Monthly Archives: March 2017

V4 Brake Van Interior Details

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In between doing bits and pieces on the Kirk coaches I have been making slow progress on the V4 brake van.

I have been fortunate to have been given access to a couple of GA’s by fellow member Dave, which show a hearth and heat shielding around the area where the stove sits.

A raid of the scrap etch box yielded this – the hole in the bottom it where the stove will bolt down.

7mm scale Brake van interior details

And me, being me couldn’t resist making the coat hook to go with a lamp iron that hung to either side of the chimney.

7mm Scale coat Hook

7mm Scale coat Hook

Now I mentioned that I have two GA’s and this is where life gets a little odd. One of them shows 3’7″ wheels which is what Jim recommends in the kit and the other shows 3’1″ wheels. Even more odd is the fact that when trying to fit the 3’7″ wheels they rub on the underside of the solebars. Plan B is to try some 3’1″ wheels and check out the ride height.

“and there’s more”

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To quote a comedian whose name I cannot remember – “and there’s more”

Last night I only had a little time at the bench and got completely distracted from the brake van by thoughts on vacuum tanks for the all third. I recently managed to get some really good underfloor detail photos from an LNER 3 compartment first at Stainmore railway. which included good shots of vacuum tanks and cylinders – They are on my Flickr site should anyone need them

This is where I got to, they still need much cleaning up and for the legs to be straightened/cut to length and I plan to solder them to some scrap brass plate to give an area to glue to.

Scratch Built LNER Coach Vacuum Tanks

Scratch Built LNER Coach Vacuum Tanks

Raising the Standards

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I managed a little more on the internals for the V4 brake van last night.
Being, by inclination and birth, a tight fisted Yorkshire man. I don’t throw much away, and sometime ago I bought a thousand 10ba brass CS screws. The problem was that when I bought them they only had them in 1 1/2″ lengths. This means that most of them that I have used so far, have needed cutting down. This has resulted in me having a few 1″ lengths of 10ba studding.
Fast forward to my cleaning up one of Slaters’ very nice cast Brake Standards for the V4 and I clumsily broke off the the spigot for attaching it to the floor. At first I was just going to solder it to the brass floor and be done with it but then I thought that having the floor removable for as long as possible would help with painting the inside.
So I drilled out the base where the spigot had been and soldered in a length of the aforementioned stud. A little of the solder wicked up the thread but a quick run down the thread with a 10ba die soon sorted that.
I then thought that with a bit of filing I could use a 10ba nut with some scrap etch to represent the lever for the brake cross shaft and although turning the handle doesn’t actuate the brakes it still looks the part.
It wasn’t a great leap to think that I may as well do the same with the stove to make it removable too.

Modified Slaters Brake Standard and Guard’s Stove

Modified Slaters Brake Standard and Guard’s Stove

All about Dynamos, LNER Coach Dynamos that is.

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Work progressed over the weekend with much of the available time being spent on fitting the roof which is now almost there. It’s the first one of Ian’s bow ended roofs that I have tackled and I am sure another would be much easier.

In between sessions on the roof I attached the battery box and prepared the V hangers for the vacuum cylinders. Not many words and not much to show visually either.

What is worth sharing visually, is that I did more work to one of the dynamos.

Starting from this, if you will forgive the repeat of an earlier photo.

Kirk Coach Dynamos – with a few additions

And using this as my working example (this is one of the very nice Sidelines castings).

Sidlelines LNER Coach Dynamo

I arrived at this.

Ian Kirk + scratchbuilt parts LNER Coach Dynamo

Ian Kirk + scratchbuilt parts LNER Coach Dynamo

Ian Kirk + scratchbuilt parts LNER Coach Dynamo

I am so pleased with the result that I plan to [s]rip[/s] gently prise the dynamo off the parcels coach that I am building for myself which just needs final details and painting and modifying it to the same spec.

Small Steps, Quite Literally!

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Last night saw more small steps – quite literally in that I made up the rather nifty etched steps for the Tevan

Parkside Tevan Steps

Then I did a bit more on the V4 brake van getting the floor cut and fitted ready for soldering in once I have fitted the brake gear etc. – I made the floor from a scrap etched part and I have yet to decide whether to fill the holes with rod or leave them. – There are only 5 and they are less than a mm in diameter and will they be seen with the roof on, I doubt it.

Connoisseur NER V4 Brake Van

I also made a couple of inserts for above the veranda which once soldered in place will increase the gluing area for sticking the roof on once painted.

Connoisseur NER V4 Brake Van

Parkside GWR Tevan

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I must really be in touch with my feminine side when it comes to building wagons because I have been multitasking. In between sorting out bits for and building the KIRK BG I have also managed to put together one of two kits that I recently bought to build for sale.

This one being a Parkside Kit for a GWR Tevan. Not being a GWR/WR modeller I have relied somewhat on the historical info in the kit and one photo that I found on the net of a preserved example.

Apparently these were converted in the late 1930’s from Mica Insulated vans by removing the interior hoppers for Drikold refrigerant and the roof hatches from which they were accessed. The were then used for the conveyance of tea and coffee from the Lyons Depot at Greenford.

Having said that, apparently there is photographic evidence that at least one of them retained its roof hatches and, me being me, I chose to model the unusual one. – Helped along by the provision of the hatches in the kit. Another plus is that they lasted in to the mid 1960’s

At the minute the plan is to finish in BR WR livery as being the most attractive to prospective buyers.

 

7mm scale Parkside GWR Tevan

7mm scale Parkside GWR Tevan

Although you can’t see it unless, (and to quote Jim Snowden saying recently) “it falls off” I chose to add the vacuum pipe run under the floor and the smaller pipe to the vac cylinder.

 

7mm scale Parkside GWR Tevan

Modified by CombineZP

Apart from adding a pair of rather nice fold up etched steps it’s ready for the paint shop.

Looking Like An LNER Coach At Last

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Further work ensued on the BG this weekend and it’s now starting to look coach like.

Ignore the bogies, they were to hand so I used them to prop the coach on for the photos

 

Ian Kirk 7mm scale 52 foot BG

Ian Kirk 7mm scale 52 foot BG

Ian Kirk 7mm scale 52 foot BG

Ian Kirk 7mm scale 52 foot BG

In between I made up the battery boxes for the all 3rd.

Ian Kirk 7mm scale Battery boxes with added detail

More photo stacking

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I did a couple more photo stacking experiments and I am now getting the hang of it – the first of these being the better outcome.

Ex Caledonian Timber and Ore Wagons

Ex Caledonian Timber and Ore Wagons

Back to the Workbench at Last – Further Work on the Diagram V4

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Due to recovering from minor surgery, I haven’t felt like venturing into the workshop since early February and apart from a bit done on the Kirk coaches a couple of weekends ago I haven’t done any modelling at all.

Last night I ventured forth and got stuck in with the NER V4 brake van again. I added the remaining corner patches, the guard irons across the door ways and added the foot boards. I had done the roof at the last session that I did but forgot to take any photos of it.

I think that apart from the brakes and remaining handrails that fit into the end posts all the brass work on the outside is complete so whitemetal fittings next.

Connoiseur NER Diagram V4 Brake Van

Connoiseur NER Diagram V4 Brake Van

Connoiseur NER Diagram V4 Brake Van

Connoiseur NER Diagram V4 Brake Van

Connoiseur NER Diagram V4 Brake Van

Connoiseur NER Diagram V4 Brake Van

As on the other NER brake vans I made a replacement for the cast chimney from tube.

Connoiseur NER Diagram V4 Brake Van

Connoiseur NER Diagram V4 Brake Van

 

Photo Stacking Experiments

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I have been experimenting with photo stacking for some time using the free software ‘CombineZP’ but only recently have I played about with changing the point of focus.
Here are some of my experiments using a couple of timber and ore wagons
Using a Canon 350D, first I used the manual point of focus setting for the following shots. They were then stacked using CombineZP.

Ex Caledonian Timber and Ore Wagons

Ex Caledonian Timber and Ore Wagons

Ex Caledonian Timber and Ore Wagons

Unfortunately there are only 5 manual focus points on the horizontal plane (there are only 3 in the vertical plane) and for some reason I cannot seem to select the one on the extreme left (unless it is selected but the LED has died). This means that some of it is out of focus.
The last photo is taken using the cameras Auto Depth of field function and then 6 shots stacked.

Ex Caledonian Timber and Ore Wagons

It has turned out to be the best of all of them.