Lucy in 3d wirh Fleischmann

 

After all the excitement of the Bala show I've settled down to more ordinary modelling things. The 3D print which is designed for the Fleischmann 7000 chassis came to the front of my 'to do' list and the first job was to offer the two parts up to each other. They were a good fit but the body rode a little too high for my tastes and I could see that by removing a small amount of the printed footplate under the boiler it would drop down by the required amount.

As printed

As modified

 

As printed

As modified

 

I cut and filed away some printed material which is relatively simple but did lead to me snapping the print in a couple of places, fortunately the printed material easily glues back together with superglue. It also sticks very nicely to my fingers, but that is another story.

With added whitemetal parts

Next jobs were to add as much weight as possible to balance out the motor which has a large rear overhang. I stuffed some redundant whitemetal castings and some liquid gravity into the smokebox and sidetanks and the loco now balances nicely. Brass handrails and a smokebox door dart finished the job.

Here it is painted, I'm planning on adding some lining and it still needs the body fixing to the chassis but having tested it on the layout I now have another smooth running and useful loco.

 

The June edition of Narrow Gauge World has a four page article about converting Underhill into the garage layout. Regular blogistas won't learn anything new as I've detailed the work covered in the article on my blog posts over the last year or so. Nice to be on the front cover though. (Head swells a little more.)

 

 

Finally a small matter of detail; it had been pointed out that the foot crossing to the lighthouse and Rock Beach Halt could do with a 'beware of the trains' sign. I had a look on Evilbay and found some rather nice laser etched wood ones which I duly purchased and installed in various hazardous locations. It wouldn't do for the citizens of Stoner to be accidentally run over for the lack of a notice.