Greg Davis

Keith - I really appreciate the support from you and everyone else following this adventure! Greg

The remaining painting of the cylinders was completed and now they are attached to the engine block. It is really starting to grow (and get heavy). I think the fueling system needs to be worked out next.

here it is - I hope you can see it now!

The water jackets have been painted brass (not copper as I mistaken mentioned in the previous post). AON - thanks again for having me reconsider painting the castings! The bases will be repainted aluminum and then I'll install the castings on the engine block.

A couple of days ago I primed the engine block and cylinders a dark grey. Today they got a coat of aluminum. In another couple of days I will add the copper color to the cylinder castings. Not sure if the paint will need to be toned down a bit with a wash. I'll better know after the engine is assembled. Since the model is open framed, I would like the engine to be relatively clean.

The hull was primed a dark grey yesterday - tomorrow I can paint it black!

New, larger fuel tank - this one 'looks' correct compared to the historical pictures. Once it is polished up, it should be a keeper!

Reduced the length of the crankcase castings to match the length of the upper portion of the engine. After cleaning up the result, it was attached to the top of the engine casing. I filled the brass tubes so that you can no longer see thru the engine! Made my first attempt on the fuel tank. This one is made from 5mm brass rods - the two cones are pinned with a 1/16" brass rod. I had taken measurements from pictures of the hydroplane and the 5mm (scale) diameter seemed reasonable, but I think I'm going to remake the tank with 6mm rods as this looks a little slim to me. I also did a bit of looking around on the web and found that an Antoinette V8 consumed fuel at 30L/hr. Assuming the V16 consumes twice that, i.e., 60L/hr or 1L/min, the tank I made would hold 10L of fuel or about 10min of run time. While it might be possible to do the two 1K passages at 100Km/hr in 10 minutes, it probably would be cutting things close. Moving to a 6mm tank (same length) the volume increases to a full size tank holding 15L (15min run time). I can see how the boat could be started, run a kilometer, turned and run back in that time frame. So, the current tank is probably just practice!

Here is the Phantom hull sitting (attached to) on the slipway at approximately the correct angle. The slipway risers need a bit of adjustment / finalization as to where I want them to be.

Here is the top of the slipway in its finished state. I had gone to Seattle for a few days and hoped that all the slats would have been in place when I returned; however, the slipway fairy clearly did not show up - so about 50 copies of the same strip over the last day or so! Next step is to get this sloping to just the right angle so the hull can be mounted and the waterline can be drawn to match.

Here is what the brackets look like after a bit of filing:

Sort of jumping around on this project! I milled slots into the top portion of the engine casting to accept 1/8" square tubing: The brass tubing has been epoxied in place. Once it has cured, the ends will be cut off matching the slope of the engine casting leaving behind the three-sided engine mounting brackets. Hopefully better looking, and closer to the correct placement, than the ones that had been part of the castings.

Here are the two BR86 locomotives together: They will both get their clear coat, decals, and any weathering around the time that I build and finish the Dora railway gun. Not sure when I will get to that as I want to get back to some wooden ship model work, I need to get my 1:48 Phantom and my 1:16 Hydroplane models completed. As those make progress, I really want to dive back in to the 1:48 L'Invention scratch build I started quite a while ago. But there may also be some time for a plastic side project as well - the D51 Slag could happen in the not too distant future!

Today I put the BR86 together after painting the 'steel' brake pads and tires. Here is the mostly finished product: It will get a clear coat, decals, and windows later. The amount of weathering will also be determined later. But for now - done!

I’m not a specialist in anything anymore - a couple of times I was as a mathematician, but it was related to some rather obscure material! Now I just try to learn what I can, when I can. Putting my work on MSW and getting thoughtful comments and suggestions from people like you makes my days quite nice. greg

I just like priming with the darker color because it seams to have a residual darkening effect on the lighter grey. As far as the color scheme, I had been more or less following the painting guide provided with the kit. There are two schemes shown, this one is more on the grey side (apparently WWII era): I had followed the alternative scheme, containing more black and red, on the first BR86 model I made: Apparently 775 locomotives of this class were built between 1928 and 1943 and there was some variation of paint (or is this just wear and tear?). Several of the engines remain in museums today and offer a different look: Ultimately, I'd like to set the two engines behind the Hobby Boss Dora in a pseudo-diorama type presentation representing the railgun being completed. I was thinking that the engines would look relatively 'fresh and clean' because they would be associated with an 'important' project and would help give understanding to the enormous size of Dora. But eventually, I'll put a small amount of weathering on to the two engines. At the same time, I didn't want them to be a focal point of the presentation so I didn't plan on going all out for details here. In fact, placing the BR86's by Dora is conjectural - if there were kits of the electric locomotives that positioned the railgun in use, I would have built them instead. When I get to my Trumpeter 1:35 BR86 model, I should look more into the actual paint schemes! In the meantime a big thank you to you, Doreltomin, and Canute for comments and information related to the paint scheme! Greg

Mark - Please do! Greg

Here's everything painted with Vallejo Black Grey RLM66 from the Model Air line of paints: Next some brush painting - tires, brake pads, etc.; then it will be put together for good!

Will do when I can!

I received the 1:50 scale Micro Ace / Arii D-51 Slag Type locomotive kit today. As there is little information about this kit online (even Scalemates has just a box top picture) I wanted to post a few pictures of the kits contents: For the most part, the kit survived the journey from Japan - only a small piece broken off the chassis (4th pic top), and I've reattached it so that it will not get lost. Just a few observations from my initial look at the kit: The molds don't seem to be quite as refined as the Hobby Boss BR86 The tires (chrome) are separate from the wheels There are metal parts - including screws that hold most of the drive linkages together There are no decals - locomotive number is molded for cab, front, and back There doesn't appear to be painting information (at least in English) short of the box cover art The completed locomotive with tender will be 15.5" in length It should be interesting when completed and sitting with models of the C53 and C62 (yes, I didn't wait to see this before ordering another two kits)!

I've done all of the finish sanding on the hull. I was about to start painting when I thought it would be a good idea to pick a mounting method. I'm not the biggest fan of slipways preferring cradle type mounts in most cases. However, I did want the 1:48 Phantom to be compared with the 1:96 version I made years ago - which is on a slipway. So, at least initially, this model will be set on a slipway. I have started building one using the kit supplied basswood. It will be 24" long on the slant. The wood for this part of the build is of very good quality and should make a good looking mount for the ship. Lots of pieces to keep squared up!

It got up above freezing today and my basement painting area was warm enough to prime the BR86. I used Vallejo German Panzer Grey as the primer.

It's been to cold to paint. I usually do that in my basement and its not very warm down there right now - the typical winter cold snap here! Built a jig so that I could start to assemble the superstructure: I'm not sure how much more work can be done on this part before taking it off the jig. Looking forward to seeing the pontoon, nacelles, and hydrofoil connected to this structure. Also, it seems pretty stout but still I am really hoping that it supports the engine as all of the castings add up to something quite heavy!

A lot more work on the cylinder castings has been done over the past few days. I hope to paint soon - but in the meantime I decided to start work on the harness(?) that connects the pontoon and nacelles. It is all made from brass and was soldered together with a resistance soldering unit. This structure will meld with the engine support structure.

Logging locomotives are awesome - Shay's, Heisler's, Climax's ... !