Two updates in two days gives the impression that I'm making steady progress, rather than the odd few hours here and there!

This is the current state of the J class body - the boiler and cab roof are just resting in place for now.

Apart from some flash on one of the cabside, and a wonky cab roof ventilator the parts assembled with the minimum of fettling.

The bogies has also been tackled. It has an etched centre and cast sideframes, not a combination I'd seen before. I'm going to have to open out the half etched bogie cutouts in the sideframes to get enough clearance for the bogie to swing (and I tested it on a B6 turnout, which is hardly setrack). Still, it's good to see that not all loco kits from this era were designed with massive compromises to go round 18" curves by default.

I forgot to mention in yesterday's update that I'd managed to use the original Chivers connecting rods, and didn't have to replace them with Gibson rods.

Lastly, here's the chassis from my Finecast I3. This was featured on the old RMWeb - the link is here when it's up and working: http://www.rmweb.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9669&hilit=finecast+brighton&start=25

The kit has been lurking in it's box since then, but I'm determined to now finish it off (it's been on the go for years, and has the Sharman wheels to prove it). It was a bit of a pig, as it sat way too high on it's chassis (how many people actually run kit built locomotives round trainset curves?). After removing lots of metal from the body and chassis it sits almost at the right height.

This led to a problem - I'd seriously weakened the chassis by removing part of the sideframes, and it had started to distort (dropping it didn't help either). So it had a strip down and and extra spacer soldered in at the front to strengthen it. It's back together again with now most of the detail complete - despite the slightly tatty appearance it runs very well.