A problem has been identified with the right hand side of the tender for my Caprotti Black 5. The whole kit is a Comet product and the tender sides for this part welded type are very thin and rather flimsy, due to being half etched to provide the rivet pattern. During assembly of the second (RH) side, I pressed a bit too firmly to hold it against the internal structure for soldering. The result was a rippled effect where the lines of the framework showed through. Considerable time was spent trying to rectify this by "panel beating",so to speak, and the result didn't look too bad in raw metal. I thought I could live with the remaining marks, especially as the loco is to be heavily weathered.
However, once the tender was painted with a gloss finish (to help seat the lining transfers), it looked absolutely awful.

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It was obviously pointless proceeding with full painting and lining, as no amount of weathering could possibly hide that amount of damage. So, David Clarke has stripped the paint from that side and returned the tender to me for rectification. To be honest, once stripped back to bare brass, it didn't look nearly so bad but a replacement side is to be fitted anyway. I'm not sure if Comet can supply replacement sides, but I bought a whole tender body kit as the easiest option.
The original intention was to trim away the damaged side close to the bulkheads, fire iron tunnel and front piece and then file off any remaining raised rivet or beading detail. However, on closer inspection and the discovery that the side was not well attached is certain areas, I change tack and decided to try and remove the existing, damaged side entirely. This proved not too difficult although it got quite hot whilst unsoldering some of the joints and asbestos fingers would have been an advantage. Once the side was off, the underlying structure was filed flat and any remaining bobbles of solder removed. Here is the resulting tender body with the now totally destroyed side lying in front.

Since the photo was taken this lunch time, I've prepared the new replacement side and fixed the two hand rails, ready for reattachment. The new side will be glued to the body, possibly with a few solder tacks for added security of attachment. Hopefully, I'll get this done later in the week so it can go back for painting sooner rather than later. Oh well........

Dave.

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