Greg Davis

All the subassemblies are now done. There are a number of parts that I will be detaching from the spru's and cleaning up - wheels, running gear, etc. and then it will be time to paint.

That Stirling Single is pretty interesting - reminds me of a paddle boat steamer! I had seen the Dapol kits, but I would like a bit more detail than their kits seem to offer. Thanks for pointing these out to me! Greg

Finished planking the foredeck today: Here's the completely planked decks: Some finish sanding / smoothing still is needed; however, I do like the look of the holly planks against the pear. I think the next big task will be the hull exterior. Final finishing / smoothing of the planking; some painting; a good deal of copper plating! After that it can get mounted and then the deck work can be done followed by masting / rigging.

Thanks again - I like that 0-8-0 switcher!

Today the coal bunker subassembly was taken care of - Steps 9 and 10 in the instructions. No surprises here. But remembering from the first model, I took a little different tact when adding the door to the bunker subassembly. The instructions have you simply glue them to the bunker, but I found it better to dry fit the doors to the bunker and then dry fit the assembly to the cab. Once that is done, the alignment of the door can be done nicely and it can be glued to the coal bunker easily. Just don't want to glue the doors to the cab presently, as the bunker needs to be pulled off prior to painting. One more page of subassemblies to go. The side water tanks and some steps need to be put together in Step 11.

Love it!

Ron - Thanks for passing this info along! I was not aware of the 1/75th C62 - do you have a link for the kit? I do know of the Micro Ace (Arii) 1/50th kits of several Japanese locomotives; C53, C57, D51, C62, C11, and C10. I have a D51 kit, Slag version, on order to see what they are like. If I like it, I may get another; the C53 is interesting in the sense it was a 3 cylinder engine. I've seen some of the Revell 1/87th kits; they look nice, but I like the slightly larger scales better (at least for my dexterity). I got a Occre S3/6 BR-18 at a good price when Model Expo stopped carrying Occre products. I had been looking at that kit for a long time, well before exploring plastic kits. Now that I've seen some of the plastic kits, I am so impressed with the extra detail they have compared to the BR-18 kit. Nevertheless I do look forward to building the model as the construction techniques lie somewhere between plastic and wooden ships! Greg

Bill - Yes, that is what I am doing. I'm making the tip about half the width of the plank and then where the plank intersects the waterway defines the angle. I've been cutting the plank first and then marking what needs to be removed from the waterway. Greg

A few planks at a time now. Outside of the hatch the planks will have a four butt shift for a few stakes.

The liquid mask was an experimental failure. It was probably doomed from the start as the mask instructions said not to leave it on too long, while I've read that primer (on metal castings) should dry for quite a long time - say 48 hours before the color coat. A bit of an incompatibility perhaps - when I carefully pulled off the mask, it also puled paint / primer that I needed to stay; more than touch up painting would cure! So that also made me sonder about my original surface prep. I've 'unpainted' all the castings for the time being. So I'm using this to my advantage by reducing the exhaust pipe nubs on the castings so that brass tubing that will be used for the new exhaust pipes fit / have a nice attachment aid. Once all the nubs have been reduced I'll go back to the painting. Before the second painting, I'm going to give vinegar etching a try.

Andy - Thank you! I should probably brush up on locomotive anatomy! Greg Javlin - I wish there were more static locomotive kits available. I got the pair of these BR86's because (1) they're available, (2) they looked like got introductory plastic kits, and (3) I had already bought the 1:72 scale Dora Railgun kit and wanted to put a couple of locomotives behind it. Actually, I go back and forth on how much I like tank engines in comparison to locomotive / tender combinations; but there is little available (that I could find) in 1:72 scale. Because I tend to have a pension for buying too many kits, among other things, I have a 1:35 Trumpeter version of the BR86 (together with some Eduard PE) in my stash. That one I would like to be more detailed and refined than the 1:72 Hobby Boss version. Thank you for the wonderful comment on BR86 (1), and I hope that sometime I see you putting a locomotive together! Greg

Yesterday and today I was able to make progress on the boiler / cab assembly: The control handles are not all that great, but they cannot be seen very well upon completion so I'm not concerned. I don't know what the part near the smoke stack (not the bell!) is called, but you can see a tube that comes out the front and then bends down to the boiler. This tube was missing from the part in this kit and needed to be added from spare material - the tube was correctly formed and attached on the first BR86 kit I made. The only other thing I will note is that there are 6 value handles on the boiler assembly and they are very hard to attach as provided; however, if you drill a small hole in the middle they go on quite nicely. One thing to look out for is that the 5 control rods that pass through the cab out to the boiler must make it through part B15 and the holes are a bit too small for them to pass. I recalled this from the first BR86 I made. There I didn't notice until the piece was secured in the cab, so I reduced the diameter of the rods to get them in place. This time, I used a small reamer to enlarge the holes in B15 before it went into the cab proper. This was a more satisfactory fix. By the way, the holes the rods pass through the cab back are not problematic. Part C26, the gauges in the upper right, is not fun to insert! This completes Steps 6 - 8. Just two more instruction pages of work before painting commences.

After a little cutting and chiseling, the first nibbed plank is in! Not sure how long the whole process will take - but probably best to take it one plank at a time.

Did what I could from Step 5. Mostly beginning work on the running gear near the cylinders. The subassembly on the upper left of the instruction sheet was the main piece of work. The five pieces go together pretty well with a little fiddling to get the linkages into position. The beams circled in blue are the one's I mentioned earlier as being a bit troublesome. Like in my other BR86, I needed to reduce the cross-section so that the beams would fit through the openings in B17. The only other thing of note is that I didn't glue the linkages or the beams until the whole assembly was in the correct position. It is really important that the linkages can be moved as the subassembly is put into place. Here's a better view of the bit of work: The rest of the running gear - outlined in red will probably be added during the final assembly. However, I may change my mind and add in all but the wheel linkages B26 and B27 before painting. Next the instructions turn to the topsides.

Cylinder subassemblies were completed and installed today. I didn't attach parts A1 and A2 - pipes from the boiler to the cylinders at this time. The top of these pieces rest on the boiler assembly and are more easily aligned once the boiler assembly is fitted to the chassis. Here's the cylinders attached to the chassis. The brake system has also been added. I think the brake linkage (A6) is one of the most interesting pieces in the kit - to bad it is nearly invisible on the finished model. This is what the instructions suggest you should do in Step 4. The wheels will be painted separately and added in the final assembly process.

First plank laid on the foredeck! I always give the first plank quite a while to dry before pushing additional planks against it - so more than one can be added tomorrow.

The 16 castings have been cleaned up. I cut off most of the exhaust pipes, leaving a stub to attach new pipes to later. They were run through a couple of cycles in an ultrasonic cleaner. Looks like they are going to the paint booth next! I'm going to try liquid mask on the parts I don't want to paint. They're going to get some primer this time - the 14bis engine was brush painted and has color straight onto the castings.

Here's the start of my work - the chassis sides with axles. I'm using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement, I don't know if this is the best choice, but it does seem to be commonly used on build sites I've looked at. I don't know if I should be getting some assortment of glues; i.e., should I have different glues for certain situations? I got an assortment of Flex-I-file. I like the range of grits, but I don't foresee them lasting long as there is already some separation of the sanding surface from the stick. I find this surprising, given the cost. For my wood boat work, I often get sanding sticks from the manicure isle. In the above picture, the only pieces glued were a cross-member (left of the axles) to the two sides. The axles are just press fit here. While everything seemed to be pretty square, I used the large and small rectangular top pieces to finish the alignment. After that other details were added. I should have reviewed my notes from BR86 #1 and not glued in part B17 (circled in blue above). The instructions show the part being added here and also in a couple pages. The second time it is noted is probably a better time to add it. At least that's what I had concluded a couple of weeks ago. The reason is that there will be two beams that go through B17 near the top and in the last build the fit was so tight I needed to reduced their cross section to fit. I felt that it would have been easier to make these adjustments with B17 off the model - oh well, I live and don't always learn! Below is the instructions for what I have assembled so far. The pieces circled in red will be added later. The couplers drop down below the top of the rails when the engine is complete, so they can't be added until the very end. The poles and steps are better left until the boiler, coal compartment, and cab have been installed. The rails for the step in the front of the engine fits into notches on the boiler assembly; leaving their assembly until later makes alignment easier. Cylinder assemblies are up next.

Got the new cradle made up today. I always find making these to be tedious - getting the bevels in the supports and having most everything level is never fun for me! Now that it is done, I can get back to the planking; probably start up again tomorrow.

Today I milled enough 1mm thick holly to complete the foredeck. I'm also getting a new building board made up to better support the hull through the deck planking phase. I need something much more stable when time comes to cut into the waterway for plank nibbing.

It could be worse! From this very interesting article by William Pearce: https://oldmachinepress.com/2016/05/28/antoinette-levavasseur-aircraft-engines/

Not long ago I decided that I would like to build a few plastic models. Kits Plastic models that I've seen over the past several years have amazed me in comparison to those I played with some 50 - 60 years ago. The skills that plastic modelers bring to the table are incredible as well. Painting skills are often unbelievable to me! So I jumped in the deep end bought a few kits (not confessing to how many). Steam locomotives have been a longtime fascination of mine as well - so when I saw that there are some nice static plastic locomotive kits available, some made their way to my house. This past December, I assembled my first - a Hobby Boss 1:72 scale BR86. I also got to practice a bit with a spay brush and now it's now ready for a clear coat, a few decals, and a little weathering: In this forum I will be showing my work on building a second model of this locomotive. As I go along, I hope that will be interest in the build. Perhaps some of you will be able to provide me with comments on how I can improve my work with plastic. Yes, there is a reason that I've chosen to build two of these engines - it is so that they can 'push' the Hobby Boss 1:72 scale Dora Railgun someday. This is why the rails / rail bed hasn't been painted. To display the railgun and locomotives track will need to be laid longer than the kits account for. Here's what comes in the kit: 5 spruces of parts for the engine, another with some roadbed and rails and a small one representing glass. The cab and coal bunker are included separately as well as a few decals. There is a 12 page instruction manual printed in black and white along with a two sided glossy sheet displaying two painting schemes. The scheme in the above picture shows the BR86 all in various shades of black and grey, the reverse side shows a scheme where the wheels and chassis is in red. I chose the scheme with red for the first model; this one I am thinking of doing in the grey scheme. So again, I hope that some of you find this topic interesting and also are willing to provide some guidance to navigate this realm of modeling. Thanks, Greg

Spent literally hours cleaning up castings today and there is still more to be done. Thanks to Alan (AON), I think I've been reined back in with regard to the engine portion! Painting has swung to the favored position now. So now the pressing work is to finish cleaning the flash and polishing the top of these castings before priming and painting. After sleeping on the topic, I believe this is really the right thing to do. If there comes a day when I want to work on my metal skills a whole new engine - starting with a better engine block - could be a great project. I don't remember if I mentioned it in this forum (or if it was in the 14bis forum); there is a flaw in the kit engine block that one can not get past: the cylinders are not staggered correctly, the row that starts in front should be on the opposite side of the block. So, custom cylinders, etc. on the kit block would still have an issue! Back to the files.

It would be a safer alternative! This is the set of cylinder assemblies from my 14bis model - where I used brass metallic paint. I also used copper paint for the plumbing and black for the exhaust pipes. The final result was like this: Looking at it again, I don't think it looks to bad! Still don't like the engine mounting brackets, but those have been removed and are being replaced for the V16. I had just been thinking that maybe it could be improved upon. But now that you have me thinking more about it, perhaps a more basic approach will be just fine as there is no way I'm going to be able to model a vast amount of the engine detail: These incredible pictures were provided to me by the highly regarded Santos-Dumont historian Henrique Lins de Barros.

Today an experiment with the cylinder casing / water jacket. I think the result is promising: I wondered if I could mill out the water jacket portion of the casting and then replace it with brass to get a look closer to: The exhaust pipe of the casting was removed on purpose - for the hydroplane the exhaust pipes go down instead of up. The gas intake manifold was removed errantly. Fortunately, I had an extra casting from when I made the Santos-Dumont 14bis airplane. Now I have 16 castings left and no room for mishaps like this! For the 'keepers', the bolt ring at the bottom will be blackened and the heads will be polished after I remove as much seam flash as I can. All the brass water jackets will be cut at the same time to ensure they are all the same height. (The experimental one was a quick cut off and is clearly to short.) I plan on making the exhaust pipes from brass tubing and the fuel system from copper. I'll also try to add in the springs / value lifter rocker assemblies. That will probably be the limit for me in terms of detail! Then the cooling system will be attended to.