H0 FUJI KIHA 40 restauration(?)

[SONIC883_de]

Hi,

 

I haven't done much with brass in the past. Now I get some RTR Tenshodos and a FUJI KIHA40 _some problems_

 

The body was badly painted. I removed the paint with my finger nails and some mini screwdrivers. After that I removed the filler from the part of the end of the car and on the roof top, where a dent was hiding. Without the chasis plate the body isn't plain. I removed the most handrails and brackets because they was more triangles as rectangles... The doors arn't soldered completely... A soldered joint was cracked - maybe when it was falling down - see the dent in the roof .-/

 

I haven't a picture before I start.

 

I have no tools for this kind of work. So I must have a look how to go on. First I will get a brass brushhead for my dremel to remove the last paint. Than I an looking for a soldering toll with a flame to add the roof part and doors.

And not to forget to straight the car and remove the dent in the roof.

 

 

 

 

- Kai

 

 

 

[Martijn Meerts]

I'm no expert on this, but I have a lot of World Kougei kits (and more incoming ... :)), so I do have a lot of interesting in the whole brass kits topic.

 

You'll want to be very careful with using a dremel to remove the last bits of paint, it's real easy to overdo it. There are also metal brushes specifically for this task, basically just like a regular paint brush, but with metal hairs. I believe World Kougei recommends those as well.

 

As for soldering, that's still my main problem as well. I've tried with my regular soldering iron, but that one is meant for circuit boards and small stuff like that, even though it does have more than enough power. I've bought one of those torches from dremel, which heats up the surface nice and fast, but it heats up too much of the surface, so there's a high possibility of previously soldered joints coming loose again. Might be some heat sinks will help with that.

 

Small detail pieces like hand rails and horns and whatnot, I'd just glue on using either superglue or epoxy, there's no need to solder those really.

 

Keitaro has done some brass soldering as well, and it looked to have worked quite well for him, so he might have some advice as well :)

Edited June 13, 2013 by Martijn Meerts

[cteno4]

Martijn,

 

you need higher wattage irons that can keep feeding the energy into larger metal pieces like this.

 

other option for this stuff is resistance soldering irons. these are great as you can get a lot of energy fed into a really tiny area. they have probe units with two needle points you can put on either side of your joint and then you apply power with a foot pedal. area between the probes heats up as current goes thru. needs to be conductive, but you can turn off the heat instantly with the power foot pedal. the units are expensive but a lot of pros use these for stuff like this.

 

http://rrmodelcraftsman.com/toolchest/cm_craftsmantoolchest_05.php

 

Ive only used one of these once and it was fun. was like arc welding in that you could really control the weld area thats so much harder to do with a flame and brazing.

 

get some gas welding goggles to try with your torch, you will be able to see things at your heat point so much better and see when things are getting hot and what is happening. welding goggles usually come with 3 or 4 tinted pieces in them and you can remove some of them to find the right level of dimming that still lets you see but cuts the flame down some. misspent youth when i got an acetylene torch when i was 13 instead of a bb gun!

 

cheers

 

jeff

Edited June 13, 2013 by cteno4

[Martijn Meerts]

Well, World Kougei says 40 watt is enough, and my soldering station goes up to 80 watt.. I only have rather small tips though, but on the other hand, World Kougei actually recommends you file down the tips to about the size of the one I have ;)  What they do though, is make their own tips from some copper rod, maybe that would work.

 

I've looked at resistance soldering as well, but I haven't really found any affordable resistance soldering stations.. Rather, I haven't found any at all. I guess it's not very popular here =)

 

Problem with the torch isn't so much that I can't see what I'm doing but it heats up a too large area too fast and basically too hot. Would need an even smaller one (pen torch basically), but there again I haven't found one that's good quality.

 

I've studied car mechanics, so I've done my fair share of (various sorts of) soldering, welding and whatnot, just on a slightly larger scale.

[cteno4]

yeah they are pretty rare things and usually expensive! but do seem to be the ultimate way for putting on small parts near others w/o heating up adjoining joints.

 

there are small jewelry torches that are just acetylene (on ox tank) for lower temps that have tiny tips for putting in small bits. 

 

yeah larger tip, specially flat ones to get some good surface area for fast heat would probably help.

 

i liked the longer joint soldering in the article of placing a long thin bit of solder along the joint with flux then going along with the iron.

 

cheers

 

jeff

[Martijn Meerts]

Just had a quick look at the manual for my soldering station. I actually goes up to 160 watt. There are soldering pens for it with 40 watt (the one I have), 80 watt and 150 watt. Interestingly the desoldering tweezers are 2x 40 watt ;)

 

Might have to look at getting the 80 watt pen with chisel tip. Would set me back another 200-ish Euro though.

 

 

Anyway, getting somewhat off-topic ;)

Edited June 13, 2013 by Martijn Meerts

[SONIC883_de]

Hi,

 

haven't found the right in our diy-marekt. I will order these http://www.ebay.de/itm/3er-SET-Radierer-jeweils-1x-Stahl-Glasfaser-Messing-/310258393939?pt=DE_Modellbau_Modelleisenbahnen&hash=item483cd76353

[Martijn Meerts]

Those look useful, order a set myself as well ;)

 

Talking about this kit though, I felt the need to work a little on my kits as well. What I've found out for now, is that it requires a completely different technique from what I'm used to. When soldering wires to track for example, I first heat up the track, and then apply some tin. I never use flux when soldering to the track either.

 

With this brass stuff though, a good amount of flux and adding a ball of tin to the soldering iron beforehand seems to work quite well. Just be sure to clean everything thoroughly afterwards because flux is pretty nasty stuff.

 

I've only done some small bits using this technique, and certain parts didn't work out too well because my soldering pen really isn't meant for this kinda work, but filling gaps and closing seams worked well enough.

 

In the end though, it's really a matter of trial and error, and the best idea might be to either get 1 or 2 of the cheaper World Kougei (or other brands) kits to test with those before working on something more expensive. Getting some brass sheets and just cutting bits and pieces off of that and soldering it in various angles may also be good practice.