I hav`nt been entirely satisfied with the look of the smokebox, so have spent today fabricating a new front plate. It`s not quite thick enough but that was all the scrap box had.......
I think it gives a better profile.......
Overall the boiler seems a very accurate fit and will provide plenty of weight over the drivers
The kit provides either plastic strip or etched brass boiler bands which fit the milled slots, my vote will be the plastic strip as the boiler is 5mm thic
I sat and counted today, that I have made twenty four 4mm loco kits and including this project eight 7mm loco kits over a 40 year modelling journey. Only a Gibson 4mm loco kit that I never made was supplied with a turned brass boiler until this Slaters kit......... what a heavy beast !!!!
The instructions suggested using Araldite to make up the smoke box around this beast of a piece of brass, but I set out to use solder. I marked out some reference points on the smoke box front and boil
Everything is progressing gradually......... Slaters use a thicker gauge metal for most of the superstructure, so it has needed an 80wattt iron for plenty of heat. Most of the bending area has been etched thinner, but not all. Having said that it is a well thought out kit and its a great help having all the beading pre etched. The slot and tab accuracy is really good and it has all fitted together well...........
As you all know, in my other blog, I found a previously unfinished 4mm version of a Johnson 1P in the attic stored away and decided to finish it...... Now that I`ve moved into 7mm modelling, but entirely GWR, I had been bitten with an LMS bug and decided to investigate the Slaters 7mm version. There were no real negative comments about such a kit that I could find, and so, I sold some stock to fund the purchase.
The Slaters 7mm Johnson 1P kit dates from the mid 1980`s. so it is`nt a, so cal
