Well Roger has done it again and I’m sure he won’t mind me sharing this “must have” link if your into cab detailing or have an 8F to build now or in the future. cheers again Roger. https://www.360cities.net/image/cab-interior-of-lms-8f-class-48624
I am impressed at the pace that you are getting through it Kim - my 8F has been 10 years and counting....
Tender has now been sprayed with etching primer cab is now ready for a trial fit on the footplate section, so to get an idea for what she will look like I have made up yet another sub assemble, this time it’s the saddle front plate, buffer beam, a couple of nice curves to form up and then a curved strip to solder along the edge. so here is how it looks after today’s session, only “dry” fixed together after cleaning up all the white metal boiler sections.
Front foot plate assembly test fitted on to the white metal chassis. A bit of fettling to get it to fit and there is a little bit of filing to do to get the curved foot plate ready to solder to the side plates. All holes have to be pre drilled as once the firebox and boiler go in you can’t get in with a drill. Next job to complete each boiler section. fire box boiler smoke box and smoke box face. Next a test fit to see how it will eventually go together Fire box will be screwed to the cab assembly so I will need to drill and tap holes there, and the smoke box assemble is screwed to the chassis which will leave the boiler Free to move to get final alignment before soldering it all up.
Drilling the fire box proved eventful, the drill broke on the second hole, and try as I might , without some major surgery, half of a 1.6mm drill has become part of this loco. Thankfully there was enough depth to the hole to be able to tap it enough for the screw to tighten sufficiently enough for the two parts to secure. I did have to use 3 washers to achieve this. Final fix, I will cut the screw length back to correct this. once the boiler and smoke box were aligned and secured together, they could then be offered up to the smoke box and the front holes drilled and tapped. Thankfully this was a straight forward job and no drills were injured in the process. so a test fit of the three sections all secured down on the foot plate found no glaring errors. I’ve also started adding the finer detailing, hand rails are not soldered in yet. More detailing work today and at some point a really good clean up. I will split the foot plate assembly from the boiler assembly to make painting the model a lot easier, hence the use of the screws. Final assembly will have the cab screw locked in with lock tight ad the front screws will have washers and nuts added inside the boiler.......
Hi Kim, You are not on your own., I broke three .7mm drill bits while drilling the front handrails. I reckon that the casting is getting on for 10mm thick in places as the front curves. Like yours two of them will be part of the model forever. Regards Rob
So at the end of today’s session most of the detail work done. There’s a casting missing, lost, misplaced ?? So big clean up tomorrow to see if I can find it or if not some scratch building will be required. Need to find some detailed pictures of the below cab pipework as well.
What a pace you are eating this up at. Fantastic quality as ever Kimbo and a hugely enjoyable build. Top Mark's. Now tagged compulsive viewing. Toto
Cheers Toto. I’m really enjoying building this one. No major headache’s ....so far, due mainly to good instructions and good castings which go together without to much fettling.
That's half the battle when a kit has good instructions laid out in a succinct manner... fantastic build Kim and a thoroughly enjoyable thread to follow... very nice speed build indeed.
Cheers Paul....I’m lucky to be able to spend several hours at a time on this kit which seems, for me, to be far more productive than the odd hour here and there, where you spend a few minutes setting up and then a few more remembering where you are in the build and before you know it, times up
Re fitting the body back on to the foot plate allowed me to sort out all the detailing items that can be fitted before the model is separated again allowing me to give it and really good clean up and primed. Lots of loverly pipework, hand rails and white metal castings added. I’ve done the pipes in such a way, that some are attached to the body only and some to the foot plate (will be clearer when I split the two parts and take some pictures)
Your right, I often look at other people’s builds and think the same. I need to decide the final finish..... this is rather nice... https://www.wikiwand.com/en/LMS_Stanier_Class_8F
Body and footplate separated and cleaned again, then into the paint department for its first priming coat, so whilst those two are drying off I started to assembled the cylinders and then given them a good clean up.
G`day Kimbo, Those cylinders have a nice crisp detail to them and the video is great...........I am going to have to settle down into that and watch it through properly. Gormo
Cheers Gormo, yes they went together really well, hardly any clean up on the white metal needed. There’s some nice cab detailing bits in the video as well as some good scenic sections of the journey, I think you’ll enjoy watching it.
Primed and ready for painting.....boiler back head has had a couple of washes and some detailing done.