I'm thinking of painting the whole thing blue, with Russia iron cylinder jackets and blue caps, possibly with gold or white lining on the cylinder caps, valve chests, and deck edging. Any opinions?

{edit} In looking at the pictures, it looks like the cylinders are not parallel.  They are, as close as I can measure and see.  The distortion is an artifact of the camera angle.

Ken,

 

 I thought you did the raised cylinder sections on purpose!!  I like reading these kinds of posts because it gives me inspiration to cut and bash my seldom or unused trains.

 

Mark

Mark, It almost looks that way, doesn't it? If the wrinkles were more even, I'd leave them. As it is, I'll fix them, then re-make the center portions under more controlled circumstances. By all means, start cutting and bashing! It's a lot easier than it looks at first glance, and a load of fun to boot.

 

As someone's signature around here suggests, do something, even if it's wrong.  Styrene is remarkably easy to work with, and almost anything can be made and re-made.  Mistakes are usually pretty simple to repair, if somewhat time consuming.  Basically, don't be afraid to get in there and hack something up.  It may take a while, but you'll eventually get the results you want, and be darn proud of what you've acomplished.

 

For the record, this is my first ever scratchbuilding project.

I'm rather proud of how well this turned out.

 

 

The flourescent yellow rings were cut from the body of a highlighter marker.  It's hard to see, but there's a strene rod glued around the perimeter as a trim ring.

 

The front is made up od several styrene disks and rings, sanded smooth and stacked.  The ball at the center is the head of a sewing pin, the shaft of which was cut short and superglued into a hole in the cylinder cover.

 

It's almost ready for paint now.  All I have left to add is the front beam, drain cocks, and valve stem glands.

 

Quite a change from the oringinal B'mann part, or this, for that matter:

 

 Oh joy!  Unfortunately, at this point, disasembly would involve destroying quite a bit of work.  I bonded the 1/8"  strip around the cylinder with ACC, and slopped quite a bit all over the place.  Hopefully this will serve to hold the caps in place, even if the PC cement bond does fail.  At least they're not structural, and would probably stay put without any glue at all.

 

Iwas getting excited, but ran out of ACC.  I decided to see what else I had around the house that would work.  Sounds like I should have waited until I could get more ACC.

 

 

Chris,

 

I sure hope I'm right as well!  I guess we'll learn soon enough, won't we?  The product I used Is Oatey brand "Medium Clear PVC Cement."  The label says it contains Tetrahydrofuran, PVC Resin, Acetone, Methyl Ethly Ketone, Cyclohexanone and Amorpous Silica.  I cannot comment on the other ingredients, but I use both acetone and MEK to solvent weld styrene, which is ehat leads me to hope that all will turn out well in the end.  I'll let everyone know the results in the future.

 

Heck, at the rate I'm going, I'll still be working on this engine a year from now!

 

Chris,

 

I can't say that I have much faith in my theory either, especially sine you have all the expereince, and I have none.  But we shall see.  With a little luck, either the cement will hold, or some of the other stuff I've glopped all over the joint will hold instead.  I sure hope I don't have to re-make those darned cylinders - it took me months to get the nerve and inspiration to build them the first time!

 

In other news, the lead truck spring arrangement is in, and seems to work well.  It's stiff, especially side to side, but still movable.  There is some downward pressure on the truck, but not enough to lift the front driver, even with a bare chassis, so hopefully that will work out well.  As for the side to side, pushing on the wheels will make the truck swing a couple degrees before moving the chassis (sitting on the workbench).  I'm hoping that once the model is assembled, weighted, and put on the rails, the truck will do it's jpb of leading the engine without being so stiff that it rides up over the outside rail in a curve.  One advantage to using wire (or brass rod, in my case) as a spring is that it's easy to adjust the spring rate by using a different diameter wire.  Pictures will be posted soon.