Right, onwards, door stamping etches, as noted above some are ok, others are not, just basic fundamental errors in measurements, quite a lot in some cases, how? I've no idea, must have been a blond day when I drew those particular door etches.
None the less I persevered and fitted what I had and fettled the two or three that were wrong to fit.
Cruel close up pictures first, without glasses on they look good, TV glasses, still passable, reading glasses....hmmm not happy at all.
Do they look like the real thing? Yes I think so, they mimic the triple layered stampings of the 1:1, are they better on than off....probably.
So what's wrong, well up close the middle depth stampings don't always line up with the original etches on the model, that's fine I can adjust them to suit, were talking 0.05-0.1mm here but still visible if you look. The original door etches have holes for handles, in the wrong place if you have door stampings, despite blanks behind I cannot get them to fill with solder effectively, so body filler later will have to suffice, also the original doors have extra parts where the catches are that do not represent the locos I've seen....with hind sight I should of cut them off before putting the doors on.
Second problem, they're bloody difficult to put on!, just a gnats off square and it shows like mad, so some panels have been on and off several times, next time to ease this I'll add the stampings with the body sides flat before adding the body sides to the chassis, same with the kit doors....the instructions probably tell you to do that anyway LOL. To compound the squareness issue I've noted that some of the etches are slightly off square themselves (part of the etching process I reckon as the artwork is square) which compounds the problem.
What's for the future, not sure really, I like the triple layered effect it gives, I don't like that the hinge and catch sections don't quite line up with the kit doors underneath, I don't like the kit door catch tabs with holes in (well cut them off!, I may do that next time) and I think the kit doors might just have a too large a gap between them....again were talking 0.1-0.2mm.
So to get better doors with the current method will require another CAD and phototool to adjust the catch and hinge straps, but, if your going to do that then you may as well make complete whole new doors....as David suggested months ago, that way the stampings will be square with the door, the hinge and catch straps will line up and the gap between the doors adjusted just so and with correct hinge tabs.
The only downside with new doors is that you can only have two layers of etch, thus the hinge and catch straps will be the same depth as the main door stamping....is this an issue? Yes, is it a bigger issue that the ones already present? Probably not.
Is it even worth it? Yes I think so, given the level of detail in the kit in other areas then yes I think door stampings are necessary (others mileage may vary).
Conclusion, a worth while exercise that sort of worked LOL, am I happy with what I have? No, I suspect in time it'll niggle me more and more and the whole lot will come off and I'll opt for David's solution of a whole new set of doors with only two levels of stamping, but! The fact that it's only two layers instead of the required three will also niggle me
The only other option is two layers but leave off the hinge and catch straps from the etch and add them on the model later from very thin Plasticard or even thin tape. Can you even get Plasticard 2.5 thou thick ?
Just so y'all understand what an earth I'm trying to achieve, hereth some 1:1 pictures.
Note door stampings differ between hinge side and catch side, 4" between raised areas on the hinge side and 7" on the catch side, that kinda messes with your head when doing the CAD art work LOL.
Wow, reading back, what a load of spuffle! I should post less more often LOL.
........should have knocked the whole loco out from the start
....and make sure the driver can see the bloody signals from the cab window
