Some recent wagon kit builds

A few images of some recent wagon kits I have been building from Stephen Harris, along with a few others, most require buffers to be fitted, before been painted, then DG couplings and wheels fitted.

6x MDV 21t minerals awaiting bauxite paint (Stephen Harris kit).

3x 16t mineral wagons, two are vacuum fitted of which one has 8 shoe clasp brakes (Stephen Harris kit).

3x Coil J's, one painted will be fitted with wooden cradles (Stephen Harris kit).

BR/LNER unfitted Plate wagon (Stephen Harris kit).

2x Covhops, resin body with etched chassis ad detailing parts, nice kit! (Stephen Harris kit).

BR 21t hopper awaiting transfers and weathering (Fence Houses kit).

2x Sharks, awaiting ploughs, couplings and roofs to be fitted (NGS body kit with 2mm association chassis).

2x CCT vans, underframe's have been painted but awaiting rail blue to be applied, the ironically will receive CCT (Cambridge Custom Transfers) waterslide transfers. (Chris Higgs "Masterclass Models" kit available through "The 2mm Scale Association").

Coke hopper with rave sides, last nights project, still a bit to do but pleasantly pleased with progress so far.

Building the Fence Houses 21t hopper Part Four

Fitting the hopper body to the chassis

Now we're getting near to the final assembly, firstly if you haven't done so check your chassis is still all square, then with a few dry runs test fit the hopper body to the chassis, If it sits too high (there should be no sign of the central cut out above the chassis), this could be down too three things, a) the half etched part of the inner cross member is stopping the hopper from going down, b) the gussets sit too low and this can be rectified by gently filing the bottom of the gussets until corrected, or what I kept finding was c) the bottom of the legs on the two end stanchions was siting on the inner cross member, again a gentle filing off the bottom of the end stanchions soon rectified this.

Once happy with the fit turn hopper body upside down and fit chassis, I tack soldered where the half etched cross member meets the underside of the hopper body, then checking all was square between chassis and body at sides and ends and that all four wheels were touching, I then just soldered at the point where I had tack soldered earlier, when the end supports are fitted later this will be more than enough to hold the two parts together

Next job was to fit the end supports, I tinned the edges and fitted in the slots in the chassis floor and the slots in the end stanchions mentioned earlier, I found it best to fit one at a time then checking the chassis was still square and all the wheels were touching the floor, then if there was a problem it would probably be the down to the support I had just fitted.

Once all fitted it was time to fit the etched handrails which are bent to shape as per my photo and fitted in their appropriate holes, do not bend the end of the longest part of the handrail as this needs to be threaded through the two holes on the end supports first and one of the longer brackets fitted before bending to shape, once happy all is square and straight the handrail can be soldered and the excess cut from inside the hopper body.

Finally if not fitted earlier you need to fit buffers and coupling hooks, then a final clean up before painting and weathering.

Well that was my insight to building the "Fence Houses" 21t hopper, which followed the instructions as laid out. All the three kits I purchased have now been built, the first one took a couple of evenings which is the norm when building a different kit, but by the time I got to the third one I had put it together in one evening and if you follow the instructions you cant go wrong.

The kit went together and all the parts fitted as they were meant too, which is more than can be said for many kits I have built over the past in larger scales! and I will certainly be purchasing a few more to add to my collection.

Wow!! sorry for going on, this write up took a lot longer than expected, in fact longer than it took to do the third kit.

Building the Fence Houses 21t hopper Part Three

Building the chassis

The next job is to build the chassis, at this stage it is worth running a 0.3mm drill through all the etched holes to check clearances, whilst you may also need to open the holes for your wheel bearings, check with a dry run.

After removing the main chassis from the etch you need to bend the half etched part of the the two internal cross members down to about 45 degree, these will eventually join to the hopper ends. You also need to bend the two sides with W irons down at 90 degree, followed by the buffer beam and then solder wheel bearings in place. Fit wheels and check all is square on a flat surface and if happy solder in corners between buffer beam and sides and then check all is still square with all four wheels touching the floor.

Next job is to bend the brake unit at 90 degree and fit this to the chassis, this can only go one way round due to the slot and tab method so it should be impossible to get it backwards. It is a good idea to have wheels in place when fitting to brake unit to chassis and to thread a piece of 0.3mm brass rod through the vee hangers and brake unit with plenty of spare either side to fit the brake levers later in the build, when all is in position lightly tack the brake unit to the chassis and check you have equal clearances between wheels and brake blocks, otherwise adjust to suit and when happy solder unit in place.

The brake lever cam found on the one side of the chassis needs to be bent to shape which is aided by the two half etched lines and the footstep need to be folded up. Next job is to fit the inner chassis channels, these have a small cut out to fit over the brake unit and slot and tabs at the ends, these need to be soldered 90 degree to the chassis floor.

Next job is to make up the solebars, these are double thickness and are made up in the same principle as the side stanchions you made earlier for the hopper body. The etched tail is for the brake lever guide and needs to be cut at the right place from the main etch, this is important and is clearly explained in the instructions.

These can now be fitted to the chassis, to save less chance of damage I have bent up the brake lever guide and fitted it through the hole in the solebar, but haven't soldered it in place yet as i need to fit the brake lever in place, their is also a small strap at the bottom of the lever guide which is bent to the right angle and fitted to the bottom of the W iron.

At this stage I would fit chosen axleboxes and springs, but I don't have these at the moment, then bend and fit the two brake levers, so I will omit these for now and fit later. Also the door operating levers will need to be fitted, I opted for the ones without the half etched lines which should be substantially stronger. You can also fit the coupling hook and backplate and your chosen buffers at this time if you wish or you could leave till later in the build.

Building the Fence Houses 21t hopper Part Two

The next job was to fit the side stanchions, this is a double thickness etch which is tinned on the inside, folded over then sweated together, the tabs are left on between the two halves to hold all in place whilst sweating the two parts together.

These are then tinned on the back and with the hopper body upside down and sat flush on a flat surface, with the stanchions held in the right place they are sweated onto the hopper sides, again I found it easier to do a bit at a time starting with the top rail checking all was in it's correct position as i went along. Their is some overhang at each end of the top rail, do not remove this until after the end stanchions have been fitted.

We now do the same with the end stanchions making sure the slots in the lower legs are on the outside when the two halves are joined together, this slot will help locate the end supports when fitted later in the build. These end stanchions need the two lower legs folded on their etch line to follow the angle of the hopper, to do this i found it easiest to sweat the two halves of the top rail first so all was flush then to bend the two lower legs to the correct angle, once happy with the angle I then sweated the lower halves of the legs together. Once happy all was a snug fit and with the hopper body upside down on a flat surface I soldered the end stanchions to the body starting at the top rail first and making sure the two slots for the end supports were on the outside. Once fitted the excess top rail from the side stanchions can be gently filed flush with the end top rail, would suggest when doing any filing that you give the body a quick rinse under the tap to remove any flux residue first, otherwise your needle file will be clogged up in no time.

The next job is to fit the gussets, this is done in the same way as the stanchions by tining the inside of the two halves then then folding and sweating together, their are also two modified gussets on the etch with the 45 degree angle for those who need to fit them on the centre stanchion as was to be found on the prototype in a later period. Once the gussets have been doubled up it is worth cleaning the edges up with a file so they are a good fit, the bottoms of the gussets need to be flush with the bottom of the gap between the two chutes, this is worth a few dry runs to get it right before soldering in place. Once fitted you can gently run a file over the bottom of the gussets if required to get them all level and also file the excess from the bottom of the stanchion, this will all determine the height of the wagon when fitted to the chassis later in the build. Finally you need to sweat the basher plates on to the sides of the hopper body, this will dependent on your chosen prototype as not all were fitted with them.

At this stage the body can have a good clean and be put aside whilst we now turn to the chassis.

Building the Fence Houses 21t hopper Part One

Over the last few days I have been building some etched brass 21t hopper wagons using the "Fence Houses" kit, which is basically an etch that folds up into a very nice model of the prototype.

With the etch you receive a descriptive history about the prototype, an exploded diagram of how the kit goes together, along with another five pages on how to build the kit of which are very well explained, I followed the instructions to the tee and didn't find any problems with the build.

Only additional parts required are 3 hole wagon wheels & bearings, springs and axleboxes and a set of buffers all available from the 2mm Association and then some paint and transfers to complete the model.

Tools needed are a craft knife for detaching the parts from the etch, pin vice and drill bits, a couple of needle files, some 145 detailing solder and flux and a soldering iron, I went for a Antex 18w which was more than efficient for the job. I also used a Hold n Fold to make all the bends, although not essential it does make life easier.

The following is a breakdown of the build for anyone interested along with some photos, which I apologise for their quality.

The etch showing all the components to build a 21t hopper diag. 1/146

Building the body

The body basically consists of two parts the hopper body itself and the internal hopper chute.

The body sides need to be folded to shape, the bends been at roughly about 45 degree, whilst the internal hopper chute is at about 90 degree.

We now can solder the body up, this is done best by placing upside down on a flat surface and once all is square join the end to the side, the body end fits inside the body side, you can also solder the four angled corners checking all is square, but not the very bottom parts of the chutes for now, this will be done when fitting the internal part of the hopper chute. I found it best if you went around tacking it a bit at a time and checking all was in the right place, then when satisfied all was square and flat you can solder all the joints up.

I then fitted the internal part of the chute and adjusted so all was a snug fit and no gaps with the hopper body and the doors were in their closed position, once happy all was soldered in place.

Trackwork and Tortoises

Just to update the progress on the layout.

All the pointwork is now in, just needing the odd cosmetic chair and sliding chairs to be fitted, which I'll leave for a few days until it's all settled down, the mainline and crossover is also completed and has worked well with it's sweeping curve. I stiil need to lay the plain track for the five sidings but I want to work out the building sizes first so I can work around them.

And for those not familiar with 2mm, a few tools available from the 2mm Association to make the job a lot easier:
Various track gauges
Jig for making Vee's available in various angles
Crossing Jig for holding parts together whilst soldering the crossing together
And finally although I used individual sleepers you can make your points directly on to these milled sleeper tunouts which are available for various points.

Saturday 2/01/10

Meanwhile for a change from tracklaying and to give me chance to decide on the exact posistioning of building, It gave me the chance to start fitting the Tortoise point motors.

Previously I've fixed nickel silver wire to the point blades, which drop through the baseboard and connect to the point motors. In larger scales it is easy to solder these to the sides of the blades, but in 2mm their Is'nt as you havn't as much area to solder too, I opted for 0.5mm rod and with a bit of tidying up their is enough clearance for the wheel flanges.

The next job was to fit the Tortoise adaptor plates, these are a really simple/clever idea available from Exactoscale and are only about a fiver for a pack of five, they have got me out of a few tricky corners in the past when the Tortoise wouldn't fit into the available space and again have proved their worth today.

The Tortoises and adaptor plates were from an old 7mm layout I once had, so a saving was made on outlaying for new ones, problem was I'd opened the holes to fit a larger gauge piano wire, so when fitting the original piano wire it was too sloppy and just didn't work, so I opted for something in between.

First job was too fit two pieces of 1/16" brass tube in the slider bar these would go up through the base board and sit about 1mm below trackbase, then the 0.5mm rod fitted to the point blades would fit inside the tube. With the brass rod'd ID been about 0.9mm, this gave it a bit of play which was good as I wanted to have a bit of sideplay and not put all the pressure on the 0.5mm rod which would be the most fragile point of the operation.

Before fitting the Tortoise motors I always elongate the the screw mounting slots, this allows the Tortoise too have about 2mm of sideplay adjustment, which is helpful in getting the points blades in a central posistion, I have also made the hole in the slider bar a bit oversize to give me a touch more play, although this would probably not be needed if using the original piano wire as it is quite flexible.

Another problem I had was the lack of space available to fit the Tortoises, due to the baseboards been at different levels. Thankfully before starting baseboard construction I glued the Templot trackplan down, this gave me the chance to workout where the point motors could be fitted and where the baseboard bearers could go.

But even then I knew a couple would not fit in the normal way and instead of been able to fit the Tortoises to the side of the point with the slider, they would have to be fitted directly over the point itself.

I got around this by shortening the slider bar so it operates inside the base, this also required lengthening the slot in the adaptor base, an easy modification.

And finally a shot of the baseboard with the trail of Tortoises fitted.

The tracklaying begins

Today (27/12/09) I was able to have a very long day of working on the layout, with work starting on the trackwork.

I must say I come into 2mm at about the right time as the "Easitrac" components are really enjoyable to work with, along with all the different jigs for the making of points a lot easier.All but for the check rails, I have managed to complete one point, although I'm not to sure about the robustness of the way I have soldered the nickel silver wire to the point blades too throw the points and may change it, not sure which way to go but I have a couple of ideas.

Some images of today's progress.

The almost completed turnout, the copperclad sleepers is something I did in EM gauge and basically my way of feeding current to the point, whilst also making everything solid, especially the crossing.

Making use of the "Easitrac" lost wax sleeper bases, these help protect the rail at the board ends, I have stuck them down with two part epoxy and I may well also pin them. A slitting disc will be used to cut through the middle of the sleepers to stop any shorting and the slots in the sleepers then filled with "Milliput".

And finally a shot of today's progress, very happy!