With a scheduled week off coming up, and another few days of wet weather on the way, I made a start today on my half brake F19.

Having said that I started today isn't quite true, the last few days have been spent studying the parts and having several "Dry Run" assembly sessions, I heartily recommend everyone to do this as there are lots of bits that look the same, but are only similar!

I'll add pictures as I go along, the first assembly was the main running frame, be sure to double check you have the solebars the right way around and the bits of bolsters that are made up of sandwich parts need careful study, otherwise the assembly is fairly straightforward.

Next I painted the inside sheet of the laminated main carriage sides, my F19 is to be in Red and Cream, so the interior will be cream and brown. 

The inside ends and the three partition walls were next to be painted. 

Next step was to assemble the laminated sections that make the body sides formers, the door window frames need to be painted at this stage 

I thought it very clever the way the laminated sides were "Stepped" so as to make the tumblehome effect very easy

Next job was to add the whitemetal castings for the door hinges, its a good idea to file a little off the base of these, as they sit just slightly proud of the laser cut recesses in some instances. After the hinge castings had set the side sections were glued together, clamped and left to set. After that the fret of exterior beading was glued into position.

I then assembled the two ends. 

When the sides had set I dropped in the whitemetal castings for the door vents, a couple of these needed filing slightly so as to drop into the recess easily. 

The compartment partition walls were glued in place on the floor of the carriage frame. 

The sides, ends and base were then dry assembled to check everything was in place, they fitted perfectly .

After this the carriage was taken apart after the dry assembly for final repainting of the interior and fitting of windows, I dropped in the interior door ventilation covers, these are a really nice touch and it seems criminal to paint them, but they probably will not be seen anyway when the roof is fitted, still, at least I know they are there!

I need to add the window straps to complete the interior sides.

After browsing through a few colour pictures, I decided to change the interior colour to a sort of pale orange (think David Dickinson after having had a shock), as there is a shot of one of the small F's with its door open in the Keith Pirt Book. I am happier with this.

The interior is now painted, I added window straps from some scrap thin ply.

The exterior has had its coat of primer and first coat of red, I'm going for a semi matt finish, some trimline tape needs to be added after the final coat of paint and the lower section of the  body, level with the bottoms of the doors will be black, the IMR went through a phase of treating all the small F's this way, so they would match the other stock with steel frames.

The ends have had their coating of primer and first coat of red.

All the interior window fixings have been painted, as have the exterior sash window frames. 

The ducket sides have been teased into shape by careful bending and flexing, this is not recommended for the faint hearted, but it should give the glue a fighting chance.

The body was then dry assembled again to check for fit / clearances etc. 

The roof was assembled, primed and then given a couple of coats of white paint on the inside face. My intention is to cover the outside of the roof with some suitable material before painting to represent the canvas, so the two strips each side of the interior at the edges are left unpainted prior to sticking down the material with pva glue. 

After a final coat of cream to the widow line, the glazing was fitted, and the false frame line given a coat of black paint. The grab rails and door handles were fixed on to the sides.

The ducket sides were glued into postion and their grab rails installed. All of the joining edges were then painted over in the appropriate colours.

The handbrake cover was fixed to the rear end and then the body was glued together, I had left the seats in the end compartment loose to allow access to install the bolts for the bogies, so after fitting the bolts the seats were glued in. The Guards storage box was put in place at the rear of the guards compartment.

Nearing completion now, the body has been mounted on to the bogies. I need to add the couplers and trimline black lining and paint on the number.

DJB BOGIES

I decided to treat myself to a pair of the correct diamond frame bogies to complete the half brake. Assembly was fairly straight forward, but there are a couple of things to look out for. 

The holes to take the two brass rods that make up the compensation systen have to be opened out enough for the rods to pass through, this only took a couple of minutes. The rods were fed through until they met at equal distances from the brass bolster, and then gued into position.

You will need to remove around 3mm from each end of the axle rod if using the recommended Tenmille wheels.

You need to cut a notch into the rear of the dummy spring casting to allow the fixing bolts to clear it. I cut down with a hacksaw and then used a V shaped file to open up the notch.

The brass brake gear ties need to have the fixing holes drilled out, and so does the fixing plate on the end of the bogie casting.

Otherwise the process was simple. The front wheels at the tip of the V should rock slightly up and down.

Test assembly of one of the bogies, brake gear yet to be added.