Saturday, July 15, 2006

Summer time and solder flows easy.


G2 in the sun
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
No retail therapy for me today. I decided I didn’t need anything in town that couldn’t be purchased online or in person during the week. This gives me an entire afternoon working on the G2.

Sometimes things just seem to go right. Today was one of those days. The kit parts fitted properly – OK I had to make new tank tops but everything else was fine. Solder generally went where it was supposed to. Maybe it was the heat which must be at least 27 degrees. Not too hot to do stuff outside but very pleasant sat in the shade with the windows open and Guildfest on the radio. It’s days like today I wish I could get into cricket as I’m sure some Radio 4 Long Wave commentary would be very condusive to my workmanship.

I had to put the first whitemetal part in, the massive firebox front casting. Ignoring all good advise I used the 40W iron that was giving good service for the rest of the kit. There wasn’t much chance of melting this beast !

The boiler is level after a slight trim of the smokebox saddle. Because this is such a plain loco I spent a fair bit of time confirming this before finally soldering everything in place. Get it wrong and no amount of work will improve the model.

So for 4 hours work I went from a footplate to something that looks like a steam engine. If I wasn’t going out tonight for beer I’d probably get most of the model built at this rate. Still, I must make my contribution to Gordon’s revenue must I ? Civic duty and all.

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