Even smaller bits and some paint

Today the rain poured down and the wind blew so I hid in the garage and made some more progress. Looking at the cab I realised that it wasn't entirely square on the roof but I decided that it was within tolerance and the odds on me getting it better rather than just different were pretty slim so I thought quitting while you are ahead was a worthwhile strategy.

The next bits to add were the hand rails on the cab. These are the ones which come from cab roof to footplate at the rear and the ones on the leading edge of the cab. To put the latter ones in place I realised that the rounded cut outs in the cab sides needed to have a strip of brass added. I'm not explaining very well but its obvious in the pictures.

Without

With

I know I've banged on about this being fiddly but blimey this was tricky. Springy bent brass Vs me and the soldering iron. Anyway, when they were attached and I'd finally finished throwing other very small things on the floor and spending ages on my knees looking for them and eventually soldering them on I was quite pleased. 

I glued the hand brake and reversing lever onto the firebox and fashioned and glued a regulator on. Looking pretty good. There are a couple of bits to still add like the under footplate brake linkage and the reversing lever thing above the footplate but it isn't far off. I ordered a couple of whistles and some smokebox door handles yesterday so they should arrive on Monday with luck. 

Paint, I thought. Paint next. Hey ho. The cab and the tank/boiler are still separate so I gave those a coat of Halfords primer. It seems to show up any problems which otherwise remain invisible.

In this instance the boiler/tank bit seemed fine but the cab still need some bits sorting out. Nothing major though. A couple of spots of filler where the sides and front meet but mostly ok.

Once the primer had dried I did a bit of detail work with black and the red. I also used my metal ink pens to fill out some cab detail.