Grille making

The Class 26 diesel project has stalled slightly while I pondered the construction of the grille in the side of this 3mm scale model locomotive.

In 4mm, replacement of these is simple - cut old grilles out, removed etched replacements from packet, glue in place.

I don't have that opportunity. Lots of etched parts for the larger scale were examined and the only ones I found that looked like they might nearly do the job were still not close enough. That and at a fiver a side, they were more than I wished to pay for something that wasn't right.

So, I picked some cheap Class 73 grilles up with a view to using them for material. If I hadn't been so impetuous I might have waited until York and grabbed a pack of random grilles from the A1 models stand for less than the pair I bought, but then hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Anyway, option 1 was to make some frames up from thin plastic, and glue the etch to this. I gut the outside of the frames and then decided to abandon them since the metal part was stronger than the plastic that was supposed to be supporting it !

Starting again, the etches were cut with scissors to reduce them to size. Then a thin frame of microstrip stuck to the outside with superglue. On the reverse, more microstrip made a representation of the framing clearly seen on the real locomotive. Once dry, everything was filed to finish the job including a good sanding on the front to thin down the plastic as much as I dared.