Pushing on, all stays complete, outer half etch skins fitted and right side fittings going on.
Overall view
Right side front end, slide bar bracket, just need to add the three fillets, probably glued as my soldering skill in these small areas are
Also sand box, outside cylinder flange plate and outside cylinder with correct cut out for rear bogie wheel. The wheels are Slaters out of the box and just clear the slide bar bracket base....as planned
Left view
Inside cylinder waiting for piston gland and water feed pipe on right hand side, middle slide bar bracket pseudo top of slide bar for fixing working slide bar underneath. Again two more fillets needed on rear of slide bar bracket fitting.
More left hand side, this time showing stay and grease separator bracket.
Up front on the left can be seen the outside cylinder flange plate, this was a half etch plate soldered on. On Mk II it will be a full plate as part of the outer skin with pressed rivets, the same as the slide bar bracket base plate and sand box fixing plates also seen here.
Overall front end view
Up front the combination lever stay, the rear face of this, facing the middle cylinder is FUBAR'd on the artwork so I had to scratch build a replacement....badly. Deep down is the bogie stay, a rather simple affair, there should be bracing in there but not sure if it's really warranted as even if viewed from below it'll be totally invisible. The cylinder top is sloped, it matches the curvature of the running boards, the top is simply a place holder to keep everything square whilst soldering up and is designed to be removed with a few cuts and bending on half etch lines. Then the cylinder top can be fettled to fit which ever body you have. The skirting either side of this and it's eventual fitting is still under investigation.
Overall front quarter view.
Still to do, the motion bracket, then the splashers, mains and bogie, some steps and other brackets at the rear end, add in the feed pipe and then onto the left hand side, I have some castings to add from Ragstone as well toward the end.
Then I'll fine tune the art work for the production run and get that off to PPD next week ready for delivery at Telford, or at least one test etch for display, I suspect I'll not be leaving with it as Nick will snaffle it away in his van
Enjoy