Jack P

Thank you! I can't really claim credit for the idea though, DLT provides endless inspiration and good ideas, much of what I try and implement has come from the pages of his thread. It does make it much easier to pull the gear in/out. Thanks Dave! As I said above, an idea taken from yourself, many photographs and write-ups of your work has proven to be extremely helpful. I see what you mean about the expansion link.. The drawing was unclear, and the nub appear to face this way on the prototype. Another case of leaping before looking I think. I'm not sure if I will rectify it now though - possibly just chalk it up to experience. I think If I revisit the W I will made additions to the valve gear, the valve spindle crosshead and guides are poorly represented and it would be nice to add them in. It certainly feels like i've broken a barrier. Two things which previously were daunting, are now less so. Jumping back a bit, I decided to have a go at fitting the pony truck. It had a real tendency to flop about. I'm not an expert on compensation, suspensions or springing, but I decided to add a bit of wire and some tube inside the frames to retain it. If anyone has any other suggestions for bogie/pony springing, please do let me know. I'm not under any illusion that people are waiting with baited breath for my next update, but; modelling will now be put on hold until at-least the end of the month. My partner, some friends and I are spending some much needed time away by Lake Taupō

I've made some progress - lots of firsts! Using Gibson wheels and building valve gear. Both much easier than I thought they'd be. I only used rivets in one place, the rest are all 16BA nuts/bolts, it really is like metal knitting, but the end result is so pleasing. I also used some scrap etch to connect the cylinders with the two motion brackets. This makes the whole valve gear removable. Confession time - the combination lever is on the outside of the motion bracket, instead of behind it- but the compromise was between this and good running. I couldn't get the bits inboard enough to ensure enough clearance for the crosshead. I don't think it spoils the look.. much. Not much left to do now. A feew cosmetic items to add to the cylinder chests, and then they can be primed and painted. The motion will all come off again to be blackened and the wheels/brakes painted in situ. The body needs a few small details added, mainly the tank tops and the front lamp irons. I might make some cab doors too. I'm glad I packed the tanks with lead, even with that added, the loco is very light. I might try and get some more lead sheet into the cutout in the boiler/firebox. I'm really happy with the decision to move to Gibson wheels, the GW press is so easy to use, and I really like the fidelity of the spokes and flange. These will be my go-to wheels from now on.

I just read that.. Ah well. I'll push on, and just keep the 'issues' in mind. Thanks David. I'd though about springing the tender/loco drawbar, i'll keep a couple of options in mind for when I get back around to the L.

I've cleared the bench of the DJH L until some suitable material arrives for me to try and make some frames. I picked the W up again, and have made some progress. I managed to come up with a solution for making the roof removable. It's not as hard to remove as it might look, filming and holding is more difficult than it sounds. Excuse the messy soldering. It's my first fully etched kit, and there's been a lot of trial and error. The rain strips on the roof are a little bit oversize, but i'd gotten to a point with the roof where there was a compromise between having larger rain strips, or a gap between the roof and the cab sides. I chose the former. The cab roof opening is also wrong, on the W they opened forwards, not backwards, and the closed position of the hatch is bang on the middle of the cab. For a class of 15 they really were all very different. It's not going to be a 'finescale model' as much as I might wish it was, but it will look like a W, and (hopefully) run well. I can only try and do better on the next one!

Thanks Richard! Chris W has built a fantastic chassis with a pivot beam on the front driver/bogie. I'll probably look to replicate this arrangement as best I can. Worst case; if I can't produce something decent enough to use, i'll just tart up the begeezus out of the DJH chassis and spring the front bogie, as well as hang the tender on the draw-bar as Pete did. You're certainly right about this hobby being a journey. I love looking back to the first few pages of this thread and comparing that to where i'm at now. I'll try and cram as much weight in as I can over the drivers. I can't seem to find any springs that really suit 4mm locos.. they all seem much too hard! The loco sitting too high can be cured by removing the 'pads' at the front and rear of the underside of the footplate (about 1.5mm). The addition of the ashpan helps with the airy look these locos seem to take on as supplied by DJH. It's not as quick as it might look.. I'm usually awake till the wee hours too - most normal people don't do this (i'm told) .. I scribed a line and tried to do a row of rivets along it. Ended up looking more like a bow of rivets. Maybe i'll give Mr GW a call and ask about it.

I ordered one of Chris's new motors the other night. How would you compare it to similar Mashimas?

Sometimes I wonder if I intentionally set out to make things difficult for myself. I'm not overly happy with the chassis for the L, and i've encountered another issue, it's front end heavy. A prime candidate for my first scratchbuilt chassis? @chris25 has shared pictures with me of his efforts, and they are stunning. I did order a bunch of sheet metal and metal section from Eileens today, just in case. I will continue to ponder. I decided to tackle the tender, which really doesn't need much. 1768 recieved a C class tender, and from what I can tell, the only modification it recieved was coal rails. The front and rear plates were left in their original position, and remained curved. You can see the front of 1766's tender has the raised flat front part in front of the coal space (none of this is technical terminology, for that I apologise) The Roxey coal rails I obtained for this build, are pretty good, they are just very very thin. It would be foolish to trust them to stay in place with a dab of glue, so I settled on another method. This is the back of the rail, I added some wire across the top for rigidity, and then two pegs to secure it into the tender. And in situ: I carefully bent the wire into place, and then filed it flat at the 90 degree bend. Probably not the best place, because its now a weak spot, but i'm more confident gluing this in place.

I'll have to have a hunt and see if I can find the discussion. I'd like to 'fix' it if I can.. god forbid doing a whole bufferbeam, only to find after the fact... I agree, Dave is a real stand up chap. I'll call him before I do anything else with it. The rods look really good, definitely worth the extra time taken. I'm looking forward to seeing how you get on with the S15! The LNER Pacific's look excellent too. Thanks for the kind words!

Chris, Thank you for your kind words! I think after seeing your L, I certainly wouldn't consider it to be "blocking up my thread!". Please feel free to post the pictures you've sent me. I'm really enjoying the GW press, I seem to be running into some issues that I can't quite pinpoint, occasionally a line of rivets will wander off centre, and the line will start to look like a curve. I've tried using the grub screw to keep one of the slide bars in place, but it doesn't seem to have any bearing on if it will end up straight or not! I'll keep playing. for my next trick, I shall try and produce a circle of rivets! Richard, I might give Dave at SEF a call, and just have a chat about the oval boiler. If you've not encountered this issue, perhaps mine is an anomaly. Your finished C2x looks extremely well built and weathered. Did you replace the rods? Thank you for your kind word on the L frames, I think they already look better than supplied, and give the loco some of it's "Chunky" appearance. Thanks Pete! Much inspiration drawn from yours. Yep, i've been finding as many reasons as I can to use the GW riveter!

Hi Phil, thanks for dropping in. I think the issues you encountered are the same issues that plague the entire range of 4mm kits. Having said that, I think i'll place an order for a C2x and give it a go.. I do enjoy a challenge! Thank you for your kind words. I think i'm lucky, buying new models often means they just end up with a coat of black (which is generally pretty straightforward). I'm no Warren Heywood, but after some trial and error I've managed to refine down my technique and produces a result that i'm happy with. I feel I'm at risk of becoming a Jack of all trades, master of none. However, I think some of the best model railways I've seen are a cohesive effort, where everything is built and finished to the same standard. When I started this thread back in February of 2017 I never thought I would be at the stage i'm at now, I genuinely owe a massive thank you to the readers and contributors of this thread. Without their helpful guidance and encouragement I probably wouldn't be doing what i'm doing.

I've started work on the DJH L that was very fairly obtained from @45568. I've chosen 1768, this loco received a C class tender, and I just so happen to have a spare Bachmann one. This will require a few modifications, but much simpler than building my own, and much, much simpler than building/modifying the DJH one. @pete_mcfarlane Covers the issues with the tender here: The castings for the body measure up well against the drawings in Russell. All of them are generally crisp and clean, and fit together well with minimum fettling. So far i've removed about 1mm off the rear of the firebox and the pads on the bottom of the footplate, in order to shift the smokebox back and drop the ride height. Everything has just been placed together so far. Spurred on by Pete's comments, and the obvious lack of firebox/ashpan arrangement below the frames I came up with this: I'm waiting on my poppies jig before I solder everything up and attach the front/lower section. As you can see, the arrangement is hollow, this allows the drive stretcher for the highlevel box to sit inside it, the motor mount then sticks up above this and the motor pokes into the boiler. I need to give Chris a call on Monday and get one of his thinner motors, as I can't get a 14mm wide Mashima between the firebox sides. I've also decided to use Gibson wheels on this build too. The romford ones just don't look right. I think if this build goes well, I'll use them on any future builds.. I'll get on the phone to Colin on Monday too.

Thank you all for posting photos of your fantastic models. It's certainly convinced me to press on with finding a solution to my own woes. I'm in talks with ACE at the moment, trying to decide if it's worth paying 2/3rds of the kit price for the bits I need, or just buying the whole thing. In hindsight, it might've been better to go with the DJH kit. I'll make sure to pick up Volumes 9 and 10 of The Southern Way, Very much appreciate the tip! Chris, I think i've harassed you about it before over PM, but you really must start a thread so that we can admire these fantastic models! (i'm surely not the only one who thinks this either)

I'd love to see some photos if you can find any! It seems to be re-occuring theme with the DJH SR locos, all of them seem to sit too high. I have much of your L class build in my notes for when I embark on my own. I wonder if it's worth seeing if I could get a selection of bits from the ACE kit. Might just be worth getting the whole kit and mashing them together..

WARNING: Image heavy post. The images also aren't great. Using the DSLR again, but extremely rusty. I've just noticed that the footplate is bowed, I think that's because I haven't put the middle screw back in through the chassis. Will pull it apart tomorrow and investigate. The modifications i've made are pretty subtle, but I think they're worth it. J is 'done' for now. She needs coal and fire irons (and another crew member), but transfers are all on, and she's been weathered into 'worked but clean' condition. It's not perfect, but i'm really over the moon with this one. It's been a lot of fun, trying lots of different things too. I also really rate the Chivers Kits, Almost a 'shake the box and they go together' type scenario. I've also managed to get the I3 painted. It was almost painful covering all the copper pipework up, you can hardly see it now! The last photo really shows off the bend in the boiler too. Confession time; This loco and I cannot seem to get along. I ordered a smaller motor to replace the beast of a thing that was in here. I tested before disassembly, tested the chassis with the motor/gearbox out, tested the motor/gearbox out of the loco before put it back together. All worked perfectly. Put it all together and it ran like a bag of shite. Awesome. I tried many different things to try and get it to go. I even swapped the driven axle from the front to the back. Nothing worked. So I conceded that I must've made a grievous error or two somewhere along the way, causing the issues I was having now. I swapped the old motor back in and it runs like a swiss watch. Whatever the issue is, the big motor must just have the grunt to make it seem like its not there. Decided to cut my losses and just build the cab up around the motor. It doesn't look terrible, at least, I don't think so. It could be much, much worse. In any case, a dab of black paint over the sticker, and some crew will help disguise things even further. In hindsight, If i'd used a high level box and had the drivestretcher going forward, I would've allowed myself enough room to fit the whole backhead. I'm really really pleased with how the rest of the cab came out. Admittedly, the camera does me no favours, but to my eye the internal weathering is nice and subtle, getting into all the nooks and crannies just as I wanted it to. I'm really happy that these projects are coming to a close. Despite numerous trials and tribulations, I feel like every step has been a chance to learn something. I also built these both entirely myself, with lots of 'first times' in there. Roll on the next bodge!

In fairness, Dave did let me know that it wasn't quite up to the same standard as the revised kits - which as you say, are generally quite good! I would agree that in the case of the C2x, the heavy whitemetal boiler would provide more than enough weight on the drivers. Honestly if the boiler was round, and met the footplate (some judicious filing and some whitemetal extensions would sort both of those issues) I'd probably still use it. I'm trying to weigh up which of those two is more work, but will product the better result. The assemblies are cast extremely well, despite their inaccuracies. Maybe I should take some photos, just so people can visually see the issues. ACE kits spring to mind, apparently putting one together is more difficult than getting one in the first place!

I feel like whitemetal kits are still a good outlet for constructing locos while building up my skillset. I really haven't been doing this very long, and building locos for much less time. (The N15x took 2 years, and it's only in the last few months that i've kept going again). Having said that, I agree Mike. The difference in finish, in spite of my own construction being so-so, between the W and the J, or i3 is cavernous. I would be all over more etched kits for southern locos, but as Pete said, many are only available as (and i'm being harsh here) lumpen whitemetal kits. Thanks Bryan! It's certainly is the bigger, uglier sister of the H! Thanks for the comments on the piping. It wasn't the fastest job in the world, but I really enjoyed doing it, and I think the loco looks so much better for it. The PDK W isn't without its challenges, but overall it's a fantastic bit of kit, It's almost all slot and tab construction, which makes it even easier. The resin boiler is another boon, as rolled brass boilers are still a bit daunting. I'll take some pig with my lipstick, thanks! You're right - in fairness though Dave did warn me that it's an older kit, and that he hadn't done much revision. The chassis is very basic compared to the updated SEF kits. Either way it's a class of loco I wanted to have, I'd heard a few not-so-good things about the DJH one, now i'm not so sure. I'm sort of looking forward to it in a way, it's going to give me a chance to work on skills that I haven't really had much chance to build on previously. I wonder if i'll be so optimistic when I actually get started..? Would you be willing to share some photos of your own C2x('s)?

Oooooh, now that's a handy tip. I always find the lids of Humbrol tins to be deceiving. I'll have to give this a go! Coaches look excellent by the way!

I sometimes wonder what happens between my brain and fingers! I could well be both.. Progress. Gave the fox transfers a go on the J, now waiting for a final coat of varnish and weathering. The B4 has had it's transfers applied and is waiting on the same thing. I ended up stripping and fully repainting this in the end. I wasn't happy with the off black/grey body colour, and glossing only exaggerated the issue. Were all the little details worth it? Final details added to the I3 I gently scribed the lines for the bottom of the cab door. These aren't perfect, and i'm still missing the cab handrails. Maybe the next build? Primed, and rivets added to the smokebox and smokebox door. If I was to re-do another I3 i'd rebuild some of the front end parts out of brass, specifically the smokebox saddle. The boiler is also slightly undersized, approx 2mm. Next time i'd (try) and cut the boiler off in front of the tanks and fabricate one from there forward. Now the elephant in the room. That smokebox door. It was designed for the correct size boiler, which means the small step around the side doesn't look right. In addition to this, it is flat faced, when it should be dished. The cumulative effect of this is that it completely throws the front end off. A friend of mine is designing a replacement door in CAD for me to have 3D printed. The current door is glued in place with a small blob, so should be easy to remove when the time comes. My construction of the kit is miles away from 'perfect', but it looks like an I3 and runs well. Which I think is what's the most important. Not to slow down, I thought i'd get the W out and have a look, I've been dreading getting this kit restarted. I'm pretty sure that it's not entirely square. The rear of the bunker is an interesting one with a reverse curve. All the instructions say is, "This bend is important, and extreme care is needed to get this right", yiiiiiiikes! I started by building up the rest of the cab interior and tack soldered everything in place to check it all fit ok. I moved on to the bunker rear, you're supposed to laminate a thin etch onto a thicker one and then bend the curve into that. I though i'd try and bend the thicker one first. Absolute nightmare. no luck. So I had a go with the half etched overlay - success! I managed to get the bend right and tack soldered the bits in place, doing a little bit at a time. Again, it's not perfect, but this is my first brass kit. I've been a real moron and decided this is the kit that i'm going to try Gibson wheels on. Eeeep, I've got the GW wheel press, so hopefully i'll be alright with quartering. To add to my trepidation, I've got outside valve gear to do too! C2x arrived from SEF, I decided to have a quick look through the kit and the parts in the box. Some of the castings look good. However not willing to make anything easy for myself. I've already identified some issues: - Boiler is oval shape - Firebox sides do not extend all the way down to the footplate, instead they stop halfway down the splasher and rest on extensions of the frames - Cab sides have the wrong cut out profile and are approx 1mm too short - Tender footplate is badly warped and the sides are curved up - Tender chassis is a whitmetal lump I've started a list, with (hopefully) solutions that will rectify these issues. - Instead of rolling a new boiler, obtain some correct size (21mm) thin brass tube and cut at the beginning of the firebox, folding the sides down. - New cab sides and front out of brass - Either: Straighten out tender footplate or cut a new one - Replace tender chassis with Alan Gibson 6' + 6' frames Am I making more work than I need to? the front of the smokebox is very clearly oval. I could try and file it round, but my next concern is that the firebox isn't deep enough - I could solder so whitemetal scraps to the bottom to extend it. I'm trying to weigh up which is more worth doing (with the skillset I have) The weight of the whitemetal over the drivers would really help with adhesion. Hmmm. Will think about it further. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know!

That looks fantastic Tom!

Dave, you might've seen that i've been busy at work the last few days and re-read your thread (for the umpteenth time). To me, some real standouts, among all of the high quality builds you've done are the E5x and the A12. Absolutely phenomenal job! I have to ask, how on earth do you get the cream interiors of you cabs so consistent and even? I find that even with multiple coats of brush painted cream, mine just doesn't have the same coverage. Yours looks thick, without being so thick as to lose detail - if you get my drift?

Has anyone managed to fit more weight to the Hornby LN? I rolled up some lead and pushed it into the boiler, but the loco is still incredibly light on her feet. I've got some liquid lead, but I can't seem to get that in spots without getting it everywhere else!

I actually didn't bother removing the handrails or handles I pretty much never do (when repainting stock). What would probably come in super handy after the repaint is a thin piece of plastic card, cut into a rough shape, so that you can slide it around/under the door handle to paint them. I'm a sadist, so I paint them all freehand with a small brush. Clenching the entire time and hoping not to get metallic paint anywhere except where it should be. More difficult if the handrails aren't separately fitted. the ones on this EMU are moulded detail. I didn't used to remove numbers, but I always do now, even with a nice coat of primer you can often see them as raised detail. I use enamel, or (only a smidge) Lacquer thinner on a cotton bud to get the numbers off, followed by a light brush with a fibreglass pencil. The real PITA with the birdcage coaches is painting the window surrounds (which are part of the window moulding), possibly with some skillful masking you could prep them and spray them, but I just use a toothpick with the end filed flat to paint them. Any over-spill is cleaned up when dry. I hope that helps!

does anyone know if this announcement is set to be an 'update' to the release schedule, or is it 'NEW' stuff? Alternatively, should I just shut up and wait?

The list of things to add to thew I3 to finish it off is getting smaller and smaller. I realized a little while ago that the coal rails provided in the kit would be unsuitable, and I would need to figure out a way of 'filling them in'. Fast forward to tonight. I could only find 2 of the 3 parts. Taking a brave pill, and some inspiration from @DLT I decided to make my own. Equipped with some 0.40mm brass sheet and 0.80mm wire, I set to work. Not quite the same standard. But I surprised myself, they came out ok! There really is a finite list left now, front and rear lamp irons, and the steps on the fronts of the tanks. (I've said it before but) I'm really looking forward to getting this one done!

Yeeeeeeeep, I've not had trouble with them in the past - well, not this sheet specifically. But Fox looks like a good option, I've used their transfer before on my gate stock. Let me know how you get on dude!