2022 12:17 pm

Having spent sometime on origami for a small part I needed, my head began to hurt and I felt the need to see if my soldering iron still worked. I had some etches not started from four years ago so these became the target of 61 years experience with soldering tools.
Starting with the platform.
Fitting the platform to the chassis I usually do with 10BA nuts and bolts. In this case simply using a 10BA nut would not be sufficiently robust in my view, especially since if it ever came loose there would be no way of fixing it back without a major disruption to the whole cab. I prefer to use nuts that can be inset into the base to form a secure soldered joint.
349 10 BA Captive Nut A.png

The results look a little messy.
Tiny Assembly 1.jpg

and the underside which has self attached to the balsa on which I normally work, is just as messy. The upper area will of course be hidden by the cab platform but I have a thing about leaving things messy although unseen - something drummed into me during my apprenticeship for the RAF.
Tiny Assembly 2.jpg

Need a high tech tool or things will bend out of shape while filing and cleaning.
Tiny Assembly 3.jpg

The nuts must be filed down so that they will sit under the cab floor, so this is a little fiddly since I prefer to have as many threads left as possible and certainly more than a standard 10BA nut.
Tiny Assembly 4.jpg
Tiny Assembly 5.jpg


And finally for this note the cab base ready for soldering in place, covering the nuts. Bit of a quandrary here because although the TABS cn be soldered underneathm they need to be flattened off so some support must be soldered on the upperside of the platform.
Tiny Assembly 6.jpg
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Will L
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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby Will L » Thu Feb 24, 2022 1:11 pm

Certainly sees the point John. I hope to achieve the same effect by soldering the nut over tape size small hole and running a tap through the nut and the plate its soldered to. Never had one fail yet.

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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby Terry Bendall » Thu Feb 24, 2022 5:05 pm

Two thoughts on this:

Rather than use a nut, make up a small brass bush using say 2mm diameter brass rod as the starting point. In the lathe reduce the diameter to fit through the hole in the etch, centre drill, drill a 1.4mm dia hole (tapping size for 10 BA) then thread. The bush could be thicket than the nut to give more threads. The hole in the etch could be a larger diameter and the bush made to fit to give a greater suface area for soldering than is possible with a nut.

To avoid messy solder, solder paint may be a better solution.

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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby grovenor-2685 » Thu Feb 24, 2022 5:11 pm

Unless I'm much mistaken that is just what John did, except he used 4mm dia. :)
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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby Terry Bendall » Fri Feb 25, 2022 8:00 am

grovenor-2685 wrote:Unless I'm much mistaken that is just what John did, except he used 4mm dia.


Yes you are correct Keith. My fault for mis-reading the drawing and not taking the time to read the rest of the post sufficiently. I'll get my coat. :(

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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby John Bateson » Fri Feb 25, 2022 8:36 am

No need for the coat, Terry.

Perhaps I should point out that I use both solder paint (Nealetin) and standard 60/40 solder for these joints.
The initial joint is made with the solder paint which also acts as a flux and is meant to seep down the hole to make a joint both within the hole and on the flat part between the nut and the top of the brass surface.
Then I dab the smallest amount of standard solder on top and run it around the base of the nut to provide additional strength, because I know that area is going to get hot later.
Must remember to run a tap through it before adding the cab floor!
A bit belt and braces I know and probably not the finesse that we should expect.
John
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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby John Bateson » Sun Feb 27, 2022 4:45 pm

Progress made over the past three days.
Cab floors (see earlier) now firmly secured to platform.
Cab sides now have GCR style numbers and NiSi 0.45 mm handrails, inside cleaned up to remove splodges and make it look as though its just a small nut holding them. A small mark on a pair of long pliers has allowed some consistency of sizing. A 1 mm wire is folded in hald and set befind the handrail while soldering up and this ensures consistency of appearance of a scale 3" between handrail and cab side.
The cupboards in the cab now have hinges fitted and a door knob, again 0.6 mm bras, cut down to size and smoothed on the front. These have been bent to the final shape but not yet soldered. This will be done as part of fitting the cab.
20220227_162904.jpg

As part of this session, some cab gauges have been made on the lathe alongside some oil boxes.
205 Oil Boxes 8 Series.PNG
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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby John Bateson » Thu Mar 03, 2022 9:20 am

A little bit more progress.

Window frames added to cab fronts
The window frames are set into the cab front and are very thin but do give a reasonable impression of a separate frame.After painting these will be polished brass. Before fitting these accuracy of the fit must be checked, the RHS rectangular widow in this case looks to be a little offset.Filing off the tags has to be done very carefully and as suggested elsewhere in this forum, along the edge and not across the edge. There are plenty of spares!
Tiny Assembly 8.jpg


Cab gauges added to inside of cab
These miniature gauges have been prepared on the lathe. They are done (horror of horrors) using a sharp parting tool only and finish as a strip to be cut down and filed to fit later. The backs, ready for soldering can be filed flat in a pin chuck, the fronts are done after soldering in place.

Holes opened up for Ramsbottom levers
The Ramsbottom levers supplied with the AG model are not the correct pattern so the ones on the etch are used. For these to fit the half etch on the inside of the cab should be opened out into a rectangle.

Boilers
Finished rolling the boilers and fitting the inside spacer set 10 mm from the front - these need some cleaning up but that wil be done after the handrail knobs are added.
Tiny Assembly 9.jpg


Firebox
Prepared the firebox etches and braces, rolled outsides to shape using 4mm rod and inserted the braces using 0.45 mm NiSi wire to lock them accurately. It is very easy to damage the half etch rectangle that forms the side of the Belpaire firebox so careful handling is required. The braces are set in place by a series of 0.45 mm holes throuogh wich the wire will hold them accurately in place.
Added large gloops of liquid and standard solder to lock all these in place so that they can be shaped to the Belpaire form using the supplied templates later.
Tiny Assembly 10.jpg
Tiny Assembly 11.jpg
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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby davebradwell » Thu Mar 03, 2022 7:15 pm

When making a pastry cutter in school metalwork, we learned that before using rollers the ends of the blank need curving. For boilers I do this with vice and rod and just keep going rather than transferring to rollers. Your boiler diameter would be determined solely by the formers, of course.

For determining blank length, the company I worked for used a neutral axis 1/3rd of material thickness from inside of bend. This gave very accurate results - within thous' - but it was usual to check by bending a narrow strip first cut to the right length.

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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby Terry Bendall » Thu Mar 03, 2022 9:03 pm

John Bateson wrote:They are done (horror of horrors) using a sharp parting tool only


I often use a thin parting tool for turning small parts where a standard tool will not fit. My parting tool is mounted in a rear tool post on the cross slide so it is always available for use and I spend a long time setting it up so it is eaactly at centre height. It is surprising what can be done with a bit of care.

John Bateson wrote:the bottom edges never follow the exact curve


davebradwell wrote:we learned that before using rollers the ends of the blank need curving. For boilers I do this with vice and rod


An alternative is after rolling to use a suitable piece of rod and use a soft mallet to finish off the curve. In my collection of tools I have a hide mallet from my teacher training college days which is ideal for this job although it is bit large for some things.

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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby John Bateson » Tue Mar 08, 2022 11:34 am

And moving onwards there are enough parts ready to make it seem that I am actually building an engine. The two fire box parts have now been added to the cab front and soldered in place. All went well. A test fit on the platform (see earlier) with the cab sides seem to show everything is as it should be, but that attitude will come and bite me in the rear very soon I feel.
All the washout plugs and the handrail knob now in place with the hole on top drilled for the Ramsbottom safety valve. The safety valve is almost the last job and uses Araldite which avoids heating up a large area.
I have chosen to use the wash-out plugs from Markits that were internally fitted, later the plugs were outside and I guess these could be the same Markits parts just fitted the other wy around.
Tiny Assembly 12.jpg

Made a start on the steps. There are three pairs of steps, the rear ones are exactly the same as the tender steps apart from the brace, the centre ones are standard but many pictures show them missing. There is a pair of steps at the front, and the early version has a narrow steps which caused slippage so the later (LNER?) were wider.
Tiny Assembly 13.jpg
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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby John Bateson » Tue Mar 22, 2022 11:40 am

Body Work[ - continuing my personal collection
Back to 10 March, the last job for the bodies for the moment is to fit the platform to the firebox/cab front assembly and to add the cupboards. In theory the cupboards should sit nice and square but there was a little bit of a problem with a couple of them. They shoud sit square by themselves but when adding the cab sides as a trial fit, there were two that were not in a relationship with the idea of vertical sides! Took a while to fiddle these out but all done in the end.
Lots of solder added all around to lock this lot nice and tight.
Tiny Assembly 14.jpg

Frames
The frames are the most complex part of the whole build but the only way around this is just to get stuck in - or take up golf.
Tiny Assembly 15.jpg


Digression & Caveat
I have noticed in the past that the etch process can be inconsistent over a batch and even over a single large sheet. This is not usually a major problem, it usually means that slots may have to be slighly eased and smaller holes drilled out. The art of over-cooking also applies here, but all this is just part of dealing with minor issues.
This did not apply to #64. When I ordered these etches back in 2018, all of them except one were a nice bright silvery colour which is as expected. #64 was darker in shade but at the time I took no notice.
Two days ago I started to assemble #64 and it would not behave. Tabs were too tight in slots and all the holes without exception had to be drilled through. I had to dismantle the thing twice before my brain told me to check the thickness of the sheet which was, albeit very small, thicker than the rest. This explains the need to ease everything out since the etching time in the acid depends on the thickness of the metal, and in the case of #64, the time was too short.
Finally I filed down all the cross braces across the tabs and got the thing up to scratch, annoying this had taken me over twice the time to assemble as the remainder of the batch.
Modellers will also know that NiSi will not tolerate bends as well as brass. Usually one bend for NiSi is enough, if the bend is not square then live with it and do not try to adjust. #64 was the only one of the batch that was almost impossible to bend anyway and impossible to adjust - probably because of the additional thickness or since the patination of the sheet was very different it may even have been a different hardness.

Identication
Part of the reason for using project boxes is to keep parts from two different etch sheets separated, the digressiion above will partially illustrate this. In principle bodies and chssis should be interchangeable and for the most part I find they are, but I like to play safe.
Tiny Assembly 16.jpg


Fitting to the body
The last picture for now shows the fron of the chassis and the possible mounting/fixing positions. The one in the centre of the smokebox is an 8BA nut fitted as described earlier in this thread. This will allow fitting through the chimney. (Note that superheated versions had the chimney further forward so this tould not work here.)
The two at the front are designed to fit into the underside of the platform and a 10 BA nut.
Tiny Assembly 17.jpg
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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby John Bateson » Tue Apr 05, 2022 11:02 am

I always find it useful to do a written summary of the jobs yet to be started for this project.Not too many, just need to focus on the probable work over the next 2-3 weeks.

Steps
Made up the basic steps using a ceramic tweeser to hold the step in place against the back plate, which has been pre-bent to the correct profile. These will need a small bit of stiffening on the rear and since the etch includes a few (unused) boiler bands these should do the job and be inconspicuous.
This is the sort of job where it is best to tackle it in one go, no breaks

Smokebox & Boiler
The smokebox is composed of two wrappers, the outer one being quite thin and therefore vulnerable. The boiler has been designed to fit into the smokebox saddle and is position adjustable using guide marks on the etch as a pointer to where the theory says they should meet. The holes for the chimney habe been etched to a 1 mm hole, and the hole is opened out to 4 mm after assembly using several drills and a countersink bit. Tearing the top layer is usually avoided this way.
The handrail hole are also pre-etched and ought to be in the right place.
By the time I had done the set I had realised that these parts were not really interchangeable so it was time to get the pre-labelled project bixes up to date and start filling them with completed parts.

Springs and Brakes
The cosmetic springs and brakes from Shapeways were cut from the large 'fret' and bagged and added to the project boxes. At this stage I decided to change the usual brake axle with a two part solution using NiSi tubing of 0.8/06 mm with a 0.6 mm to fit in the brake assembly. This also allows a slight decrease in the brake assembly hole, which given the fragility of these parts seems like a good thing to do. The design of the springs and brakes is adjusted to strengthen the vulnerable area and is almost invisible.

Hornblocks - OK, Axle Boxes
Setting aside the usual confusion about hornblocks and axle boxes, (in this case the hornblock is really part of the frame etch and the axle box is a brass fitting which slides in that slot - this is a simple and ultimately boring job. Fitting the carriers to the axle boxes and getting this square and on the correct side puts me in mind of Klingon Pain Sticks - otherwise known as the soldering iron. The #13 guitar wire goes through the tab at the top at a selectable height.

Cab Sides
The cab sides have been fitted though they need some additional solder at the front corners once I am happy with the squareness. The difficulty here is that the platform is hanging free and some care is needed (note to self!) to stop accidental bends. I may solder a length of bar along the underside of the platforms to keep them straight.

Workbench
Time to clean and clear the workbench. In spite of my claim to be well organised, clearing and cleaning the workbenches brings to notice all those small parts and tools that have been mis-filed. Time to lie down in a dark room methinks - at least until the group meeting this evening.

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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby John Bateson » Thu Jul 07, 2022 7:26 am

My last post on this thread suggested that after cleaning and tidying the workbench, I intended to lie down in a dark room for a while. I hasten to assure the reader that such an act was a temporary feature, but I really did need a break.
Then I decided to do something different for a while. The 'tinies' building project is now residing in my cupboard of shame, but hopefully just out of sight and not out of mind.

And then the design software upgrade arrived from the TurboCAD people. I noticed the price, which is essentially a subscription charge, had increased substantially, but installed it anyway and then the fun started. :(
I spent the next 4 weeks fighting the software, which had some major changes to the rendering facilities, which generally **ed up a lot of drawings. I reverted to the previous release, but backwards compatability was not possible, so recovered the 'damaged' drawings from backups.
I realised two things. Firstly that the software company seemed to be doing a great push towards architectural thing and for that sort of work the new rendering software was an improvement for those who wanted brochure quality pictures from the drawing. Not my cup of tea though.
In fact, all the old drawing materials, which used materials to give a multi-colourful picture, would not take kindly to the new software, so current drawings, of which there was only one main one plus about ten small parts, need to be redrawn, almost from scratch. :?
And it cost me £300 for an Nvidia graphics card. :evil:

A lie down in a dark room could become habit forming!

So back to the engine designs. I had one from my wish list back in 2013, which was put in abeyance for a number of reasons. One of these excuses/reasons was a thread on RMWeb where a group was developing the same engine as a cast item for '00' and EM, I wanted to see how that one worked out, quite successfully it seems.
On re-opening the files, I managed to work out that there were, in the Robinson stable, four engines which had for all intents and purposes, the same bodywork (two cab versions though, one open and one half closed). The only difference of significance was that one of them had a boiler pitch 2.625" lower than the other three. Very peculiar I though, not seeing any obvious reason for this.
There are also two pairs of chassis frames and two pairs (not the same pairs) of internal mechanisms, with the exception being the angle of the drive chain.
So it makes sense to believe that a lot of time can be saved in the longer run by treating these four engines as one project. New project files duly opened. A young lady of my acquaintance continues to question my common sense though.

This will be solely a P4 project.
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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby hughesp87 » Thu Jul 07, 2022 4:44 pm

John,

Thank you for your salutary tale about the latest release of TurboCAD. This will doubtless raise some concerns amongst a number of our group, who use it extensively to develop and share all sorts of design work relating to various aspects of modelling.

From my perspective, I have used it for layout and trackwork design, using output from Templot, for cutting plans for laser-cut baseboards, as the basis for many of my scratchbuilt buildings, and most importantly for drawing artwork for etching.

As someone who has invested a considerable amount of time coming to terms with the principles and practicalities of TurboCAD, I'm not inclined to start again with another package, nor do I want to risk losing the extensive library of drawings that I have built up. At my time of life, I would rather use my time more productively!

If you are able to expand a little on some of the difficulties you have faced, either in a new post or a PM, it would be much appreciated. Thanks again for bringing this to our attention.

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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby John Bateson » Thu Jul 07, 2022 6:34 pm

Geraint,
I will put some notes together and add them here as a PDF. It will be of little interest to most members I suspect.
It would almost be better as a zoom call to interested parties if screen sharing is used, but that may be a step too far. I can bore for Wales.
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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby hughesp87 » Thu Jul 07, 2022 8:21 pm

Thanks John. Much appreciated.

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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby John Bateson » Fri Jul 08, 2022 3:02 pm

Geraint,
Here are my notes, hope they help to make sense of the update to TurboCAD 2022.
These may really be only of interest to readers using CAD in their modelling enterprises.

2022 Problems.docx

2022 Problems.pdf


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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby John Bateson » Thu Aug 25, 2022 9:23 am

Well, that was some break. It has given me the chance to review what my plans really are over the next few years. I suppose that is a good excuse for being bone idle and achieving even less.
In a serious attempt to clear the decks for action we have been getting rid of stuff.
First - the old shed. We had noticed that in the gales earlier this year the whole shed was lifting at the front about 15 inches and on examination saw the base had rotted in a number of areas and torn out all the fixing bolts. Easy to fix, one might think, a lot easier than fixing some of my older models, especially those that had suffered several alterations during the original design and build and rebuild and rebuild process.
In essence I would have to empty the shed of the accumulated collection of 30+ years, partially dismantle the shed so it could be lifted away from the old base, make a new base and reset the shed.
Old Shed.jpg

Then we realised that much that was in there could be recycled or upcycled. 30 years of house paints, brushes etc went to the tip where they recycle it all. Two large boxes of cables which I had used or intended to use for my attic layout went to somewhere near Stoke where a very large modelling shed is currently being constructed. Shed was offered on the Buckly Forum for free to anybody who would dismantle and remove it off-site for free and that was that.
Quite whether the dozen cans of de-icer, eight cans of wasp killer and a plurality of cellulose thinners and other strange chemicals would ever be useful only time will tell.

The second stage of the triage plan was to sell off some of the stock.
I managed to send to an interested modeller my stock of BR Mk1s and some Thompsons. Handed over at Chester Cathedral while admiring the model railway from the Waterman stable, now I had enough to fund the development work referred to earlier in this thread. No real loss to me since there was no real time when any of the Mk1s would overlap with my current pre-grouping interests.

Back to the grand plan. I have adopted the old naval maxim used in promoting senior officers - "up or out"! In my case, if I am unlikely to use it in the next 10 years then it will be 'out'!

The second string of the grand plan is to get the cupboard of shame (all right two cupboards and a shelf) emptied and in working order for either sale or for the GC shed I would like to build some time soon.
From left to right these are Class 8B (started 8 August 2015), Class 8C (started 15 July 2012 and three chassis, all ready for the top coat of paint. These have been stripped back as far as sensible with a number of hopefully invisible patches and essentially restarted. Hopefully any wonky bits will be hiddenby the paint work.

These will be tricky to paint since I want the vermillion on the inside of the frame and the 'purple' on the outside.
These will have to be done before the winter because I will not be heating the hobby room at the bottom of the garden over the coming winter.

GCR Reworks 1.jpg


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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby John Bateson » Mon Oct 24, 2022 9:13 am

Not been totally idle since my last post, perhaps a few cases of a 'somnulent posture'

Next for some paint jobs. One of my collection came under the remit of 'could do better', a quote from my school reports in the 1950s. I decided to strip it and respray the chassis first, since I had to make some changes to it - frankly it was a mess.
Stripped Class 8G 1.jpg
Stripped Class 8G 2.jpg


At this time I also decided to spray some chassis springs matt black and these came out rather well I think. These were 3D printed by Shapeways about 4 years ago.
Tiny Springs.jpg


The second paint job went seriously bellyup. These were some hornblocks supplied to me by Markits. I have done this before and had good results, but this time it just made a mess after adding the matt black top coat onto the etch primer - and yes, sufficient time to allow drying was made.
I finally worked out that the double sided sellotape I used to stick these to a length of wood, brand new from Amazon, was probably at fault, it was stripping off the paint and leaving sticky gunge all over the place. Previously I had used the same tape from a reel about 10 years ago so I guessed the chemical content of the sticky stuff had changed.
I stripped the lot down, cellulose thinners bath and a good scrub, mask wearing needed and restarted. This time I stuck the new formulation double sided tape onto the usual length of wood and then lengths of low stick masking tape sticky side up on top of the sellotape. This seems to be working so far but I am leaving an extended period between coats just in case.
The thought of hand painting these :(
Painting Hornblocks.jpg


And finally, noting elsewhere some informative notes on protecting models, here is my first attempt to either protect my collection in a Really Useful Box (otherwise known as an attempt to hide more stuff away under a second layer in the cupboard of shame).
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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby Alan Woodard » Mon Oct 24, 2022 1:46 pm

Looking good John.


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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby John Bateson » Sun Feb 12, 2023 2:32 pm

Still struggling. The heading of this thread is an allusion to the GCR 'tinies', Class 8A, but I seem to be getting myself into an ever increasing spiral of other things to tackle first.
I needed a few tenders for the 'tinies' (GCR Class 8A) so got myself into planning mode (Nurofen on one side, spreadsheets on the other). Then I realised that since the 8As need 3250G tenders, I should look also at my sundry collection of some unfinished Class 11Bs, the earlier ones of which had the same tender.
And so it begins. Again.

Back to the 11Bs
I put the Class 8A boxes back into the cupboard and opened up the 11B loco & tender notes. When I first started these back in 2013 it looked straightforward, and indeed the drawing part of it went like a dream, no outside gear, a simple valence and buckets of spare design parts from other works.
Then it went to the etchers. While they are normally extremely good, there was an accumulation of 'strange' happenings which meant I ended up with 4 distinct prototypes, and that was after I had triaged all the intermediate efforts.
I now have 5 Class 11Bs, one each of V1.0, V1.3, V2.0 and two of V2.2, the last of which was supposed to be the production version - almost. I think at one point I gave away some etches as well.
Anyway, with these 5 now all but ready for final assembly, time to do something about the tenders.

And this is where the headaches really started. I have the GAs, I have the Johnson Books, I have the Yeadons Book on tenders, I have the RCTS book, and I have John Quick's book on colours, but more of that last part later.
I suspect that the first four items do actually same thing when it comes to the tenders - almost - but trying to make sense of them all was something for a forensic approach. Or not. All the information is there, but not necessarily in the right (or useful) order. I would avoid solid sides plates or plated over rails, I think these were done in LNER days.

Numbering & Naming
In the end, I made a number of reasoned guesses as to appropriate numbering. The first three were to be from the Sharp Stewart stable, with 3250G tenders and 2-rail or 4-rail coal sides, the last two would be Vulcan Foundry with 4000G tenders and 4-rail coal sides.
Then the question was not so much as when they were built, but what happened to the tenders after the London Extension was completed, water was laid in and the 11Bs were expected to travel longer distances. Time for a game of musical tenders! As far as I can ascertain there may be records of these movements somewhere. Fudge number one here for this builder, the tenders in this build program have the same number as the loco, even though some of them made it out of the workshop with another engine. I really do like things neat and tidy!
The second fudge is the water pickup. The 3250G did originally not have pickup gear, this was added at about the same time as the Vulcan orders were being delivered, three years later.
And as for dating process
Some confusion about the coal rails.
Some more confusion about the names.
Some confusion about the boiler sizes.
Dismay on the Ramsbottom.
On the early deliveries, the GA seems to show there was no plate across the rear to stop the coal falling over the water filler.

Then I read (should have worked this out earlier) that 1014 was named "Sir Henderson when built and then the name removed to an Class 11E in 1913.
Also 104 was rebuilt and also named Queen Alexandra.

So, several fudges here, but the easiest one was to take all the number plates off 1014 and call it 1016.

So I have 1013, 1015, 1016, 104 & 105. Every build will now have some detail that is incorrect for my target period of 1901-1904 for these engines. :cry:

The paint job.
Beyond the appllcation of etch primer I am a little confused. Rather than standard GCR colouring, the bodies are a dark chrome green (whatever that is) and the frames a dark brown (whatever that may translate to, I have read options ranging from dark red through the range of browns to reddish black). I guess this will end up as another fudge/guess unless anybody has a definitive answer.

The 'purist' tendency in me, is for now on the back-burner.

John

PS - there are, to my eye, quite noticeable differences between the 3250G and 4000G tenders.
Slaving away still on GCR stuff ...

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jon price
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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby jon price » Sun Feb 12, 2023 3:27 pm

John Bateson wrote:Beyond the appllcation of etch primer I am a little confused. Rather than standard GCR colouring, the bodies are a dark chrome green (whatever that is) and the frames a dark brown (whatever that may translate to, I have read options ranging from dark red through the range of browns to reddish black). I guess this will end up as another fudge/guess unless anybody has a definitive answer.


The Pennsylvania Rairoad painted its locos a colour referred to as Brunswick Green, but officially known to the paint shop as Dark Loco Enamel Green (DLEG). Here is an actual colour photo of one of their electric locos circa 1955-60. Pretty much the same as a paint known as "Invisible Green" used to paint doors and window frames in the Georgian period. I suspect "dark chrome green" was similar to the other GCR locos, and effectively indistinguishable from black unless very heavily weathered when it took on a greenish tinge in some lights..
KA-GG1-1372012.jpg
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Connah's Quay Workshop threads: viewforum.php?f=125

Terry Bendall
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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby Terry Bendall » Mon Feb 13, 2023 10:23 am

John Bateson wrote:Every build will now have some detail that is incorrect for my target period of 1901-1904 for these engines.


Possibly the only small consolation John is that not many people will know about the errors. Others will feel a similar annoyance over similar errors in model of their chosen specialism. Of course if the locos in quetion appear in public someone will no doubt pop up to tell you what really happened. :(

Terry Bendall

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Will L
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Re: A 'tiny' bit of work

Postby Will L » Mon Feb 13, 2023 5:00 pm

John

I know you have instructed me in the niceties of a Robinson tender in the past and I can more or less spot the differences for myself now, but I can't help feeling Terry is right and the only person likely to notice the differences is you.

But yes I know getting the details right is what turns some of us on.


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