Post 5000!

Today marks the 5000th post on this blog. It's taken just over 14 years to get here - although moving a post-a-day speeded things up a little.

Since 2005 I've been busy documenting the projects that have passed over my workbench. In the process, I've improved my writing and developed the ability to pull ideas out of the thin air, for projects and more importantly, for things to write. As a method of exercising your creative mental muscles, blogging can't be beaten.

OK, I know this stuff isn't perfect. There are typos but hopefully no-one minds too much. If they do, they've stormed off to one of those blogs where endless discussions of the role semi-colons play can be found.

Anyway, this calls for cake.

Post 5000 also sees the completion of the J72 project.



It's a pretty typical blog project - pointless (the new Bachmann model is better) but I enjoyed it, and since this is my blog, that's all that matters.



While I've been writing this blog, the world has gradually changed. Flickr hosting now chucks stuff up on images when you roll over them, so many of the pictures her now live in Blogger. Flickr shots are clickable for a larger version.

Blogger is changing too, but not very much and I don't think there will be anything visible to the reader. Behind the scenes, Google is putting a bit of effort in. I'm not worried - leave it alone and I'm more than happy. OK, it's not as slick as Wordpress, but it is free and being able to fiddle under the bonnet appeals to me.

Anyway, all being well, tomorrow will see post 5001 appear and I'll start working towards the next milestone. Thanks for reading.

There's no floor in this plan...

Not a great photo but it was hard enough persuading these ModelU figures to hang on the inside of the J72 cab without worrying about producing something photogenic.

As it was I wasn't going to flatten the side of the figures to provide plenty of area for the glue as that might have them sticking out of the side too far. If they can't get their feet close to the side then that's how it is.

After a bit of messing around with superglue, I used UHU to tack them in place. It's bulky enough to fill any gaps. Then a load of epoxy to ensure they stay put once the floor is inb and re-fixing an errant figure becomes next to impossible.

The figures fill the holes nicely and look natural, which of course they are. I particularly like the fireman looking backwards with a rag in his hand. It's the sort of view you see in old photos.

Four non-blondes

What's up? Well, I've painted a set of figures for the J72. Yes I know there are four of them, but I want to pick the ones that fit best, and then there is another project waiting in the wings which needs crew.

I'm aiming to have the footplate manned by people hanging out of the side so you can't see the lack of detail within the cab itself. In this respect, ModelU figures are perfect as Alan seems to have produced an awful lot of lounging types. Since many of these are real railwaymen, I wonder what that says?

Colour, or at least black

Close-up photos can be cruel. On this loco, they exposed the horrible mould line up the front of the chimney.

Once scraped away, there was a line along the top of the boiler too. When that was dealt with I had loads of unpainted plastic showing. Time to break out the airbrush, or at least wait until the weather warmed up a little and Christmas was out of the way.

I'm pleased to say that sprayed Revell No.8 is a pretty good match for the weathered paint finish on this loco. I gave the top of the boiler and firebox a dose of dirty black to show the sooty grime that had landed from the chimney.

While I was at it, a bit of rust and track colour shot around the model helps blend things together nicely. A bit of work with powder will finish the job, but I'll fit the cab interior first. A wash under those buffers would be a good idea too.

Head scratching on the J72 cab interior

I don't understand the cab interior. The diagram and instructions don't really help me much. Maybe I'm just a thicko.

Fortunately, I know what I want to do - fill the gap so you can't see through the bottom of the floor. The old chassis filled the cab but the replacement is full of air compared to that.

So, I've folded it up as best I can. Cut a slot in the back edge to sort of correspond with the lump in the body moulding. I'll spray it black and then glue in place.

The plan involves a crew hanging out of the sides anyway so you won't really notice. While I'm not doing the fantastic cab interiror with all the controls of the Bachmann model, this will do fine.

Rods on the J72

While watching the last episode of the BBC's fairly awful version of War of the Worlds, the one where the writer looked up the plot on Wikipedia and then decided he could do better, I fitted the rods to the J72. 

It's a while since I've done this but remembered to blacken all the metal I didn't want the solder to stick to with a thin permanent marker. Then some fag papers were folder either side of the rod and pushed on the crank pin. 

The retaining washer was fitted, rod cut to the length and then the pair viciously filed to reduce the washer to very thin. 

Finally, a drop of non-corrosive flux and a wipe of solder fixed things in place. 5 or the 6 went perfectly. On the last, the washer gripped the paper too well and so under power, the crankpin unscrewed itself. Digging the paper out solved the problem. 

After that, a drop of light oil on every bearing and I was running the chassis up and down my test track. Something more entertaining to watch than the end of WotW.

Boiler fill

This might not look like an exciting picture, but I'm happy with it.

Originally, the J72 chassis block stuck out into the visible part of the boiler. The new chassis cures this but at the cost of exposing the open underside of the barrel. I'd spent quite a time pondering how I'd fix this, then looked in the box to find a cast piece of whitemetal.

Better still, it turned out to be an absolutely perfect fit. Slid in with a little superglue, the gap is filled and some useful weight is added.

All I have to do is paint. I'm hoping to avoid a complete repaint and wonder how close a match one of the Revell off-blacks is. I'll need it for the chimney too judging from Tuesdays photo...

Buffer beams

Moving on with the J72 build to the body beautiful, the main job seems to be to scrape the buffers off and replace them with metal versions.

Snipping off the old buffer housings with some worn-out electrical snips wasn't hard. Flattening the rest of the beam was. That plastic is tough. It didn't take to being filed, but succumbed to abrasive sticks.

I've no idea why this should be, but it is. With care, I smoothed off the beam without removing the lip along the top. After that, some superglue fixed the replacements in position.

I'm just not sure they are an upgrade. For a start, the metal seems too small, and the extra thickness reduces the effect of the top lip. With hindsight, I think just replacing the shanks and heads would have been enough.

Chassis with pickups

Finding time to work on the J72 is proving difficult at the moment. Too much to do for work sees spare time vanishing. However, the other evening I managed to get the pickups fitted to the chassis.

I'd painted it with a nice off-black spray paint bought years ago from 4D models. There's a bit of texture to the paint, but with a little extra dirt, this works really well.

One pickup plate could be bolted in place (I planned ahead) while the other had to be glued in (I didn't). After that, it was a "simple" case of bending up some phosphor-bronze wire to bear in the back of the wheels and join all this lot up with fine wire. Being quick in and out with the hot iron and using some DCC Concepts no-corrosive flux helped me not desolder previous work. I might be getting the hang of this - although proper modellers will say I should plan and engineer things better.

To avoid short circuits, I ran superglue on to any exposed pickup, and managed to gum up the front axle. Taking the wheels out (good job they are Romfords) wasn't easy and it took 2 goes to put them back as I managed to make the classic mistake of swapping insulated and uninsulated wheels over...

Still, it runs. And quite nicely too. Time to move on the bodywork I think.

J72 Brake gear

Time for some sacrilege.

I don't think the brakes on this J72 chassis are very good.

For a start, when hung, I don't think the centres of the brake blocks are a good match for the centres of the wheels. The pull rods aren't long enough by quite a long way either. I bodged them with some scrap fret and they look OK to those who know no better, and fine to those of us not that bothered because you can't see properly when the loco is on it's wheels.

Finally, the brackets at the top of the hangers are designed for the wider EM and P4 chassis, and therefore too short for OO. Maybe someone decided that OO modellers wouldn't care? Another bodge, this time with bits of Microstrip.

It will all look fine with paint, but unless I've screwed up (perfectly possible) this isn't as good as the finescale maffia would claim it to be. Still, paint and dirt will hide a multitude of sins and I quite enjoyed the remedial work.

Wheels in the chassis

I love the Hobby Holidays chassis jig. The wheels were fitted to the chassis, rods fitted to the wheels, and it runs smoothly when pushed around first time. I can't remember the last time I was able to say that.

The only hiccup along the way was losing the little bits of insulation I use to hold the rods in place until I'm happy. I'll trade 5 minutes making some more of those for a working chassis any day.

I was so happy, I test fitted the chassis to the body. It's supposed to clip in at the back and be retained at the front by a single screw. Rice (who designed this chassis) recommends this in one of his books as it avoids twisting things, something you might get by overtightening a bolt at each end. It also makes removal quicker.

I needed to remove a plastic pin beside the front screw hole on the body, but once done, the chassis sits where it's supposed to.

Romford wheel preperation

Romford wheels enjoy a well-deserved reputation as the most user-friendly locomotive wheels for kit builders. Metal centres, self-quartering axles and nice bolt-together assembly make them perfect for the sort of modeller, who like me, needs to take them on and off many times while building a chassis. 

OK, they aren't most high-fidelity of wheels, but I'll trade looks for effectiveness any day. When you build a model, they stay put on the axle without pins or glue. When you encounter wheels that don't, you pretty quickly yearn something that just does what it is supposed to. 

Despite this, I like to do a little work off the model, especially with a 2nd hand set like these. 

Even if you don't have to bathe the wheels in paint stripper, it's worth running a 10BA tap through all the crankpin holes so these later screw in nicely. 

I clean out the square central hole with a small file too. I want wheels that are snug-fit and this isn't always the case. You can turn the retaining nut harder sometimes, but it's not likely to ensure a wheel perpendicular to the axle. You don't do the special screwdriver any favour either - probably why one of mine has shorter prongs than the other making it a bit useless.  

All this only takes a few minutes but makes the next stage so much more enjoyable.

To compensate or not?

The biggest decision of the J72 build was whether I should fit the chassis with compensation. 

A relatively long wheelbase 0-6-0 is rarely going to find all 6 wheels touching the rails. Ideally, at least 4 of them will enjoy vertical movement for improved trackholding and electric pickup. 

All this comes at a cost. You've to cut the chassis to fit hornblocks and some sort of equalising beam. 

Alan would have fitted compensation, all the bits are in the box. 

I've decided not to. 

Why? Well, I like to keep things simple. This is my first chassis for years. The only locos I routinely compensated were in 3mm scale and to be honest, I didn't enjoy the work. I only did it because there was no other way of keeping the stupid fine-scale wheels on the track. 

This loco uses Romfords. Wheels with proper flanges. 

And I'm doing this for fun. Yes, fun. Therefore I'm not going to make the job harder just for the sake of it. I'm sure the model will work. I don't actually have a layout in mind for it anyway. Nor do I have lots of spare time to faff with all the extra slidy bits. 

Sorry Alan. 

Setting up a Hobby Holidays chassis jig

Clever people don't need jigs to set up a chassis. I can do it, but as I own the tool, why wouldn't use it? 

One issue I did remember from the dim and distant times when I last did this is that the otherwise excellent Hobby Holidays chassis jig uses 1.5mm diameter ends on the supports, and the holes in my con-rods are 1mm. 

I think in the past I've just judged it by eye. This time inspiration made me use the rods to drill 1mm holes in a piece of 2mm thick Plastikard. These were then opened out to 1.5mm and used to set the spacing on the jig. 

I'm quite pleased with this idea. Let's hope it works.

A pointless loco build

There is no point in building a OO gauge LNER J72 steam locomotive.  

With the Bachmann model on the way, you would be wasting your time.

But, I have a box full of bits including a rather nice Mainline body, the entire Mainly Trains detail kit, High-Level gearbox and some Gibson wheels. All inherited from Alan Gibson (not the wheel man, the photographer). 

I'd got these out for the amusing video we recorded looking at the differences between the Mainline and Bachmann model. If I was sensible, I would put these back in the cupboard they came from. 

I am not sensible. I'm also stupidly busy and really need to take a few breaks to do something different from the stuff I do for magazines. 

So I'm going to build this model. 

First step, replace the wheels with Romfords. A dig in the drawers unearthed a set. I'm sure Gibson wheels are fine for some, but I need to be able to take wheels on and off axles. I also prefer them to stay put when on the axle. Romfords let me do this. 

The first job, make the con rods. I only had to have two goes at this to solder the right bits together. I really am a rusty loco kit-builder!