With Sally, the better half, visiting her sister in Scotland for the week, I've been able to get to the modelling bench a lot and have made use of this time. Last night I started putting together the tender body for the E4. Being a white metal kit of old heritage, there will be a lot of filling and messing about to make things as good as they should be, but that's part of the joy of kit building!

When I built the chassis for the loco, I compensated it and wanted to do the same for the tender, so I ordered a pair of milled frames from Alan Gibson. When these arrived, I compared them to the side castings that include the axleboxes etc., and the wheelbase is different. Needless to say, the milled mainframes are correct! This was a little bit of a set back and I wasn't sure what to do.

After a little thought, some whisky, a little more thought, some more whisky, some sleep (whisky induced!) and some more thought, I had a brain wave (whisky induced? If so, back to the bottle!). Would the white metal chassis block have the same wheelbase as the castings? Theoretically Yes, and after checking a definite Yes. OK, I'd use the white metal chassis block, but how to get compensation?

To go with the Gibson frames, I had some MJT detailed horn blocks that I was going to use. These horn blocks include a plate with a hole for a bearing etched in, should a solidly mounted axle be required, so what I've done is solder the bearings in to the plates, cut away some white metal on the rear axle holes and stuck the plates in so the bearings allow the axle to sit at the correct height. I've then increased the depth of the slots for the middle and front axles and used the white metal retaining plates to hold the axles in the slots, with the axles sliding up and down in the slots.

The next job will be to solder a wire across the rear of the loco mainframes as a draw bar and arrange for the loco to tender coupling (which will be solidly mounted on the tender) to sit on this wire, so transferring some of the weight of the tender on to the rear driving wheels to aid adhesion (as though, with a white metal body, the loco needs it!). I will then add some springs to the tender front and middle axles to keep them on the track.The theory's good - and so far it's holding up practically as well!

In this photo, you can see the tender chassis with the body as currently completed behind.

Here is the tender chassis turned upside down - it you were wondering what I was talking about with plates, bearings etc. added to the rear axle, you can see these at the right hand end - hopefully this clears up any confusion.

This is a picture of the front of the tender - I don't know why you'd be more interested in this than the back (which I haven't got a picture of), but you are!!!!!!

And here are a couple of pictures of how things are at the moment.

In the background of the last picture, you can also see a couple of other projects I've got on the go - to the right is an ex Great Nothern section articulated all third. This is an Ian Kirk kit that I picked up second hand and partially built for £5. I've added MJT compensated bogies and truss rod underframe, and I've got some MJT cosmetic white metal bogie frames to replace the Kirk plastic ones so the bogies have some weight on them.

To the left is a Weltrol (I believe Bachmann) that has been dirtied and I've added a boiler as a load, I'm now putting in chains etc. to hold it down, for which inspiration I'd like to thank Jonathan Wheelans. To go with the Weltrol I've also got a Trestrol kit from Macgeordie of this parish that, when built, will have a load of sheet metal plates, and to go with these wagons I've also got a DS kits Lowmac to finish that will carry a ships propeller that I bought from a model shop somewhere - the intention is to make up a nice little cameo train of low loader wagons carrying materials that would be used in the construction of a ship to a ship yard.

Well, I hope you enjoy what I'm doing, I'm certainly enjoying doing it!!!!!!

Phil