Metal bomping

A busy week means minimal progress on the Hudswell Clarke shunter. All I've managed to do is bomp the rivets in the body parts. 

As usual, the metal goes into my GW Models revetting tool. Bought well over quarter of a century ago for what seems like a lot of money, but really isn't, it's still something I'm pleased I purchased while flush from a redundancy payment. 

To be honest, I don't use it to it's full potential on this job. The slides that allow for accurate rivet placement on plain metal aren't fitted. For etched kits where there is a half-etch mark on the back of the component to locate the proddy bit, I do this by a combination of eye and feel. 

Rivet size is judged in the same way. I don't bother to set the stop under the handle, I work by feel. You can tell when the handle, and thus the forming tool, is pushed far enough down. Proper model makers will be horrified, But the results look OK to me. 

Dirt stops solder - deliberatly

Time for a job I don't enjoy, soldering the washers on to the crank pins to hold the rods in place. It's one of those jobs where everything can go wrong, and you end up with a lump rather than a collection of moving parts. 

My solution is to put permanent marker everywhere I don't want the solder to go. Since the stuff will only stick to clean metal, in theory (and practise I'm pleased to say) it won't stick to the penned up bits. 

As an extra precaution, some light oil floods the crank pin hole in the rod. This is the old skool way of doing things, but I'm always concerned that the heat of the iron will boil off the liquid and let the solder do its worse. 

Anyway, in the photo, you can see the true horror of the over-large holes in the rods, but as the chassis works fine, I don't care how much it annoys proper engineers, I'm not bushing them. 

Another handy hind, ignore the washers provided with Romford crank pins, you only end up filing them much thinner, just use some 10BA brass washers and save some effort.

Whirling cranks

I hate this bit. Flycranksare a pain in model form. Part of me wondered about chopping the conrods short and leaving them off - but I'll try to do it properly. 

The cranks were fitted, with a spacer washer behind each one, ad the overlong axle marked for cutting. Once the right length and slightly chamfered on the end, it was fitted through he crank. This was a loose fit on the axe. Only by a fraction of a mm, but not a press-on job like the other then. 

Then the rods went on and I hoped these would handle the quartering. 

Plenty of non-corrosive flux on the end of the axle, followed by a smear of solder and the thing is in place. Turning the motor by hand suggested things were OK, so it was time for power. 

 

Not too bad. There's a lot of slop in the system, but let's see what happens with the retaining washer are fitted to the crank pins. Maybe we'll have a working chassis. 

Cutting broaches

I spent ages looking for the axle the flycranks are attached to, before realising the great bit piece of brass rod was it. I'm not sure why we need enough for a 7mm scale chassis, but that's what's supplied. 

No matter. It's a very nice 3mm diameter - the same as the axles used for the wheels.

The holes in the cranks are undersized, which is far better than oversized, and need to be opened out using a set of large broaches. These aren't cheap tools, but pretty much essential for this job. Trying to use either a file or a drill for this job is likely to result in an oval hole in the wrong place (OK, drill in a pillar drill properly held will probably be OK, but if you can do this, you'll own broaches). 

I enlarged the hole to 3mm and then opened it up a couple of twists with the tapered reamer. Then the axle and crank were put in the vice and it used as a press to force them together. No need for solder or Loctite here! It won't be moving on the axle either, or at least I hope not. 

All this takes time, but I hope to get that back with minimal fiddling to fit this thing in the chassis.

Flycranks

 

Why are there so many flycranks on the kit etch? I pondered this for a while, then remembered that Romford and Gibson wheels have slightly different crank throws. You need to chose your parts to suit the wheels on your loco. 

Having worked out which set I needed, and there are several with two distinct designs, then it's a simple matter of juggling five layers of etch, lining up all the holes accurately, and running solder around the edges. 

The result is, in my case, a pretty messy job, but cleaning things up doesn't take long with some abrasive. 

The crank pin holes could be tapped and the pins screwed in place, but I just soldered them in position. At least that way they will stay put on the loco. 

Chassis paint

  

Before the motor'n'stuff go into the chassis, it needs paint. 

That's a simple enough job - give the metal another good clean and then rinse it thoroughly under running water. Then let it dry in a nice warm spot. This is a stage you don't want to rush as tiny drops of water can hang around for a long while. A blast from the hairdrier helps, but I prefer to leave it 24 hours to be sure. 

Next, a light dusting with etching primer. I'm using UPol from Halfords at the moment and it seems to work OK. The cheapskate in me remembers that I was always told a light dusting, rather than a heavy coat. 

Finally, I brush paint Revell No.9 everywhere. I could spray, but it's easier to brush and in my mind, the adhesion is better. A couple of coats on the sides seem sensible. 

Finally, the bearings and brake hanger wires are cleaned up with some scraping. I'll need to solder the brakes later, and you really don't want paint in the moving surfaces. 

Then, let it all harden again before moving on. Easy, if you are too busy to work on the model every evening.

Mystery metal

 

Time for some chassis detailing, and I find at the ends there should be some metal brackets. The fold up from the etch nicely enough and I bomp out the rivets - but then there is a mystery. 

Obviously they fit at the end of the chassis behind the bufferbeam, but how? 

It looks like the riveted flanges overlap, but then the bufferbeam won't be flush. 

I puzzled over this for a while, trying the parts in different ways, and then came to a pragmatic conclusion. 

I simply left one lot off. Yes, I know this makes me A Bad Person and Not a Proper Modeller, but I don't care. You can't see these things on a plan, or in any photos. On that basis, no-one is going to miss them. 

Were this a magazine build, I'd have to solve the problem. Fortunately, it's not, so I only have to please myself. 

And if you are thinking the brake rods look thicker than normal, you'd be right. I used 0.6mm wire rather than 0.45. It will stay straight much better, I always end up bending the thinner wires when fitting the brake hangers. I even remembered to file the ends flat to avoid punctured fingertips, something a remember from previous builds!

A running chassis

 

Crunch time. After three chassis builds, will the wheels turn over then power is on? 

The omens were good. Those rods slipped straight on, but then as the bearing spacings were set by the rods, you'd expect that. Add in the massive amount of slop those oversized holes in the rods allow, and if there was a problem, it would be a BIG one. 

For testing, the rods are retained with a bit of insulation stripped from a wire. This trick saves a lot of soldering action if there is a problem and they need to come off again for fettling. 

 

A bit of electricity from my 60-year-old H&M controller and the model works! 

To be fair, it worked a lot better once a drop of oil was applied to each bearing. I know all that rod slop is bad engineering, and that the worm gear really should sit over the middle of the axle gear, but I'll take this right now. The model moves up and down the track, and it's long while since I built something that did that.

MORE new spacers

 

Finally!

News 12mm wide spacers (I measured the width of the motor, something I should have done in the first place) and the whole thing can finally be assembled. The drive unit sits low in the frames. All the wheels are fitted. The chassis sits on the mirror perfectly. 

All this shows how rusty I am at building etched kits. It also proves that if you keep plugging away, you will get a loco to work. And that I am far from perfect as a modelmaker. But then the person who never made any mistakes, never made anything.

New spacers

 

After a little head scratching, I decided that there wasn't any way I could accurately reduce the width of the frame spacers fitted to the chassis, it would be a lot easier to make some new ones up from sheet nickel silver. 

First job, remove the old ones - I could have attacked them with heat, but wary of disturbing the bearings, I opted to cut them in half with a piercing saw. This gave me much better access to the soldered joints, which were heated and the errant metal removed, followed by a good clean up with a file. 

Then I cut some strips of nickel 10.5mm wide using an Olfa cutter and ruler. Even I can get things reasonably accurate with those tools.

Using the Hobby Holidays jig, the sides were lined up and the spacers fitted between them. I know the axles are in the right place relative to each other so the spacers don't need to slot into the chassis sides, I can pretty much fit them where I see fit. 

This time the axles stick out both sides of the chassis. It even sits flat on a mirror when fitted with wheels. Success? Well they look like they are a bit proud of the sides. But I can shim this with some washers to reduce the side-play. 

Except that the motor won't fit between the frames, and these are deep enough that this is precisely what it has to do. I did contemplate putting cut-outs in the frame sides to accommodate the motor, but there was really only one thing to do...

That's not so good then

 

With the chassis assembled for the Hudswell Clarke, and the motor and gearbox running, all I have to do is slip the later into the former and the loco will work. Simple. 

Except that the axles aren't long enough. They can stick out of one side, or the other, but not both. 

The frames are too far apart. Arghh

I don't know how this happened. There is only one set of frame spacers in the box, and I suspect they are the P4 ones. My guess is that I've nicked the OO and EM fret for another kit in the past, and forgotten about it. 

Still, I enjoy soldering things together, so it will be fun to do it all again (grits teeth).

Motor and gearbox

  

I'm still rusty at kit building, but some things are starting to come back to me. The gearbox in this kit seems familiar for a start. 

 The etch looks a bit hand-drawn. That's not a bad thing if done properly - the method is to work 4X normal size, so any errors are reduced when the parts are etched. To be honest, using a ruler and pair of compasses, an accurate part shouldn't be beyond the wit of man.  

Anyway, the first job is to work out which of the half-etched holes should be drilled out to fit the motor. The compasses quickly establish this - I think I've done it by eye in the past and things haven't gone well, but this time there's no problem at all. 

One common feature is that the hole for the motor boss is too small - no problem to open out with the tapered reamer, but if you've not done this before it might be off putting. Do NOT just screw the motor to the metal without opening out the hole, you'll bend things in a very bad way. 

More opening out is required for the axle bearing holes. Again, easy with the right tool and not bad practise as over-large holes are a nightmare to deal with and model railway etching isn't always as precision a craft as we might like. 

A much bigger problem arises when it's time to fit the worm gear. The one supplied had a great big, fat boss with the grub screw in it. It's so fat, that we find the motor is fitted off-centre in the cradle and the boss rubs on one side. Bad enough to stop the motor turning. I have no idea why this is, but it shouldn't happen.

A bit of fiddling around and it seems I can mount the gear backwards on the motor spindle with the boss just clearing he crown gear. 

Now, I seem to remember this being a show-stopper in the past with replacement gearboxes being the order of the day. Hopefully, I'll get away with it this time...

Pink chassis cleaning

 

It seems that Shiny Sinks, my favoured cleaner for post-soldering sessions on etched locomotive kits is no more. Maybe my annual purchase of a bottle wasn't enough to keep the company afloat or something. Whatever, I need an alternative. 

Cue, much rummaging around in the cupboard under the kitchen sink to see what could be found. I'm sure that most people have far more cleaners than really required, unless you are one of those annoyingly smug people who use vinegar for everything and tell us it's a miracle that we don't know about. 

Anyway, nothing really seemed to work. Not stainless steel cleaner, Cillit Bang (Bang and the flux is still there!) but then I gave The Pink Stuff a go. And it worked. 

I've no idea what is in this bubblegum coloured paste, but apply, leave for a minute and then scrub away with the old toothbrush and it works. This is annoying as anything that describes itself as "The Miracle Cleaning Paste" or looks like something you buy from one of those market stalls where the vendor uses a microphone to keep up some running patter, should be rubbish. 

It should also be expensive, and this stuff is a quid a pot. Bargain. And Vegans can eat it too, what more do you want?

Chassis on the jig

 

Since this is a blog build, and not a magazine one, I can use any bit of fancy-pants kit at my disposal, without worrying how anyone else will be able to do the same. Hence, out comes my Hobby Holidays chassis jig. 

It needed a little freeing up, but nothing that some WD40 and remembering to slacken ALL the Allen bolts wouldn't cure. 

The rods were carefully set to match the spacing of the conrods, reminding me that I never got around to ordering the set with smaller ends that actually fit into the crank pin holes. Still, I think I'm accurate enough. 

Once the chassis sides and spacers were soldered up, I put it on the jig with the bearings. Or at least I did once I'd opened out the centre holes and huge along (at least 1mm) as they seemed to be in the wrong place. The ends are fine, and using the jig, this isn't a problem - just slosh plenty of solder around and let it sort itself out. The gas torch was handy here as there's a lot of heat absorbing metal. 

Once cool, I cleaned it up and then remembered I've run out of Shiny Sinks cleaner and need to find a replacement before the flux stars going green.

Sides and spacers

Moving on the big bits of metal, chassis sides and spacer were removed from the fret, bent up, and then test slotted together - something they did perfectly. 

The tabs on the spacers fit through slots in the chassis, but stick out proud of the side. This makes keeping everything together without frying my fingers a little bit of a fiddle. After a bit of juggling, I found a way of holding bits of leftover MDF from another kit in such a way that I could tack the joints together, at least on the ends. 

Checking that the chassis was both flat and square, pleasingly it was, I added some generous fillets of solder. Not because they are really required, but because they are fun to do. This metal flowing is what I dreamed of when I decided to build the kit. 

The centre spacers went in easily, if a little wonky (it seems to make no difference) and all the tabs filed flush with the outside face. A little scraping and polishing and I'm convinced that whatever skill I have building these things, hasn't entirely deserted me. Maybe it's like riding a bike, you never forget. I hope so...

Bendy rods

 

With the soldering iron warmed up, water in the tip cleaning spong and solder and flux to hand, it's off to work on the Hudswell Clarke shunter. 

A logical place to start is with the rods. These are made up of three layers, and straight away I find myself with a challenge. 

Real rods are jointed, and on the model the knuckle is represented with a length of wire through a hole beside the main crank pin hole. The trouble is, these are etched quite large, and there is only the thinnest piece of nickel outside the hole - so the rod tends to become a zig-zag once released from the etch. 

With care, each layer is tinned and then sweated together into something like a straight line. I filled the smaller holes with solder to keep things under control. Once happy, a little drilling of the soft metal allowed me to stick a bit of 0.7mm wire in - this being cut to length once the solder had cooled. 

It's also important to ensure the rods are handed by not sticking the wire in from the same side on both. 

These might not look like big jobs, but there's over an hours work here with all the careful soldering and cleaning up. Time well spent with a bit of luck.

Hudswell Clarke 0-6-0 shunter

For a few weeks, I've been in the mood to do some soldering. Maybe this is a sign of my modelling mojo returning, or just that I fancy doing something a bit different. Whatever, I've been dreaming about messing around with hot metal. 

Out of the stash has come this Mercian Models kit for a Hudsell Clarke 0-6-0 diesel-mechanical shunter. It looks quite a lot like the BR Class 07 with it's central(ish) cab and bonnet front and back. I've always like the 07, so this appealed as something a little different. 

BR owner 10 of these machines - numbers D2510 to D2519. Introduced in 1961, they only lasted six years in service before being sold off to the NCB. One, D2511, is now preserved. 

History records these locomotives as another odd purchase. By the time they appeared, the standard BR shunter offered either 204hp or 350hp. Was there really a benefit in a tiny class producing at the lower end of the scale? Perhaps they were a welcome re-design from nine earlier HC shunters (D2500 to D2509) with their distinctively steam-era styling, complete with chimney and bunker, but that's hardly a reason to buy more is it? Those machines also lasted until 1967, so were arguably more successful, even if none were preserved.

The locos found themselves allocated to Birkenhead, Borrow-in-Furness, Watford and Crewe South, whose staff must have been delighted to receive orphan locos whose quirks they would have to learn when maintaining them. 

 

Anyway, the kit wins it's place on the workbench by virtue of being complete - I have the earlier HC design to build one day, but need to sort out wheels and motor, so that can wait for another day. 

Most of the model is etched in nickel-silver, so promises good soldering. The instructions are exploded diagrams, and apart from the jackshaft drive, shouldn't be too challenging to build. Good, because my loco building skills are distinctly rusty...