I agree, it's vital to fill in the gap between the firebox & ashpan and the frames for appearance.

I also agree with your concern about the side view. There appears to be an excessive gap between the front of the lower firebox and the flange of the rear drivers. On a full size wide firebox loco (see Btitannias, Clans, modified Bulleids, etc.), this would only be a matter of inches whereas the model has close on half a wheel diameter. I suspect that if these loco's had actually been built, the boiler barrel would have been made shorter than on a Britannia (or perhaps the Hornby boiler is longer than scale?). I suppose you can hide this by either shortening the boiler - a big job (probably involving shortening the chassis), or extending the lower firebox sides forward to reduce the gap, or, alternatively, just live with it! How do the boiler and loco overall length compare with the published weight diagrams?

Dave.

Looking at the weight diagrams in the Cox book, the proposed boiler for the 2-8-2 was identical to that on the Britannia so, barring any significant errors in the Hornby body, then the front of the firebox should be in the right place.

Looking at the diagrams, the position of the cab and rear of the firebox relative to the rear pony-truck axle is the same on both designs. On the Brit, working forward from the truck axle, there was 10' minus half a wheel (3' - 1") to the rear edge of the rear driver = 6' - 11".

On the 2-8-2, we have 9' - 6" - 2' - 7.5" = 6' - 10.5". So there is only half an inch difference in the gap between the rear drivers and the front of the firebox on the two designs.

You mention that the front end of the frames was altered, so perhaps this is the area where the discrepancy has arisen?

Again, looking at the diagrams, the 2-8-2 is 6" (2 mm) shorter than the Brit from the front buffer beam to the rear truck axle. As shown above, the rear end is almost identical, so all the difference is taken up somewhere near the front of the loco.

For modelling purposes, it might be best to split the difference and have an extra millimetre at both ends?

Hope you resolve this to your satisfaction as it's a great project.

I recall that somewhere earlier in the blog you wrote something that suggested that to some extent you were designing the model as you went along (position of frame spacers, perhaps?). I don't think i could do that - all my models are planned out on paper to the n'th degree, with doubtful aspects drawn out to scale, before I make anything! This approach does add quite a bit of time to a project, but generally avoids problems later on.

Regards,

Dave.