7mm Finney Battle of Britain
- Thread starter mickoo
- Start date
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Thank you for the kind comments, it has been an up and down ride, more to do with my lack of skill set in some areas LOL
Blackmoor Vale, indeed they do
frustratingly they have back dated the engine to SR period with no AWS fittings or conduit, the next nearest, and probably more genuine candidate is Winston Churchill with it's full black cab....which means most peoples photos on the web use flash and the roof area is pitch black. If only I'd know a couple of years ago that I'd need detail cab shots I'd of taken some 
The backhead is a model within a model and captures the cluttered look of the real thing.
Mick D
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Take your time and in small bite sized steps and you'll be just fine
Just treat the kit as lots of little kits that make up the whole and before you know it, it'll all be done.
Mick D
Dikitriki
Flying Squad
Nice to meet you too Chris. It's good to get all the feedback, and feeling of anticipation as people collect their kits. I well remember being faced with a mass of lovely etching when I first attempted a Finney kit. However, once you work out what's what - and our instructions really do help in this respect in identifying the components - just take a deep breath, get stuck in and take it step by step. It soon starts to make sense, the trepidation goes, and the enjoyment kicks in
You're still welcome to visit Heyside when you come past.
Richard
Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
Thanks Richard, much appreciated - both the visit offer and the instructions.
How things have moved on... The shedmaster instructions I have for their Beattie Well Tank are a page of typed text and a list of parts. Absolutely gobsmacked by the extremely comprehensive instruction manuals that come with the Bulleid loco and tender kits. Very very impressive.
How things have moved on... The shedmaster instructions I have for their Beattie Well Tank are a page of typed text and a list of parts. Absolutely gobsmacked by the extremely comprehensive instruction manuals that come with the Bulleid loco and tender kits. Very very impressive.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
As things draw to a close, there's only a few remaining bits left to do. One of these being the final rendition of the insulated sprung tender chassis for split axle operation.
Y'all may remember it was a simple fold up affair and thus it was folded and painted, screws, springs and axle boxes added.
I made the brake gear removable as getting the push fit wheels on the axles is impossible with it in place, 14BA screws and appropriate tube space and secure the brake rigging in place.
A small strip of double sided copper clad board was added and tails to each axle box. The tapered end axles are 5/32" and the insulated axle boxes are 3/16" so suitable tube was procured, cut and loctited into the axle boxes, left over length the outstanding tube is ideal for fixing the pick up wires to.
The little dimples are not some secret code for hidden treasure or which axle box goes where, simply remnants of an earlier experiment. Initially the axle boxes had small indents drilled to locate the free end of the spring, but experience shows this to be pointless, they're quite happy in there on their own and with only 1 - 1.2mm free space twixt screw and axle box at full extension, are never going to spring out.
Rather than go to the expense of new axle boxes, those in the trial were simply rotated so the untouched surface was on top.
Final step are two further flying leads and mini plug for connection to the engine and then tiz all complete, except....I've just realized I haven't done the shorting bars on the backs of the wheels, but those will have to wait until I've drawn the W1 brake gear ready for the etchers next week.
MD
Y'all may remember it was a simple fold up affair and thus it was folded and painted, screws, springs and axle boxes added.
I made the brake gear removable as getting the push fit wheels on the axles is impossible with it in place, 14BA screws and appropriate tube space and secure the brake rigging in place.
A small strip of double sided copper clad board was added and tails to each axle box. The tapered end axles are 5/32" and the insulated axle boxes are 3/16" so suitable tube was procured, cut and loctited into the axle boxes, left over length the outstanding tube is ideal for fixing the pick up wires to.
The little dimples are not some secret code for hidden treasure or which axle box goes where, simply remnants of an earlier experiment. Initially the axle boxes had small indents drilled to locate the free end of the spring, but experience shows this to be pointless, they're quite happy in there on their own and with only 1 - 1.2mm free space twixt screw and axle box at full extension, are never going to spring out.
Rather than go to the expense of new axle boxes, those in the trial were simply rotated so the untouched surface was on top.
Final step are two further flying leads and mini plug for connection to the engine and then tiz all complete, except....I've just realized I haven't done the shorting bars on the backs of the wheels, but those will have to wait until I've drawn the W1 brake gear ready for the etchers next week.
MD
Len Cattley
Western Thunderer
Lovely work there Mick, how's the W1 coming?
Len
Len
Richard Spoors
Western Thunderer
Pretty soon I hope.......
mickoo
Western Thunderer
Waiting for the last set of etches to come back (hopefully end of this week) and be signed off, then castings masters and instructions.
If the etches are okay then Nick will have a full set by end of month with hopefully a hand over at Kettering, that's the plan, but is dependent on PPD, Mr Pat and his cat!
Castings, 90% of the A4 are identical and are a perfect fit; we can order those as and when. There will be a short delay whilst making the moulds for the specific W1 bits, again that depends on the mould and casting makers.
The overall plan is still to release by Telford; but I won't nail that to the mast due to possible unforeseen delays by third parties.
Sorry it's taken so long, changing from the original shell to the Finney7 shell resulted in a redesign of the footplate, chassis front end and cab front which hasn't helped matters and resulted in the two original test build models effectively being binned.
MD
Last edited:
Dikitriki
Flying Squad
Hi Chris,
All the components are available now and packed up for you (and others)....except for the springs and axleboxes. These we hope will have new moulds made in the next few weeks, wherupon we have to OK the initial castings and then order a production run, We were waiting for everything to be available, but if you wish for all the other bits to be sent in advance of the tender springs/axleboxes, we will do so. If you are going to Kettering, we can pass them over then.
Richard
All the components are available now and packed up for you (and others)....except for the springs and axleboxes. These we hope will have new moulds made in the next few weeks, wherupon we have to OK the initial castings and then order a production run, We were waiting for everything to be available, but if you wish for all the other bits to be sent in advance of the tender springs/axleboxes, we will do so. If you are going to Kettering, we can pass them over then.
Richard
Pencarrow
Western Thunderer
No rush Richard, just a general enquiry to see where things were up to. Good to see things are in hand as usual.
mickoo
Western Thunderer
They say, the last 5% takes 95% of the time, they were not lying!
A change of tack onto the engine didn't see much progress, buffers, hook (temporary) steam heat pipe, AWS battery box and side window frames, not bad for fourteen hours work!
I made some windscreens, the glue smeared so out they came, the third dropped out, at which point I got exceedingly cross. Fearing for the BLP's welfare I went outside and proceeded to beat some pallets into smaller bits for the log burner, with a very big sledge hammer and lots of blue words.
Suitably cleansed I returned and made two more, one of which dropped out, the other smeared again. At this point I took the hint and packed everything away, ordered some new glue (clear), took some photos, poured a large Apricot Brandy and finished off the last of the Xmas cake.
Anyway, the photos to date, a few things still to do though.
On the plus side, the new photo studio lights work well, no more waiting for sunny days at the weekend to take photos, mind, I do need to play around with positions, back drops and settings.
Enjoy.
MD
A change of tack onto the engine didn't see much progress, buffers, hook (temporary) steam heat pipe, AWS battery box and side window frames, not bad for fourteen hours work!
I made some windscreens, the glue smeared so out they came, the third dropped out, at which point I got exceedingly cross. Fearing for the BLP's welfare I went outside and proceeded to beat some pallets into smaller bits for the log burner, with a very big sledge hammer and lots of blue words.
Suitably cleansed I returned and made two more, one of which dropped out, the other smeared again. At this point I took the hint and packed everything away, ordered some new glue (clear), took some photos, poured a large Apricot Brandy and finished off the last of the Xmas cake.
Anyway, the photos to date, a few things still to do though.
On the plus side, the new photo studio lights work well, no more waiting for sunny days at the weekend to take photos, mind, I do need to play around with positions, back drops and settings.
Enjoy.
MD
richard carr
Western Thunderer
Mick
It looks great but if you want better photos with endless depth of field you need Helicon Focus focus stacking made easy.
Richard
It looks great but if you want better photos with endless depth of field you need Helicon Focus focus stacking made easy.
Richard
Scale7JB
Western Thunderer
Eastsidepilot
Western Thunderer
Now.....where's that airbrush!..
Ressaldar
Western Thunderer
Heather Kay
Western Thunderer
f10‽ Shurely shome mishtake.
I use f16 for broadsides, though you can get away with lower. For three-quarters on views, f22 and circles of confusion be damned. I hate having to do post on my photos, but I do plan on trying out focus stacking soon. Oh, and most definitely a tripod.
I use f16 for broadsides, though you can get away with lower. For three-quarters on views, f22 and circles of confusion be damned. I hate having to do post on my photos, but I do plan on trying out focus stacking soon. Oh, and most definitely a tripod.