It may be old age, it may be winter doldrums (S.A.D. and all that!) it may be no more than the thought of the cold. That bit's not true because the workshop bit of Honley Tank is actually the cosiest room on the property - 3kW of heating available in a room about 11' x 8'!

What ever it is I'm not managing to raise the desire to get stuck into some modelling, and forcing my self to go out there is not the best situation to achieve high levels of modelling skill.

This week I've had only one modelling day, (that's about 5-6 hours at most) and the progress has been in the wrong direction.

I got out the electronic callipers to check clearance at the splashers, and my eyes had been correct; clearance was virtually non-existent! The questions were "why?" and "how to overcome?".

The "why?" was two fold. My planning had been for the splasher front to sit on the running plate, but I had fitted the splashers with their front extending through the running plate. Secondly, I had the splashers as being fabricated in 0.010" sheet and when I made them I had used 0.020". So the inside face of the splasher fronts were all 0.020" too close to the boiler.

So the splashers with which I had struggled when I fitted them, now needed to come off, and the required unsoldering was likely to cause unsoldering of adjacent bits. Also I would need to fabricate a completely new set of splashers but in thinner material. None of this was conductive towards a feeling of pleasure! The splasher slots in the running plate would also need a little widening.

My failing memory did actually come good here, because I suddenly remembered that I had in the past used a modelling blow torch rather than a soldering iron in unsoldering situations, - that old "very hot iron-quick-in-quick-out" syndrome but, with a flame much hotter than any soldering iron, much more likely to succeed. It did! Those D****D splashers are off and no collateral damage; just a few seconds taken to undo a few hours work!

I now needed to start on some new splashers but first I should check my drawing to see if I had erred there too; - if I'd incorrectly drawn the splashers then those errors would have been carried through to the model. Almost needless to say I had (probably) drawn the splashers with too small a radius. Back then to the drawing board.

The J10 driving wheels are quoted as 5'1" dia. and that equates to an across-flange dia. of 5' 3.5" or 21.17 mm in 4mm scale. Yes! another drawing error. I had drawn the splashers at 21mm dia. Another error on my drawing that needs correction. If only 'Isinglass' had drawn the J10!!!!!!

Just a minute though; I'm not using my home-made wheels on this one, they are Gibson, and a 5'1" model is not available. These wheels proved to be 20.6 across flange but that still makes a 21mm diameter splasher too small to be certain of sufficient clearance. What a stupid old codger!

I've just finished cutting three 24 mm disks of 0.012" nickel-silver in the lathe. I had no 0.010" in stock but the 0.002" extra should not be a problem because the 24mm is actually the inside dia. of the splashers. Another five hours or so should have me back to where I was last week.

Thanks to "Pannier Tank" and "Alastair" for their comforting words. Yes I'll keep smiling because it is funny really, just not so funny when you first find out.