The end of Ghillie?

 

The old incompetance is back. 

Deciding it was time to move back to the DJH O16.5 kit that last appeared here in November, I started by fitting to the chassis to the body. And as you can see, it doesn't fit. 

After a bit of investigation, it seems that when I made up the backhead, I didn't check the motor would fit inside it. It doesn't, by the thickness of the whitemetal firebox back. Enough to stop the body fitting. 

Cockups like this have always plagued me. At the time I did the work, I could have easily checked and rectified the problem. But I forgot to do it. 

Which leaves me a decision to make. As I see it, the options are: 

1. Dismantle the cab and backhead, make a new brass wrapper and then put it all back together. A lot of not very satisfying work. 
2. Grind out the rear of the backhead with a dental bur, trying not to burst through the front. 
   
3. Put the model back in its box and shove it in the cupboard. 
4. Extract the wheels and motor, then throw the rest in the bin. This was supposed to be a quick(ish) and fun project. Let's face it, the finished model wasn't going to be particually realistic!
5. See if I can flog what I've done for no money, and let someone else take on option 1. 

I really don't know. Right at the moment, I don't have much enthusiasm for any of my projects. Work is work, that's fine and I'm pottering along with it, but there are also hundreds of kits and plans in my stash. Each one was aquired with a fit of enthusiasm, something that has evapourated now I come to look at them. I know if I visited a show, I'd come away with another addition to the pile, again convinced that I would jump into it and finish the model quickly. 

What I want is to pull something out of the pile, really fired up to build it. This would be good for me, but it's not happening. Yes, there are dream kits in there, but I don't have the space for the build right now as there is a layout in the worktop. Others will, I know, suffer project creep once I open the box and go from a quick sticking together job, to a more detailed build I just don't have the energy for. 

Regular readers will know this isn't the first time I've lost my "modelling mojo", and it's come back. There are a lot of shows and events in my near future. Perhaps those will do it. Fingers crossed.

Plastic handrail knobs

 

I've managed to fit in a little more work on the DJH loco. This time I've fitted the handrail knobs on the tank and smokebox. 

My first thought was to dig through my collection and use turned brass ones - but in the kit there were enough plastic knibs, so would they work? 

Also in the kit is some wire, but it's curled up, so I replaced it with 0.45mm straight brass stuff. I'm trying to use as much of this kit as possible, but I have limits, and trying to unbend wire is well beyond those. 

So, the knobs had to be drilled out. Not easy, as they bend. By holding the heads in needle nose pliers, I managed to do this withouth breakage, although there was some scary twisting!

The holes in the body also needed to be opened out a bit, same 0.5mm drill bit plus a twiddle with my smallest broach. Then some superglue, and the job was done. 

To me they look a bit undersized, and I'd normally use 0.7mm wire in 7mm scale, but I can live with this as that's how the kit is supposed to be built.

Cab work

 

First job, fit the brake standard. Easy. Poke the spigot through the hole in the floor, and solder underneath. 

Then the roof. This is supposed to fit between the sides where they curve up. It doesn't. A couple of mm has to be cut off, and a bit of filing then makes it sit down properly. Easier to write than to do!

One advantage of soldering, is the solder acts as a filler. 

That is handy, as there is a step along the front edge. This is why I thought the sides fitted either side of the front sheet. The step would be gone, but then the centre section would have been too narrow!

Anyway, I blobbed a lot of solder along the step, and then proceeded to file it to something like the right shape. The result isn't perfect, but with a little weathering, it's not half bad either. At the same time, the join lines along the top have been hidden. 

And the whistles have fallen off. The old glue isn't so strong after all!

Sandboxes and (gulp) chimney

 

Time for some detailing. The sandboxes are easy, each has a spigot that sticks through the footplate. All I had to do was run some solder around this, underneath and out of sight, and they were done. 

The chimney was a different problem. The previous builder had removed the spigot (why?) and messed with the apro around the bottom. Cue several attempts at tacking it in position. With the use of a square under the footplate, and looking carefully at the side, I think it's OK, and checking it again the morning after, I still think we are fine. 

There is a slight snag. None of the fillers and dome are in the centre of the tank, even though they are fitted with spigots. I wonder how strong the aged glue is?

Bunker time

 

The imaginary bunker is a simple afair. Four sides to be joined together, and fitted to the footplate. Raised beading on the sides indicates these go outside the front and back. 

Once fitted to the footplate, they didn't seem parallel to the cab sides, so I loosened the joint, and gently levered them back a little with a long, thin screwdriver. At least the doorway looks right, even if it's a bit tight for the normal, portly crewmembers. 

A top is supplied, but that's going in the spares box as making a solid box would preclude getting anything in to clean out the flus. Also, it's pointless, as I'm going to put some real coal in the back eventually. 

The sharp eyed will spot I've fitted the bufferbeams too. Quite a bit of glue to be removed to do this, but now they are firmly fixed.

Shim brass

 

Shim brass is basically just very, very thin brass sheet. Modellers in the old days seemed to make pretty much anything from it, and I was always impressed by the versatility of this wonderful material. 

Of course, I aquired some, and have hardly ever found a use for it. 

Until I came to fit the backhead to Ghillie. 

The whitemetal backhead is fitted to a U-shaped lump of the same material. Said U-shape is to be cut back so the backhead just clears the rear fixing screw. Trouble is, when you do tha, you are still left with a gap between the back of the backhead casting, and the cab back. 

No problem, a strip of shim brass, soldered to the backhead with some 100 degree solder (a process that sounds simpler than it turned out to be) covers this, and makes the whole assembly look much better. 

And I've still got loads of the stuff left - probably a lifetimes supply!

Tack soldering win

 

I mentioned that I was soldering the kit together last week (and yes, I must put a guide on whitemetal soldering together one day) and starting on the body demonstraites why I am right to do so. 

The cab front consists of three parts - two sides and the front. Easy enough to assemble, except do the sides attach either side of the front, or on the back? 

I guess on the sides, so tacked them in place. Then I put the assembly on the footplate, and realised its too wide. They should go on the back. 

No problem, heat the solder, and the parts are seperate again. A little cleaning up, and we are good to go again. This time with them as the designer intended. If I'd glued them, I'd have had to wait for the stuff to dry, and then broken the joints. A much slower process.

Cleaning away primer

 

Time to move on to the whitemetal body. The part-build is a bit odd. We have some large lumps of metal for the footplate and tank, plus the more vulnerable whistles attached on top. 

Everything is glued together with what looks like an epoxy. Very old skool, I'm going to be soldering for speed, and also the ability to tack parts together while I check the fit. Also, I like soldering whitemetal. Using an adjustable soldering iron, it's nicer than working with glue. 

However, soldering requires clean metal, and the model has been sprayed with primer. No worry, I had a new tool I thought would deal with this, the Le Crayon metal cleaning brush, from TMC. 

Originating in the metal detecting world, where it is used to clean up delicate finds, it's very fine wire wool in a wooden pencil-style holder. 

Sold for cleaning wheels, I was woried about scratching the surface of the tyres, but that would make it perfect for stripping away the primer. 

Except it isn't. That wire wool is very fine, and gentle on the surface. Forget damaging tyres, it will be ideal for that job. It just shows how first impressions can be wrong!

In the end, I scraped the worst of the primer away with a knife, and then polished the metal with the brush - a job it did superbly. The metal shines like silver, and effect I've only achieved with Brasso in the past, but this does it without leaving any residue, or any signs of a scratch. Very impressive.

Track testing

 

The track has been laid on the NG7 magazine project layout, so I couldn't resist giving the "Ghillie" chassis a quick run, powered by a 9V battery. 

It works, and pretty well to. OK, a bit of grease on those gears would be a good idea, but I think they will quieten down with use

Screwing down and chasing shorts

 

The chassis works, so time to finish off the body. This was part started when I got the kit, so in theory, it's not going to take too long to add the remaining whitemetal parts. 

First though, and most importantly, add the bolts used to screw body to chassis. The front one had been done, but the back one needed a touch of 100 degree solder to fix it to the footplate. I have managed to forget to do these in the past and had to become creative once the body was in the way of the fixing hole...

Of course, when the body is screwed in place, the model doesn't run any more. That's the trouble with a live chassis, electricity everywhere, and the different polarities will find each other. Sometimes you see helpful sparks, but not this time. 

The first culrpit was at the front edge of the footplate. The wheels touched the corners, and needed a little metal removed to stop this. I went a bit mad with a coarse file, but this won't show on the finished model, and I like to be better safe than sorry. 

 

 

The other issue was at the front. I still don't understand this as the polarity where the pickups are is safely contained, but gently pushing body and chassis together resulting in sparks, so insulation was called for. A thin coat of PVA now coats the top plate over the clylinders, and all is well. I'm pleased how neatly this has gone (you can't see it in the photo!) even if I don't know why it cured the problem.

A good idea, that doesn't work

 

Adding pickups to the Ghillie kit ought to be simple. There is a nicely moulded plastic part that just needs the wires slid through it, before being stuck to the bottom of the slab-like chassis, and the connecting wires to the motor soldering on. 

Now, I only need one wire as this loco has a live chassis, but I fitted it as expected. And there the trouble started dear reader. You see the problem with this system, is that the pickup wire (phosphor-bronze in this case) rotates in the hole. So, you carefully bend the ends to brush agains the back ot the wheels, and the end up pointing up or down. 

I tried superglue. I tried melting the plastic around the wire. Neither helped. 

In the end, I make a new plate from copper-clad, glued it to the bottom of the chassis, and soldered the wire to it. No more spinning in place, and the model now runs pretty well on the rolling road.

A working chassis

 

The motor is back in, and the chassis works! 

This is great news as it makes a huge difference to the chances of this project being completed. 

One change to the previous lash-up is a blob of No More Nails where the Blu-Tack had been. It still provides the gear mesh, and stops the motor spinning around the retaining screw. 

All I need to do now, is fit some pickups, and this heavy beast of a chassis will be trundling along a track. I just hope I didn't mix up the insulted and non-insulated wheels...

Waggly bits attached

 

The chassis has had a coat of primer, and some back paint, so I can start fitting the wheels. With these in place, the slighly crude sidebars, connecting rods and whitemetal corssheads go on. There's no worry about binding, all the holes are on the generous side!

Still, it all seems to work. The back of the crosshead has a cutout to clear the cranks on the lead axle, so I didn't need to file them down very much. The only problem comes with the slide bars, which, initially, aren't fixed in place. 

Pre-formed lengths of metal are supplied, which slide through holes in the end of the cylinder. These are also generous, causing them to wiggle around. No worries, a bit of 100 degree solder fixes them to the bottom of the cylinders. They don't seem to inclined to move now. 

One crosshead included a moulded piston rod, but none of the others (there are three more) do, so I drilled and fitted a 1mm diameter brass rod. After a little trimming so they don't whack the end of the U-shaped bit of the slide bars, all seems to be moving freely.

Squeeze that motor into the chassis

 

It's big isn't it? 

Fitted into the chassis, the motor looks somewhat incongruous, but that is the way the kit designer intended it to be. I wonder if there were smaller options? Thinking back, if we ignore motors from the Tri-ang 'Rocket' or TT range, possibly not. 

Anyway, the chassis runs. Everything relies on the blob of Blu-Tack under the middle, which stops it spinning around the hold-down screw at the back, and gives a little backlash to the gear mesh. 

With the body in place, you can see what the England style tank appealed to DJH, there is space around the back end, but not a huge amount!

What's odd, is that there was a side-tank version released at the same time, and there's not space in there for the same motor configuration. I wonder what went in there?

Motor

 

According to the box, this is a Japanese motor, and it is in a pink carton marked "Mashima", so it's reasonable to assume this is true. 

The motor is also a bit rusty, and full of foam crumbs, the source of which is a mystery. 

Still, a few minutes with a stiff brush, some emery for the rusty bits, and a little light oil, and we have a result. 

Whack a 9v battery across the terminals, and after a little hesitation, the motor spins over very nicely. This thing was well engineered all those years ago!

Replacement Romfords

 

Close up, the Ghillie chassis is very much of its time. Rectangular frames made from thick brass are screwed together with spacers. Plastic centre wheels screw to a D-ended axle. There's a lot of K's kit technology in here. Not terrible, but dated. 

I'm not going to replace the frames. Since the loco is a pastiche, what shape should they be? Anyway, I like a bit of over engineering. The wheels will have to go though, as they are falling apart. 

Fortunatly, I have enough of a parts stash that four 16mm diameter Romfords are quickly found, along with the axles, which fit nicely into the original holes. I probably bought them for something else, but have forgotten what right now. There's almost certainly the wrong number of spokes too, but then this isn't a real loco, is it?

DJH "Ghillie"

 

I don't need any more locomotive kits, but when I spotted this unusual whitemetal model from DJH on RMweb marketplace, I snatched it. £28 later, and the box was whinging its way to me. 

You know by now that I enjoy weird stuff, and this loco is definitely oddball. Quite what well-respected firm DJH were thinking when they produced it I don't know. It's obviously based on an England class loco, as found on the Ffestiniog, but with a coal bunker and not the tender hauled by the real thing. Did someone expect that modellers would scratchbuild a tender - if so, why not put one in the kit? 

Anyway, it's wrong, so I want to build it. 

The body is part assembled, using epoxy glue. Whoever did the work has done a good job, so I don't expect to have to dismantle it. Instead, I can concentraite on sticking all the bits in the bag to it. Hopefully, not too bad a job (Famous last words?).

Underpinnings are also part assembled. K's type D wheels are included, but the plastic centres are crumbling, so I'll need to dig through the stash for some replacement Romfords. The axles should be the same size though, so this won't be a problem. 

A motor, that at first glance looks like and X04 is in a Mashima box. It's 5-pole and with a slightly more spohisticated brush arrangement than the Tri-ang version, so let's see how it goes. My guess is that the sheer size of this was part of the reason for picking the prototype, plenty of space in the saddle tank!

Note: Matt, if you post that you have two examples that I could have bought for a song, I'm not listening...