eldavo's workbench Blog

17th May 2009

 

This week I've mostly been fiddling around with the Tower 02 kit, the ebay gem. Of course when I put an order in for several grades of solder which is the one that is on back order, the 70 degree for use on whitemetal. Impatient as ever I decided to assemble the castings using adhesives, 5 minute epoxy for the large bits and gel superglue for the details. All has gone together without any problem and the only laborious bit was drilling holes for the numerous handrails and handles that have to be bent up from brass wire.

 

I've added a few other bits and pieces along the way that weren't in the kit, lamp irons, extra handrails on the front steps and sanding pipes, but otherwise the kit is as intended (I think!). The rear handrail is extremely vulnerable and the kit provides pewter stanchions for the uprights. I didn't think these would be man enough for the job and the prototype appears to have uprights made from the same tube as the handrail so I soldered something up from brass wire.

 

Here she is ready for the paintshop which is where she has been today...

 

 

 

Cheers

Dave

26th May 2009

 

For the past week or so I've been splashing paint on the 02. Intially it was primed with Halfords white primer then given shots of various Halfords car paints along with some Games Workshop Chaos Black which I happened to have around. I've hand painted wasp stripes on the front and rear and these still need some work to smooth out one or two dust bits that have managed to find their way into the paint. :mutter

 

She has also been glazed with the provided glazing strip. Individual panes were cut and fixed fairly flush with the surface using Johnsons Klear.

 

Here she is so far.

 

 

 

Close-ups are cruel and expose the problems with the stripes. Probably can't get the stripes too much sharper so I will eventually add a little light weathering to disguise any imperfections (I hope).

 

Cheers

Dave