It's high time I posted an update on the scrap tank, which is approaching completion. Painting started with a coat of grey Halfords primer from a rattle can. I then used the airbrush to spray the basic green colour all over. I find that Tamiya acrylics spray quite nicely, so I used a mixture of olive green and white, thinned about 50:50 with Tamiya's own thinner. This works for me spraying at about 15 psi (although I don't really trust the gauge on my cheap and cheerful compressor). After painti
Next I added some remaining details - the clack valves are impressions made by threading two short lengths of brass tube of 0.6mm and 0.8mm outside diameter onto a length of 0.4mm brass rod. All three of these came in a useful pack from Albion Alloys. They were covered in flux then soldered on with a small amount of solder, before bending the pipe to curve under the boiler.
Fiddlier to make were the next bits, which I **think** are controls for the sandboxes - they sit either
Here's a photo of the loco before the details referred to in the title were added. In this picture the motor is not fitted, so the cab looks empty. I was running it up and down the track under gravity after glueing the wheels into their muffs, checking that the motion was working. Actually I found that it was a bit tight and had to thin the slidebars further. The middle and rear crankpins have not yet been trimmed to length, so the temporary "washer" - made from electrical wire sleeving - grazes