Horsetan

'tis all about getting the time for it. In reference to what you wrote about the younger modellers losing these skills to build - well, in the same way, there are skills that I would have loved to have learnt, such as being able to use a lathe and turn my own fittings or make my own wheels. But there are a good few capable young engine builders out there - do a search for Tom Mallard, who I think is at least seven years younger than me, but builds engines with the maturity and self-assuredness of someone who has spent a lifetime in the craft. And he charges accordingly - I think he'd be around two grand-plus(that's sterling, not Euro) if you wanted him to build something like no.800 Maedhbh for you. I call him "Stella Artois", because he's reassuringly expensive. I'm just after having some Talisker at teatime, even though I'm more of a Jameson's man meself.

The takeover is underway but, as some people predicted, it's taking C&L a lot longer to merge the Exactoscale stock into C&L's existing systems. They thought they'd be up and running by the first week of November but that's gone by the board now due to staff shortages, etc. Click here I think it will be the New Year before you'll be able to order anything.

The "S" class has a very Edwardian wrapround roof, and these are a total swine to form cleanly, as brass and nickel-silver will distort in all sorts of unexpected ways. SSM/TMD try to make the job easier by making the roof eaves half-etched, but there is so little material above the cabside's curved cut-out that the whole lot will deform. The instructions say that you should bend the top of the cabsides, using a 2mm rod to get the right sort of curve. This isn't quite as easy as it looks: I tried to attain a clean curve by using a steel rule at the back: ....but the grade of brass in this old kit was a bit mad, and I found the task difficult to control properly. The following photo shows the extent of the problem: As you can see, the offside roof eave is almost there, but the nearside shows signs of distortion, and it will need more work with the 2mm drill former to correct. At this point, I felt a bit like that episode where Father Ted is contemplating his "repair" work on the dent in the car that the Diocese gave for the raffle to raise funds to fix the Parochial House roof....... "Ye know, ye're too much of a perfectionist, Ted...." I call it the Eejit Guide to Building - 'cos when you read it, you can avoid the mistakes this eejit made

Returning to the instruction sheet, Parts P18 (nearside and offside cabsides/splashers) are now removed form the fret: The insides of the cabsides have horizontal etched lines. These act as guides for the cab front assembly, and what you do is run the "legs" of it along the etch lines: ...whilst simultaneously making sure the cab front is flush with the leading edge of the cabside: Setting this all up was sheer hell, but hairgrips - if arranged the right way - have enough tension to keep things together to allow you to start soldering: Once again, only run the minimum amount of solder that you think you can get away with: ....before repeating the process with the offside cabside: Now is the time to balance your cab and splashers on the footplate, just to see how things are looking:

The instructions do mention that you should now fit half-etched sandbox filler caps (Part P49) into the half-etched holes in the footplate, and footsteps P34a, P34b and P34c. This is up to you. I chose not to add these details yet as I wanted to make sure I had the main structure looking right. Therefore the next job for me was part P21, the cab front inner frame: The legs of this are folded at right-angles - I use my mini-vice to hold it and the steel ruler to do the actual job of bending: This task should be as simple as hiding your assets.... ....outside the jurisdiction of the Republic: I also took a look at part P24, which is the cab floor (including the inner splasher sides for the trailing driving wheels): The etch lines on it are a bit weak, and could be usefully widened with the apex of a triangular needle file: ....and that helps you achieve a cleaner 90-degree / right-angle bend:

OK so, here we are again after getting distracted by work. "Work is the curse of the drinking classes" (Oscar Wilde). The next job on the instruction sheet is relatively simple, involving part P37 (the buffer beam inner frame) and P41 (the beam overlay): What the instructions don't tell you is that part P37 has to be folded according to the etch lines at each end of it: This followed by P41, the overlay which needs to be soldered over it: Remember that the square buffer bases must be at the lower edge of the overlay, not the upper! You only need to flow the very minimum of solder, because the next job is to fix the completed buffer beam to the footplate you made earlier. It takes time to make sure you've got it all in line, and the back edge of the buffer beam "sandwich" must butt up against the front edge of the footplate valancing: Again, only the minimum of solder should be flowed into the join - and it's best to run it from the inside (or behind the beam) so that you don't get solder going all over the rivet detail: