On to part two of the Manor build…

The focus of the work here should have been adding the splashers, however I have had real difficulties getting them to fit.  With the splasher rolled to shape and placed on top of the inner splasher (the folded up etch that you attach the detail etch for the front of the splasher), it is about half a mm too short.  As a result I was struggling to solder them in place.  In the end I tried an alternative approach soldering the splasher to the front piece and then trying to fit to the model, without any success.  In the end I decided to put this aside for another day…

Another splasher related issue is at the rear, the kit supplies 2 types of etch (a wide splasher and a narrow one) but they are all the same length.  The cab front does not have wide enough holes for the cab to sit on top of the splasher, so I assume this needs to be cut to length (its not mentioned in the instructions)

Speaking of the instructions, I got fed up with the really hard to read massive block of text approach.  So whilst sat watching the tv on Monday night I used some editing software (Photo Scan) to convert the PDF text into a Word document (splicing in the drawings as I went).  Once in Word I added a little formatting, and I now have a set of instructions with steps separated out into paragraphs.  Brassmasters have done the same with the Finney instructions and it makes a huge difference!

One of the big issues with putting a kit down for 3 years part way through the build is that you forget where you stopped.  While  working on the splashers I spotted that the inner etch for the left hand rear splasher had not been soldered into position, so the first job was to rectify this.  Next up there was a mistake with forming the beading around the cab side windows, I had included the hole for the handrail on the wrong end).  As the etch was perfectly formed I didn’t want to rebend the brass, so instead I have drilled holes in the correct place before soldering the beading into position.  While the drill was out I also drilled the 3 holes for each grab handle under the cabside windows.  It was now time to assemble the cab, the inner core had already been assembled so it was just a case of sweating the cab front and sides onto the core, before fettling the location tabs and test fitting.

While test fitting I spotted another omission from the earlier work, I hadn’t added the plate which continues the footplate under the cab, so these were formed to shape and soldered into position. 

I now need to go through the early stages instructions and double check for any other missing parts*.  Looking at the drawing there are at least two small parts missing from the footplate on the curved section at the front…

Tonight’s work will either be adding a floor and roof to finish off the cab, or finally fitting those splashers (if I can work out how…)

*Over lunch I have had a quick read through the earlier parts of the instructions vs the above photos, I think I have missed off the following: 

- 71 Lamp Irons

- 74 Valve covers 

- F18 large oil reservoir (I need to double check that I actually have this part)

- potentially a 10BA nut if I am going to have a removeable boiler 

I took a whole load of Manor detail photos a while back (either at Swindon or Didcot), annoyingly they are all on my Gallery on the forum which of course is yet to be reactivated.  Hopefully I have a back up somewhere else, as I could do with the close ups of splashers and detail fittings etc...