Building a Class 71

Taking a break on the blog from buildings I thought I would show you the Class 71 I'm building.

I bought this old MTK kit a couple of years ago from one of our club members before he sold it on our second hand stall.

Now I call it a kit, when really it's no more than a basic body shell with bogey sides. This of course turns my 'cheap kit' into a not so cheap project, as a) it requires a donor vehicle and b) a pantograph. Fortunately I managed to acquire both at the Erith show in Dartford, namely a secondhand Lima Warship for £22 and a pair of pantographs that looked about right for another £18. In order to recoup some of the cost the I'll be selling the body of the Warship and the spare pantograph on e-bay.

The first step was to put the shell together. There were two halves to each side, two ends, two roof sections and a box section that fits in the bottom to help maintain the shape. As the castings were so thick and heavy I decided to solder them together, as I felt gluing them with Araldite was fraught with problems. Sections would have to be held in place until the glue set and then one careless fumble and you get all your parts back in kit form again.

The castings are quite basic and the white metal is very soft by today’s standards. I presume the softness is due to a high lead content, when modern white metal castings tend to contain little or no  lead, having a higher tin content. This makes the metal harder but a little more brittle.  

All the flash and casting tags were removed and the sides flattened by pressing them on glass. All the components were then checked and filed for a good fit before soldering. The two halves of each side were soldered together first, then the ends were added to make an open box. The two halves of the roof were then joined together before checking and adjusting the fit.  I also soldered the join lines on the outside of the body as well, covering up the joins and adding strength to the body shell. I had to be careful filing back the solder though, as it was harder than the white metal of the body shell. This made it essential to hold the file parallel to the surface of the model or to avoid filing the body away while just rounding off the raised solder.

There were still a number of fine imperfections in the outer surface of the castings but I decided to primer the shell before filling them, to to better show up the imperfections. The photos show the body shell after it was scrubbed with a bleach kitchen cleaner to remove all the oxidation of the old metal and then afterwards in the primed grey.

I could go a lot further and remove some of the cast details, such as the lamp brackets and hand rails, so they could be added in brass but I decided not to as the detail in the overall model is very basic and I decided a good coat of paint and gentle weathering would be better. Some things will be added that are not on the casting like the distinctive front handrails and possibly a headboard. I will be adding some plastic card  battery boxes as the cast metal pieces were appalling.

My next blog on the Class 71 will show the dissecting of the Warship Chassis and fitting to the body shell, so watch this space.