post number 2

Well, blogging always starts with a hiss and a roar doesn't it.

So, just to show I'm not all talk, here's the first railway model I've built in quite a while. Its an etch cetera Da phase 1 (1400 to 1429). this is a neat wee kit made by Andrew Wells. in the box you get a brass etched sheet, several nice white metal castings for the horns, headlights and the front and rear hood ends, plus a sheet of decals. these include numbers for 1410, 1429 and 1421, plus 126, 230 and 322. you also get the side stripes, which are almost impossible to paint. I acquired this plus a chassis a while ago from my brother. I think he obtained them from Darryl Bond. Here's what the etch looks like.

So, now for the comments
-I assembled this kit with a 60W iron, and used 10% phosphoric acid as the flux. paint it on with an old brush, then just touch a lightly tined iron to the spots. a quick 'fzzst' and its done. this was the first time I've ever done any real soldering, and it was relatively painless.

-Right, what I did wrong. got the front and rear steps mixed up. this wasn't discovered until I went to put the handrails on at the end. I filled the holes, and just attached the handrails on the outside with solder. a delicate job, but it did work out. As I'm a male I didn't read the instructions that carefully. I should have annealed the cab roof where it is supposed to be bent, but didn't, and just succeeded in braking the etch at these spots. this lead to a tricky job soldering them back on later. Some of the instructions were not that clear either, but having a bit of previous knowledge with 1410 at steam inc I was able to nut it out.

One of the problems I did have was with 1 whitemetal block provided for the ends. at the front this left a large gap of about 1mm. I managed to fill this with solder and then filed it back to flush. Also, there are no handrails for the front and rear of the hoods. this struck me as a bit odd.

So, in summary, its a tricky wee model, only to be attempted by an experienced modeler. I still have yet to get the paint on, and add the couplers, but I do like it sitting on my workbench at the moment.

My brother attempted to convert one into a Db, I know not why, as that would be a phase 3, the hood and headlights are wrong, and he narrowed the footplate stuff down without thinking too much about how the mech was going to fit underneath. I could complete it but the layout I'm planning is based in 1963, 4 years before they were put in service. So if anyone has a kit that they have given up on or want to sell on, I'd be extremely interested.