So, things have been trundling on.

The basic body is now assembled: I have persevered in my wicked ways as regards the solder used (still the electrical stuff I had lying around) but I have ordered some 100° solder and some appropriate flux, which should get to me eventually (I ordered some humbrol paints as well, but it turns out you can't send them by air, so I'll have to arrange things differently). I have also managed to make a hole in the tank front with my soldering iron. I will have to either make a plasticard patch or maybe I'll be able to fill it with solder. I'll have to see.

The next thing I had to do was reduce the width and hight of the chassis to get it to fit inside the new body. This entailed removing about 1mm from the top on the engine mounting and one rectangle about 4x4x1mm from each side of the front part of the chassis. After some consideration I decided that it was impossible, or at least beyond my ability, to do by hand. A power tool of some sort was needed: enter the Dremelesque!

I just happened to see it on the bargain rack next to the real thing at a fraction of the cost (it came with many attachments of all kinds and even a 1m extension shaft which doesn't work ). I wonder how long it'll last, but I've done what I wanted with it.

Anyway, here are the two sides of the chassis after filing down:

And here is the assembled chassis next to the body:

To get a proper fit I had to remove the lower mounting lugs which form part of the rear body casting, which are meant for the GF 94xx chassis.

The next thing to tackle is the fact that the two halves of the chassis are in fact part of the electrical circuit, so simply plonking the body on top shorts the whole thing out. I need to put some paper or something to insulate the front.