In some ways I should have expected this; indeed to an extent I did but remained naiively opimistic. When trying to mate the body from one kit to the chassis of another it should be assumed it they won’t mate; the trick being to minimise the extent to which this is the case and the amount of cutting and swearing necessary to effect a solution.

So, in our case things are not so bad. I have already chopped off the front frame extensions from the finecast chassis as these are an integral part of the PDK bodywork and, given their protrusion into the front footplate, should remain so. Luckily the ‘join’ between body and frame can be hidden behind the front of the cyclinder block (another story, for later).

Now all we need to do is mate the rear of the chassis with the footplate. We have two options; chop the chassis or chop the footplate (avoiding the third option; chop a bit of both, in the interests of avoiding ‘oh, ######’! and having to put things back again).

Having offered one to the other and scribbled about with the blue pen my chosen option is to chop the footplate. Why? It’s one of the above options, it’s easier to remove metal and disturbs the chassis less, and whatever ‘bridge’ I fabricate to raise the chassis anchor point will vanish under the footplate itself once that is fitted. The only down side is that the rear of the chassis doesn’t quite reach the rear (making allowance for the cast Finecast kit drag beam?) but that is a minor issue.

So, watch this space for the solution (I am writing this as a form of therapy that will steel my resolve to take saw to footplate...) shortly...

In the mean time, we have snag #2, another one I sort of saw coming but didn’t do anything about it. Now, a word to all those coming to this article as a ‘lets see if I can do this by watching some other fool have a go...’ prior to taking your first etched kit in hand. My first words to you, therefore are the very ones I ignored: If you can’t work out how to do it, look in a book written by Guy Williams (there are two) and DO IT LIKE THAT. You cannot go wrong. Really.

So what did I do wrong? Well, looking back at the tender body etch I did think that the etched side, having been etched to provide a raised beading around the top, resulted in the actual platework being seriously thin. It was, but I went on ahead anyway. What should I have done? Guy Williams recommends that for lengthy runs of platework (tank sides, tenders and so on) there should be bracing behind to avoid just exactly what has happened. With even moderate handling the tender sides have started to bow inwards, dammit!

Solution? Take off the sides, fabricate new ones (0.0010” nickel silver sheet) and attach beading using fine wire and file to shape (see Guy Williams), making sure even that is braced within. That is for later when I have a suitable size NS sheet in stock (on its way).

That’s the ‘snags’ we have found - or was that ‘created’? - for now.

Best,
Marcus