Building Dotti

[trammayo]

Trackshack have a clearance sale on at the moment (at the time of commencing this thread) and, although I had looked at building my own from scratch, I thought I would purchase it and save time and effort!

Called Dotti (because of the rivet heads maybe?) it is a freelance design IC loco. I cannot see it as currently listed on IP Engineering's site but the model is cut from plastic sheet. Just what type of plastic I wonder? Maybe High Impact Polystyrene (HIPS) but there are no clues anywhere!

Costing just £51 + a small postage fee from the I.o.M, I think that's a good deal.

Here's what you get for you money (or what I got at least);-

Two sheets (one 300mm x 175, and the other 300 x 85) with the components just held in with the odd tabs in the milled outlines.....



... diecast components = 4 Dummy axle boxes, exhaust/silencer, air intake cap, handbrake wheel radiator framework, and the coupling castings x 2 .....



There's a bag of components which include the motor, axle bearings, a pair of SM32 wheelsets, a pair of axles plus four nylon spacers (for converting to 45mm), worm and wheel gears, two brass pins for the couplings, a plastic sprue with dozens of rivet heads, some miscellaneous fixings - only two identified at this stage, a piece of ribbon cable to seperate for the electrics, and two D.P.D.T, switches (On/Off or Fwd/Rev.).



So, no battery box (has featured in the instructions and, indeed, no mesh for the radiator grille as also shown in the sheets.

The we come to the "Instructions" which comprise six sheets. It is intimated that it is best to follow the sheets to ensure things are done in the right order. To facilitate this, I have numbered the sheet myself!



So that's as far as I have reached at the moment. The cover sheet forms part of the instructions and mentions that the whitemetal castings do contain a small amount of lead so it advised that hands are washed. I might also add that I used barrier cream when handling or working with lead.

So more to follow when I regain control of the kitchen table!

 

[G-force1]

Mick, I'd have thought that the plastic would more likely be ABS. Could be wrong of course.

There is a way (which I forget) of testing it by holding a small sliver in a flame, something about how it burns or goes out, or just melts.

 

[Miamigo259]

I've got one of their "Fennor" locos, which is of similar construction (and features as my Avatar).
The plastic parts were assembled using standard liquid polystyrene cement - and it hasn't fallen to pieces yet!
There was certainly a battery "box", or rather holder, included in my kit.

 

[trammayo]

Mick, I'd have thought that the plastic would more likely be ABS. Could be wrong of course.

There is a way (which I forget) of testing it by holding a small sliver in a flame, something about how it burns or goes out, or just melts.

I've got one of their "Fennor" locos, which is of similar construction (and features as my Avatar).
The plastic parts were assembled using standard liquid polystyrene cement - and it hasn't fallen to pieces yet!
There was certainly a battery "box", or rather holder, included in my kit.

I'll try the traditional polystyrene cement first and if it withstands my, now clumsy, handling it will be a thumbs up!

I have some Hips sheet - so I could try a comparison!

 

[Rhinochugger]

White metal - I've been making white metal kits for 40 years without rubber gloves or barrier cream...................

and it hasn't affected me I'm not mad yet.

It's tomatoes that make yer mad - the acid in the tomato used to eat the pewter outer finish on lead based utensils (allegedly) and people thought that tomatoes made them mad.

They must have been bonkers

My father worked in a record factory, and it hasn't affected me, affected me, affected me, affected me...............................

 

[PhilP]

White metal - I've been making white metal kits for 40 years without rubber gloves or barrier cream...................

and it hasn't affected me I'm not mad yet.

It's tomatoes that make yer mad - the acid in the tomato used to eat the pewter outer finish on lead based utensils (allegedly) and people thought that tomatoes made them mad.

They must have been bonkers

My father worked in a record factory, and it hasn't affected me, affected me, affected me, affected me...............................

Not that old cracked record, Mike!

 

[trammayo]

I managed to find my bottle of Slater's Mek-Pak. Bottle had fallen over - so it's minus about 80% of the contents. Doh!

But it works fine. Got the basics of the chassis frame and the floor (?) assembled - set well overnight and seems quite strong! Need to paint the chassis bit before proceeding further with that. Also need to remove the wheels from their 'O' gauge axles. Might consider insulting them - I mean insulating them.

 

[Miamigo259]

I managed to find my bottle of Slater's Mek-Pak. Bottle had fallen over - so it's minus about 80% of the contents. Doh!
But it works fine. Got the basics of the chassis frame and the floor (?) assembled - set well overnight and seems quite strong!

It would have been Mek-Pak that I used on my "Fennor".
Seemed to be a better bonding fluid than the "Plastic Magic" or whatever that I currently have a bottle of.

 

[stockers]

Solid lead metal is not very toxic at all. The body will not absorb it. The problem comes from lead compounds - such as in old paint (and possibly from Tomato acid - new one on me). They are far more readily absorbed.

 

[trammayo]

Solid lead metal is not very toxic at all. The body will not absorb it. The problem comes from lead compounds - such as in old paint (and possibly from Tomato acid - new one on me). They are far more readily absorbed.

Yes, as a solid it is not too bad but, when you work it then the problems begin. I've been cleaning the castings up this morning and my fingers ended up the same colour!

 

[trammayo]

Following the instructions, I put together the framework of the chassis and also the base/floor/footplate (name it what you will.

As the instructions are brief and the photos very pale, you have to measure things to make sure you get the pieces that you need. I would have thought a simple photocopy of each sheet with numbers would have been a great help - but, hey ho, that's me.

Anyway, to explain the parts used for the two initial 'glue togethers' - I put my thoughts into action afterwards!

Parts A are the chassis and parts B are the floor...


Chassis -



The axles are for 45mm Gauge. The tiny brass bearings are pressed into the chassis sides. A piece of wood and a knock (or two) proved to be the best option for me - although I could have used the pillar drill or vice for a more progressive approach!


Of course, pressing in the bearings is best done before gluing up!

Next came the floor - components readily identified.




to be continued....

 

[trammayo]

Having experienced great difficulty loads pics in the preceding post, I return to try again.

I blathered the chassis and base with some paint (masking off some bits where it would be hard to access for glueing the odd bits - like the motor!). Did not have the right rattle cans to prime things so blather is the right word for sticky mess.

Anyway onwards and upwards - or is that down hill?

So still experiencing problems for something that worked OK for several weeks but has not since yesterday morning. Now need to change files to PNG!

So, what was a 200Kb pic then becomes a 800kb pic! Doh.

Meanwhile whilst waiting for the unsuitable paint to dry off, I attacked the sheets of plastic and cut and trimmed the various components for the bonnet and cab.



So, C1 - C4 are the bonnet panels, D1 to D5 are the cab sides, E1 & E2 are the components for the driver's seat. F1 to F5 are the bonnet's acces doors or panels. All that is left is two tiny pieces as unlettered in post 11 (between A2 and B1).

The instruction for assembling the bonnet are a little ambiguous! It says to fix the front on to the top - showing a photo with the top of the bonnet laid down and the front piece glued on. After following the instructions, I quickly realised (when offering up one of the sides) that this was not correct. What should have been said was this "Glue the front piece to the edge of the top".

Note to myself - "Michael - always dry check for fit before glueing". Now I knew that - just need to slap my memory on the wrist!

So that was then rectified and glued up correctly ....

The cab was also assembled but the two portions (cab and bonnet) are not yet married...


And the above picture is an edited jpeg - a format that would not embed in this post when I started. Wish I knew what was going on!

To be continued...

 

[dunnyrail]

Mick re your Picture problems what are you using to take them? I am using my iPhone and my Panasonic DMC-TZ30 (now pretty ancient) and both formats appear to be accepted by GSC via my iPad without problems. In the past I had to reduce them which was a pain as that gave me loads of Duplicate Pics on my iPad that I still need to sort out by Sizing them. Just appears odd to me that Pics are being upsized.
JonD

 

[trammayo]

Mick re your Picture problems what are you using to take them? I am using my iPhone and my Panasonic DMC-TZ30 (now pretty ancient) and both formats appear to be accepted by GSC via my iPad without problems. In the past I had to reduce them which was a pain as that gave me loads of Duplicate Pics on my iPad that I still need to sort out by Sizing them. Just appears odd to me that Pics are being upsized.
JonD

I use a Fuji FinePix S5000. I'm not a photographer but I can appreciate good photography (mine are not in that category).

To try and improve quality, I crop and correct in MS Picture Manager. Before that I used MS Picture-it but, like a lot of other W10 users, suffered from MS upgrades. This meant that the prog was no longer supported. I went weeks until one day, this site (or even my PC) accepted/allowed me to upload my pics. Prior to that day, I could only upload if I changed the pic from jpeg to png. Now, as I understand it, png retains all the reformatting when changed from jpeg so that if ever needed, those formatting layers could be peeled back.

I wouldn't have a clue and don't know if I am even right. What I do know is that when I started Post #12 this morning, I could not upload JPEGs and had to use MS Paint to Save As PNGs.

This is a frustrating process, having clicked on Upload a File, seen the Thumbnail, clicked on it to Full Picture, saw the file number, then waited for it to turn to a picture. No joy. Then I delete, open the pic, go to Paint and save as PNG (and also check the resulting Bit size in case I have to further resize!).

Then it allowed a jpeg from the same batch of photos!!!!!!!

I keep the size down to 450Kb or less. I changed the size on the camera to around 200Kb so the only size problem is that a PNG might well be treble or quadruple - often well over 1Mb.

 

[Rhinochugger]

Solid lead metal is not very toxic at all. The body will not absorb it. The problem comes from lead compounds - such as in old paint (and possibly from Tomato acid - new one on me). They are far more readily absorbed.

Actually, I think that one's a myth (the tomatoes) - although a polar expedition had problems with tin cans..............................

 

[dunnyrail]

I use a Fuji FinePix S5000. I'm not a photographer but I can appreciate good photography (mine are not in that category).

To try and improve quality, I crop and correct in MS Picture Manager. Before that I used MS Picture-it but, like a lot of other W10 users, suffered from MS upgrades. This meant that the prog was no longer supported. I went weeks until one day, this site (or even my PC) accepted/allowed me to upload my pics. Prior to that day, I could only upload if I changed the pic from jpeg to png. Now, as I understand it, png retains all the reformatting when changed from jpeg so that if ever needed, those formatting layers could be peeled back.

I wouldn't have a clue and don't know if I am even right. What I do know is that when I started Post #12 this morning, I could not upload JPEGs and had to use MS Paint to Save As PNGs.

This is a frustrating process, having clicked on Upload a File, seen the Thumbnail, clicked on it to Full Picture, saw the file number, then waited for it to turn to a picture. No joy. Then I delete, open the pic, go to Paint and save as PNG (and also check the resulting Bit size in case I have to further resize!).

Then it allowed a jpeg from the same batch of photos!!!!!!!

I keep the size down to 450Kb or less. I changed the size on the camera to around 200Kb so the only size problem is that a PNG might well be treble or quadruple - often well over 1Mb.

Hm that sounds like a load of problems Mick, wonder how it would be if you did not try Crop and Correct just wondering. Have to say quite often I do take pics of models with GSC in mind so never worry about changing the pic except when in the past I needed to reduce the size in order to upload. But I accept and understand that I am on a different platform to you.
JonD

 

[trammayo]

Hm that sounds like a load of problems Mick, wonder how it would be if you did not try Crop and Correct just wondering. Have to say quite often I do take pics of models with GSC in mind so never worry about changing the pic except when in the past I needed to reduce the size in order to upload. But I accept and understand that I am on a different platform to you.
JonD

Hi Jon - I am (reasonably) sure that, if I didn't try and improve the pics they they would upload OK. I have always tried to improve my mediocre (as in carp) pics and never had any problems until a few months ago. I blame MS 110% of the time!
Forum members, like youself, have offered links to several solutions and they have always worked - even if they don't suit my mindset!
Change for changes sake seems to be the modern idiom - nothing is meant to last any longer than the next concept on the drawing board!

Commercialism isn't always about giving the customers what they really want but, rather, changing their mindsets. Rant over

I'll persevere (was Percy Paul Revere's brother? - apologies to our cousins across the pond). But thanks for trying to help! Appreciated.

 

[trammayo]

Well I'm going to try and up load some more pics!

The above (unmodified) pic, attempts to show the position of the superstructure in relation to the fron beam. In order to cover the large slot in nthe base, the body has to be well off-centre. I already attached a small vertical strip to part D3's (post #12) narrow offside leg to more centralise the cab in relation to the bonnet - otherwise (as intended for 32mm) it would have meant the cab being another 4mm nearer the nearside!



To me, a concealed engine inside a bonnet doesn't look quite right being so off centre. I am going to take more pics to show what is a (easily solved) problem for me.

 

[G-force1]

Mick, how about changing the prog that you alter your pics in?

Personnally I use Photshop Elements 11, and shrink with Pixresizer, and I don't have any of your problems.

 

[Rhinochugger]

Well I'm going to try and up load some more pics!

It'll send you dotty