When I shortened the length of the cab side I caused a gap to open between the cab side and the coupling rod splasher; it’ll have to be filled somehow later. Below the cab, flanking the axle hole in the chassis are two plates that I’ve added which will be part of the detail of the rear driving wheel leaf spring. Patterns, from which I’ll cast the springs in white metal, are under construction at the moment.
I added the inside framing to the running plate so the tender is now taking shape quickly. However, as I mentioned in an earlier post, the flare on top of the tender sides is not represented correctly; so at this stage I cut the half etched flare off with a scalpel. I’m not sure how I’ll fix it back on correctly, I mean slightly proud of the tender side; I’m thinking about it.
I cut 3 scale inches off the back of the cab to agree with the Tatlow drawing, and this resulted in a real problem because the boiler was now too short; I’d opened up a 6" gap between the boiler and the smokebox: now what! I put the boiler/firebox assembly to one side and decided to work on the smokebox; perhaps I could make some progress in this direction. However before I started I thought it was high time that I bought myself some rolling bars to make a decent job of rolling the smokebox outer myself; so over the ‘phone I purchased a "GW Models" 6" Mini Roller and Rail Bender machine and very nice it looked when it arrived a couple of days later. It made a grand job of rolling the smokebox outer; just put it in and wind the handle! I soldered this onto the smokebox front and onto a rear former that I made to produce a very accurate sub-assembly that slotted onto the frame extensions that I’d already fitted into grooves etched in the footplate. I had to make a disc to fit into the etched recess in the smokebox front and I found this difficult as I don’t have a lathe to true it up and it needs to be really accurate to look right. I filed the disc to shape by eye, but I’m not 100% pleased with it yet: how much easier it would’ve been if the kit designer had provided this item on the etch. I added the cab sides and front splasher/sandbox sides to the footplate then soldered up the coupling rod splashers. There’s an article by Laurie Griffin which is helpful at this stage; it’s in the HRJ No.56 on Page 11. Before I fixed the cab front in place between the cab sides I bought some turned spectacle plate lookout surrounds from LGM, which cost me a fiver. When they arrived they proved to be slightly smaller than the openings in the cab front, so I soldered these on the outside, which formed a step into which the glazing would fit nicely later on and be held in place by the smaller outer rims: the inner etched surrounds, which matched the openings, were soldered in place to finish the job.
Connoisseur Models’ "IMP" or Implement Wagon makes into an attractive model and shows off my Classic Commercials Fordson F very well. I roped the tractor onto the wagon with 50 foot "ropes" which I made from the twine supplied with a model ship kit. I coloured these to suit the model and made sure that the ends fell realistically onto the wagon deck. Transfers; including the lettering "IMP", were from HMRS sheet 12. The tractor was spray painted then lightly weathered by hand: conversley, the wagon was hand painted then weathered with a Badger 250 Spray Gun. Both these kits were well engineered, there was no remedial work at all involved in building them, and though the model was time consuming, it was light relief from my on-going Wee Ben project.
