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Almost at the start of my building program I built a ‘Boiler Works’; as was remarked at the time, this will need some of its products built to scatter outside, and to act as loads for flat cars, or gondolas.
I have at last had my thoughts on these ‘gel together’ and here is a small vertical boiler – a generator for the 1880’s – there was no electric power or small Japanese generators available then ; other than either man or horsepower, the only other source of power by mechanical means was steam power. Boilers must have been made in many sizes; I have built one from a kit by Ozark miniatures, which is on a sled for working with felled timber; that is said to be a small one of its design, this is smaller still; components became available from the ‘scrapbox’; and ‘throw-offs’ of my grandchildren.
This boiler is 30mm diameter, with a boiler length of 68mm, and a total height of 110mm; the cone (smokebox in effect) is 20mm tall.
The main boiler shell is from a ‘bubble solution container’ – this one had a small ‘put the ball bearings in holes’ game on the top; discard that I was interested in the main tube, this was green in colour, I am sure there will be other colours as well. A tapered top was needed – I exhumed, from the above ‘scrapbox’ a plastic cone shaped top from a firework I think - likely to have been off a rocket.
Cut the bubble container apart, discard the base, remove the strengthening rim just above it; cut off the screw thread area at the top. Take the tapered top, and roughly cut it so that the lower diameter is about a couple of millimetres wider than the tube. Glue it onto the top of the tube. Cut a disc to fill the bottom of the tube, this will stiffen it, glue that in as well, and leave the assembly to dry. For glue I generally use Evo stick from a tube – I find it better to use than from the larger capacity cans; see if you can get the glue in blister packs it is cheaper than the same amount of glue in the saem tube but in a box.
When dry, cover the green tube with heavyweight paper, after removing the casting lines on the tube; this wrapper also covers the disc at the bottom. This will give you a better surface for detailing later; the base of the tube which has a slight taper and a rather good (for my purposes) design on it can now be glued to the base of the boiler.
When dry add from 1/2mm plastic card a couple of strips top and at the join of the base to the tube (& disc) that have had some rivets pushed through from the rear of the strips; this will clean up the edges. My strips are 4mm deep, Find some tube for the smokestack; mine is 13mm diameter, cut off the extreme point of the cone leaving a flat area so a portion of your tube can be glued onto it; mine is 6mm long. Check that all is correct vertically & horizontally and glue the small bit of tube to the top of the now flat topped cone.
The bottom edge of this cone can now be cleaned up to be level with the riveted strip that has been added to the boiler; the give this a clean edge add a strip of 1/2mm plastic card 1.5mm wide around the edge. Cut another piece of the tube (30mm long) that will be the smokestack, add around the top a rim of a 1mm x 1/2mm plasic card strip, and then put it safely on one side for now.
Pix of boiler before paint here
The basic shell is now complete; this is either a boiler (loose for by the boiler works) or a load, with a cradle for it. Time for the cradle – made from my general ‘stand by’ board – solid, 5mm thick, PVC foam board: made to fit the boiler and it can be seen in the photo; the box on one end is for the extras ‘bits and pieces’ that are fitted by the boiler smiths during its erection ‘on site’. The shaped vertical parts have a set of lifting loops added first add some black plastic card squares (4 bolts per piece; impress them from the rear), and the add some wire loops to them. Where do you get the wire loops? – from sections of paper clips- they are even ‘pre-bent’ for you; there may be some small adjustments needed, but most of the work is done for you. Also add some strapping from either black 1/4mm plastic card or marker pen coloured heavyweight paper after painting. The main colour is a wood colour, and can be as weathered as much as you like, these carrying cradles were returnable, not thrown away after 1 journey: it is a load in itself really.
Here are a couple of photos of the unpainted cradle, and one of it painted.
Back to the boiler, and it is time to add some detail; these were very simple things, with no fancy gadgets in my time frame (1885 or so). Add a vertical seam over the join in the paper covering first mine is 1/4mm strip, pre riveted, and glued on: next some steam pipe outlets, and water inlet pipes are required, all these are from short pieces of 2mm diameter (Contrail) tube, capped off with a small plastic card disc; do not forget to add on the edge of the cone to accept (when the boiler had been located) the safety valve. To verify the water level these boilers could have had (generally at a later time than this one) a water glass (another couple of piece of tube etc.) or three ‘try cocks’. These are added to my boiler; made from three pieces of 2mm plastic tube, capped off with three 4mm diameter plastic discs, capped with three tiny pieces of 1.5mm rod. Finally add a firedoor and ash door below it; the firedoor is a couple of layers of .015 plastic card 25 x 14mm the second a bit smaller all round, and the ash door below it being 18mm x 4.5mm. Glue them on and then add the firedoor hinges from .010 strip and the opening knobs from 1,5mm rod – round off the end, cut off the time piece and glue them in position.
Retrieve the plastic tube smokestack you made earlier and add a scrap brass hinge, mine is 4mm wide. Glue it to the smokestack, after starting the (central) bend, let the glue dry, and finish the bend to the angle required; then glue it to the small section on the cone. Add to the smokestack, and the cone some strips of pre riveted plastic card to replicate the joining positions.
The boiler is now complete; it can be painted as a new one or a worn one. I would not use black, it looks terrible and kills any detail, use a dark grey colour, possibly Humbrol Gunmetal with some added black to darken it slightly for a new boiler; by itself for a used (& repaired) one. Humbrol Gunmetal is one of the part metallic paints so it will add some ‘glints’ to the finish. Again it can be weathered to your taste.
Here are a couple of photos of the boiler on the cradle, with both painted.
Finally a placard made on the computer could be added to the boiler shell, advertising the boiler works; plain white letters on a black ground would be quite OK. Use some tacky wax for fixing and in can be removed at will.
©Peter Bunce 2006
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