I bought all the bits from Hartland, and all the laser cut stuff from Rick. This is the real stick-it-together kit! The model
is based on the 'as built' Danforth Cooke 4-2-4T, and will resemble the locos running in Oregon, with gothic arched cab and box
headlight. The stack is a standard Hartland 'Inyo' stack, with a bit of styrene added at the base to fatten up the stem.
This is Rick's laser cut CPH pilot kit. The welding is a little tougher than normal, because you're welding only long the cut
edges of the styrene. The laser seems to heat harden the edges...which makes it harder for the solvent to melt it. Advice - file
the edges a little to remove some of the hard shell and she welds together fine. This pilot is based on the type currently on
the CPH today, complete with foot boards on the bottom edge.
The cab is a straight up assembly of Rick's laser cut Gothic cab.
Note the acorns added to the base of the arches, made from slithers of 3mm tube, cut in half, and 1mm rivet rods with rounded
edges.
Also the bottom edge of the cab walls has a stepped sill, as noted in the instructions for the Hartland cab base.
The deck is also all laser cut. Note I have not added the bolt heads to the sides of the deck, as I intend to run some fancy
decal work there first.
The boiler and smokebox are nearing completion
The domes are done...the sand dome was straight from the instructions, it is made using all the circles and Octagon plates
from Rick's kit. The Octagon base is again a PVC connector, as used last time, and came out better than the demo in the class
(trying to outdo the teacher!), the steam dome base is from the class, but I've used the steam dome upper from the AMS General
kit, the Octagon base layer is from Rick's kit. The dome base itself I've done this time by making up the octagon base from sides
of 1mm styrene, and guys it's a perfect fit, and is exactly the right style of dome for 'As built' versions. I have a number of
these kit, used for parts in all manners, but to date I've only been able to use that dome once before, on the NZR 1877 Rogers. I
was glad to be able to use another one, because they have a real antique style about them. I just wasn't sure if it was the right
size till I hauled one out to try it. Its perfect! Could not have been better!
That last photo shows the underside of the steam dome. I did the dome base this way to demo what to do if you cant find any
Octagon connectors at the Hardware store that are the right size.
The PDFs show you the exact profile of the Octagon to make, so you can made up an Octagon base by setting up 8 walls of 1mm styrene.
There is also a sectional view of the domes, as seen from the front, with the boiler cut thought..this is the drawing to use to work
out the heights of the dome base sides. The front Octagon sides are taken from the drawing which gives you an indication of the
height of the base as it sits at boiler top (height of the Octagon wall at front and back only) measure the height at the longest
ends of this panel that sits over the boiler top.
From the PDF You can also see the length of the walls from the dome side, extending down to the boiler side. This is the height of
the Octagon to the sides of the domes. The four 45 deg angled sides are the tall height along one edge, and the short length on the
other edge, joining up the shorter and taller walls. Fill the inside of the Octagon with epoxy to make a good block out of it. Then
sand the base on the sand paper pipe to get it bedded down right.
Again I mention that getting the octagon size right will help a lot, as the Stan's decoration to these Octagon bases will fit right!
There's no question about it, Rick has added a whole new dimension to this masterclass concept.
Since I only got two crossheads from the same side, I needed to scratch made an opposite crosshead!
Chaps,
A hint - go to your local shopping centre, and visit the beads shops, DIY earing shops. There you will find real fine
and intricate decorative brass gizmos..things that can make real fancy headlight bracket sides, as well as nobby things use to clip
earings into the ear, which make for great flag staff stanchion bases...and bases to hand rail stanchions. By using these gizmos you
can add some flare to the bottom of the stanchions, and raise the height of the standard Ozark 9mm stanchion up the desired 12mm!
The hand rail stanchions are made using regular 6-7mm tall Ozarks, inserted atop some gold ear ring stud ends, giving the stanchions
a decorative base and adding some ornate feature! Total height is now 13mm. A brass pin is inserted from the bottom of the cleat up
into the bottom of the Ozark handrail stanchion(drilled out in the centre).
I scratch made the tender this time, using Masterclass method of pipes and styrene panels. Reason being that I had already used
my Hartland tender on lady Ryanne, and hadn't bothered to ask Phil for another! I'd totally run out of headlight brackets too, so this
one is made from two metal ear ring parts from the bead shop, I bent an ornate 'T' shaped dangly into these bracket shaped thingies!
Here is the main assemblies all painted. During the week, when the paint is fully hardenned, I'll insert the gearbox and add the
bogies. next I'll make the backhead and bolt it all together. I need to hand paint the details still, such as wood colour to the
window frames and doors, inside cab is also be a wood colour. Stan's decals will also be applied before I bolt to all together.
The 'as built' version of the NG Danforth Cooke 4-2-4T is done man! This is a really cool version.
First, she has no injectors, only crosshead water pumps. On this model, the pumps are mounted just in front of the drive
wheels. The pumps were scratch made using styrene pipe, brass beads and Sculpy. Additionally the actual pump part works,
with the crosshead pumping in and out.these elements made from 3mm brass tube and 1mm brass rod sliding inside.
As this is an 1863 version, the backhead is really plain. There are no injectors, only a pressure gauge tri-cocks, throttle
and blower valve. No water glass.
A view of the backhead
Decals were all provided by Stan Cedarleaf, and are gold linework with red fine lines. You can also request the red linage
in green if you want. The Red linework has more kick, on blue, wine or green models. Whereas the green linework per the 1914
paint job is more subtle.
Crosshead punps to both sides.
A huge thanks to Rick for this laser cut kit, making this a really piss-easy build..4 days total. And to Stan for the fine decals.
Oh boy she runs great! I had her out running for a couple of hours today. Seems to have a tad more tractive effort than the
last one, still ample more than a loco like this should have. I decided to have her pull the Hartland box cars and reefer, as
these have a real Civil War feel to them, and scale well to 20' at 1:20 scale. They remind me a lot of the cars behind the
Oregon 4-2-4Ts from the 1860s. The 3 Hartland cars here are all 'specials' made by Phil Jensen for the exclusive
'Jensen-Fletcher RR series'. Each represents a time we met up in person and only two cars are made of each..one for me and
one for him!
The yellow one is a H-L-W stock car prototype, originally made for the Disney series. This one is letter for the 2001 Durango
Railfest, where Phil & I rode Eureka. The white car is lettered for the Queen Mary show for 2003...I did the graphics for
that car. The final one is personal favorite.."Fletch's Root Beer" from the Jensen Bottle Co...only 5c. hehehe..I like this
car!
Here she is out on the rails today, the 'Honourable Jim Wilke' at work:
I like this train!
Some ideas....
I think the secret with any colour scheme is to think deep and dark on the base colour, like they did in those days. Wines,
plum, dark greens, dark blue, brown, dark purple, ochers and browns etc, even gloss black. The darker base sets off the other
lighter areas such as the wheels and Russia Iron...also contrasts nicely with the linework per prototype.
The inside of the cab is painted the same as the window frames. Tamyia 'Red Brown'. Hand painted on by brush after the cab is
sprayed blue.
I've added a couple of safety valve rods to the steam cluster..and something the guys should note. In the both decal set versions
are plenty of lil gold stars for the pilot wheel hubs etc, there are lots of spare stars in the sets as I figure there will be
lots of screw ups. Anyway..why not use the spare stars on the rear truck journal lids! They really give a little touch to the
rear truck!
The headlight brackets were the result of a wander through the local jewerly/bead DIY earing shop at the mall. There were these
dangly puter thinies for a couple of bucks..the bag came with 6 of them...so I have 4 spares for 'next one'. I had to bend them
and trim off the bits I didn't need. The bases to the handrail stanchions came from the same place..earing things that slide
onto the spike at the back of the ear. There were lots of goodies at this shops that can be used for fancy stuff on locos. Also
check out the local doll house making shop..the ones that sell 1:12 house stuff. The lace work to balconies etc might work as
fancy headlight brackets.
