Further work on the chassis of the MMP 1/108 etched kit.

Parts 7, 8, 9, 10 into the chassis. Again, if you remove the etch cusp, fold accurately and don't gum up the half etch locating grooves with solder the fit up of these parts is perfect.

I found it easier to put 9,10 into the buffer beam before fitting 7, 8.

Make sure you get 7, 8 located accurately on the inside of solebar 4. They form the basis for the location of the axle guards later on.

Parts 13. Note that the rectangular hole for the drawbar isn't on the vertical centre line of the part. It should be fitted with the hole towards the upper side of chassis to match the coupling hook and drawbar. Just check then shape of the coupling hook and drawbar and it'll be obvious. If you have tiny solder fillets between the longitudinal chassis members 3 and the inside of the buffer beam you can chamfer the corners of 13 for a snug fit. They're a fiddle to fold and fit.

All those little reinforcing plates in the corner of the etch, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, tin one side of them before you remove them from the etch. Much easier! Cut them from the etch with a sharp knife onto lead sheet as close to the part as you can to save filing off all the etch tabs. Easy to Zap them into position on the chassis with an RSU. You could equally sweat them into place with a hot iron and some flux; don't hang about though, you don't want to get anything else to melting point.

What we now have is a square, flat, strong chassis that's true to the prototype construction. So far I've learned that the design of the kit is very good. There are some clever design features that improve the accuracy of the model. The fit up of the parts has so far been exemplary provided attention is paid to accurate assembly. The soldering so far hasn't been difficult, but the method of locating parts often relies on half etch grooves. Tidy and economical soldering avoids filling in the location grooves and makes life a lot easier.

I guess a lot has been written about the difficulty or otherwise of soldering. For me the key to success is absolute cleanliness of the parts to be joined. I'll usually scrub up parts on the fret with a glass fibre brush before I cut them out. I'll give them a wipe with IPA (iso propyl alcohol in case you were wondering) to remove finger prints and other gak before soldering. Clean parts, enough heat, decent flux and the right amount of solder in then right place and it's then hard to NOT make a good joint. Enough heat is important too. A lot of the problems I used to have with soldering early days were due to not having an iron with enough thermal capacity. It would take ages for the joint to heat up and flux would be driven off, oxidisation of surface and solder would begin and I'd end up with a messy and structurally poor joint. There are loads of tactics for soldering depending on circumstances, maybe I'll cover some of the less orthodox ones I've found useful.

What's also pleasing is that the construction of the prototype is followed so faithfully. That dimensional fidelity brings a few problems that I'll cover later in the build. I've learned a few things about 1/108 already that I'd never have worked out from photos. Mr Parkin either has a complete GA drawing of the underframe or he's spent some time underneath one with a tape measure.

So far I'm really happy with it all.

4 hours split over two evenings.

Total so far 8 hours. That's a day's work. I won't be earning a living this way obviously.



Next entry will have a go at couplings and buffers.