Clearwater Models: August 2020

This is the 7 litre hemi engine designed by Chrysler for use in NASCAR racing in the early 1960s. The Generation 2, or Gen 2, was introduced in 1964. Public sales were required in order to qualify for use in NASCAR race cars. Production ended in 1971 with only 11 000 were produced for regular consumers due to the immense size of the engine. The name Hemi comes from the combustion chamber being a hemisphere and the top of the cylinder being domed.

This 1:6 scale Testor's brand (model #450) plastic and metal and rubber model looks superb but is an awful production. The concept is great, and the use of metal parts for the block works very well. However, not a single hole on any metal part has been tapped or cast to the correct size for any of the screws. No screw will fit all the way. Nothing fits tightly due to this significant error in production in China and lack of quality control by Testors USA. All screw holes need to be tapped or drilled. That said, the chrome and painted parts are lovely, and if it was not for the awful structural screw parts, it would go together in two hours. Glue is required for many of the plastic parts. No painting is required at all. It makes a lovely desk or shelf display model for the car or engine enthusiast.

Bought for $20 on Kijiji, this was an almost fun Covid-19 two day project, and will make a great gift.

This is the Minicraft 1:38 scale "1804 Steam Locomotive", sometimes known as the Trevithick or the Coalbrookdale Locomotive or the Pen-y-Darren Locomotive. Although there are no records of the first operations of the Coalbrookdale Locomotive of 1802-1803, and there is only a single drawing and one letter remaining, it is the mother of all steam locomotives and the first working version of what became the more famous "Pen-y-Darren" locomotive which hauled 10 tonnes of iron, five wagons, and seventy men over 16 km of plate tracks in Pen-y-Darren, Wales, in 4 hours on 21 February 1804. It moved an astonishing 4 km/hr, and Trevithick walked alongside tending the engine. This is considered to be the first actual functioning steam locomotive to operate on iron plates (tracks) and to pull a multi-tonne load. The new machine utilized high pressure steam and was considered to be highly dangerous by other inventors. More dangerous was the fact that the firebox door was located on the front of the engine directly below the single massive piston. On the first journey no further water was added during the run.

The kit came from a Kijiji sale during Covid-19 and was a fun 4 day build.

I drastically altered the whole kit. The firebox door and plate was reshaped and moved to the opposite end (rear) of the boiler. The control rods on the top of the boiler were moved from out in front over the piston, to over the boiler in the other direction. Small brackets were built at both ends to guide the control rods with their handles over the firebox door. A clear glass water level gauge was added to the non-geared side of the boiler. A pressure gauge on a coiled pipe was built and added to the top of the boiler. The smoke stack was far too thick and had giant rivets. It was cut off near the lower elbow joint and replaced with a section of large drinking straw which was the appropriate thickness. One tiny part was missing from the mechanism above the piston and had to be built to receive the tip of one control rod. Paint is a mix of Vallejo flat black with steel and anthracite grey, then matted and weathered with Vallejo powders of grey and soot black. Rust powders from PanPastel were added to select areas and to the tracks.

The entire tender was cut down and rebuilt. All the fake wood was cut away and replaced with real wood. The frame was cut apart and reshaped to fit into the back of the locomotive. A chain was added to the back of the tender. Coal was added inside the back of the tender.