Another Quick Project

Repairing and creating the missing parts for broken rolling stock (that has been in storage for decades) is proving to be surprisingly enjoyable.

This one is the assembled Airfix Esso Tanker kit, dating from the 1960s. Available today from the Dapol Kitmaster range.

The tank and ladders had become detached and it was missing the wheels, one Esso logo, two brake blocks, a vacuum pipe and couplings.

Wheels and couplings came from my spares box. I designed and 3D FDM printed the vacuum pipe, brake blocks and coupling fixtures. The Esso logo was printed on sticky back paper.

Lead weights were cut to fit unobtrusively between chassis beams and glued in place.

There are two more wagons in the pipeline.

Spot the Difference

No, it's not the head code, nor the missing coach. It is the chassis, not that you can see the detail in these poor photos.

The top photo is Battle of Britain 'Biggin Hill' comprising an Airfix kit body on a Kemilway nickel silver etched chassis kit. Both dating from about 1976.

The Kemilway chassis (no longer marketed) makes up into a highly detailed chassis with compensation that requires some skill to assembly. Provision is made for the wheels & axles, gear and motor that had to be purchased separately. 

I think Dapol missed a trick here in not obtaining the rights to the Kemilway kit as it would complement the Airfix kit, which is now marketed by them under the Kitmaster badge. It would make for a cost effective operating model for those not wanting to spend hundreds on a ready to run version.

I am sure my model once ran satisfactorily but after nearly 50 years the chassis is showing its age with parts becoming detached and prone to short circuits. It became a poor runner causing much frustration.

I intended to break and bin it but looking at it again the bodywork is decent so, why not keep it as a static model? The second photo shows the result. Not with a Kemilway chassis but with the original Airfix chassis, the parts for which I had kept in storage for the past 50 years! Except, half the front bogie was missing so I recovered and fitted the Kemilway bogie, only to later find the missing Airfix part in another place.

Why bother replacing the chassis you may well ask. Well, my reasoning is this:

1. The Kemilway has not aged well and every time I look at it I may be tempted to repair it to run again. I fear it would need a complete strip down, clean up and reassemble to give it justice which, I am not in the mind to do.

2. There in storage is all the parts to make the Airfix chassis. Whilst not as detailed as the Kemilway it should be easier to build. How wrong could I be.

The Airfix chassis was more weird and complicated than I thought. For some obscure reason the centre driving wheels do not have flanges, rather like early Tri-ang locomotives. I could not stand that so designed 3D FDM 'rings' that were glued in place - much better. Now, the instructions assume you will assemble it so that the wheels rotate and cranks operate. This I failed to achieve due to glue leaching to where it should not be. It truly is a static model now!

The ideal place to display the model is at the signal on my Battledown flyover embankment. The flyover is more of a diorama than a working layout. Whilst trains can be run across it, the track terminates at both ends.

Now I'll strip down the Kemilway chassis to recover usable parts.

BTW, I have another example of this locomotive class that is a working model so, this conversion is no great loss to my fleet.

Disaster at Battledown #4

To recap, the disaster came about when I was trying to rework the wonky bridge handrails but ended up breaking the bridge (see Part 1). 

The replacement bridge is now in place. It has integrated handrails and whilst these are fixed to every bridge upright and diagonal support to keep it straight there is still a bit of handrail droop between some fixing points.

Whist the Nova3D Mecha water washable resin makes for a more robust model than the Anycubic water washable resin it is just as vulnerable to warping. Hence droopy handrail.

I decided to fit the track to the bridge deck and ballast it before installing the bridge. I thought I had it lined up to the embankment track but at one end the rails were offset by only1mm, enough to derail trains.

I removed the ballast from the joining track and freed it from the track bed ready to reposition and in so doing managed to break the track chairs along one rail.

The sleeper and integrated chairs were resin printed using the brittle Anycubic resin so, I should not be surprised of the failure.

I don't have much Nova3D resin nor Anycubic resin left. Will I have enough to reprint the sleepers?

Featuring BR1 Sleeper Chairs

Next Day

I needed 9 sleeper pairs and found 5 left over from a previous project  so, I had sufficient resin left to print the remaining 4 pairs. 

Existing Anycubic resin prints are shown on the left and Nova3D resin prints on the right. No difference in print quality (photo right). 

The Nova3D printed without deformation and being considerably more pliable than Anycubic the rail chair clips are less likely to fail.

The new section of track duly painted and ballasted (photo left). The rail breaks in the foreground are at baseboard joins to enable baseboards separation, if required in the future.

END

To Part 1.