Original page created on 04/12/2014; updated on 15/04/2024.
Aesthetic improvements
Installing the rear air tank
The additional provided buffer beam is divided into three parts: buffer beam itself, tank, and guard plate. I keep only the tank, which I mill according to this diagram:
Then, just glue it on the NEM box.
Replacing the fan grating
This replacement is under study. The aim is to get as close as possible to the appearance of this real photo, found on the Loco-Revue forum. According to the author of this photo, the wire making up the grating has a diameter of 6 mm. The support tubes are of the 1”¼ “gas” type, i.e. with an external diameter of 42 mm — which seems too large to me compared to the photo. I think the tube is rather 1”, with an external diameter of 33.7 mm. The mesh pitch is not specified, but is around 30 mm. Dimensions scaled to 1:87: 0.34 mm mesh; 0.07 mm wire; 0.39 mm tubes.
Without wanting a grid pitch as fine as in reality, I found that the small sachets of baptismal or marriage dragées are made in a fabric (tulle?) whose mesh is about 0.5 mm, much finer than that of the original grating. It could be placed on a frame made of ⌀ 0.4 mm. bronze, nickel silver or iron wire.
Photo HMC
Other solutions, less “miserable”:
- Square mesh grating with 0.4 mm pitch. It has, however, the fault of having too much thick “threads”.
- Bronze wire gauze. This would be by far the best solution, but also the most expensive…
As for the lateral gratings, whose diamond pitch is 1.55 mm wide and should actually be about 0.7, I have not found a “fake” solution at the moment! Perhaps by stretching one of the gratings seen above to transform the squares into diamonds? The Decapod mesh no. 9002, and the Microscale 652-3501, have a pitch of 1.25, which is not significantly smaller than the current one. And there is nothing very visible behind it, unlike the roof grating under which the fan is located.
Personally, I would have preferred a non-through all-plastic engraving, but to scale. The solution chosen, probably more expensive (inserts), reminds me of the one used in the 60s by Jouef for the shutters of BB 13000, 16000 and CC 40100, among others, which were openwork but very roughly engraved. At the time, I found it very nice, but I still preferred the 40100 Lima (for the body, not for the bogies)…
Décapod ref. 9003 nickel silver 0.1mm ;
sheet 70mm × 110mm,
€5.92 — price 2015,
at micro modele
Bronze wire gauze 200 × 200 mm,
0.44 mm mesh, 0.04 mm wire,
ref OC-TMB 42, €12.30 - price 2024
at Métivier modélisme / L’Octant