DJH/Tower Models Streamlined Coronation Build

On Easter Sunday afternoon I had a phone call from a gent that puts a lot of work my way asking if I could fit in building a DJH Streamlined Coronation as soon as possible. The Gent that I am building the J6 for is in no rush so I decided to have a bash.
The kit was dult delivered on Sunday evening and by bedtime I had the basic tender chassis together.
Another couple of hours on Monday morning had the tender chassis complete, so far so good.

DJH Streamlined Coronation Tender

DJH Streamlined Coronation Tender

DJH Streamlined Coronation Tender

To a degree I feel that any criticism that I make of this kit is a bit like sour grapes given that I chose the David Andrews kit over the Tower/DJH version when I bought mine.
That said, hiding what I find doesn’t help anyone else who may decide to build one of these.
The key issue with the tender chassis is that the cross members that fit between the wheels are  a single half etched layer in the middle section, which makes them very vulnerable to bending. This and other areas where key parts are a single half etched layer (more on that later) are particularly noticeable to me when this build comes right on the heels of building the MOK LMS tender which is prototypically similar in many respects.
Although I don’t know the name of the loco that the model is to ultimately represent I have been asked to build it as one of the double chimney red ones – Apparently there were some differences on the red ones over the first few blue ones (I had originally planned to build mine as Duchess of Hamilton in Blue when Coronation was masquerading as DOH while DOH went to America masquerading as Coronation, confused yet…..). Luckily the kit also came with a loan of the Wild Swan/NRM Loco Priles book for the Coronation Pacifics.

Ian Kirk Twin Set Underframe fittings

Although I haven’t posted on this for a while things have progressed but there hasn’t been much to take photos of.
We had decided to try the Sparmac queen posts from Invertrain while all the other fittings (vac tanks, roof vents, grab handles etc.) came from JLRT late last year before they closed although they look similar the key different in the Sparmac queen posts is the fact that they don’t have holes for the truss rods to go through. I popped them with a punch, deepend the mark with a pin vice and then used my Proxxon Pillar drill to finish them off. Sadly taking the photos has just highlighted to me that I have missed drilling through one the holes so I will need to do that one by hand since they are now stuck firmly on.
I also added the vacuum tanks.

Ian Kirk Twin Set – Queen Posts and Vacuum Tanks

Ian Kirk Twin Set – Queen Posts and Vacuum Tanks

Ian Kirk Twin Set – Queen Posts and Vacuum Tanks

Ian Kirk Twin Set – Queen Posts and Vacuum Tanks

Tender Skin…..

This is what it looks like with the overlays on the body. You get two options included in the kit either welded or riveted. I chose riveted because it adds a little more to the character.

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender Top – Outer Skin

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender Top – Outer Skin

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender Top – Outer Skin

These latter two show the front bulkhead now it’s fitted and the fire iron tunnel which fitted perfectly.

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender Top – Outer Skin

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender Top – Fire Iron Tunnel

More tenderness from MOK.

Before going any further I started to make up the bulkheads which are made up from multiple layers. Here the instructions (or my interpretation of them) let me down again and I managed to get the overlay for the top of the front bulkhead out of sequence meaning that I had to cut a section out of it to prevent having to undo a lot of work meaning that it sits around the lockers not behind them (it was quite easy to do with scissors due to it being half etched). It isn’t visible in the end result but I know I had to do it.

Front Bulkhead

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender – Front Bulkhead

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender – Front Bulkhead

Fire Iron Tunnel

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender Top – Fire Iron Tunnel

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender Top – Fire Iron Tunnel

A Tender MOK moment (more like 3 days work actually!)

A few days off over Easter saw me make further progress on the 06.
Shaping the curves of the inner tender sides was interesting because in my ignorance I had chopped off one end of the etch which contained the marked etched bend lines and although I still had the piece that I removed I couldn’t realistically realign it. So some careful measuring was in order.
I annealed the tops of the sides where the main bend was to be – I did this a couple of times during the process.

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender – Bending the Flare

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender – Bending the Flare

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender – Bending the Flare

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender – Bending the Flare

In order to bend the front curves of the tender sides which were very close to the half etched line for the location of the front bulkhead I soldered in a couple of strips of scrap to stop it bending on the half etched line instead of where I wanted it to.

Once happy I soldered in the rear bulkhead and started to add details.

LNER 06 (MOK 8F) Tender Top