Shiny black paint was applied to the bodywork yesterday. It ought to have hardened enough for a light sanding to remove the inevitable grollies, and a dusting top coat later.
Meanwhile, my attention turned to installing the truncated engine and assigning the crew.
Being aware the client may well wish to fit further weight to the floor, with the hollow area inside the battery box a prime target, I've used some self-tappers to hold the engine in place. I shall ponder whether to cover the unused motor slot at the right hand end in this shot.
Various sources for the cast peeps. I have an ice cream tub where I store a load of cast figures for various builds. I tend to mix and match to fit the model I'm working on, so it's hard to assign a casting to a particular maker. Anyway, with separate arms, I've arranged the driver to be working the power control, with the second man in the act of hopping out of his seat to head for the steam heating boiler room once more to relight the perished after another blowout caused by going under a bridge…
My storage tub seems to have acquired a bag full of spare arms. It's a bit like a miniature tailor's dummy store room! Oddly, I have one arm with the shirt sleeve rolled up, but I'm darned if I can find its opposite number.
To facilitate removing the body - the dashboard and cab rear will be fitted inside the body, not fitted to the floor - I cut the power control tower from the dash and stuck it to the floor. The reason? The driver's arm would get in the way when fitting the bodywork. You can't actually see the join, so one wonders why the kit wasn't designed with the column as a separate part, like the brake column.
Right, with the Eng v SA second test well under way at Trent Bridge, time to see how the paintwork went.
It's now the rather rarer V14 version.
