Queen Mary Brake Van 2.0

[Richard08]

When perusing the cornucopia of shiny trinkets on eBay I spotted this, with only a few hours left and few bids. Just another brake van (I have enough!) thinks I - but wait, 25t, that seems familiar. Some googling revealed that that it is indeed a Queen Mary, and the kit still available new. I got this for very nearly the price on the (pre 3rd mass-extinction) box - with wheels. A bit of a risk as someone has formed the sole bars, but that's all. It's going to be interesting seeing how this compares with the excellent Connoisseur kit I built a while back, but I'm not doing any sort of critique on all the differences. That said - brass bodied spring buffers... [insert Homer Simpson drooling effect]. The brass is in right state, I'm going to get through a ruck of fibreglass pen re-fills. Anyway, here's the box, and what's in there.

[Richard08]

Having actually read through the instructions before starting (it happens) I discovered the sole bars are supplied pre-formed and rivet punched. Yay! Well, it's boring. So, assuming the wheel bearings are also pre-fitted, as they are, it looks like the kit was never started. And I got two chimneys . I decided to start with the bogies, so the thing can sit on them safely.

Having blacked the wheels and cleaned up the castings, everything was trial assembled (is that even English?). This didn't go well. If the width is set by the two end cross-members (which it has to be really, white metal won't stretch easily) the stretcher is too long. Shortening has to happen I guess, but the stretcher doesn't locate accurately on the sides, even unmolested, so squareness, in all three planes is going to be tricky. The solution appears to be to fix the end cross-members and then make the stretched fit. Except that the axles are too long, even with the bearings sunk 'right in', so fixing the cross members with the wheel in place is impossible. And getting things square with just the cross members requires a lot more hands than I am currently equipped with. So, now to see if I can get the (glued in) bearings out of the axle box castings, or look at shortening the axles. Time for some Camel (band, not fags) and a good stare/ponder.

There's some interesting features in this kit which I've not seen before - to be revealed when I get to those parts.

[Bigmet]

...If the width is set by the two end cross-members (which it has to be really, white metal won't stretch easily) the stretcher is too long. Shortening has to happen I guess, but the stretcher doesn't locate accurately on the sides, even unmolested, so squareness, in all three planes is going to be tricky. The solution appears to be to fix the end cross-members and then make the stretched fit. Except that the axles are too long, even with the bearings sunk 'right in', so fixing the cross members with the wheel in place is impossible. And getting things square with just the cross members requires a lot more hands than I am currently equipped with. So, now to see if I can get the (glued in) bearings out of the axle box castings, or look at shortening the axles. Time for some Camel (band, not fags) and a good stare/ponder...

As the kit is still available, might be worth asking the manufacturer if supply of replacement parts cast correct size is possible?

...everything was trial assembled (is that even English?)...

Since it clearly expresses a thought which will be readily understood by the intended audience, it is perfectly adequate English.

[Rant Mode] Self-appointed grammarians of English are the tiresome obsessives of the linguistic world. Their attempts to fit inappropriate grammatical principles to English are largely worthless and the cause of much confusion and despondency.

English was wonderfully spontaneously crafted and developed by the uneducated, while the academic world was focussed on trying to make sense of obsolescent Latin and other ancient junk, a thankless task. When Latin, having become totally useless for the vast majority of purposes, was abandoned by all right minded folk; the academics decided that its grammar should be applied to English, lest they be seen to be redundant. This makes as much sense as applying the rules of golf to football, and it is long past time that such nonsense ceased.[/Rant Mode]

[Richard08]

As the kit is still available, might be worth asking the manufacturer if supply of replacement parts cast correct size is possible?

I'm trying to decide if I've miss-read the drawing fitting these, an alternative way of reading them leaves then too short!. The instructions are a separate sheet for the bogies which presumably are available as kits in their own right. They cover all the companies various bogies, 4 and 6 wheel of several different designs, and are utterly opaque. I'm going to have to build at least the chassis of the van to find out by the height of the pivot which way to go. I get it that instructions are a pain to write, so some combining is desirable, but this lot is ridiculous. The bogie components come in separate unmarked bags with nothing to indicate which kit exactly is supplied. Arrggghhhh

[Phred]

Richard08 wrote:
Arrggghhhh

I feel your pain. The instructions for my flat-pack display cabinet were absolutely unintelligible plus the glass panes were all ever so slightly different in size, with no stickers to indicate which one was which. Took me all morning to build a simple glass box.

[Phred]

Bigmet wrote:
[Rant Mode]...[Rant Mode]

Well that was a jolly good rant!

When my youngest son was in high school, he completed an English assignment in which he included a quote from Shakespeare. The direct quote from the Bard of Avon was marked down by the teacher for incorrect grammar and spelling!

[captrees]

Richard08 wrote:
Arrggghhhh

I feel your pain. The instructions for my flat-pack display cabinet were absolutely unintelligible plus the glass panes were all ever so slightly different in size, with no stickers to indicate which one was which. Took me all morning to build a simple glass box.

I hate any form of instructions, which leads to bold mistakes in model making. Plus if it needs any glue other than UHU, its not going to get built. Metcalfe kits are combined with scratch stuff and glued alongside buildings modified to look the part. Using Airfix models for scrap yard locos was perfect. I only completed the easy bits and sprayed on the rust and added weeds.

[Richard08]

It's quite difficult to check a bogies is square, due to a lack of flat surfaces to put a square up to. So sort of eyeing it up against a square is the order of the day, then putting it on a bit of track shows up any out-of-squareness. I've put the bogies to one side for now, I think there may be trouble ahead there, so I'm ignoring it until I can't.

To the body... first off is a bunch of rivet punching, with the additional excitement of matching the rivet size with the pre-formed sole bars. This kit doesn't provide castings for the drips on the van sides, they have to be made by soldering a brass strip and filing it to 45' top and sides.

Then the assembly is soldered to the van side. The drip bits were soldered with 145' solder and the assembly soldered to the side with 80' solder. With the huge area tinned up before fixing it's possible to avoid the wrong bits melting. The level of oxidation of the brass can be seem here, it's taking some shifting!

[Richard08]

Next was adding the strapping, capping to the verandah sides, and forming and fitting the duckets. This was time consuming, getting everything perpendicular was immensely frustrating - there no marks to follow. The strapping at the back of the verandah (2nd from left) has to be cut and bent for half it's height. With no etch line for the fold getting it right and nice and sharp was... difficult. I resorted to scratching away with the point of a needle file to create a fold line. It sort of worked, but the rivet detail suffered even with masking tape in the folder. Fitting the ducket wasn't easy either, but enough of that.

The sides then got themselves, probably against their will, involved in my crackpot idea from a while back. One of the pains of cleaning up after a session (yes, of course, every time y'onner, cough) is a mush of bits of fibreglass and flux in awkward corners that won't rinse out and won't shift with a tooth brush easily either. Usually it requires poking out with the ever useful needle file point. So, I got an El Cheapo water jet tooth brush thingie. It works! Just got to work out how to stop it splashing all round the bathroom.

[Richard08]

Next the cabin was assembled. In the absence of several extra hands (memo to Darwin) the approach was to mark one of the cabin ends with sides held in place to get the left/right position and then, using a square, tack it to the base. The other parts were then tacked so everything was right, and the all soldered up.

[Richard08]

Next was the bogie pivot screws - through the floor and not hidden! Hmmm. Anyhow, the main body is now complete. If I were doing this again I'd check the space between very ends using the end panel - though the sides fit with tags there is a sufficient sideways slop that can make fitting the ends awkward. Not a huge problem, but frustrating.

[Richard08]

And next the buffer beams and sole bars. Apart from fitting the buffer beams the wrong way round for some unaccountable reason it all went very well. Also the half-etch strips went on the corner posts. Impossible to bend with a crisp angle, by the time got round to the fourth one I'd resorted to scoring with the good old needle file point and using that rut to hack away with a triangular riffler file (I knew the spell check wouldn't know that one) until nearly through the brass. Every day's a school day. The riffler makes this a lot easier than with a boring straight needle file. And it's still all square. Which is nice.

[Richard08]

"Punch rivets and fold with fold line on the outside and fit." Only, fit where? Can't find anythng like that in the sketch, the photos, or indeed the Connoisseur model. Going to speak to Hercule when Guard Klewless lets him get a word in.

Edit : Found them - using the Connoisseur instructions....

[Dad-1]

Sorry I've not commented - laughing too much to hit the right keys !!
I suppose if you really like a challenge ...............

Honestly 1/76 kits tend to be better - cheap enough to throw in the bin
if all else fails.

Geoff T

[Phred]

You're doing a very good job with a very bad kit. I'm following along and doing my best to suppress the schadenfreude!