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Heather's TSR2 diorama *DNF*


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On 5/2/2021 at 5:27 PM, Heather Kay said:

I hope that's helpful. Please comment and ask further questions if you think I missed something obvious!

 

That was a very good description of "how to" soldering white metal kits. Most of my experience is in soldering electronic devices including hand soldering SMD parts as small as 0402 and of course much brass bits for model making.  I have never assembled a white metal kit of any sort but now I am looking around for something so that I give it a go.

 

If I was to add anything it would be be that 90% of the job is preparation - clean, clean, and don't skimp on the flux.

 

A couple of links that some may find of interest. They may be a bit dated and electronic component oriented but soldering is soldering and the fundamentals still apply:

 

 

 

cheers, Graham

 

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On 5/2/2021 at 3:38 PM, Heather Kay said:

A tip I did pick up, and have tried and used with some success, is rubbing chalk into the file before using it. It fills the valleys and helps prevent the metal clogging.

 

That is a trick an old tool maker taught me many (many) years ago. Apparently the chalk used by railroads for marking cars and such was better than todays common garden variety dollar store chalk but I have never been able to find out what the difference was or ever find any real railroad chalk to try. Another trick was to use the same cutting oil on your files as you would use for other metal machining tasks but I think you would want to keep that oil away from your plastic or resin parts and once the file is soaked in oil it was best left that way.

 

Another trick I use is to use plain old ordinary tap water. Dip my needle file in a bit of water like I would with piece of wet or dry paper. The water helps carry away the bits of plastic or resin or metal instead of filling up the file. But, you must remember to wipe down your file after use to prevent rusting; I give it a good wipe with rubbing alcohol and pat with paper towel and left to air dry. 

 

cheers, Graham

 

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I’ve been a bit preoccupied with paying work this past week or so. Truth to be told, I’ve sort of lost the mojo a bit for the Hippo.

 

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Work has been the steady process of painting four 0 gauge coaches. They’re in British Railways Southern Region green, with no fiddly lining, which helps.

 

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Although not a great deal will be visible inside, I’m still detailing and painting the interiors.

 

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These are the compartment dividers, which were finished in various types of varnished wood and wood veneer.


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Mad fool that I am, I’ve glazed the compartment windows. I hope the various reflections back and forth inside the coach will be worth the effort when they’re done.

 

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Apparently, the luggage and guard's compartment was finished in a bright green. Not ideal for a Monday morning hangover cure.

 

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While I’ve had the paint booth set up, I managed some red oxide primer on the Hippo chassis and cab. 
 

If you’re wondering why I’ve not entered the coaches for the group build, they’re injection moulded styrene and don’t count. 

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1 hour ago, Heather Kay said:

I’ve sort of lost the mojo a bit for the Hippo.

I think we all suffer mojo loss, it must be even harder (1) when it's your job an (2) the hippo seems to be a bit of a pig. Still resisting a nice easy shake and bake Tamigawa as a mojo restorer? Quite right- that's the spirit!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow! Sorry folks. I really do seem to have been ignoring these builds. I keep looking at the tub with the tanker parts in it, and going to find something else to do.

 

The coaches are coming along nicely, though. Nearly ready for lettering and glazing.

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6 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

 

The coaches are coming along nicely, though. Nearly ready for lettering and glazing.  

Which is both good and bad news🤔. Good for your bank balance to get them finished, but bad if it takes one thing off the list of jobs ahead of the tanker.😏  I"m sure it doesn't scare you that much, and it WILL be worth it in the end because this is going to look something special

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10 hours ago, Heather Kay said:

The coaches are coming along nicely, though. Nearly ready for lettering and glazing.

Hi Heather,

 

When I was painting coaches 30 years ago I always used PC Pressfix (or once or twice Methfix) sheets for the letter/numbers/lining. May I ask what you use? They were OO gauge and could be pretty tricky to put on but looked rather good if you got it right - virtually painted on.

 

Pete

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8 hours ago, PeterB said:

virtually painted on


Hi Pete. I use a mixture, depending on what’s available for what I’m building.
 

The widest range are the water slide transfers from Fox. They are very good, with minimal carrier film. Fox is what I’m using for the SR Maunsells, and I used them on this J6.

 

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I also use Methfix, and like them. As you say, "painted on". This L&YR tank engine is lettered with Methfix.

 

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Railtec is another. They are pushing the boundaries of the technology, making water slide transfers that have depth good enough for nameplates. Impressive stuff. I used a custom set of Railtec for this coach. Having the number set made up in one piece was very handy.

 

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It was obvious the whitemetal fairies weren’t going to assemble this thing for me. Having had a reasonable run with the 0 gauge coaches (currently having been rubbed down and given some remedial paint, and varnish tomorrow :fingerscrossed:) I forced myself to spend an hour removing even more alloy from the BW kit.

 

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You’ve seen, I hope, earlier in this thread that the tank halves were not exactly a good fit. In fact, not a lot is a good fit, so I’ve adopted the "make it as good as I can" attitude. The halves were tacked together at strategic points. There’s little point in making a neat seam joint, so blobs of solder applied hither and yon are adequate. The next step is to fit the pump cabinet. Oh boy!

 

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Strategic blobs again, applied through the open base of the cabinet. It became very obvious the casting was wider one side than the other, so there’s a bit of a step on the offside (the right for non-Brits). To try and avoid too much of a gaping hole, I used solder as filler around the tank and pump interface. Most of the solder can be scraped back to give a nice edge, but to be honest it won’t make it any better! I hope the access ladders and handrails will mask the worst of the step.
 

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Once the door casting was attached, the floor could be persuaded into the hole and fixed with some solder run along the short edges. In this inverted view you can see a couple of blobs of solder holding the tank halves together. You can also see lots of blobby solder round the rounded end of the tank.

 

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In my tutorial on low temp soldering I mentioned using solder as a filler. Well, you can see it here. There were a couple of nasty mismoulds along the front edge of the tank. Once I’d fixed the round end on the tank, I used the solder to fill the crevices. The technique for filling is to scrape or otherwise mechanically clean the area to be filled, apply flux, load a fair blob of solder on the tip of the iron, and then dab it on the area. Repeat as required. With a little practice solder builds up in a raised mound, as you can see here. I have overfilled the area, because I then scraped, filed and sanded the area back. 
 

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Can you see the join? By the way, the nasty join at the top front will hopefully be hidden by the canopy structure and walkways. We shall see when I get to it.
 

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Finally, the tank supports go in underneath. I don’t know whether it was designed that way, but I had two identical supports, when all the drawings clearly show they should be handed. Not having any alternative, and knowing it won’t really be readily spotted, a mild adjustment to the pump cabinet end of the incorrect part and it was fitted.

 

I deemed that sufficient lead intake for the evening. The next stages are adding all the fiddly bits.

 

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There's a fair old weight hanging off the back of that chassis. I was amazed it didn’t become a tail sitter! Just for fun, once it’s assembled, I’ll weigh the model. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see it get near to a kilogram all up.

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10 hours ago, JeroenS said:

Well.... looks like you managed to get a very decent looking tanker! Nice work. 


Thanks. It’s not too bad, all things considered. I think the phrase "I wouldn’t start from here if you want to get there" springs to mind.

 

One area of whitemetal vehicle kits I find always a weakness are wheels. Specifically how wheels fit on the axles. In this case, the rear bogie axles are very weak. Several attempts at getting the model to sit flat and level ended up with a wheel snapping off. Actually, one wheel also snapped off when I accidentally dropped the tub containing the kit and parts. :angry:It takes a bit of effort, but the broken bits can be stuck back in place with solder. I rather think the alloy used for casting those parts was a little bit softer than ideal, and I’m very wary of the front axle ends at the moment.

 

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Some fiddly details round the back end of the chassis. Not much clue where they’re supposed to go, so continual cross reference to the drawings came to the fore.

 

This is a bit of a beef I have with written instructions. I realise they’re easier to do than exploded diagrams. I know this because I was commissioned to write a set of instructions for a loco kit a while back. The problem is parts are referred to by name so we are told, for example, to fit the left-handed splurgle flange to the underside of the cringe filter. Great. What does the splurgle flange look like? Not a clue. Best guess from the pile of bits and hope it’s the right bit!

 

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Oh, hello. Well, that happened. I was concentrating on fitting some smaller details, such as the various lamps round the cab. Then I assembled the hose reels, and then - bang! - they’re on the chassis. The tank is temporarily tacked in place - which is just as well because I can see it sat on the bench from where I’m typing this and it’s some way off level. I think the pump cabinet needs disassembling and having another go. That’s another advantage or low temp soldering. I can only imagine the world of pain disassembling something stuck together with epoxy. It’ll have to come off anyway, because paint.

 

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Such an ungainly looking beast with that huge backside hanging off the chassis. I bet they were fun to drive with a full load on.

 

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It would be nice to think I’m nearly done, but there’s still a lot of bits left. Some definitely won’t fit where they’re supposed to, and others don't want to fit because there’s no way to attach them to anything - rear wheel mudguards being a prime example. I’ll have to have a wee think about how to resolve that conundrum. The odd parts that don’t want to fit may be down to me. I have a dim memory of discussing options with the kit maker about which kit would be correct for what I was looking for*. In the end, I think a few extra bits were added to the package from various parts bins so I could try and mix and match.

 

The next stages are really fitting out the top of the tank. Looking forward to that. :frantic:

 

*Regular readers will note I’ve now realised this model is not correct for my diorama anyway, but there you go. I shall continue to assemble it, even if it doesn’t get used for the diorama in the end.

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I had a quick look in on this a while ago and just caught up with it. Wow! I'm always impressed with some 'proper' modelling, even from kits. I always made a mess of White Metal kits, I'll just stick to the mainstream plastic kits, with the odd SH and AZ kits to keep me on my toes!

 

:goodjob:

 

Davey.

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22 hours ago, DaveyGair said:

I'm always impressed with some 'proper' modelling, even from kits.


It's all part of the fun, though I must say this kit is taxing my patience a bit.

 

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I have decided to ignore the coaches, which need a coat of varnish, and pressed on with the tank detailing. As you can see, I’ve managed to get the walkways and various hatches fitted, and refitted the front canopy in a better location. I’m beginning to work on the various pipes - and found the cast parts sub-standard. While they are preformed to the right shape, they’re woeful in quality. Two of the pipes need to meet with the hose reels, and don't. Trying to gently reform them so they will caused one to break.

 

So, I have dived for my copper wire stocks and I will replace all the cast plumbing with 0.9mm diameter.

 

What I hope to be able to do is get the tank assembly mostly complete and get it primed. That will show any major flaws and areas that need sorting out. This is never going to be a museum quality model, and while I’ve rather fallen out of love with it because I feel it’s really not good enough for my diorama idea, I will still try to complete it as well as I can. To be honest, I’m not holding out much hope for the Austin K6 CO2 truck, as it’s from the same stable. 

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Hi Heather,

 

Presumably the K6 is what the Airfix kit should have been - I saw a post by you a few years back on the Airfix Forum on the RAF Emergency set so clearly you are aware of the problems with that offering? For those who do not know the kit is apparently based on a post war civilian version whilst the RAF actually ordered the CO2 version just before the war ended. Also the Austin ambulance Airfix include in the box is something the RAF did not normally use though they do seem to have borrowed some from the Army in Italy.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

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6 minutes ago, PeterB said:

Presumably the K6 is what the Airfix kit should have been


Pretty much, although it was really just a carrier for banks of CO2 bottles to supplement another tender putting out the fire. The RAF used Crossley crash tenders in the main. Ambulances were either "light" built on the Standard Utility chassis or similar, or "heavy" on Albion AM463 chassis with a coach built body. Morris Commercial chassis were used for ambulances overseas, too.

 

 

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I honestly don’t know. I know the Crossley tenders had four CO2 bottles, so I guess it must have been part of the foam generation equipment.

 

4820650764_d3b78208db_b.jpgJMV 149 Albion model AM463 RAF Ambulance 1937 by wheelsnwings2007/Mike, on Flickr
 

Look at that! Ain’t it lovely? That’s the Albion heavy ambulance, most often seen on large bomber airfields. Why has no-one made a kit for it yet? 
 

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I bashed the Airfix Standard pickup into a light ambulance using the Gerald Scarborough drawing from years ago.
 

40496633740_46b0e3dcc5_b.jpgCrossley FWD Crash Tender by Heather Kavanagh, on Flickr

 

41395584745_09876e9156_b.jpgCrossbreed Crossley by Heather Kavanagh, on Flickr

 

The Crossley FWD was a whitemetal kit. It’s a little bit modern for my 1940 period, only really entering service towards the end of the year. The Crossley FE1 was cobbled together from a Crossley truck kit, bits of the Airfix crash tender and some scratch work.

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Yes there are some interesting conversions in the Airfix Modelling Guide 27 by Gerald Scarborough - I was sent a very old Emergency Set box recently and was considering having a shot.

 

Pete

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The only things that let the Airfix set down are the wheels. They’re a bit undernourished. You used to be able to get aftermarket whitemetal wheels which improve the look enormously. I have some if you’re interested. I don’t think I’ve got another K series Austin conversion in the pipeline, and you’d be welcome to have them.

 

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The replacement plumbing made up and installed. The tank hose storage racks have also been fitted. I think that’s enough lead poisoning for today.

 

All that remains is to find a way to fit the rear mudguards and make up access ladders. Why do I always leave complicated and fiddly stuff until last?

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