SUNDAY 22nd January 2017 – The Adler Locomotive Build It’s difficult to believe that yet another week has passed into history. Feels like we are on fast forward to something but what that might be – who knows.
Been a bit of a slower week in terms of the build as I am into adding the etch elements at the moment and slow and careful are the watch words here because this stage will make or break the build.
PICTURE 1 & 2I mentioned in the last post that we need to be very careful rubbing down the overhanging boiler planks because what we do not want to do is deform the boiler end plates because that will cause fit issues later on.
Picture 1 is as far as I have gone with the “heavy” file and from here it’s a change to a much less aggressive sand paper just to finish this area off. Not a quick task but a task best not rushed.
In order to complete the boiler planking we need to install the 2 axel supports so it’s best to paint these now rather than at a later stage.
PICTURE 3While I have alclad metal effect paints that I had purchased for the original build I decided not to use these at this point. On the earlier version I started last year I did use the alclad Steel colour but as these axle supports are all but invisible on the finished build I decided to make things a little easier for myself.
To paint these, I used the Vallejo 70865 Oily Steel Colour to paint these parts. As you can see from this picture this paint is quite thick and not really designed to be used straight from the bottle without some thinning down.
PICTURE 4Having painted and glued into place the axel supports we can now complete the lining out of the boiler. The remaining spaces will not take a full width plank so some fine adjustments with a file are needed to thin the wood strip down so that it fits into place.
PICTURE 5.We now start to work with the brass etch and I must admit having looked at the build overall this is the one area that has given me the most worry and concern.
The etch is very “Hard” and not flat. If anyone is familiar with the film “The Longest Day” there is one part of the film were the American troops are issued with a “Clicker” and to be honest that is exactly what the etch is like. If you flex it, you get a nice click from it.
All is not lost but is does require some additional work because in its supplied form it will be next to impossible to shape and glue in position.
PICTURE 6To soften the brass and take the “Spring” out of the metal it needs to be tempered and that means heating it until its Cherry Red and then rapidly cooling it in cold water. The internet and YouTube have many examples of how to do this but I did find some of the instructions between sites contradicted each other with both the colour the metal should be heated too as well as how to cool it.
I did initially try out a Dremel gas powered soldering iron I purchased last year as that has a hot air blower but this did not work as the hot air jet was too narrow to be of much use.
In the end I resorted to using a Pencil Blow Torch that I have had in my tool collection for at least 15 years’, probable longer. This worked a treat and out of interest I had a look on eBay and this style is still available and from just under £4.
PICTURE 7Having tempered the brass and taken the spring out of it there is a real difference to the feel of the part. Some basic shaping of the curved parts is required and for this I used a piece of 5mm foam sheet I had knocking around and a dowel rod that allowed me to roll in the basic curve needed for this piece.
PICTURE 8Before committing to glue it’s really important to dry fit the parts to ensure that they fit nice and even. We really only get one chance with these particular parts as there are no spares provided so take it slow, check the fit and all should be well.
PICTURE 9Some thought was given to what type of glue to use to stick the brass etch to the MDF part and having discounted superglue I opted to use a contact adhesive and in this case it’s a tubed Evostik product called “Timebond”. It says that you can make a quick fix by putting the glue onto the less porous part and then clamping the parts together. So in this case it was put onto the brass part having roughened the back of that with some sandpaper.
You do need to be very careful with these tubed glues though because they can take a while to start dispensing but suddenly you will find the heat from your hand will put pressure into the tube and it comes shooting out.
PICTURE 10 & 11You do need to hold the parts together (according to the instructions on the glue) for 24 hours. In this case the best clamp for this shape is the good old elastic band.
PICTURE 12 & 13Having allowed the recommended time to dry we can remove the elastic bands. I must admit that I was pleased with how this part fitted. I never like using the word “perfect” but in this case it’s very close to that.
PICTURE 14“CALLOUT - PROCEED WITH CARE”The next piece of etch to add is the firebox plate and having dry fitted this piece we find a slight issue. As you can see from this picture the part appears to be slightly too tall for the section you are gluing it too. Now you might consider that not to be a major issue. However, if we fix it like this you will then have to file down this overhang once the part is in place and that risks damaging the rivet detail on the part it butts up too.
PICTURE 15RECOMMENDATIONMy suggestion is to cut a shallow slot were part 23 butts up to part 22. You can see how I have done this with the arrow pointing out the position of the slow.
PICTURE 16This slot then allows the firebox front to sit lower preventing the overhang we saw earlier (Picture 14).
One interesting point is that the larger centre hole in the etch part has a matching hole in the MDF part and having lowered the etch it was interesting to see that both holes line up exactly so the conclusion is that this slot is required but it does not get a mention in the kit instructions.
PICTURE 17When gluing the firebox etch part in place we need to ensure that it is left to dry under even pressure so to provide this I have used a small 5mm acrylic sheet offcut over the etch part and then a couple of small clamps to hold it all in place.
PICTURE 18This is what things now look like with the 2 curved brass parts in place. Rather pleased with how this has tuned out.
There are still another 2 etch parts to be glued to the front end of the locomotive and a further 3 parts to the firebox section.
You may notice from this picture that a layer of paint has been added to the boiler itself but sadly not very well as it seems the Humbrol Rail Match colour I used was not happy ending up (by mistake) in my shed. The frost has got to the paint and despite stirring well it’s more like a varnish now and seems to have lost a lot of its pigment.
Need to get a replacement which for me means having to send away for it.
CONCLUSIONS:As I am now some way into the build what are my thoughts over this new version of the kit compared to the earlier version?
Well I guess the first call out would be the change to the large number of brass etch parts. While this should give an improved finish to some of the build I would say that it’s not an easy thing to work with and needs some care when working with it.
The second thought I have is about the smaller wood strips used to line the boiler. From what I can see from pictures of the full size loco these are more accurate but for me I do not really like them as much as the wider planks used in the earlier version of the kit.
That said there are a lot of parts to add to the boiler so when complete they probable will all look ok.
And that completes my update for this week. Hope everyone has a good week next week and will catch again with you all very soon.
birdaj2 attached the following image(s):
Happy Modelling
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