Since last weekend's entry, most of the work on the Sentinel has focussed on a myriad of small pieces. The first of these to be added were the sandboxes and the axleboxes and springs. The latter castings are highly detailed and capture the characteristic shape of the spring supports. Small filler tubes were fitted to the front sandboxes. These pass through the running plate and have their filler caps added.
Two other points of interest in the above photo. Firstly, I've had to make a small cutout in the running plate at the right rear of the large cutout for the motor and gearbox. This was because I found the upper rear spur gear on the chassis just fouled the running plate. The extra space needed was only about half the thickness of the running plate, so no cutout was needed in the cab front. Secondly, the handbrake standard is on the wrong side of the cab! There is a hole in the footplate at this point and I had assumed this was for the standard. It was only when I came to start on the brake rigging below the chassis that I realised my mistake. The next photo shows the body with cab front attached and the handbrake moved to the correct side.
Perhaps the most complex part so far is the boiler. A mixture of etchings, castings and wire builds up into a very detailed representation of the vertical boiler with superheater and chimneys above, and the lower part of the ashpan below the frames. The next picture shows the various cab detail parts basking in today's late afternoon sunshine.
On the left is the coal bunker, then the boiler with the superheater section just resting in place on the top. The instructions recommend filling the boiler with lead, so the superheater will only be fixed in place once the chimneys have been built up and some lead sheet formed to a suitable shape. To the right of the boiler is the ash pan (upside down) and, in the foreground, the lever assembly that fits just inside the right hand cab door. There are three levers, one for forward and reverse gears and the others for sanding. It's difficult to find prototype pictures that show these levers but the evidence from Joyce is that left hand lever operates the left rear sandbox and the right hand one operates the other three. The central gear lever has a rod that will pass through the cab front to a linkage alongside the engines at the front.
Next the chimneys and cab roof, then comes the tank and engine covers. Either that, or it's back to the brake gear and all the rivet strips around the base of the cab...
Finally, for now,
Nick
- 8
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