2-6-6-4 "Bulgar" Steam Locomotive by Dan Vadas - Modelik - 1:25 - CARD - FINISHED

[Dan Vadas]

Hi all,

 

After waiting a ridiculous 12 weeks my Card model locomotive has finally arrived   . Yayyyyyyy  . No blame can be attached to the Publisher, as they sent the kit within 2 days of receipt of the order - either the ship carrying it needed more rowers, or (more likely) it's been sitting in Australian Customs for most of that time. The worst part was that I could only track the package as far as the Polish dockyard, then it disappeared until it showed up on my doorstep. Ah well, I had a few things to keep me occupied while I waited  .

 

This kit is by Modelik from Poland. They publish a large range of (mostly) European rail kits in three scales - 1:25, 1:45 and a couple of 1:87 (I guess more of the latter may be coming soon) along with Aircraft, Ships, Armour, Vehicles and Buildings. Laser-cut parts are available for a lot of the kits. From my initial observations the kit is quite nicely detailed, although no "weathering" has been printed on. They suggest you do your own with pastels or paint if you wish, as well as super-detailing if that's your go. The cardstock it's printed on is good quality, and the instruction pictures are easy to understand and follow. Written instructions are only in Polish, so Google Translate gets a workout. Service, as previously mentioned was good although they need to use a faster ship   . Postage from Poland (as always) is a bit of a killer - it came to more than the kits themselves. I also bought two carriages to accompany the one I got earlier from Fenten's in Brisbane :

 

On to the model. This is a 2-6-6-4 configuration, meaning that there are 2 bogie wheels at the front followed by two sets of 6 driving wheels and a 4-wheel bogie at the rear - a total of 18 wheels. Information about the loco can be found HERE. The original was a bit over 18 metres long and 4.3 metres tall, making it the largest steam locomotive built in Europe. They were built between 1931 and 1943.

 

The model is a whopping 730mm long from buffer to buffer. Parts come in 24 A3 size sheets, with an additional 5 sheets of Templates. I'm not sure how many sheets of Laser-cut there are, as I forgot to order them with my original purchase (or perhaps they were unavailable at the time, I don't remember). This has caused a real headache, as it seems I bought the LAST kit that Modelik had available - it's no longer listed in their catalogue, and neither is the laser-cut kit. When I first opened the package there were quite a few laser-cut sheets, but it turns out that they were for the two extra carriages. I didn't actually realise my mistake until I'd laminated one complete side of the main frame (12 pieces in total) to 0.65mm card and cut the lot out. At the time I thought it very odd that these parts weren't in the laser-cut pack. Laminating the amount needed for this kit by hand would take forever, as the card I'm using is quite dense and isn't easy to cut.

 

What to do? I went back on the Interweb and found two other sites that listed the laser-cut kit as available - Yay! I'd almost finalised the order transaction - my finger was actually hovering over the "Confirm" button when a thought hit me. The price seemed way too low. So I double-checked my order and found I'd almost bought the 1:45 scale version! Damn!!

 

So I checked out the other site (JadarHobby), and sure enough they had a kit available - in 1:25 scale. Bewdy!! I immediately ordered it from them. They also send it via Air Freight and quote a delivery time of 2 - 5 days! We'll see.

 

Here are some pics of the cover and some of the parts :

 

I also bought the Decal set and about 5,000 laser-cut rivets and bolt heads :

Last things I did was scan and save all the sheets to files and make my customary "Part Finder" Spreadsheet which helps find each part on the corresponding sheet MUCH easier. Well worth the couple of hours it took to make :

 

Danny

[gjdale]

Looking forward to following another “Danny Special” 😀

[thibaultron]

I'm in.

[amateur]

So am I.

 

There is a build-log on a German forum for some years (so: not going in a Danny speed). And that guy claims there are some issues with the laser0cut parts for the frame. 

He decided not to use them, but use the laminated parts in stead.

 

For all of you that can take some german : http://www.die-kartonmodellbauer.de/index.php?thread/1470-hcp-1-6-2-bulgar-1-25-modelik/&pageNo=1

 

btw: how many parts are there in the kit? (quite a few, I guess)

 

Jan

 

Edited October 1, 2019 by amateur

[Dan Vadas]

7 hours ago, amateur said:

how many parts are there in the kit? (quite a few, I guess)

Welcome all  . Yep, quite a few Jan. There are only 180 part numbers, but a LOT of these are multiples of up to 12 or 15 individual parts. From memory they quoted about 2,000 on the website. And don't forget the 5,000 or so rivets  . Also all the wire "plumbing" etc.

 

Thanks for that link to the German build log. The translation is terrible but understandable. Odd, considering that German to English isn't some obscure language swap. At least he's documented all the small problems he had with the laser-cut parts matching to the printed ones - perhaps some modification has been done by Modelik in the 4 years that he started building it. Jeez, he's slow  . At the rate I'm building I'll catch up with him in about 2 or 3 weeks, less if the laser-cut parts turn up in the next couple of days  . I only made my first cut 5 days ago, and bear in mind that I've had to laminate all those parts needed so far.

 

Here are the pics of the right side frame (I'm holding off on the other side for now). There are 6 assemblies to each frame - a red outer skin, a grey middle one and a red inner one. Each printed piece is laminated to 0.65mm card. The two sets of 3 are joined in roughly the middle, as even A3 size sheets are too short to make them in one length :

 

I used a pair of 3mm drills to align the axle holes and prevent slippage while gluing the three sections together :

 

Now is a good time to add all the "bolt heads". I didn't use the laser-cut ones I'd bought for these, as a bit of experimentation showed it would take a lot of work to repaint the black laser-cut ones. The kit supplies all the 250 bolt heads needed (in red) so I cut them out and glued them on. This wasn't as difficult as it looks, once I worked out a fairly quick way of cutting them and colouring the edges :

 

Danny

[popeye the sailor]

you've got your work cut out for you!  >pardon the pun<    off to a nice start  

[thibaultron]

So, what was the quick way you used?

[Canute]

Building an articulated loco? I'm in. Fire up the popcorn machine.

[Dan Vadas]

8 hours ago, Canute said:

Building an articulated loco?

It's not articulated Ken. It's about as large as they could go with a single piece frame. The Union Pacific "Big Boy" in 4-8-8-4 configuration was longer again and articulated, maybe that's the one you are thinking of. Unfortunately no paper kit of one exists, although a guy in Thailand was working on designing a brilliant looking model of one before he dropped off the radar.

 

Danny

[maaaslo]

and I will just fill in name of that Thai guy. Kooklik.

[Canute]

That's an interesting configuration, Danny. I need to do some research on that loco.  Thanks.

[Dan Vadas]

17 hours ago, maaaslo said:

and I will just fill in name of that Thai guy. Kooklik.

Thanks Pav, I knew that but I'd forgotten his name. I've checked out a couple of sites (one was Papermodellers) where I found out the story of his incredible work and the fact that no-one had heard from him for at least two years. Apparently he was getting close to finishing the design work when he went AWOL. I hope he's OK and will get back soon.

 

Here's a random pic from the Instructions for the Big Boy he was working on. That's some fantastic detail :

 

Danny

[Dan Vadas]

The 12 main springs. These consist of 7 leaves each, all are back-to-back laminated :

 

A doubled binding strap encircles each one :

 

Last things are the support arms and "nuts". I made a jig for ease of assembly of the nuts which saved a lot of time, holding the things was a bit difficult without it :

 

Danny

[Dan Vadas]

This assembly is the smoke box. A lot of laminating was needed, no doubt the laser-cut sheets (which are still in transit) would have had the middle supports included but I forged ahead with several layers of card. This assembly therefore took me three days to make, I'm quite happy with the results :

 

A bevel needed to be cut for the "roof" section :

 

The "roof" didn't fit very well - it was too short in one direction and too long in the other according to the glue markings despite the accuracy of the rest of the box. Apparently it's a problem with the kit design, as another builder (Stephan) found the same thing with his. I'd read his build log where he pointed out the mistake, so I was extra careful to align the box in case he hadn't, but came up with the same error. Hopefully there aren't too many more errors down the track, this one was quite easy to fix.

I used the black laser-cut bolt heads this time instead of cutting my own :

The tabs on the sides will be covered by the main frames later on. The two that extend out are used to align the box with the inside of the frames.

 

Danny

[Papa]

Your work always amazes me Dan. And you make it look so easy.

[Dan Vadas]

Major slackness on my part, as far as updating this log goes and not in the amount I've accomplished. Sorry about that, I hope the following couple of posts make up for that  .

 

The front bogie, which only has a pair of wheels attached. Not a lot of pics unfortunately, but the last one shows the completed unit ready for fitting to the main frame (when I finish that) :

 

More in the next post, Danny.

[Dan Vadas]

The rear bogie is much more complex. There's about a week of work involved in this. Once again a lot of rivets. I used the laser-cut ones for this, as cutting about 200 1mm diameter rivets was not an option. I pre-painted them before cutting them off the sheet. They were supplied in black, a thin coat of grey spray primer was applied first followed by artist's acrylics vermillion straight from the tube which was a very good match :

 

Aligning each part was critical to the outcome. I used 2mm and 3mm tubing wherever I could to ensure that :

 

The parts for the brake/suspension assembly frames :

 

Fitting the brake/suspension frames to the main bogie frame :

 

The completed rear bogie :

 

Danny

[Dan Vadas]

I think I've worked out why it's taken Stephan a couple of years to get a little bit past this stage - the wheels  . One wheel took me 12 hours to make - 17 more to go. At this stage I'm only making one large and one small wheel, as I need to check a few measurements before continuing on with the brake assemblies, and my laser-cut frames and wheels are still on the way from Poland.

 

The parts for one of the driving wheels. Nearly every part needed to be laminated to 1mm thick card. I'd ordered 10 sheets of 0.5mm and 10 of 1mm card from GPM two weeks ago, it arrived yesterday (pretty good for them). This card is MUCH easier to cut than the far denser card I'd bought from Officeworks :

One wheel finished :

You may notice that I'd scraped the gluing surface of one of the red discs. Most of the red parts have a coating on them, probably clear lacquer, which doesn't glue very well.

 

Danny

[pontiachedmark]

Gidday Danny.

Good to see another fantastic model underway.

( I agree with the comments re International shipping costs, It is hard when the Ozzie Dollar is in the toilet).

I wish you all the best in your endeavours.

Mark.

[popeye the sailor]

the boogie looks awesome Danny........very detailed and nicely done!  I saw the holes in the outer wheel parts and right away,  I thought alignment ( I've got 'em in one one of my projects too).  the main boogie for the drive wheels is going to be immense.  great job so far    

[mtaylor]

Stunning work, Danny.  I can't imagine trying to put all those small fiddly parts together.

[vulcanbomber]

Wow! I've seen these card kits and have often wondered about them. That detail is simply amazing.

 

I'm watching with a great deal of interest and maybe a yearning of making one of those kits myself, but first I'll sit back and watch the Master at work!

[Kevin]

wow Dan, that lamination looks fantastic, Another brilliant build taking place

[Dan Vadas]

Thank you Mark, Caroline and Ken  .

 

The smaller bogie wheels have fewer parts than the main ones, so making one didn't take all that long :

 The kit supplied a template for gluing the spokes to the rims, there are 3 of these - one for the bogie wheels and two for the drive wheels as two of those are different to the other 10. I turned the templates into jigs by mounting the thin paper to heavy card and adding some stops where needed to make assembly of the others much easier later on :

The finished wheel :

I needed the wheel to align the brakes properly. Here are some of the parts for the mechanism :

One brake completed :

Danny

[michael mott]

Wow Danny, That is one masterful bit of card work. I think I will stick to metal. I will follow along.

 

Michael

[Canute]

Looks good enough to work, Danny. Most impressive.

[Dan Vadas]

On 10/21/2019 at 11:30 PM, Canute said:

Looks good enough to work, Danny. Most impressive.

Actually Ken, until I glued the arm to the cylinder clevis it DID all work  .

 

Still no laser-cut stuff, so I made up the main brake cylinder assembly :

I needed a few more red bolt heads, so I used this method to paint some primed (formerly black) laser-cut ones :

Danny

[vulcanbomber]

So much detail in the brakes alone. I don't know how you manage to see the tiny parts let alone assemble them!

[Dan Vadas]

The laser-cut parts arrived just after I put up the previous post, so after sorting and filing the 10 sheets into my A3 folder I  took a look at them. The laser cutting is about the best I've seen so far - the edges on even the 1mm thick card pieces are perfectly square and the cut itself is VERY fine. All but the larger pieces needed no little "tags" to hold them in the sheets, so that saves a lot of cleaning up  .  Here are a couple of examples in the 0.5mm thick sheet of some diamond mesh cut precisely half-way through - there aren't even any burn marks on the back side :

Now that I have them I immediately got started on the right-side frame. I glued all the previously cut coloured pieces to the card and started gluing the sections together :

That's when I discovered I'd made a terrible mistake. In my haste to get on with it I'd actually glued BOTH left and right sides to each piece, making them all 1mm too thick  . This would have resulted in the side being 6mm thick instead of 3mm like the left side frame. What to do? I decided to toss the middle section altogether and trim the inner pieces down to 1mm thick. This took me about 3 hours to accomplish :

All good now, the right side is done. A check with my digital vernier shows that the completed side finished up within 0.05mm tolerance - I'll live with that  :

Danny

[Dan Vadas]

I've glued up the complete main frames. Very little trimming or adjusting was necessary, and I'm more than happy with the results. Especially considering all the dramas I had to get to this point  .

 

Now to make 16 more wheels, see you all again in a week or so  :

Danny