Set to with the files after lunch and slowly does it. Could not resist a witness coat of Acid 8 primer once the sides and bulkheads were screwed in place
View attachment 148111
View attachment 148112
and the roof and cabs 'loose fitted'
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nearly there with the bulkheads, a little more off of the roof curve and one side of End A should do it. The roof fit is quite good already it is not being held down by anything in the pictures and once the curve is sorted at A, it should fit nicely. Similarly, the cabs are quite good and just need a waft of the files here and there too be a nice fit.
cheers
Mike
MikeReally starting to look the biz Mike. Been tempted to get one of these kits for a while.
Well, as expected, I went for the boxing in route rather than painting the bulkheads first. So with the sides and bulkheads screwed to the chassis and using some rubber bands and a few pieces of LEGO from the grandchildren's box to give further tension and support, I arrived at this point,
View attachment 148182
checked for fit and squareness and tack glued the bulkheads to the sides, put it to one side for the lunch break and afterwards, ran a bead of thin cyano down each of the bulkhead joints and again left it for a while. I was pleasantly surprised that when I took the elastic bands off and offered the roof on for the first time, it just clicked into place and after a few rasps with the file, it sat down perfectly, so that too was tacked on and then the longitudinal joints were reinforced with a fillet of thin cyano.
While waiting for the cyano to set, I sorted out the Vallejo acrylics that were to be used for painting the cab interiors
View attachment 148184
and I have now done the bulkheads apart from the white square in the top left hand corner
View attachment 148183
and the desk units (driver still being sorted) and given a first coat to the inside of the front of the cab.
From here on in I must stick to some form of sequencing as the lights and headcode boxes have to be sorted, installed and tested before the desk panel is fixed, let alone thinking about the glazing! There is a more than even chance that the exterior of the cab will be finished and painted BEFORE the glazing goes in, if only to have a slightly better stab at doing the window surrounds!
The intention is to end up with something like this
Southall North British
so some fairly simple masking should get the cab sorted and then the rest of the body can be painted before the cabs are fitted, hopefully with only minimal making good when the cabs are fixed to the body. I'm ever the optimist.
The Naproxen tablets have thankfully kicked in so my right shoulder is now as normal as it will ever be from here on in, which means that I now have longer to think about the next move as modelling is now definitely working in second gear at best.
regards
Mike
Really starting to look the biz Mike. Been tempted to get one of these kits for a while.
Not a very productive day today. It started well with the fettling of the cabs to achieve the best fit
View attachment 148248
and I am more than happy with the outcome. Here the cabs are just a push fit and the only trimming that is needed is under the left hand cab where the angled piece below the left hand side of the door needs filing back, it also applies to the 2nd man's side, the right hand end is fine.
I then started to prepare and fit the nose grab rails and lamp brackets, these are the first of the 3d fittings to be fitted other than the three control handles on the driver's desk. Holes had to be drilled out (as expected) and as the spigots protruded slightly on the inside, thick cyano was applied there to ensure that none crept out on the nose face.
View attachment 148249
having completed both ends and left things for lunch, the first thing that hit me when i returned to the workbench was 'how overscale the grabs rails were' so I made a hasty retreat to my den to think about the next move and have decided, after some strong coffee and a generous slioce of cherry genoa cake, that I will remove the grab rails and replace them with 0.7mm wire, the lamp brackets I will leave as I think that when weathered, they will be ok.
The holes below the route indicators are readiness for the running lights and therein could lie another problem...ette.
This then got me thinking ahead to the brake piping etc and have decided to forego the 3D efforts and
View attachment 148260
use some single core telephone wire in the same manner that I used when detailing the Heljan 37 back in the dark days of 2008!
Tomorrow is another day and a longer time in modelling than politics!!
regards
Mike
Agreed - stood out to me as soon as I saw the photos!!Mike
Totally agree about the grab rails. Far too thick!
Ian
This is what they used to be like in brass.
View attachment 148328
For some reason which I cannot fathom, the model is looking really good.