Newsletter

52F Models Newsletter

52F Models Online Newsletter, last revised 19/10/2020

Corona Virus crisis.

We will continue to be able to supply chassis kits for most kit built models. With complete loco kits its a case of dropping us an email or ring us on 01670 362451 to find out what's available and what's not. Unfortunately, no one has any idea how long this crisis will last or when things are about to get back to normal. In the meantime, we would urge all our readers to follow Government guidelines to the letter and stay safe.

Seen at last year's Workshop Wise this beautiful C15 built by one of our customer's from a 52F Models kit. Graham has really done the model justice with this lovely build and paint job.

Covid-19, Further update.

Long lead times on certain bought in items have increased even more and can now stretch into months instead of weeks. In one instance it took the Royal Mail 24 days to collect a consignment of castings from the office where they were dropped off and another 4 days after collection to reach me.

The Post Office seem to recovering from their Covid 19 glitch and deliveries are almost back to normal. We are still experiencing minor difficulties with Scottish orders, especially in the Aberdeen Post Code area. The lady at the counter pointed this out and said there wouldn't be compensation for late deliveries. In the event the parcel was only 24 hrs late and considering everything else that's happening wasn't too bad.

The problems we had with white metal castings seems to be sorting itself out after a lot of teething troubles, but at last I can see light at the end of the tunnel.

White metal castings.

We are now well on our way to getting the problem of supply, quality and delivery of new castings sorted. That's the good news, Solving this problem has come at a price. The bad news is that they are considerably more expensive reflecting that they are produced on a commercial basis. The cost of the castings alone has increased by £6.00 per set. This cost will have to be passed on in the form of a price increase. From 28/08/2020 the cost of each kit will increase by £6.00 per kit.

C16 for OO gauge modellers.

Due to an increase in demand by OO modellers' for the introduction to the range of a C16 in OO gauge, we have decided to go ahead and produce this kit. At the same time we've decided to incorporate a few changes that will simplify the assembly process while not detracting in any way from the high level of detail on the body and chassis. The improvements to the design will be what's been proven to work and will provide an overall benefit in running or ease of assembly.

Slater's Plasticard have agreed to continue supplying us with lost wax brass castings which has been a worry since the death of our good friend and colleague Dave Alexander in April 2020.

Work is progressing on getting the first batch of kits ready to satisfy initial orders.

New Chassis kit for LNER/BR Class J25.

This new chassis is to meet the demand from OO modellers for a chassis to improve the running and the detail of their J25 white metal kit built locos. Although specifically produced for the Late Dave Alexander's excellent model we see no reason why this chassis couldn't be used for other manufacturers offerings for the J25. The kit includes our very popular Mk3 NER tender chassis. This tender chassis is considerably lighter than the item supplied and as a result enhances the pulling power of the locomotive by reducing the tender overall weight. The price is the same as the EM/P4 version of this chassis and is available by mail direct from 52F Models.

Latest on the progress of the A8 Loco kit.

After a long conversation with Mike Megginson, I've decided to produce the diagram 63 "Large Boilered" version as a separate kit. There are so many parts that need to be changed that in order to do the kit justice, I've decided to produce the A8 as Rebuilt by H.N. Gresley, as a stand alone kit.

I now have the etches for diagram 63 boilered version and have been working on the additional parts such as the masters for the lost wax Wakefield lubricators. The revised diagrams for the instructions are ready and I had them at Workshop Wise to show visitors the difference between the two kits. When this new kit is ready for release, you'll need to specify which version that you want. If anyone's interested just drop me an email expressing your interest and which version you'd like.

A8 loco kit.

I've put what I hope will be the final tweeks to the new A8 loco kit films, hopefully this will be the production version. When the films are altered, this generates a need to amend the original 3D diagrams. Depending on at what stage in the assembly process the amendments were can result in a whole new set of drawings. No small task but fortunately I don't consider this a chore.

I'm in the process of having all the white metal castings produced as lost wax brass castings. The sprues for the small parts are in the process of being 3D printed. What you've got to watch out for is a pitfall that I fell for with my first attempt. You can get models 3D printed that can't be cast successfully so you need to produce complicated components as a series of individual parts to avoid the possibility of hangups with the wax models.

Some of my readers may be wondering why the site gets updated with less frequency nowadays? This is because I'm not going to announce projects until I'm confident that they're going to go ahead. I was full of big ideas in late 2015 and that didn't work out too well.

H1 Chassis kit.

I was doing a chassis building demonstration over the weekend of the 28th and 29th of July at RailEx NE. It was nice to see old customers and acquaintances and discuss the latest developments in chassis and kit design. It was there that a customer who I'd developed a chassis for a DJH Class D, LNER class H1 reported that he was pleased with the chassis performance. He was so enthusiastic that I've decided to market this kit and make it generally available. (See the NER class D, LNER class H1 tab)

It incorporates several new features such as fold in horn cheeks and custom made horn blocks for both the bogie wheels and the driving wheels. The gearbox is now slimline and can be fitted along with the horn blocks, axle and wheels. The horn blocks are held in place with the loco springs.

The chassis is compensated and load bearing on all 12-wheels so no matter what you do, it cant tip up and detract from the tractive effort. At the front and rear of the chassis the bogies work in a prototypical fashion and do their job. No acres of daylight at the front and rear of the chassis.

Latest news for NER modeller's

News for NER modeller's . We have taken the opportunity to produce a revised chassis for the NER class 290, LNER/BR class J77 in OO gauge.

We are pleased to announce that we now have a chassis for the NER class D, LNER class H1. this chassis is available in both OO and EM/P4 gauges

We have produced the promised NBR class M, LNER class G9 as a kit. It's only available in EM/P4 at the moment but if there's sufficient interest a OO version will follow.

The first LNER class G9,s will be dispatched next week. The price of the kit is £99.95, Postage is an additional £5.00. A modified Gibson wheel set will cost £28.60 and a mashima 1420D motor is £27.50 Initially the kit will be EM/P4. We will look at OO kits if there's enough interest to make the project commercially viable.

The kit features compensation for all eight wheels. The chassis is load bearing for optimum weight distribution. It can't be bunker heavy, a fault common to all 0-4-4T tank engines.

Custom made horn blocks allows wheel assembly and quartering away from the chassis. You can even fit the custom gearbox to the drive axle along with the horn blocks and quarter the wheels before fitting them as an assembly. The wheels are held in place with a keeper plate that holds the springs and is readily detachable by removal of two 10BA screws.

All etched parts are 0.38mm nickel silver. All the white metal parts and lost wax castings are included to allow any version to be built.

Under development! LNER/BR class A8 4-6-2T

These are the first phots of the partially completed "Test Build" body. This shot shows the driver's side of the loco with the folding cab doors in the closed position. The boiler fitted is the diagram 63B with the dome placed 1'-9" nearer the firebox. Diagram 63A / 63C boiler will be supplied with the kit. The beading has been fitted to the cab opening. This is a pre-formed part and will allow the door opening handrails to be fitted prototypically.

Latest NBR news.

W.P. Reid designed Class D30 4-4-0 loco and tender kit.

The final prototype for the D30 has been built. We hope the production castings are as good as the samples All the castings that would have been white metal items will now be supplied as lost wax brass items. That was the plan, it looks like the castings are going to be a mixture of white metal and lost wax brass.

The tender has been built by a friend and has NBR springs and axle boxes on one side and we've used LNER springs and axle boxes on the other. The the lost wax castings look really nice and are a cut above what's currently available. You can even read NBR on the axle boxes. The lost wax castings for the NBR tender coping initially looked very nice. On assembly shrinkage proved to be a greater problem than anticipated. I am having to remake one of the masters to compensate for the accumulated shrinkage. Two pieces need to be 1.2mm longer.

There will be a choice of lost wax NBR springs and axle boxes or LNER springs and axleboxes. You will need to specify which which item you require when you order the kit. These lost wax brass castings aren't cheap so it's an either or situation in order to keep the cost down.

The NBR Reid Tender has been problematical in the design through to prototype phase. Incorporating so many new features into the design was never going to be easy but if you go to the Reid 4,235g tender tab you'll see that nearly all of the problems with the lost wax tender coping castings have been sorted.

There was very little point in finishing of the D30 while the design of the tender was proving problematical. Now we will be concentrating on snagging the loco and chassis design. We have been unable to use the original wheel we thought would be ideal for the purpose and we've had to select a modified King Arthur wheel as a substitute. This looks great on the chassis but when the chassis is offered up to the body there are clearance issues with the driving wheels and the splashers.

© Peter Stanger 2015, all rights reserved. This is the first photo of our D30 loco built from our first test etches. We are particularly pleased by the way that the etched parts have assembled with no fettling required to achieve the results that you see in the photo. We have modelled all the parts that can be seen above the footplate significantly enhancing the detail under the boiler. The body features sliding cab windows but they can't be seen in this shot. The boiler and the smokebox wrapper will be pre-formed by us to ensure that these parts fit correctly