[Lawrence]

Sunday afternoon was a write off as the Stanley Cup playoffs are on (The Bruins went through in OT, game 7 in case you wondered), but nevertheless by Sunday evening I’d pretty much proven all the major bits of the superstructure.

This was chucked together pretty quickly with very little attempt at cleaning up, but as you can see the design is such that almost all soldering is arranged so it is largely invisible.

It’s mostly slot/tab and fold. You need to make sure joints are tight before fixing, but otherwise it is pretty straightforward.

As usual I’ve arranged slots to take the glazing, so that’s another task that will be easy, but look very tidy. I tried a few new ideas to simplify rolling the boiler and smokebox, and these worked out rather well. The smokebox to boiler join may need some more thought and there are some minor tweaks to do that should improve/simplify things a bit.

As can be seen from the etch image in the previous post there are alternative parts to allow construction of 198/376, 377 and 375 in both high and low bunker form. The kit is based on 198 in 1940. I think the Ba drivers from NY will be OK for 375, but if you want one of the other two you’ll have to machine a set of castings.

Tomorrow I’ll have a play with the cab roof, cab interior and front end. That should give me enough to make any major changes to the artwork before sending it off to be redone.

[Lawrence]

As promised here’s the front end of the We, which worked out as planned.

It looks deceptively simple here, but having scratchbuilt this area in the past, it’s quite a headache.

The frames fold up (there’s a stout sacrificial cross piece that makes this nice and rigid). The life guards fold into place.

The footplate is 3 separate parts, but these interlock with half-etched tags that pass through slots in the frames. To build it the centre portion is clipped in place and tack soldered. The Headstock is then soldered on. There are guide marks on the inside to get it centred. The two outside portions can then be clipped in and soldered up. One of the great things about nickel silver is that it doesn’t conduct heat very fast. So for most of these operations it’s possible to hold the assembly with your fingers while soldering. Most of the structural soldering is inside the frames so it stays nice and tidy.

Finally there’s two little riveted strips that represent the angle between the frames. A bit of finesse is needed for these, but a good scrub with a fibreglass pencil removes any excess solder.

• This reply was modified 6 months, 3 weeks ago by  Lawrence.

[Lawrence]

I’ve more or less finished proving the We superstructure etch. It’s gratifying it was buildable as is, but there are one or two tweaks to implement for version 2. A lot of the smaller detail parts were faulty so haven’t made this build.

As can be seen the build is nice and tidy. A few details added since yesterday’s images like cab steps and so on. I’ll probably do a 3d print to join the smokebox to the boiler. The original concept was an etched ring, but it proved a bit painful. The front end goes together well, now with splashers added. There are little location pips to line everything up so that the penetrations in the boiler top are vertical. I originally did the smokebox front as a casting, but I have had a slight change of plan so that the front is an etch with a cast door. This allows the door to be a push fit which means it can be removed for wiring up.

Cab roofs are always a bit of a fiddle, particularly with cab interiors. For the We I’ve made the roof part of the interior, and the whole unit just slides into place. It’s nice and snug, but the etch allows for screw fixing to keep it secure. Provided the backhead is painted before installation this should all work quite well. Location slots line everything up so with a bit of care everything fits perfectly without much fettling. I just filed a bit of lead on the lower corners so that the unit slid in smoothly. I also filed down some excess solder from the cab sheet fitting that was pinching things a bit. The etch has/had the cab doors, but these were a bit too tight to be convenient so I removed them here. The final etch will have them (with a bit more tolerance) – they were inevitably latched open but will be visible. The interior with doors folds up with just the bunker facing and coal hole slide to add on.

Cab windows and coal hole baffle will slide as they should. Easy to do. The We cab is airy and open so the backhead detail will be quite visible for once.

This will likely be my last contribution to this discussion for a while as I get the etches redone and return to what I was doing before I was interrupted.

• This reply was modified 6 months, 3 weeks ago by  Lawrence.