NS class 4300

Detailing the superstructure

Usually I make a page about detailing, painting and final assembly consecutively. But as this project is about detailing an existing model all is a bit different. So things are more or less order in the way they were worked on.
	First I started with the parts that came form the Dido Model Railways detailing kit. Top a folded window. Bottom as straight out of the etch.
	The back sheet and tender door were supplied as one part (right hand side). The instructions warned that the door could hamper layout operation in tight curves, so I decided to add a hinge and make the door moveable (left). The hinges on the door are made from 0.2 mm brass strip.
	The hinge pin is soldered from 0.5 mm nickel silver wire.
	To fold the hinges around the pin the door is put in the vise, the bak sheet is placed over it and the hinges are bent over the pin ....
	... the door is taken out of the vise and lied flat the hinges are fully folded over.
	and soldered with 140C solder.
	The fall plate is bent just a little over its width. Fall plates almost always have a gentle curve.

I did a lot of thinking how to make the fall plate hinge, more or less analogous to the hinges for the tender doors,without making the hinge too difficult hinge or too high. When I sat back, more or less at a loss how to solve this, I remembered recently having thrown away some polyethene plastic. I retrieved it from the bin and cut out a piece of the the bottom end which was nicely folded. If I glue that with epoxy to the fall plate and to the cab bottom respectively I have the hinge I want.
One of the changes made to the class was removal of the vaccum brake.So I took off the ejector exhaust pipe.

The coupler hook was removed and the European link coupler was installed, here temporarily. I damaged the paint whil opening up the square hole so I need to spray it.

On the tender the coupler space was removed and installed upside down so it won't get lost

Coupler installed on the tender and two plastic air hoses. The hoses are a bit oversize, but the model is in OO anyway so it won't be too conspicuous.

A stack elongation was made from two styrene tubes, a strip of styrene and some work turned it into a reasonable depiction..

	A rack for the fireman's tools.
	The old holders for the signalling discs that came with the orogonal loco were drawn form their respective places like a dentist pulls a tooth. I stripped the paint and soldered them on the back of the headlamps. I also slimmed the metal a bit so it would back into the slot more easily than it came out.

Once all parts were ready they were stuck to scraps of Blu-tack to prevent them from being blown away in the air flow of the airbrush and they were painted black, except for the ladder and the tool rack which were painted green.

Now the parts could one by one be installed with epoxy, to begin with the stack.
	The lamp were placed back into the original slots, giving the loco a face.
	The tool rack in place. I am not satisfied with it but it's okay. The difference in colour is visible on the photo but in reality it is hardly discernible.

A 0.5 mm hole was drilled on the place where the lamp iron is to come and then redrilled and widened to 1.0 mm. Finally the lamp iron was glued in place.

To take up the ladder I drille a 0.6 mm hole in the running borad but not all the way through, just a mm deep or so. I dippe the ladder end in glue and set it in place, adding two two tiny dots of glue where the ladder leans against the hand rail.

Lamp irons installed on the tender
	The rear sheets with windows and tender door installed
	Windows installed.The glass is a bit off, but that was corrected easily.
	Fall plate installed

These two photos show that the plastic hinge works out nicely, giving the tender the needed freedom during operation.