One step forward...

I had a forced day off yesterday because the lovely people at Scottish Power decided that we needed another day without lectric. All fine but I'd forgotten and so left everything in the garage including my reading/modelling specs; electric garage doors are very Thunderbirds except when theres no electricity.

Anyway today there was power but there was also an invasion of relatives... for a whole week!!!!!!!!

Just to step back to yesterday evening for a minute; I had a very pleasant time with Steve from Narrow Planet. We chewed the fat about little trains and modelling techniques old and new and had a very interesting time. He also brought with him a couple of sets of his lovely name plates. One for my somewhat stalled Beddgelert and the other for Nancy.

Today, despite the invasion I managed to sneak off to the garage for a while and added the plates to Nancy which finished her off beautifully. I'll sort out some pictures soon.

I also spent some time fiddling with the chassis for Britomart and I'd say it was 90% sorted. It runs very nicely and with some running in will be lovely. It chugged up and down the big hill with a couple of bogie coaches and some slate wagons with no bother. I did some work on the body too which was partly successful and partly not. I had a rummage and found and attached some couplers and I also added the handrails which for once in my life, are level with each other and look the part. I've also drilled out the chimney casting and attached it. One thing which the kit lacks is the wooden tool box which sits on the handrails on top of the tank.However, I've found a whitemetal casting in the box of bits which is pretty much the right size.

The cab, which I wasn't happy with anyway has bitten the dust. I tried to improve the soldering and it all just fell to bits. Its not the fault of the kit its my lack of experience with this type of construction. Fortunately, Brian sent me two sets of cab etch so I can start again. Talking to Steve about it has convinced me that the laminating needs to be done in a different way. I have some Carrs solder paste and a gas soldering iron which can also work as a small blow torch so I'll get some gas tomorrow and have another go. I really want to do this kit justice. Fingers crossed.