Garden Railway Forum

Coor its looking really good! Glad you did put the bunker rails in!

Rear view shows the pillars which look about right to me. I have decided to detail the interior slightly and have modelled a freelance rear to the boiler with a firebox. I know Ivor has a square firebox door but this Airfix enamel lid doesn't look too bad.
The on-off switch for the motor will eventually be hidden in the bunkers coal, the wires go down inside the bunker, across the footplate and up behind the firebox. The floor will have a wooden stained floor made from coffee stirrers to make the wiring completely invisible when finished.

Glad you did put the bunker rails in!

It had been bugging me since you drew my attention to it. Glad you did though.

Excellant work with the plasticard....good engineering

As for card, you can coat with a 50/50 PVA?water mix then paint or (as shellac is hard to get hold of) wood hardner, but do it before you paint.

The Locolines items are very good ( I like them), and the idea of printing colour and lines helpful, but i must admit I am tempted to build and paint then detail....especially having seen some of the card models with dicoloured joints....would it be better for the ivor loco to have transfers to go on after you build and paint???

Crackingjob

Wow that Ivor looks super! You need some sort of sound card to go in it that makes the 'pisht-ti-cufft pisht-ti-cufft' noise

Mr. Bond of the DVLR wrote:Glad you did put the bunker rails in!

Thank You for this also I've just finished my second Ivor this evening so I can hand it over to a mate who I'm meeting up with tomorrow, and have added the bunker rails thanks to this discusssion, even if they highlight the fact the bunker leans towards the cab (or vice-versa not sure). Wish I'd paid more attention to the colour scheme of the lamps though!

Will take some photos tomorrow, just need to buy him a donkey wagon now!

Yay! or a spud truck witha pair of gold boots on top, has anyone had a go at making the steam crane?

Meet Ivor Bach No.2, he lives in the top left hand of England.

Now it needs conrods...
Looks brill is it a good kit?

For £65, it wouldn't seem to be a good value kit although you do get an essential "Busy Bodies" figure of Jones the Steam (unpainted) for which you can knock a tenner off. You also get a small 3-volt can motor and a gearbox (which is very noisy) and various resin cast parts (which need quite a bit of work). The wheels are poor (too small and with only a slight flange) and I don't think they would be up to outdoor running like my build is intended to do.
With this in my mind, I have junked the supplied wheels (bottom left) and substituted LGB spoked wagon / coach wheels. They were removed from their metal axles, cut back and drilled 5/32" which is an interference fit for the 4mm axles (supplied). As the LGB plastic doesn't take paint too well, I have wrapped automotive vinyl around each spoke and overlapped onto inself at the back to ensure that it won't peel off.
The LGB wheels fit without any modification to the chassis although there is less than 1mm clearance. Any larger (which would be better) would require slots to be cut into chassis.
But, for all its faults, I think it is a good starting point for modification and I suspect most of the cost is the licencing.

Because this model must run perfectly on the day, I have weighted the front to prevent it being unstable due to the large rear overhang (don't want it doing wheelies). The front buffer beam as previously mentioned was filled with ballast but it was still tail heavy (even with boiler and batteries in situ). Whilst building the splashers, I incorporated two more ballast boxes in front of the rear axle (which prevented me from going bigger with the wheels).

..... and here filled with ballast before welding on the ballast box lids and fitting the splasher tops ....

Splashers fitted ... but being a little too handy with the file meant the front inner curves which contour around the boiler base have broken off. This will be remedied by a bit of filler just to tidy up the small gap.
The 2mm thick splashers were curved by placing the parts into boiling water and bending with pliers far in excess of the curve needed and then tweaking as they cooled.

I found some brass curtain rings at a hardware shop which were just right for the inner spectacles. 2mm clear perspex was cut to size and inserted from outside onto the curtain ring which is slightly smaller than the glazing and so holds it in place. I was going to use these curtain rings on the outside as well but it lost some of Ivors's character and so will be sticking on the original printed items instead. The footplate has been planked with coffee stirrers and the interior painted with Tamiya acrylic. I am not happy with the finish of these Tamiya paints and it doesn't adhere very well. I am thinking of using self adhesive automotive vinyl for the outer "paint" finish.

Coor, looks brilliant!
Love the specticle rings,
are you using model railway ballast as ballast?

Yes, but lead shot would have been better as I still don't think that the front - rear balance is 100%. The batteries will go inside the boiler which should compensate for the resin Jones the Steam figure (who incidentally does fit in the reduced cab space with 4mm to spare).

Gave Ivor a test run ... balance okay and I think the bigger wheels are better than the small ones supplied although still not really big enough. Motor and gearbox is very noisy and I hope it gets quieter as the teeth wear a bit. Seems to be too tight a mesh.

Boiler supplied is the wrong size (too small) so good thing I wont be using the boiler front overlay. I would have to cut inside the yellow lining to get the overlay to fit.

Even so, there is still plenty of room in there to put the battery pack ...

I'd better put the plasticard away before someone thinks this is some kind of delicious biscuit .... don't want to get in anyone's "Black Books"