Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Body fiddling

Radial build

Why did the previous owner of this kit stop work, put it in a box and flog the thing on a second hand stall for no money?

Quite a mystery since they had done such a good job of assembling the parts. All is neat and tidy. The filler work is far better then I usually manage and as far as I can tell, the loco isn't more than a few hours off completion.

Although the kit is glued together, I set to with some low-melt solder and attached a couple of steps. So far so good.

Then I looked at the roof. It should just drop on but most of the locating lumps had been filed away. Trying it in place I realised why. Somehow it didn't line up. The front was fine, but the back was distinctly off-centre.

I ran square over the model and all appeared OK. Then some close examination revealed that the cab back wasn't symmetrical - about 2mm thin on one side which definitely made a difference but that wasn't all of it.

After tack fitting the roof, I fiddle and faffed for about an hour. Happy, I fixed it in position properly, cleaned the model up and took the picture above.

Then I decided that it still wasn't right, fought the solder to get it off, and tried again. I think I'm happy this time.

No comments: