Bodywork

Body on chassis
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

With a nice flat footplate, the main sections of bodywork for the Coal Tank locomotive fit in place fairly easily. The only thing making the job a touch harder is that the footplate slots aren't very deep where I blanked them off with my valance work.

Tab and slot construction is wonderful in etched kits. Essentially the manufacturer has done all the hard work of lining bits up for you. Simply fold the parts, push the tabs through the slots and solder. Easy.

Sadly, etching isn't as precise an art as you might expect and sometimes the slots are too big or too small. To be honest I prefer the former. Checking the alignment of parts is fairly easy, opening a slot up in a bit of metal isn't. Invariably too thin to get a file in I usually end up shoving a scalpel blade in - fine if there problem is due to the cusp left after etching but a recipe for distortion otherwise. In face if this is the case I'll often sacrifice the the tab and do things the old fashioned way.

As it was the alignment allowed a little lea-way but the basic, boxy shape of this particular steam engine means that a rule along the side or square on the corners keep things tidy.

The only confusing area was inside the coal space. This includes a sloping part and two sides with slopes but not the same slope. A bit of tack soldering and dry-fitting quickly showed me what I needed to do but there was a touch of head-scratching to get there.

Once cleaned up I couldn't resist bringing body and chassis together for a quick look at progress. Yes it looks like a steam engine and yes one of the brake hanger wires gets in the way so the body doesn't sit down quite right yet.