Blog- Adventures in N-gauge - Fill 'er up

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Filling in the gaps between the hood supports has started. This proving to be much harder work than I'd expected: there's a lot of sanding away then filling back in where I've taken too much off, or where there are surface blemishes. Nevertheless, I do think that it's getting there:

 

 

When the filler first goes on, it looks as rough as hell:

 

 

But it does come together - eventually (bear in mind that these photos are far bigger than life-size: the whole wagon is just on three inches long):

 

 

I commented on my last post that I was going to remove the 30-thou lettering panels and replace them with mounting pads, so that I could add the panels themselves after all the sanding was complete. I've done that now (note the absence of the panel on the second photo above), albeit at the cost of stabbing myself in the finger. Another lesson that I'll be taking on board for the other three wagons is that I won't be adding any detail to the underframes until the hood is complete. That includes the strengthening ribs and even the web along the lower edge of the u/f. As it is I'm having to clean off stray bits of filler as best I can and it would obviously be better to have a flat surface to work with.

 

I'm not expecting to make any progress on this for the next few days because I've got a lot on at work. I'm reasonably happy with how this is going, though.

 

Jim

 

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