This week's progress has been on the footplate. First step was to cut out a rectangle of 0.8mm (single-sided) PCB, and a slightly larger one of 5 thou brass, and laminate these together with solder. The first photo shows the assembly on the Proxxon with the pattern attached by double-sided tape. I decided to mill out the cut-outs rather than using the piercing saw. I'm not sure this saved any time but it made it easier to get straight edges.

And here is the resulting unit from underneath. Even more will need to be cut away to clear things like the coupling rods and (probably) motor, but I thought I would attach the body before I make it even more flimsier!

Next step was to cut the buffer beams and valances from two sheets of (scrap) 10 thou nickel silver laminated together. I used the Proxxon to drill the three holes in a straight line before cutting out the buffer beam, but this time the parts were cut out with the piercing saw and filed laboriously to shape. The valances are very thin! This photo shows them before separating:

Then it was a case of tinning the underside edges of the footplate top, and soldering them on. I wanted to achieve the effect of a slight lip where the footplate sticks out. The inside faces of the buffer beams and valances will need to be insulated, probably by glueing on Rizla paper.

The final photo shows the footplate sitting loose on the chassis. In fact I need to remove some more material from the chassis to get it to sit at the right height, as well as from the footplate itself so that the coupling rod bosses clear the underside. The cab, tanks and boiler will be soldered to the footplate, and I want to get these in place before removing the final material from the footplate. I still need to drill the hole for the fixing screw at the front (right in the photo). Current thoughts are that I might make the smokebox saddle from solid brass and tap this to take the fixing screw, but we will see if this works out.