Sunday, July 02, 2006

G2 Tender


G2 Tender
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
After a bit of break in the work on the G2 I fancied starting on the tender instead of carrying on with the loco. The tender will be a bit special on this model – it will hold the fuel for the model. By this I mean there will be a chunk of battery in there.

So, I ploughed ahead. There are a few interesting features of the kit. The footplate for the tender appears to be etched back to front. A problem but not insurmountable. Far more of an issue is the big lumps of brass required. I used a miniature blowtorch to run solder around, as even my (40W) iron wasn’t man enough for the job.

The difficult bends in the sides (the wrapper is a single etched part) were achieved with reasonable ease. Fold up strengtheners are included so ignore the instructions I put the back bends in first, solder these in and the made the front bends.

After only a little fiddling with fingers and re-bending the job was complete. So far it looks good and my square says all is well. Long term my plan is to cut out as much of the floor as possible. The battery will fix to a false roof with velcro and then the chassis will bolt on the bottom to give extra security. I still have to fit a charging socket and speed switch so I’m not out of the woods yet.

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