1-16 Bandai Steam Roller

[Boldman]

My big purchase at today's IPMS Farnborough ModelFest was this:



which I got for what I thought to be a bit of a bargain as the Showman's Engine kit from Bandai goes for about £100 on eBay. Since the bar-armour Scimitar and Stingray my modelling mojo has been in a bit of a slump. I did try to make a start on the Hasegawa FGR2 Phantom, but really couldn't get my heart in it, however this large kit has immediately put a smile on my face so here goes nothing...

Lets start with a sprue shot:



Colourful or what? Sadly I think the gold will have to go and get repainted after construction. The white rectangle in the lower left is the canopy and it is definitely a multi-media kit - there is a small bag of metal chains, brass rod and bits, plus a rubber-ish band to make one of the drive belts from. After taking this photo I opened the decal sheet bag and found some other bits under the decal sheet:



So this appears to be a silvery stick-on sheet to make the "tyres" of the roller. Well needless to say this is not going to be used! There is also a bit of thread. So this will be a different and unusual build. However its not the first model I've build of a steam vehicle, but it is the first plastic one!

The previous build about 4 years ago was this:



Gotta love Meccano :D This was actually motorised and went very slowly and steered like a supertanker!!!

This should be fun! (I hope!)

[JohnRatzenberger]

Oh, neat !! I've got the 'Pendle Princess' and can't wait to start .... although I had thought about doing some research and making it up as a working tractor and not a fairground attraction/power-source ....

[Dazzled]

Wow! Looks great.

I've built a steam roller and ploughing engine in 00 scale but didn't know there were kits available in larger scales. Ebay here I come!

[Boldman]

So a week goes by so surely its time for... An update!

Its been a week of building sub-assemblies, some of which have taken quite a while to get right! First up the front rollers: these came in two semi-cylindrical parts with the internal framework slotted in as you assembled them. The fit was pretty poor and the joints took a LOT of sanding, filling, sanding etc to get smooth. However they are now smooth and with a bit of primer and the first layers for red here we go:





The second photo is supposed to show the remains of the joint on the inner surface but the camera couldn't pick it up. next, the rear wheels were all one piece with a second set of inner spokes and ring that glued together reasonably well, so no joins needed sanding.



At this point I ran out of gloss red paint Will be takign a trip to ModelZone in a short while to stock up on Red Green and black! You can see in the photos the raised relief detail on the spokes - this is supposed to be painted yellow, but its been suggested that I use piping decals as used by railway modellers. I'm looking into that as although I could probably paint them well enough, we all know how difficult yellow is to paint over a bright colour like red. It will take multiple coats to get enough colour down and that will introduce so many possibilities for makign mistakes that the decal option sounds sensible!

Next came the forward part of the boiler - the bit in black. As is becoming standard for this kit, the fit was pretty appaling and there are no locator pins or tabs so fitting the two halves together is a case of being very careful! However after some more sanding and filling it looks reasonable:



The water box was next and the instructions, believe it or not, suggest putting the decals on BEFORE assembly hahahahahaha Once more fit is a problem,b ut this time its a really tricky job to sand as there are moulded bits everywhere near the joints. Some very careful application of wet and dry was required to get a smoother finish.

next we have the rear part of the boiler in green, which is also supposed to have its decals applied before final assembly! As usual, fit is poor... yadda yadda



Finally for this update, beginning assembly of the rear firebox and main body. This comprises two very large moulding which have lovely surface detail but no alignment pins or tabs, so I've added them with some plastic strip. The joins will be bad - the plastic has a slight raised lip at many of the joints which requires considerable sanding to smooth it down, however in most instances on these pieces the joints will not ultimately be visible, except on the rear piece which will just require careful fitting and some sanding BEFORE final glueing.

Edit: helps to add a photo doesn't it! Doh!

[Beowulf Shaeffer]

look forward to seeing this progress cos these look great when they are done

[Dazzled]

It's coming on a treat

[Boldman]

Time passes and progress progresses!
yesterday was a bit of a watershed - started adding some of the decals to the various body parts. It somehow feels wrong to be applying decals before the model is finished, but this does seem to be the best way to proceed.

First off the front roller:


and from the side:


If you look at about 2 o'clock in that last photo you can see my first attempt at applying the yellow lining decal to the spokes. As described before, each of the spokes has a raised line which is supposed to be yellow. I had a go at painting the yellow and it was a complete failure, so it was suggested I use some lining decals as used by railway modellers. I was able to source some 0.5mm linings so had a bash fir the first itme last night. it was not easy, but its doable, if I can be bothered with the hassle!

The outer steel colour is a mix of a new Tamiya colour called Dark Iron with some silver added. I think it looks pretty effective! The decals from the kit went on pretty well - I trimmed the carrier as much as possible and used the usual micro sol/set and they went down pretty well - as will be seen in later photos!

Next is the front boiler:


This is relatively simple - painted gloss black over a rough primer coat, which gives a very interesting sheen. So this combines with the front roller to make the first part of the assemblage:



Not bad eh? just you wait!

next up are the rear wheels, these too have been painted with the Dark Iron/silver mix and look good.



Again, the spokes are supposed to have yellow linings - I think this would best be classed as a work in progress!
Next is the firebox and the rear boiler. This has been masked and painted.



The gold bands are spray painted - the kit does suppy stick on "bronze" strips but they look tacky. Red yellow and black stripes are decals. There are more decals to go onto the main body, but I ran out of patience last night

Other side:


The water tank has also been decaled and will be fitted under the rear boiler and has a cut-out to fit the steering mechanism.





The moulded on pipes have been sanded off - and from the rear boiler as well and will be replaced with wire to properly represent them.

Also been working on the canopy. The underside was painted brown then thinned black oil paint was used to pick out the wooden texture:



Sadly the upper surface suffers from some terrible sink marks:



I think I'll have to add some plastic strips and sand them to shape to fill these in - there is way to much to just hole that filler will do the job! And finally the canopy trim has had some work done to it:



The two long strips are for the sides. The outer surface is green with a yellow stripe while the inner surface is wood textured so painted the same way as the underside of the canopy. The supporting braces have wood texture as well so these have been highlighted using a dark wash. The two thin end trims visible on the upper right also have raised lines for a yellow strip but these are not included in the decals so I will have to use the railway lining on these as well.

So as you can see, still lots of "bits" and it will pretty much continue that way until right near the end. I've also been working on the pistons and some of the gears and cranks, but they are not ready to display yet. I'm leaving off most of the gold pieces until I decide what to do with them.

[general rocket]

Your patience does you credit.
Cracking build and thread.

[JohnRatzenberger]

This is great ! A reference build for when I get my Princess out ...

[Boldman]

Hmmm I have a dilemma now... I've been doing some research on Garrett Steam Roller or Road Rollers as they are also called and discovered that the model appears to be wrong! This is obviously an adaptation of the Showman's Engine kit as it is depicted with the underslung water tank under the rear part of the boiler, to which the steering gear is attached. However when seeing photos of the real Garrett Road Rollers they do not have this tank!

Steam Roller


Showman's Engine:


So now I am in a quandary as to whether to include it or not! This model doesn't appear to be of any particular real vehicle, but rather a representation of them as a class. I'm a bit wary of messing with it too much so I may just compromise and build the "model"...

[JamesPerrin]

Do you think it looks better with the water tank? If so just build it and don't worry about it.

[beany]

You're not wrong - I've just Google "Traction Engine Steam Rollers" and not a single image shows one that has the tank fitted, only the separate front wheeled engines seem to carry them. It would seem a great shame to leave it off as they look good, but I must admit I would just feel it was "wrong" if it was me.

Superb build by the way. I'm definitely going to keep my eyes open for one of these kits at shows in the future (I think I may have seen this one at Farnborough but only gave it a passing look!).

Are you going to get some scale chains for it, or do any come with the kit?

cheers
Al.

[Boldman]

Yup this is the one that was at Farnborough ModelFest It does come with chains included. I do think I will leave the tank on as to remove it at this stage would require a lot of scratch building around it. It will look pretty though

[Boldman]

Further progress to report, and its getting good now!

First off the roof - I took the advice and covered it with tarpaulin and it looks much better!!!!





You can't see the sing marks anymore! Proper job!

In addition, I tried an experiment to get the yellow linings on the wheel spokes. This involved cutting up a rubber into a flat "brush" which I dabbed into thinned yellow paint and then lightly touched to the raised lines. It sort of worked but has given a bit of a ragged line as you can see here:



(except of course the bloody flash has caused too much glare and you can't see most of it! sigh)

Then finally there has been some major assembly of the subcomponents so it now looks like this:



and there is a great deal of detail in the pistons and crankshaft:



In thery the crankshaft and pistons do work but the joints in the crankshaft are really not strong enough to move the various components very much. There is too much flex in the plastic. Funnily enough I had a very similar problem in the Meccano Showman's Engine - because the crankshaft was built up from several components as opposed to being one complete casting, the joints have to sustains a considerable amount of stress and sadly are not strong enough. Never mind, this isn't supposed to be a fully working model!

I've added some wear on the steering wheel and seat, using the hairspray technique of metallic grey undercoat with hairspray over the top and then a top coat of red which was then chipped/worn. Also adding washes and dirt as I go along, although I need to find a good way to represent grease in scale - anyone got any suggestions?

I decided to go with the model and put the water tank on rather than go with the real thing and leave it off. I added a spiral to the steering gear as suggested, made from a strip of solder, CA glued to the cylinder. Don't have a photo of it though...

Next is to work on the various gears and the differential on the left side and then the controls in the cabin... tooot tooot!

[splash]

The extra tank filled with water would add extra weight, this would be good on a roller

Regards
Splash