1/35 Trumpeter BR86 Dampflok

[Stesca]

Stunning detail work this is going to look fantastic.

[KAYELL]

Wow!

K

[bangle]

Well after over a year i'm dusting off the box and getting my BR86 out of storage!

It's nice to see some interest even after so long, I happened to have a look on here yesterday and it's convinced me I needed to did out the box and get going again. It will probably take a little while to dust off all the parts but i'm hoping to make some more progress soon!

It's good to see another BR86 out there Ozzy, it looks like you were making good progress in January, i'll have a look in a minute and see if I can find out how you got on with it

[snapper_city]

You didn't dig it out from under a Polish mountain did you?

[bangle]

It looks a little like that with all the dust that appears to have accumulated, but no. I'd like to think my return to model making is less of of a hoax than that appears to be!

So far i've discovered that I never did manage to buy that hex rod that I needed to buy or at least if I did, I put it somewhere where I can't find it!

[Madhatter]

Yay - your back!! I wondered if you'd ever come back and finish this off as I was really enjoying watching you create a master piece

I shall resume my seat

MH

[bangle]

It's good to see you on board , I had a look at your loco, it looks great! I thought you'd complete yours before I did mine but I didn't expect to still be this far behind!

I decided to ease myself back into this gradually so I decided to get started on the door at the front. I'd thought this was going to be a nice simple cut off sprue and glue job but, oh no, I forgot. This is a Trumpeter kit.

They very kindly give you two options for the door, but for me it turns out neither one will do. The hinge one one is the correct type but is too wide, and on the other the hinge is the correct spacing but the wrong type. Thankfully it's not been too much of a job to adjust but there's still plenty of detail to add, not to mention the fact that Libor's wonderful resin kits only supply 4 light units, and there are six lights in total. However as they are different in appearance to the other four and I still have the Eduard etch to use i'm going to make do. I started with the very simple modification on the lights. Simply filing down the handle at the top makes a huge visual difference. I'm trying to procure myself something suitable for the lense as I haven't got anything I could use in my spare parts boxes.

[Ozzy]

Bangle,

Yeah mine went together really well no complaints, I found a company from Greece that produced 1/35 light bulbs/ filaments and also some balast for the coal. Apart from that it's all out the box, it took about 3 jars of Taymia flat black to cover her fully. I had never done a train before so was a little unsure on how to weather, but found plenty of references material out there.

[bangle]

It's nice to do something different every once in a while. The weathering thing appeals to me too, especially as we bought lots of powder pigments at Cosford model show this year. I really want to try them out! It seems I may want to consider looking at my paint supplies before I start too, though i'm going for the classic red and black scheme so it will be gloss for me mostly.

I'm very interested in your source of lights, do you know what the company was? I would like to have a look myself and see if it's something I want to go for.

[bangle]

Not much model making going on this weekend as I went to watch the Duxford airshow, seeing all those spitfires perform their display was fantastic!

I have been working on my model in the week though, I got as much of the front door done as I can for now. I'm going to get some etch made up for the plates and I need to see what my little glass lenses look like when they arrive, plus add a few little bits later like the electrical connections. Anyway, here's my progress:-

[Ozzy]

Nice progress, nice picture of the spitfires I missed them coming over Salisbury.

Here is a pic of the light bulbs, and also their web address is on the packaging, I had to give them a small trim to make them fit. But they do look good.

[bangle]

Thanks I'll be checking those out!

I got my glass beads yesterday, turns out they're waay to thick so I decided to have a go at filing them down to fit. I'm starting to think this a futile venture, even with a whetstone! I'm still going with the first one even though I started yesterday morning! I do have a back up plan but for now i'm going to keep going. Why, I really don't know, maybe because I hate not finishing something I started!

[bangle]

In the end I gave up on the glass as a lost cause. My backup plan came in the form of some resin carbochons usually used for rings and other crafty stuff. They're self adhesive but a little bit of a mild airbrush cleaner fixed that. I found these to be a great solution, lovely and clear and the perfect kind of curve. (though I think I need to make sure I keep them fingerprint free in the fitting process!). I've been making miniature but steady progress. I added some welding (filler) to a couple of pipes and began assembling the round tanks of something or other and adding detail as usual to make them look like they're held in by D clamps, all of this is still at the rough stage at them moment and will improve in appearance a bit later. I also bought some of those light bulbs from slingshot models

[MODeller]

Following this thread with great interest as I have the BR 86 kit which also came with the Big ED set (total £80 on ebay! ). I have also found another set that comes with resin as well, look on ebay for ETMODELS A35001 for 1/35 BR86 loco around £53 posted from China! For your nuts and bolts there are the Meng Models sets A,B,C and D which should save a lot of slicing and dicing, yours MODeller

[bangle]

You got a very good deal there! I paid £85 for the kit without any extras. The LZ models resin is a really good buy though, especially the one with all the bits for the top of the boiler. I've seen the ET Models offering, it's good and I considered it but I decided that with the LZ models sets and the Big ED set there's too much overlap so it wouldn't justify spending the money.

I hadn't seen the Meng models nuts and bolts, I knew you could get things like that but I considered that hex rod is probably cheaper and can be useful in other ways too so i'd be buying it anyway. Maybe I would have been tempted at the beginning, but now i'm kinda used to doing it the hard way!

Progress has been made on the little storage tanks under the boiler. I'd thought that Eduard had some details for the fronts but due to the totally atypical nature of 333 it has some more detail to add. The small one is pretty simple, I just used a bit of hex rod which I drilled through the middle so I can fit some plastic rod for when I link up some pipes. For the one in the middle I used a semi-oval etch part from my spares box then I used a file to make a surrounding shape. Then I added a handle using a filed down strip from a photo etch fret. Both the large tanks have taps at the bottom which I constructed using some hex rod, which I filed to a ball shape at one end and added a smaller hex rod piece. I used another strip of photo etch fret and filed and bent them to handle shapes then added an etch nut from the Eduard set. It seems that on older models the taps served a purpose and had pipes coming out of the bottom. On 333 they appear to be a legacy piece. I still need to add a square cover to the tank on the left which i've just remembered. Anyway, here's some pictures of the tanks almost at the start and then after adding my details.

[bangle]

My light bulbs arrived today, they look pretty good to me and most importantly the correct scale.

I also finally got round to the part i was putting off, which is making the front foot plate. Ironically this turned out to be far simpler than many of my other diversions! The first thing I noticed is that the trumpeter kit part is not actually all that inaccurate. That is if you consider the fact that somewhere in the design process someone made a mistake and placed the plate too far back, then added the steps and the lights based on the mistake. On the left is where trumpeter want you to put it. On the right is where it should be and below is a picture of the actual loco for comparison.

This was somewhat of a surprise for me, and in some ways a relief. Looking at the proportions it becomes clear that this piece is the same shape and size that I want, which is rather handy. Ii started by making a plasticard template.

Then I cut the etch, I used the Eduard 1/35 German Floor Plate Type II for this which is just about right, although slightly different from that used for the floor plates in their Big Ed Set (the Type II is actually more accurate in appearance). As the undersides have what look like a kind of L-shaped strengthening plate I added some plastic card which I edged with plastic card strip to get the right effect. I did the same for the top side of the floor plate once i'd glued it on.

All in all, i'm pretty pleased with the effect so far, the next job is to add the triangular supports which attach to the buffer and some more plastic hex bolts.

[Ozzy]

Nice progress, I like the picture of the actual engine.

[bangle]

thanks I know, it's rare for me to do such a thing, 333 is pretty much at the top of an image search for BR86 so I figure anyone who's interested can probably find plenty of photos if they want to.

Some little changes can make quite an impact and adding the triangle supports to the ends of the buffers is one of those. Nice and easy to make too!

[Madhatter]

Nice tidy work as always. I like the small details on the airtanks - small but effective

I'm really enjoying this come together again and it even inspired me to take out the K-5 "Leopold" out of storage for another look, and I even got as far as cutting the wheels off the sprues and into a bag ready for painting - but then I put it away again as I am still not yet ready for that much work Instead, I shall watch you work your magic on the '86

looking forward to the next update

Si

[bangle]

Thanks! Is that the 1:35th scale version of the K5 you have? I think that one's great! If I had enough room i'd build one, I do love the German camo schemes. As it is, when the BR86 is built it's going to be taking the place of our 1:72 Revell U-boat.

I'm still making steady progress on my loco, I decided to work on the step support on the front of the boiler.

I had decided to keep things simple for once and although I knew this part is not flat I decided to stick with the kit part. But fate conspired against me and whilst I was drilling a hole for the pipe that sticks out of the front (I don't know what this does) I went up too many drill sizes in one go and snapped it in two.

As I was making a new part anyway now I decided I might as well make it the right shape too. I used the rather crude method of heating my plastic card up with a candle to bend it. This wasn't the most elegant or precise method but it seems to have worked. I did have to make two attempts at this as, though i'd calculated that the part would only be about 1mm smaller in width with the bends in, an acceptable reduction, it turned out to be more like 3mm once the part was made so I had to start again with a longer piece. The photo is of the too short one.

I also made my mysterious pipe thing, it has a cap on a chain so maybe it's some form of drainage. I used some Amati chain I happened to have stored (one of the advantages of having built a couple of wooden ship models), my usual selection of plastic rod and hex and a random bit of an etch fret as well as a single link from a slightly larger chain.

All in all I think it looks pretty smart test fitted (my support is starting to droop free of it's temporary blue tak in the photo). I had to make some new holes so I could place the support further back, otherwise the front arms would be sitting too far forward for the steps.

After this I worked out that much of the work would be dependent on exactly where the boiler sits, which in turn is determined by the cab. So I decided to pause work on this section and move elsewhere. As I wasn't in the mood for working out the complications of the cab I decided to work on something else. One of the perks of this kind of kit is that there's so much to do that it doesn't do any harm to start on something random as it all has to go together about the same time somehow. I chose the wheel linkages. As my loco is far more modern that what the kit makers have used there are certain differences as well as simplifications. This is what they looked like to begin with.

I started with re-shaping the edges, taking away the square lines and cutting them to make curves. I removed all the top boxes as they're just not the right shape. I bought some very handy photo etch circles and squares that I found whilst I was browsing a model site someone on some thread or other on here had mentioned. They have proved very useful in this particular instance as they're just about right for what I want to do.

I've started with some of the links at the end, trumpeter have one single bolt but they actually look like this:

I had to do a little simplification on the centre bolt but using my handy circles and my other resources I came up with the following, the top part being the complete modification and the bottom one being the before shot.

Edited October 3, 2015 by bangle

[bangle]

I've been working hard on the links, it's turned into quite a multi stage operation. First I cut up some 1.2mm plastic rod in half then glue it in to the recesses to make them square ended, then I carved some of the plastic out behind some of the circles to give the impression that certain parts are jointed like they are on the real thing like so:

This then needs to be filled and sanded before I add the first set of photo etch and plastic circles (the state of the rod below the rails in the next picture below). The plastic circles get sanded down to the same height of the etch before I added the next lot, then I added the hex rod, followed by drilling out of the centres of the hexes so i can add some plastic rod to the centre to approximate the bolt thread. At this stage my husband very kindly centre drilled the relevant sections of the resin wheels for me, which is great as he happens to be rather skilled at it and I know i'm not!

Anyhow, the next part to tackle were the tops (I really should learn some terminology here), i'd already cut off the boxy bits from the kit so now I replaced them with some plastic card squares. I then took some 1.2mm rod and squeezed the tops with a heated pair of long nose pliers to make a flat portion. This was then cut down to make the part which I fitted to the centre of the boxes by drilling a hole for them. I then added some tiny little plastic card circles made from rod to either side. Anyway it's probably easier to visualise than to descibe so here it is:

Now all I have to do is go through all the rest of the rods and things and give them a similar treatment. I've already realised that there's significant detail missing from the large rod that begins where that big hole is in the rather blank looking square so it looks like there's much more work to do as usual.

[Engineer66]

Hi Bangle, just found this thread, very interesting.

Nice tidy work so far, with some good detailing, looking really good.

Re the terminology, if it helps the 'links' rods between the wheels you are working on are called Coupling Rods, the small boxes on top of the bearing bits you cut off are oil boxes for lubricating the bearings, and the rods that connect these rods to the Piston rods are the Connecting rods

I've been looking for some hex rod for a while but can only find it in larger sizes, where did you get yours from?

Keep up the good work

Cheers

Al

[bangle]

Hi Bangle, just found this thread, very interesting.

Nice tidy work so far, with some good detailing, looking really good.

Re the terminology, if it helps the 'links' rods between the wheels you are working on are called Coupling Rods, the small boxes on top of the bearing bits you cut off are oil boxes for lubricating the bearings, and the rods that connect these rods to the Piston rods are the Connecting rods

I've been looking for some hex rod for a while but can only find it in larger sizes, where did you get yours from?

Keep up the good work

Cheers

Al

Thanks that's really helpful, i'll try and remember them! I thought logically the boxes were probably to do with lubrication but I wasn't sure and I don't like to talk about things like I know what they are when I don't.

It's interesting that you ask about the hex rod, i've had a bit of trouble getting hold of some myself recently, There used to be a model shop a couple of years ago where you could buy the rods individually. So like I had done before, I ordered some from their website, after 3 weeks i'd received nothing. I e-mailed them they never replied and they never answered a single call. So I go on the web and found some reviews, it turns out i've been scammed and I will never receive what I ordered. So whatever you do DO NOT order from Westbourne models!

The hex rods I use are Plastruct ones, a couple of days ago I ordered some with Antics online model shop and they arrived today so i'd say they're fine to order from, though you can find some sizes on eBay too. Antics do the range of sizes from 0.5mm which I think is the smallest you can possibly get! You can only get them in packs of 10 it seems, but apart from the dodgy site I haven't found anyone that sells them in less than that for the small sizes. I find the 1mm and 1.5mm sizes most useful, but i've found uses on my loco for all the sizes they do up to 2mm.

[MODeller]

Just looked at ema-models.co.uk and they stock Plastruct hex rod from 0.5-3.2 mm, a good supplier to deal with but they have a minimum order of £12, not difficult once you see the goodies that they stock, can recommend the Northwest Short Line "Chopper" as a real boon to scratchbuilding! MODeller

Edited October 7, 2015 by MODeller

[bangle]

Just looked at ema-models.co.uk and they stock Plastruct hex rod from 0.5-3.2 mm, a good supplier to deal with but they have a minimum order of £12, not difficult once you see the goodies that they stock, can recommend the Northwest Short Line "Chopper" as a real boon to scratchbuilding! MODeller

I don't seem to have much luck with model companies at the moment, I tried EMA models before Wesbourne and I managed to put a load of things in the basket (over £12 worth of stuff) then the payment screen wouldn't come up. I figure something out there really didn't want me to buy hex rod that day.

Edited October 8, 2015 by bangle