Building Dotti
- Thread starter trammayo
- Start date
trammayo
Interested in vintage commercial vehicle, trams, t
If a loco of that type is in use, it should NOT look pristine anyway!
The detailing is certainly brining it all together.
Yes you're right Phil. Dotti is now Grotti - photos soon!
Rhinochugger
Retired Oik
casey jones snr
Registered
It really looks the business now Mick. All you need is a suitable driver.
trammayo
Interested in vintage commercial vehicle, trams, t
Thanks Paul.
I have some larger figures but none that are sat down. Then I found some more that I had made for the opening scene of my line's extension. I couldn't bend them because the modelling clay was around a stiff wire armature, so for Dotti's trials, he was stood up on the job!
About the right proportions I think...
as opposed to this fellow from a well known country ...
And here she is with my rake of Binnie's ...
I used her for my 'Train per day' so there's some more pics on that thread.
So, although she was quite capable of hauling the six empty skips, she did experience wheel slip on a slight (and I mean slight) gradient. The trucks are very light and did derail a few times. I thought it was the vegetation - like tiny dandelions or grape hyacinths encroaching on the rails - which indeed was causing problems.
I took three skips off and there were no wheel slip problems BUT, there were more derailments! As I put the last three trucks away, I noticed one of the wheelsets was well out of gauge! I let Dottie run around for a while longer.
So, there are things I need to do (or should have done). I found placing the 3mm nuts on the chassis retaining bolts a little irksome - no room for fingers (like my bunches of bananas), so it was out with the long nosed pliers, then a socket to tighten down. I will turn a couple of 'extended' nuts so that they can be more easily located digitally.
I need to obtain (or make) a suitable driver.
I should have used a push button switch (disguised as the air filter inlet on top of the bonnet) instead of using the slide switch located on the chassis - then it would have been easy to stop and start.
So, although I haven't concluded this thread, I thought I would sum my experience with this model kit. To be fair to all concerned in the manufacture and supply, it IS MY experience and not
one that you ought to expect!
The whole experience can be summed up as a Comedy of Errors!
The pricing was wrong - but I got an immediate refund - and there was an error on the delivery (sent direct to me) as the Invoice/Delivery note had been folded and placed the wrong way round! It did arrive within the allotted time and I did not have to pay for what became an International Delivery! All that was dealt with in good humour.
When it came to the kit there were a number of things missing - the battery box, the 0.5mm piece of plastic sheeting, and the piece of mesh for the grille. Additionally, the wheelsets had been assembled
on the 32mm axles and glued on! Even if I was building to SM32 standards this wasn't good - at least one wheel per axle would have to be removed to allow the axles to pass through the chassis!
On the positive side, I enjoyed the tiny challenge to put things right. As a basic kit, it is open to modifications - the world's your oyster as they say! (Do they indeed?).
So I would heartily recommend this lttle kit - or others in this range - it could be a mine or quarry loco, a factory internal line loco, gas works, sandbeds (sewage works), a loco at a garden centre, and more!
Plus, I enjoyed using the plastic sheeting - a medium that I had not previously employed (but now intend to!).
More later!
casey jones snr
Registered
Excellent review of the kit and your experience with it Mick. I like the standing driver, I think you will have to model a seated driver.