mickoo
Western Thunderer
Whilst not exactly a secret, it's not I suspect widely public what was coming after the W1.
The final documentation required came through over the weekend and progress could begin in earnest on the next project; the W1 ticks along in the background with castings and instructions but the hunger to etch something was too great. To be fair I hadn't planned on cutting the first sod until after the Doncaster show, but life throws these curve balls at you so you just have to try and make the best of it.
We also had the chance to crawl all over 61264 when it had it's wheels striped out at the NYMR a few years back and those (just shy of 500) photos were burning electrons waiting to be used.
To start the ball rolling I've opted to tackle the hardest part of the etch to work up, there's a couple of elephants in the room in this area so decided to get them out of the way; by comparison the boiler, smoke and fire box will be a breeze and the frames are a straight forward affair.
Currently there's not too much to see, but the cab Beta etch is all but done and laid out, unlike the W1 I already know the box size, so it's much easier working within a known boundary when laying stuff out.
There is a bit of free space which I'll fill with brackets and sundries before sending off.
All I need to do now is finish all the tabbing up, flood fill and then hopefully send to PPD tomorrow, with luck it'll be back in a couple of weeks and then some build photos to keep things ticking along.
Don't fret, the upper cab front is not drawn in the wrong place, these are the half etch overlays and as such are three individual sheets, the lower set is the full fat core structure.
MD
The final documentation required came through over the weekend and progress could begin in earnest on the next project; the W1 ticks along in the background with castings and instructions but the hunger to etch something was too great. To be fair I hadn't planned on cutting the first sod until after the Doncaster show, but life throws these curve balls at you so you just have to try and make the best of it.
We also had the chance to crawl all over 61264 when it had it's wheels striped out at the NYMR a few years back and those (just shy of 500) photos were burning electrons waiting to be used.
To start the ball rolling I've opted to tackle the hardest part of the etch to work up, there's a couple of elephants in the room in this area so decided to get them out of the way; by comparison the boiler, smoke and fire box will be a breeze and the frames are a straight forward affair.
Currently there's not too much to see, but the cab Beta etch is all but done and laid out, unlike the W1 I already know the box size, so it's much easier working within a known boundary when laying stuff out.
There is a bit of free space which I'll fill with brackets and sundries before sending off.
All I need to do now is finish all the tabbing up, flood fill and then hopefully send to PPD tomorrow, with luck it'll be back in a couple of weeks and then some build photos to keep things ticking along.
Don't fret, the upper cab front is not drawn in the wrong place, these are the half etch overlays and as such are three individual sheets, the lower set is the full fat core structure.
MD
all nice and clean among those grubby MR engines 
]
