Making a missing piece


D

DianneB

New Member
I am working on a Master Creations 2-6-6-6 kit from 30 years ago - don't ask my critique of the kit because my mother tried to teach me not to swear! - and it is missing the left half of the firebox and I have two right hand pieces. It is made from cast.

I need TWO firebox halves, not one, and the only way I can think of is to build it up from brass sheet. Unfortunately, if I do that, it will not have the detail of the original. I don't suppose anyone knows how to make a mirror image of a casting (without spending $$$$)?

Any and all ideas are welcome!
 
I think brass would work, should be fairly simple to emboss the rivet detail although I've never tried it.
Other than maybe making a reversed resin casting I would think styrene may work?
 
I would consider using styrene sheets for the major details and rivet decals for the minor details. The other option would be to get a CAD drawing, which would be easy to mirror image, then go to Shapeways.com to have it produced.

Or, depending on the visibility of the object, I would consider taking a photo of the side you have, reversing the image in Photoshop, and then scaling a print of the reversed photo to the right size and gluing it to an appropriately shaped and thick supporting structure.
 
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It is VERY visible so I like the idea of PhotoShopping it!

I already made the styrene firebox from some heavy scrap I had. Now I can get on with the body filler, filing and sanding and make it look pretty before detailing. With the 'quality' of these castings, I need a pound of body putty and an angle grinder! :eek:
 
UGH!! It reminds me of the Arbour H8 kit. Good luck with it. Have you thought about buying a damaged, scrapped Plastic H8 and making your firebox casting from a plastic master?
 
Y3a said:
UGH!! It reminds me of the Arbour H8 kit.
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It IS an Arbour! Arbour sold to Master Creations so it is the same thing. Worst kit I have ever built! I have built a steam engine from raw foundry castings and it was easier than this thing!

It doesn't look to bad with a styrene firebox so I am not going to worry about it for now.
 
I had one of those back in 1977! It took me a year and a half to finish it. After painting it looked really good. At the time, I only had a 6' test track to run it on, where there it seemed to run well. I took it to a friends layout to see what it could do. After running down the track for about 15', it started shedding parts faster than a Rambler going down the interstate! I picked up all the pieces I could find, put it in a box, and didn't open the box for almost 20 years.

When I finally did, the only pieces that hadn't turned to dust from the "disease" was two airtanks.
 
That's sad to hear Care. A shame to go to all that work and have it disintegrate!

My test track is only 3 feet so I can only hope mine doesn't "start shedding pieces" when I get it on a longer track.
 
Quote: "started shedding parts faster than a Rambler going down the interstate"

Sorry to disagree - but Ramblers would run almost forever and were essentially indestructible. Until I sold my '65 a couple of years ago, it would run better than the average new small car.:D
 
DianneB said:
It IS an Arbour! Arbour sold to Master Creations so it is the same thing. Worst kit I have ever built! I have built a steam engine from raw foundry castings and it was easier than this thing!

It doesn't look to bad with a styrene firebox so I am not going to worry about it for now.
Click to expand...

I had 4 hobby shops close by so I ended up using BRASS versions of most all the detail castings, including the Baker long frame valve gear. Making 2 sets was so much fun......

Mine would move and pull, but the frames were so soft that it would make the drivers bind and bend the side rods. I added the piping to the over-fire jets, and lots more detail on the 6 wheel trailer truck. I ended up cutting the boiler up and using it as boiler weights in better engines! I may have most of the tender, trailer truck and all the valve gear . I bought an airbrush and Dremel tool for the project. I still use the airbrush.
 
Lost wax makes a lovely job! I have a friend who does lost wax casting for gold jewellery and the detail is exquisite.

But this engine is definitely NOT worth that kind of expense/work! A smart person would have thrown this kit away 30 years ago and bought a brass loco!
 
Charles Smiley said:
Quote: "started shedding parts faster than a Rambler going down the interstate"

Sorry to disagree - but Ramblers would run almost forever and were essentially indestructible. Until I sold my '65 a couple of years ago, it would run better than the average new small car.:D
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I remember those Ramblers as well. My Aunts would drive nothing else. They were good quality, well built, if somewhat stogy cars. The "Ramblers" I'm referring to were the ones produced when they started advertizing as AMC. I didn't know anyone who owned an AMC/Rambler car from this time, have anything really good to say about them. (IIRC, this was the early to mid 1970's. I was still in college.)

Our State Troopers used AMC Javelins as their main pursuit cars. They started referring to them as portable parts stores as they would start to shed parts at any speed faster than 50 MPH, and the troopers took to carrying extra parts to try to make roadside repairs on them, if just to get them back to the garage. These cars lasted less than 2 years and they are still an embarassing episode within the troopers from that time. They despised the cars due to their unreliability and low quality.

Since then, they used Crown Vic's exclusively until they got alot of Challengers, with a few Mustangs and Camaros, in the past 2-3 years. Reason being, as I understand it, the Crown Vic's are no longer made.
 
The L.A.P.D. used AMC 401-V8 Matadors in that same era because nothing else had the performance (especially the handling) they needed in the early '70s. Some were still in use by the early '80s. The last one running was the special K9 unit well into the late '80s as I recall. You can see them in 1-Adam-12 Re-runs on TV.

personal experience: :D
I raced many AMC cars from AMXs, Javelins and the Hornet in the attached video clip at various road racing tracks. Not much in its class would touch them - several regional class championships and lap records too. A race car collector in AZ bought the Hornet and still runs it in GT-1 vintage racing since it was eligible by its age and documentation records.

They worked OK for me!

youtube link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKEwWdIT-Ms
 
DianneB said:
Lost wax makes a lovely job! I have a friend who does lost wax casting for gold jewellery and the detail is exquisite.

But this engine is definitely NOT worth that kind of expense/work! A smart person would have thrown this kit away 30 years ago and bought a brass loco!
Click to expand...


I apparently was following a smart person around about 30 years ago!! I found one of these Arbour kits in a garbage can--- box and all . It was missing a bunch of parts and had no instructions .
Master Creations was kind enough to send me a sheet of instructions and all the valve gear which was missing. I took one look at the valve gear and got out some brass and my dremel and scratched all the valve gear. I made a new pilot for it from brass , scratch built a correct tender for it , then built a Vanderbuilt tender,( I just like Vandebuilts) both of brass.
I also had to make a bunch more missing parts from brass so it is about 30 percent brass.
I have never done more than test run it but It looks good in the case.
You are right it is a POS Kit!! .
 
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