Loco Kit (6) - the puzzle continues....and the boiler finished

 This old kit is more like a 3D puzzle; a few missing bits and bits not 'cut to size' with instructions that are not exactly clear....; like a jigsaw puzzle it is addictive, as you look for the right bits to put in place

Some plasticard strips added to the chassis to support the 'foot plate'

Trial fit of parts - starting to look like a loco now...

adding side trim,  buffer beam and back to the 'foot plate'

handrails for tender top and cab side; plus some trim for the cab side and rain strips for the roof

a bit of a breakout....

• source a missing dome for the boiler - ordered one from Swift Sixteen £25 !
• sort all the remaining parts into bags so I can find them easily - done
• figure out a plan to get round the smokebox casting which is missing- the scheme: wrap plasticard strips around the smokebox end to the right level and find a suitable circular item for the front.

Its a wrap....

Thin pasticard wraps, the boiler and fire box end, (held on with rubber bands till glue dried)

After a search around, I found a spool of solder had the right diameter to go in the front of the smokebox; so I took all the solder off and put it round something else.

the smokebox door fits on it nicely....

A lot of strips of plasticard were cut to wrap round the smokebox end....

till the correct level was reached....

the final front wrap, from the kit was the rivet detail for the smokebox...

dry assembly of the bits finished so far ...

Loco Kit (5) - tender and cab

Finished off the tender.... 

Trial fitting of wheels...

The wheels fitted, with some extra structural re-inforcements....

a run test on the garage layout round Radius 1 curves - no problems...

Tender top and chassis together (not fixed yet... hopefully I can get the RC electronics & batteries inside the tender)

Cab

The main structure of the cab built.

Next job is to get the basic footplate assembly built up (then the boiler....etc)

Sunny Sunday (1) RC diesel ....

Into spring and a chance to run trains at last (the 'sunny sunday' count reset for this year ) 

The recently completed RC diesel gets a run in the sun ...

Loco Kit (4) - starting on the tender...

How many bits for the tender. ! It too me a while to work out which bits went where.  The kit instructions say 'all parts cut to the size required' - well not quite, so a bit of sanding and fettling done to get things ready. I had one bit which was the wrong length, it was easy to cut a new one from some plasticard.

The basic tender top made up....

tidied up and the top section added with some beading.....

I checked the parts for the tender underframe; these were not all cut quite to matching lengths, so more fettling done and construction started....

Loco Kit (3) - chassis preparation...

The job for today was to marry up my 0-4-0 chassis, with the the single wheel assembly to make it into and 0-4-2 configuration...

After drilling some holes in both parts; I had to retrieve my bag of oddment nuts, bolts & screws from the garage. Rummage time ... to find a suitable nut & bolt with some washers...

A nice easy fit ....

0-4-2 chassis ready for the next step ... 

LocoWorks - RC diesel - ready for the running season...

 A neater 2 x PP3 in series to give  maximum of 18v for the Diesel battery power

The new 'battery pack' into place in the loco.....

reassembled and ready to run....

A quick trial run on the garage layout

Loco kit (2)...a chassis...

The loco kit I acquired recently was for an 0-6-0 tender loco, however it needed a chassis. I had a look in the spares box to see what I had, there was an 0-4-0 chassis and a spare 'pony truck'.  So possibly an 0-4-2 for the loco instead....

A google search for a suitable 0-4-2 loco came up with this as a possible option..

I'll think about it for a while..😀