Sand Hutton Hunslet in 009: smokebox...

This evening I have knocked up a smokebox for the Sand Hutton Hunslet which means it can now balance on it's own without a file to support the tail happy rear end...
The Minitrains F&C chassis is tail heavy because of the motor and has a metal boiler to counteract this so I have filled the boiler with fluid lead. The cylinder block has been infilled with plasticard to match the prototype and the smokebox assembled.
First I cut two matching pieces of 30 thou for front and back. Then a 15 thou base to set the distance between them. I then glued a 20 thou section between them that was hand formed first. Once dry I reinforced the joint with superglue and smoothed the outside. I opened a hole in the base to allow solvent vapour to release. I filed a round edge on the front and back and then added a 10 thou wrapper. I added more fluid gravity inside the smokebox, an then secured it to the boiler. The boiler bands were added from microstrip.
I'm looking forward to the custom turned chimney that a good modelling friend has promised me in the next few weeks, but in the meantime I have the chassis front and bufferbeams to tackle. More soon...

Comments

  1. You might consider not only to use 'thou', but also mm. You have international readers, who have no clue what a thou is. It makes reading your otherwise very interesting website a bit annoying.

    ReplyDelete
  2. A thou is a thousandth of a UK inch. Plasticard is sold in thou thicknesses here.
    I've converted some for my international readers and will keep this in mind in future!
    10 thou = 0.25mm
    15 thou = 0.38mm
    20 thou = 0.5mm
    30 thou = 0.76mm
    40 thou = 1mm

    For now I hope that helps, thanks for reading!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Google understands eg "10 thou in mm" and will calculate it for you. Handy that!

    ReplyDelete
  4. You could just write .020" instead of 20 thou...

    ReplyDelete

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