Nigel Lawton Japanese skip

 Nigel Lawton used to sell a small plastic kit for a 009 skip waggon. I have a few unbuilt examples stashed away, and I decided to convert one to 6mm gauge.

Here's the runner and instructions;

Axles are in the bag, and the wheels on the runner.

The skip body is made in three pieces, a main body and two ends. On the inner face of the ends there are location tabs, these I filed away;

Unmodified on the left and modded on the right.

The chassis is made up from several pieces, and looks to be designed so that it can double as a bolster as there's a spigot hole moulded in the centre. This I've filled by glueing in a piece of styrene rod;

As I'm building this to 6mm gauge I needed to replace the wheels. Axles as supplied are stepped, these were modified by being mounted in the lathe, using a watchmaker's collet, and the shoulders turned back to suit the narrower back to back (5.09mm). New wheels were made, to 4.3mm dia., using my 2FS profile tool.

Here's the chassis dry assembled to check the wheels;

I cut away the transverse stretcher and filled in the end coupler pockets with styrene off-cuts. I've never seen a skip with such pockets, of course that doesn't mean there weren't any. The two pieces below the skip form the bottom of the pocket and are also there to trap the ends of wire coupling loops, not present in the kit. I cut them down, note the one on the right;

The two end supports for the skip body slotted into place rather neatly, then the body itself was glued in place;

Showing the filled-in coupling pocket, and the coupling pin made from .4mm brass wire;

Paint is Vallejo 862 Black Grey, with the inside of the skip finished in my usual mix of Humbrol Leather and Citadel Rhinox Hide. The number '1' on the end was applied using a mapping pen and Vallejo white, I'd usually use ink but my bottle has dried up.

Next to a Parkside Dundas 009 job;

Comparing the two the Japanese skip is just that little bit smaller than the ParkyDundas one, which I feel makes it a little more suited to 6mm gauge without narrowing the chassis.

Finally, this may seem like a lot of work for a humble skip, but it will be viewed close-up on a tiny layout so I feel the work to be worthwhile.

Paul.

Nigel Lawton OO9 Simplex part 8 - radiator.

For such a small part of the loco the radiator is a rather complex assembly, so its getting a post all to itself. This is probably quite apt as the radiator, which sits lengthways along the front of the loco, is such a distinctive part of a Simplex.

The main body is a whitemetal casting, onto which various etched nickel-silver parts are attached. I elected to solder everything together, more sensible folk might decide that glue is a better option.

There are various holes to be drilled before starting, both for hoses and underneath for locating, once thats done the top and bottom flanges and the fan surround can be soldered in place, these will of course need tinning first whilst still attached to the etch. In the photo below the upper flange is attached;

A light touch with the iron and a tiny amount of solder is all thats required. Here's the fan surround and lower flange in place;

I'm not happy with the way the surround sits on the left side, but I didn't notice the problem until I'd soldered the lower flange in place. I'll just have to live with it.
Underneath can be seen the radiator bars and pivot etch. Once bent to shape this will surround the casting, with the hole on the right being the fan pivot;

A hole is drilled through the pivot hole into the casting, and a short length of wire inserted to make an axle for the fan, which comprises of an etch and turned pulley soldered together. Here's the other (right hand) side, showing the protection bars;

The radiator has an etched bracket at the front which sits on the footplate. This is folded up and soldered underneath the casting, along with a short length of .4mm wire which locates in an etched hole in the footplate. Another bracket sits on the top of the front crossmember and butts up against the rear of the radiator. Here it is soldered in place;

A fiddly job...
I soldered the radiator only at the front, where it meets the footplate. It took me a couple of attempts to get it to sit straight, and unfortunately I damaged the bottom of the casting with the iron. Luckily its difficult to spot but I'm still not happy. I glued the rear of the radiator to the crossmember bracket with a drop of cyano.

Next up are the hoses. The instructions only mention the top hose, which is .6mm brass rod, cyano'd into the casting and soldered to the underside of the bonnet. I've also added the bottom hose, from .4mm rod, and the overflow pipe, which sits on the opposite side. This is 38swg copper wire cyano'd into a .2mm hole, hardly worth the effort to be honest but for some reason I'm glad its there.

Here's a couple of photos of the radiator in place;

So that's the radiator. One casting, seven etched parts, one turned part, and five pieces of wire (of which two were my own additions).The level of detail in this kit is staggering!

All soldering done with my 25w Antex, using Eileen's Strong Flux and 188 degree solder for tinning and Carrs 70 degree for attaching the etches to the casting.

I once rebuilt the radiator on a full-size 20/28 Simplex. Two heavy castings formed the top and bottom tanks, held apart by steel side plates. Ribbed cooling tubes ran between the castings, held in place at both ends by rubber bungs. Each tube had to be pushed up through a bung into the top casting, then pulled down through the bottom bung. I can't remember how many ribs there were, but it wasn't a pleasant job as the ribbed tubes cut into your hands. It didn't leak though.

Paul.

Nigel Lawton OO9 Simplex part 7 - detail overlays, sandboxes and major surgery.

The kit includes a fair number of detail overlays to be soldered on. I tinned each overlay whilst still attached to the etch, then soldered each on in place using my RSU set at 2 volts. There are twelve overlays that need adding to the frames. Six sit above the frame at the ends, four are attached to the lower sides at the ends and the other two sit inside the side channels. Positioning is straightforward, however care is needed on the four rectangular side overlays to make sure that the bolt detail sits correctly. Studying the line drawing in the instructions is necessary. Here it is with the overlays in place;

There are three more overlays to be added next, one on the engine side sitting above the channel frame representing the end of the engine, and two on the gearbox side, one below the frame and a smaller overlay above.

Sandboxes next, which are tinned on the etch, folded up, and soldered in place again using my RSU (still set at 2 volts). In the photo below one is fitted, one is folded ready and one in the flat;

The lids are folded down after fitting. A little fettling is needed to allow the lids to sit flat, and before closing the lids I filled each 'box with a tiny sliver of lead (aquarium plant weight), on a loco this size every little helps.

Note the RSU probe in the photo above. Probes are made from carbon rod and can be filed to suit a particular application, in this case the end is shaped to fit inside a sandbox.

Now for the surgery. There is of course one last sacrificial tab to be removed (well I hope its the last!), which is the one holding the frame to shape. This is cut down the middle with a cutting disc in a mini-drill;

Easier than it looks. And it looks easy.
A bit of folding to and fro and the tab just falls away;

And now body and chassis can finally meet;

All soldering done with 188 degree solder. Next job is to fit the bonnet.

The photos above were taken with my newly aquired Canon EOS1100D, using the aperture priority mode with the apperture set at f36.

Paul.

Nigel Lawton OO9 Simplex part 6 - cross members and bonnet.

There are two cross members to be folded up which sit across the frames. On the prototype these support the engine, gearbox and of course the bonnet. The rear crossmember also incudes the drivers platform and control levers. Both need folding to shape, I used a 2" Hold+Fold, being very carefull not to damage the very delicate control levers. Once the 'U' channel is formed the bracket on the front and the control levers on the rear can be folded up. The longer of the two levers is very fragile, having a half-etched section which allows it to be folded back on itself so that it sits in the middle of the crossmember. A little solder strengthens things up, and spares are included for both parts. There are two half-etched lugs on the rear of the drivers platform which need bending down. Both crossmembers made up;

The cross members sit on those triple folded brackets on top of the frames. These have holes etched in them, which are opened up to accept .4mm wire. Brass wire is then soldered in and cut down to provide location pegs. Etched holes in the crossmembers locate on the pegs and once everything is lined up the crossmembers can be soldered in place;

Note that the frames have a front and rear and solder the crossmember with the drivers platform at the rear.

Now the instructions point towards the bonnet. In the photo below note the thin strips in the middle, top and bottom, these are the bonnet support straps. These are half etched, and if not reinforced rather fragile. So with that in mind they have 'strengtheners' attached to the outer ends, which are tinned whilst the whole bonnet is still on the main etch, folded back and sweated to the rear of support straps thereby doubling up the material.

The two tiny pieces of etch are hinge detail, tinned whilst still attached to the main etch.
There are a series of half-etched lines on the underside of the bonnet, to help form the curves. I rolled the bonnet curves around a 4.5mm drill, using fingers, until they matched the ends;

Then with the bonnet upright on a piece of Tufnol the ends can be soldered in place, they sit inside the main bonnet top/sides flush with the ends;

Two attempts were needed until I was happy, re-working with round-nosed pliers. The beauty of soldering is that any joint can be unsoldered and re-done. Here's the bonnet sitting on the frames, tabs locate in half-etched grooves in the cross members, it won't be attached until later in the build;

Some filling is needed around the curves still, and there's the half-etched hinge detail yet to be added, which sits in the middle of the bonnet locating in the groove.

I still haven't quite mastered applying flux with a needle, but for now I persevere (even if I do reach for the brush on occasion).

Paul.

Nigel Lawton OO9 Simplex part 5 - starting the bodywork.

'Bodywork' is perhaps not the right word to use regarding Simplexes, as they basically consist of a steel frame with the mechanical components bolted to it. A simple bonnet covers the engine and fuel tank, and if the driver is lucky they might get a rude cab to protect them from the elements. Form definitely following function.

The body is etched in nickel silver, not brass as stated in the instructions although the early kits did have brass bodies. This to me is a good thing, n/s is easier to solder than brass and is stronger. (Nickel silver is a pig to photograph though!). Much use is made of sacrificial tabs (small tabs which aid assembly but are cut away later on), for example the entire middle of the upper frame is sacrificial, helping to keep the shape of what would otherwise be quite a delicate etching.

The upper frame is where we start, first job is to fold up the starting handle bracket and some tiny brackets which sit above the frame, these are triple folds, fiddly but easy enough. Then one frame side can be bent to shape and tacked in place (fold lines on the outside, not made clear in the instructions). Sacrificial tabs hold the side frame to the upper frame. Here's the frame with one side tacked on with the other in front;

The frame sides are extended at each end, the extension being cut away after the end pieces are fitted.
The lower parts of the frame sides, which form the bottom of the 'U' channel, are tacked in place next. Again these are held in place with tabs. In the photo below the lower frame on the nearest side is tacked in place whilst the other sits in the foreground:

Make sure that they are square before putting the iron to the job. I didn't and had to do a bit of re-soldering...
The frame ends can now be looked at. These are test-fitted (more tabs and slots), making sure that everything sits as it should, removed, then the frames are soldered up and the inner tabs are removed, by bending and filing, a rare use for a riffler file. Then the ends can be tacked in place, checked for square, and finish soldered. Below can be seen one end tacked on and the other in front;

The tapered sections between the top and bottom strips represent the lower part of the sandboxes.
Now all outer tabs can be removed, including the 'sideframe extensions'.There's a strip to be soldered on the ends, a simple matter of tinning whilst still on the etch then sweating in place;

Remember that clicking on a pic. gives a larger image.
I'm trying something slighty different with this build. I'm still using my 25w Antex but instead of the 2.3mm chisel tip (number 50) that I usually use I'm trying out a .5mm conical tip (number 55), ordered at the same time as my replacement element. So far I'm finding it usefull for picking up tiny amounts of solder on the tip as well as getting into tight corners. I'm also using a syringe fitted with a blunt needle (from Eileen's) to apply flux rather than a brush, and idea gleaned from an article in Finescale Railway Modelling Review issue 1. It takes a steady hand and a bit of practice not to squirt acid across the bench, but once mastered it is possible to apply tiny amounts of flux where needed. The only problem is that I still haven't mastered it...

All soldering done with 188 degree solder and Eileen's Strong Flux.
Bonnet next.

Paul.

Nigel Lawton OO9 Simplex part 4 - wiring up and making it run.

First of all I should state that I hate wiring anything up, and although I'm happy soldering brass and nickel silver kits together I really dislike electrical soldering. Go figure...

The motor is rated at 6 volts, so a resister is needed to drop the voltage down. So first of all a piece of .8mm PCB is trimmed down to 2mm x 4mm, gapped and glued the l/h chassis frame;

Then a tiny surface mount resister is soldered to the PCB. The instructions suggest shorting one side of the PCB to the chassis with solder, I chose instead to use a tiny piece of wire cut from the motor lead to connect the r/h side of the resister to the chassis. Instructions are for the guidance of the wise and the blind obediance of fools... (not that I'm particulary wise!) The other side is connected to the motor;

At this stage I felt it wise to make sure the wiring did actually work so out came a controller, and with one crocodile clip connected to the chassis and the other to the black wire power was applied and thankfully the motor turned as it should.

To make the pick-ups a length of phosphor bronze is soldered on edge to a 1.5mm x 4mm piece of PCB;

This is then glued inside the l/h frame side, connected to the motor, and the wiper formed to shape;

In both instances the resister and wiper are soldered in place with electrical solder, then the wiring soldered in place with 145 degree, which in theory prevents the initial joint from coming undone. Of course I did unsolder the wiper from the PCB trying to solder the black wire in place... second attempt worked fine though so the theory is sound. I never seem to make electrical joints as neat as I do elsewhere, despite using a tiny smear of Fry's powerflow flux.

With the wiring finished the chassis was re-assembled along with the drivebands, oiled and then the task of fettling it could begin. The motor is tensioned with a driveband which can be adjusted by bending its retaining lugs, it needs far less tension than you'd think. I started out by leaving off the tensioning band, unhooking the drive bands so they're loose on the axles, and placing the chassis on my test track (grand name for an oval of Kato Unitrack) and just letting the motor run without load for about half an hour in each direction. Then I fitted the tensioning band, adjusted the tension until it felt right and drove the pulley shaft smoothly. Then the drive pulleys were fitted over their pulleys and, with the chassis weighted (a couple of lumps of Blu-Tack and a shiny penny) it moved under its own power for the first time. It ran rather noisily at first, and needed a fair amount of power, but with after a few laps of the oval settled down. It now runs quite smoothly, and I'm sure will only improve.

Here's the finished chassis, note the tensioning belt over the top of the motor;

So far I'm very pleased with this kit. Now to start on the body.

Paul.

Nigel Lawton OO9 Simplex part 3 - swingarm, motor mount and driveshafts.

The swingarm is made up from two etched parts, an axle and a pulley with an O ring fitted. It sits between the motor and the pulley shaft, being driven by the motor shaft and in turn driving the pulley shaft, all by friction. Here's the components that make up the swingarm;

And assembled;

The pulley is secured to the axle with Loctite 603. The axle itself is hardened steel, mine was slightly too short so after a quick e-mail Nigel supplied a replacement. Being hardened means that ordinary files won't touch it so a diamond whetstone was used to file it to length and de-burr it. A diamond needle file would work as well. Note the two inward-facing lugs, these locate in the motor mount.

Next up is the motor mount, which takes the form of a strap...

...which is fitted around the motor;

The strap is then loosened off, the two tabs are bent inwards to form pivot pins, and the assembly is then fitted to the l/h side frame and the strap re-tightened;

With the frames bolted together you can see that the motor sits transversely under the bonnet, as per a full sized Simplex;

Now the pulley shaft needs to be assembled and fitted. Here's the components;

I fitted the pulley to the shaft first, using the Unimat set up as a drill press to make sure that the pulley went on square. The washer sits behind the pulley, and the sleeve holds the shaft in place. First of all though the sleeve needs to be reduced in length, to do this I held a length of 1.5mm dia. bar in a vice. The sleeve was slipped over the bar, which was set to the finished length of the sleeve, and the sleeve filed down until it was flush with the top of the bar;

Easier done than described!
With the chassis assembled, and the etched holes broached out to suit, the shaft can be fitted in place. A tiny drop of Loctite 603 holds the sleeve in place trapping the r/h frame between pulley/washer and sleeve. To make sure that there's enough sideplay to allow the shaft to rotate freely a feeler gauge is provided on the chassis etch to be used between the pulley/washer and frame, which can be seen in the photo below of the shaft in place;

Spinning the shaft showed the pulley to be out of true, due I think to the bore being slightly eccentric. I substituted it for one from my parts box, which ran fine.

Two drive pulleys now need to be fitted to the pulley shaft, these were pressed on using the Unimat. Once they're in place the corresponding pulleys can be fitted to the axles. One wheel needs to removed from each axle (the insulated wheel) and the instructions suggest using a lathe to press the pulleys in place. I chose to broach out both pulleys until they were a sliding fit on the axles, re-fit the wheels, assemble the frames and axles and then the axle pulleys can be positioned and secured with Loctite 603. Note how both axles are driven seperately from a central driveshaft, again following full-size Simplex practice;

The axles are in fact brass, and the ends are turned down to .8mm dia. This means that great care is needed to avoid damaging the journals (turned ends). I did somehow deform one end of one axle, requiring a strip down of the axle and a light skim of the journal in a lathe. In my opinion steel would have been a better choice of axle material, in fact if I were to build another I might just turn up new axles from steel.
Many would no doubt question the use of Loctite 603 to fix the brass axle pulleys in place, as that particular type of Loctite probably isn't suitable as it only sets properly in the presence of steel. In practice though those pulleys ain't moving!

Here it is with all of the mechanical parts in place, note the swingarm and the 'O' ring on the drive pulley;

I took a scale rule to the model and I note that the wheelbase is correct to the drawing in the W.J.K. Davies book, which bodes well for the rest of the model.

The next job is to fit pick-ups, wire it up, and make it go!

Paul.