BOLE LASER CRAFT RAPIER DIESEL LOCO KIT by Mark Thatcher
A King’s ransom at a Pauper’s price? Mark Thatcher constructs the 16mm scale loco kit.
Since I have been involved in playing trains in the garden, there has always been a healthy discussion on the pros and cons of manually-controlled locos versus radio-controlled ones. The radio control camp cite that they are much easier to manage and handle the ups and downs of a garden line more easily. The manually-fired operators cite that this is a cheaper option and that you don’t have to worry about charging transmitter and receiver batteries or, more importantly, running out of charge.
However, there is one undeniable fact with radio-controlled models: the receiver and electronics take up space. Some folks will build a trailing wagon to house all the gear in – but then, that ties that wagon permanently to the loco. So, it was very impressive to spy Bole Laser Craft’s latest offering and to see how the company has managed to shoe-horn all of this dark-art-electrickery into the compartment where the 20hp diesel engine would be on the real thing. I had a particular need for a radio-controlled small estate loco and this Rapier fitted the bill perfectly.
Workmanlike finish
Ransomes and Rapier of Ipswich first manufactured narrow gauge diesel locomotives in 1932, using two- and three-cylinder Ailsa Craig engines. The kit is based on the two-cylinder 20hp example currently residing at Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre and painted in a rather fetching bright red colour scheme.
Before tackling the build, I wanted to check out the ready-to-run chassis, and its associated wiring. This model is available in many variants and differing price points depending on which control options you choose, starting with the manually-controlled kit and ending up with a fully pre-built and ready-to-run out-of-the-box model with either a LocoRemote control, or the Deltang option, which I plumped for.
Within minutes of opening the box
The chassis is only available in 32mm gauge whichever option you choose. Mine arrived 100% complete with absolutely no soldering to do – phew!
However, BLC does recommend that you grab one of its chargers if you opt for one of the radio-controlled options. In my case, the chassis was on the line within minutes of opening the box. I was blown away by the control that the Deltang system offered and the slow speed running is excellent on this chassis. The minuscule
motor sits mid-ships underneath between the solebars and is powered by a Turnigy 460mAh battery supplying drive to the axles via a twin-axle drive Delrin chain system. I have subsequently had over three hours of continuous running out of this model. Once the body is secured to the chassis, the battery is affixed to the inside of the engine compartment with the supplied double-sided tape.
To complete the chassis, just add the bufferbeams and solebar overlays. The bufferbeam ends are SLS-printed in an engineering grade nylon, and have two pips on them to aid location, and are also secured with two nuts and bolts at each end. I think this is possibly over-engineered and, if you are a cheapskate like me, you could glue the ends on, keeping the nuts and bolts for another project. The instructions say to add the solebars first, then the buffer beam overlays, although I think it makes more sense to add the bufferbeams first as they provide a datum line for the solebars to line up with.
The body is made up of three SLA 3D printed parts with the cab roof also being SLA-printed. There are some supports left from the 3D printing process on the underside of the body that need to be removed, although I left mine on for extra rigidity until I was ready to mate the body with the chassis.
The solebars and cab gearbox cover are PLA-printed and you can see the difference in quality between the two processes. More printing lines are visible on the solebars and gearbox cover, but BLC kindly includes a sanding file with 120 grit sandpaper on one side and 180 grit on the other to remedy this. I did resort to using some small files to get in between the crevices of the solebars, though.
Super detailing
I really like the overall detail of the cab and engine cover. The louvres are clean and the Rapier badge and grille at the front end can be easily painted with black, then a little careful painting with white finishes off the logo. I actually got away with sponge-painting this, as I do with most of my buildings.
Looking at some prototype pictures, I noted the engine covers hinged upwards, and there was a grab handle and two turnbuckle locks at the bottom of these. I was able to model them using small grab rails and T-shaped door handles from Brandbright, mounted in the vertical locked position and then added a strip of brass rod at the top of the covers to simulate hinges. Whilst not on the real thing, I also added a line of rivets at the front and rear of the engine compartment as I thought they looked right, but if you want to model the Amberley version you would probably leave these off.
Mounting the cab assembly to the floor was a bit of a fiddle. Four captive nuts are located on the underside of the body, held in place by small square covers. But there is a little play in them. The instructions rightly told me to add the two at the cab end firstly, but access is very poor on the underside and it was a devil to get the bolts in and lined up with the captive nuts. It helps if, with the body and chassis roughly aligned and upside down, you push a cocktail stick through the cab floor where the nut is, upward through to the body. Then, when you have got the bolt roughly positioned, carefully remove the cocktail stick whilst still keeping the model inverted and with some luck, you might just grab the captive nut with the bolt.
The gearbox cover is attached by three
screws from the underside of the chassis to hold it in place, and four pre-cut lengths of metal rod connect the roof to the cab floor and front of the driver’s dashboard. Good cab detailing includes a large brake wheel, a gear lever and a really nice 3D-printed driver’s seat, similar to those found on tractors. An exhaust pipe and filler cap are also included. I added an air horn that I happened to have in stock and two headlights to the roof from Cambrian Model Railways (code NA29) but that was about it.
Magnetic attraction
One signature touch in this kit is that the top of the engine cover is removable, so you can recharge the battery, which has a separate fly-lead for this purpose. Four Neodymium magnets are located in the top of the engine cover that are magnetically attracted to four metal pins on the inside of the engine bay sides. I have used this system myself in the past and really like how it works.
Painting the model was pretty straightforward. I opted for an industrial look with Halfords Grey Primer. The bufferbeam overlays have all the detail printed in, so after using Humbrol Red, these were very carefully masked up, then a spray-coat of Halfords Satin Black was applied over the whole bufferbeam. I am really pleased with the results even though I say it myself.
Don’t push too hard!
The only time I needed to resort to breaking out the drill set for this model, was to open out the holes on the underside of the roof that accept the roof support rods. Don’t push too hard otherwise you will pop your drill out through the top-side of the roof. If you do, it is not a disaster as you can hide the holes with four little rivets – as I did.
I also found, whichever way I tried to mount the exhaust to the body of the loco, the end where it would enter the body side was too short. Also, I did not fancy gluing this in place as it will undoubtedly be the first thing to get knocked off. So, I drilled a 1mm hole in the exhaust bracket and secured it with a small nut and bolt. To correct the shortfall in the length of the exhaust, I found that 3mm heat-shrink tubing was the perfect diameter, so just filled in the gap with this.
This diminutive diesel is a perfect fit for my collection of estate rolling stock as it is at home pulling smaller wagons and really looks the part. It is a very well-thought-out kit with the bonus that the battery, speed controller and 2.4 Ghz receiver can all be shoe-horned into the engine bay.
Bole Laser Craft offers its Rapier models in various options, whichever option you go for you won’t pay a King’s ransom, and this kit is far from being a pauper either!
Finally, a word of thanks must go to Gerry Cork at the Amberley Museum & Heritage Centre for supplying me with two photographs of the red-painted prototype that can be seen in action there.