More work on the chassis, and a good deal of swearing...

The underframe bottom plate needs to have the bufferbeams removed. This particular operation needs a lot of care as the ends are quite delicate. I tried to 'score and snap' along the half etched bend line but this resulted in deforming the etch, not too badly that it coudn't be tweaked back. I managed it in the end but its probably better to use a piercing saw...

Before soldering the plate in place I drilled two holes either side of the bogie pivot screw, there is a boxed in area above the bogies which I'll fill with liquid lead later on. Bogie securing screws were attached with 188 degree solder, then the bottom plate soldered to the main assembly with 145 degree. Both ends were tacked in place then the real swearing started...

The solebar bottom fishbelly extensions slot through the bottom plate and the bottom plate forms both the floor of the wagon and the bottom channel of the solebars. The solebar part is less than 1.5mm wide. Putting a hot iron on the solebar to tack it in place results in a heat buckle which was rather hard to staighten, involving blocks of wood, hot fingers and some rather ungentlemanly language! There is still a slight buckle on one side but you need to closely inspect the wagon to find it. In hindsight it would have been better to physically split the solebar part of the bottom plate (but not the centre section) with a piercing saw and hide the cuts behind the brake wheels, that would mean that the solebars could have been soldered in place from the outer ends inwards and the width of the cut taking up any expansion. We live and learn.

After sorting that probem out it was time to add the half-etched overlay to the fishbelly plate, a straightforward job involving my RSU and some Carrs 179 degree solder cream, used for the first time. Along the bottom edge of the fishbelly there is a flange strip which needs to be soldered in place, tabs and slots are used to locate it. I tinned the strip with 145 degree and used the RSU to make the joint.

The last job on the chassis for now was to punch out the rivets on the stiffening plates (3 per end - 2 triangular and one rectangular) which sit on top of the chassis, then solder in place (RSU and 179 solder cream again).

No shots of the build in progress this time - I was too engrossed to set up the tripod.

From underneath;

Top;

End stiffening plates;

There's still some cleaning up to do, I used a little too much solder cream in places.

I'll be starting the hopper body tomorrow.

Paul.