Now that the nights are drawing in, and the temperature is falling. Its time to get the soldering iron out again.

Before I make a start on building my Finney Dean Goods, I thought the Falcon Tender for the County would be a good call. (the plan being to follow this with the chassis for the Dapol body.)

So far this project has seen a bit of progress focused on the loco body, the cab has been rebuilt with the Jackson parts and an 8f body has been purchased to supply a new firebox.

So onto the tender, certainly this is the most difficult etched kit I have put together to date (mostly due to the age of the design). But so far Ive been enjoying the build

The first step was soldering up the buffer beams, followed by opening up the holes to accept the sprung buffers. a bit of a tedious job which seemed rather pointless (why only etch a hole a fraction of the diameter of the buffers.)

Next up was the valance on the sides, pressing the rivets and laminating the two parts. comparing with photos there appear to be a few rivets missing here, my plan is to add these post completion with Archers transfers

Then the 4 parts were soldered onto the baseplate. To assist with this I knocked up a simple jig to help keep everything square, without acting as a heat sink. This was made from a couple of lengths of sleeper along with 2 metal pins to keep it locked in position. First the headstocks were soldered on, followed by the valances.

Now it was time for the most important job, and the one I had been dreading. Forming the curves on the rear of the tender. These were wrapped around a length of brass rod (iirc it specified 3/8). Once fitted it was almost perfect, needing only fractional adjustment.
However the tabs which locate it onto the baseplate were far too long (fully visible under the plate). So out with the file, and it was filed down to the thickness of the brass baseplate. Its now ready for soldering.