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Since getting the chassis up and running, I have now elongated the middle bearing holes and added the springs. After re-assembling a further test on the "inclined table" showed that all is still well and it still runs smoothly. With that sorted I have added the dummy horn block etchings to the inside of the frames, and the front lubricator rod fixing bracket has been modified to clear the wheel. Next the rear inner frame for the cartazzi axle box was folded up and fitted to the rear spacer. And with the axle box fitted. It's held in place with a length of 0.8mm NS wire which also offers some degree of side control. The bogie splashers and front sand boxes have also been added, as have lengths of 1.8mm copper wire to represent the middle sand box filler pipes. Here are the rear outside frames and drag box under preparation. The frames need the rivets punching and then bending to shape. The text part of the instructions are printed on A4 sheets folded into a booklet so are easy to handle. The various diagrams (drawn to 7mm/ft scale) are on A3 sheets, so to avoid clutter on the workbench I tape these to the wall during construction to keep them handy but out of the way. Cheers, Peter

Hi Pete, I've been having a closer look at the CoB cab photos. Have a look at the end of the fire door slider rails on the left. Notice the two bolt hole loops which I'm sure are the mounting points for the heat shield. This is your shot showing the heat shield, but it cannot be seen if it is fastened to the ends of the fire door slider rails. Here's a cropped shot of the right front splasher. Not the best of resolution but clearly shows the nut and clamp over the lubricator pipes. The forward clamp can also be seen and this has a nut at each end rather than in the middle. This is one of your photos. It shows the clamp forward of the sandbox filler but with only one central nut! The lubricator pipes can clearly be seen running rearward, but do not run over the splasher, so must be routed under the running plate. The redundant nut for the clamp can be seen. Maybe the pipes are clamped to the underside of the splasher, but why take them on a more complex route???? Hope this helps. Cheers, Peter

Hi Pete, I've checked my photos of CoB and DoS, plus the ones you posted of DoS. First the heat shield in the cab. Definitely not on CoB but is on DoS (check your photos). It's also present on a cab shot of one of the original streamliners in the Book of the Coronation and I'm pretty sure it's a standard fitting. The cab floor of CoB has metal framed sheets of what looks like plywood which I suspect have been added post preservation. Possibly for heath and safety reasons as access into the cab is only roped off. It may be that the heat shield was removed when these sheets were fitted and for some reason, not replaced. Maybe it was corroded and they could not be arsed making a replacement???? In any case, I'm confidant it should be fitted. The lubricator clamp and retaining nut are definitely present on the front right splasher on CoB and the nut is present on the left hand one. From the angle of the photo, I cannot see the clamp. On DoS, only the nuts are present on both sides and the lubricator pipes are routed behind the splashers, not over the top. I suspect that is a post preservation change but cannot be sure. I have routed the pipes over the splashers and fitted the clamps both sides, as Richard Lambert has with his Finney build. There is another clamp both sides just in front of the sand pipe filler as well. DoS has many modifications since preservation and is not as good a reference as CoB. Bloody preservationists are no help to us modellers! Cheers, Peter

Hi Pete, Thanks for your comments on the A3. It's definitely the best kit I have purchased to date. It's a bit complex and there are quite a few fiddly little etchings, but everything fits exactly as it should. You've got me thinking about the heat shield in the cab and I'll look into that. I believe it was a standard fitting and should be there. Same with the bracket on the front splasher. I'll check my CoB photos and get back to you. Your boiler back plate looks very good. Will you be going to Kettering on 3rd March? I hope to get there and if so will bring the Duchess for a spin on the test track. It's still not painted as I have been "distracted" by the A3. Keep updating the progress with your Duchess and I look forward to seeing your efforts with the M7. Cheers, Peter

The table's fine. It's the floor that slopes.

Here's the chassis on test on a slight incline. Cheers, Peter

The final details have now been added to the tender, just leaving the buffers and draw bar to complete it. I beefed up the mounting brackets on the scoop and brake standard with some waste etch, and added the water level indicator and spare lamp bracket to the inside of the left hand side sheet. And the water filler. I also cut out some circles of 10 thou plastic sheet to convert the spoke wheels to discs. I used a couple of spring bow dividers to cut the circles by just scribing with the needles. I will stick them over the spokes later with super glue. I've left the tender for now and made a start on the loco chassis. Here are the frames with the wheels added. The front and rear axles will be fixed, with the middle one allowed some vertical movement controlled by a simple wire spring. Before going further with the chassis, I thought it would be good to get the coupling rods on. Here they are after laminating and fettling. And on the wheels. I'm pleased but not surprised to say, that the wheels turned without the slightest hint of a bind. So with that confirmed I removed the wheels and completed the soldering of the spacers. I then refitted the front and rear wheels, spaced them centrally with cut up strips of card, and soldered the bearings slightly proud of the frames. There is now minimal side play front and rear and no need for any axle washers. On the right hand frame there are two fold down brackets. The rear most one can be folded without problem, but as can be seen in the photos, the front one will foul the wheel if folded at 90 degrees. I need to check the instruction further on to suss out why that is. As a parting shot I cut out and fettled up the frame for the cartazzi truck. I slotted in the truck to check the fit. It will need a little bit of fettling to get it sliding freely, but not much. Again the fit of the parts is excellent. Cheers, Peter

Hi David, Thanks. Does the workpiece remain flat when you punch the rivets? Again, nice work on the cab. You mention deviating from the instruction. Are these original MF instructions or the revised F7 ones? You can down load them from the F7 website. I see from the list of traders you will be at Kettering. If I can get down I'll bring the Duchess for a spin on the test track and will come and say hello. Cheers, Peter

Hi David, Very nicely done. Which rivetting press do you have? My brother has a Metalsmiths one but I do not get on with it, preferring to use an auto centre punch. I keep thinking about investing in the GW one. Cheers, Peter

Before fitting the front bulkheads I added various small parts in the flat. Here they are ready to go in, with the brake and water scoop handles etc., plus the footplate etchings. Here's the bulkheads and footplate after fitting. And from the other side after fitting the vent pipes, lifting rings and front fairing. And with the fairing added to the rear bunker bulkhead and rear tank plate. Here's a shot with the castings placed in their mounting but not soldered yet. Cheers, Peter

Thanks David. Over on Western Thunder Mickoo has described how to convert the buffers to be self contained. I might give it a go. Cheers, Peter

I've been pressing on slowly over the last few days and have now got the bulk of the tender done. The axleboxes, springs and hangers are excellent white metal castings but all separate parts (4 per wheel), so time consuming to apply. The foot steps have also been added as have the brake pipe and steam heat castings. There's no way the buffers can be added with the frame ends right behind the hole. Mr. Finney suggests elongating the holes inwards but I will pass on that. I'll leave them off for now until I decide what to do. That's the frames done for now so on with the tank and bunker. The bulkheads are laminates with a mix of half etched rivets and punch out ones. This is the rear plate with the steps, handrails and lamp irons added. And the inside with the half etch rivet overlay. The tank top is a laminate also. This is the underside. And the top. The lifting rings and brackets also added. The curve at the top of the sides was made using the bending bars. The inside has 5 or 6 half etch guidelines and I started the curve by making a slight bend on the lowest line, followed by the the next two. I then reversed the piece and completed the curve from the top line. No witness marks on the outside despite the half etch lines. Here's the bunker after punching out the rivets, making the folds and soldering. With these parts prepared the tank can be assembled. Here is where I got to. I've made a start on the front bulkhead. Here it is just placed between the sides and with the tank screwed to the frames. The reinforcing brackets for the bunker sides and the mountings for the front lifting rings have also been soldered in place and cleaned up. I'll add the rings before attaching the front while the access is still good. Cheers, Peter

Hi Mick, Definitely a big improvement over the ingots supplied in the kit! Cheers, Peter

So, I've left the tender chassis for now and pressed on with the next subsection which is the tender frames. Here they are fettled up. It's quite a complex shape with lots of edges to de cusp, but fortunately the cusp is very slight. The spacers are built in and it all folds up. The next step is to punch the rivet detail. I don't have a rivet press so I use an automatic center punch with the tip re profiled with a grinding disc. The force of the punch can be adjusted with a screw on the end which release the spring. Here's the left hand frame after punching. As can be seen it has distorted. However, I then "counter punch" the rivets with a beading tool and small hammer which flattens the work piece. You simply place the business end of the beading tool over each rivet and give a light tap with the hammer. The beading tool can be seen at the top. It's a punch for cutting small discs from metal foil. The business end is concave and the rim is sharp. I have a whole set that I got from a Jewelry tool supplier and have blunted the ends of a couple for counter punching rivets. This is the business and of the tool. Next there are some tiny bracket to cut out, rivet in the centre and then solder in place over the center rivets in the group of 5 above. When fitting these, I placed them over the relevant rivets on the frame then tapped them with the beading tool to get them to sit flush over the rivet underneath. Needless to say, at @ 2mm X 1mm I did not attempt to de cusp. I just cut them out with a sharp blade to leave as little of the tab as possible. There is also a long strip to punch out the rivets, but in this case the counter punch doesn't work as well and the strip needs to be straightened by hand afterwards . Here are the tiny brackets in place and one rivet strip applied. The tops of the support brackets for the tank are folded at 90 degrees. The bottom of the brackets is on the rivet strip (not yet folded). I was able to solder from the top edge to avoid getting the risk of soldering the folds and it's also easier to clean up. Yes I know, far too much solder on the middle cross member, needing the scraper before a quick rub with the fibre brush. Here we are with the other rivet strip in place, the bracket folds all made and the infill pieces being added. The back edge of the piece with the tab showing was filed before fitting. The instructions suggest folding the frames before fitting the etched strip, but I preferred to add the strip and make up the tank support brackets in the flat and fold afterwards. I couldn't use the hold and fold because of the tank supports, but my brother has some hefty folding bars, which could be fitted above the supports to make the folds. Here's the piece clamped ready for the first fold. 1st fold. 2nd fold The tightening bolt at one end was then removed to release the frames. And placed on the chassis. I'm really impressed with the fit of the parts so far. The kit is certainly living up to my expectations and the reputation that they have. Here it is with the drag beam overlays added, plus the buffer beam overlays and support webbing. It needs a bit more cleaning up, but I ran out of time. Cheers, Peter

Thanks Jeff, An interesting web site. Some good stuff on there. I don't doubt the logic of what you say, but if printed brakes shoes can't short if they touch the wheels, they are still touching the wheels. Surely it is better to ensure that the brake shoes are not touching the wheels, in which case it doesn't matter what material they are made of? Each to his/her own though. Somebody on Western Thunder made the same point and pointed me to this website, which also has some good stuff for 7mm applications. https://www.shapeways.com/shops/otr?section=7mm+Scale&s=0 ​Cheers, Peter

Hi Ken, Yes I agree. I found exactly the same thing and as you point out, quite a bit of filing of the boiler is required to correct it. Great work as always. Cheers, Peter

I have now completed the tender chassis and although straight forward was a bit fiddly. The brake hangers and forward pull rods need to be laminated and are a bit fragile until everything is soldered in place. The 0.8mm rods for the brake hangers foul the compensation beams so I had to grind some clearance with a dental burr. Easier to do in the flat and Finney 7 have highlighted this in their revised instructions. And with the wheels in. I can get them in and out with a little bit of fiddling and may grind a little off the brake shoes to ease things. I'm glad I stuck with the 3/16 axles as it would be much on impossible to get the push on ones off with the brake gear on. Mick Davies from Finney 7 has made the brake gear detachable and those who are interested can see how he did it on my Western Thunder thread. Well that's the first main sub assembly completed. Next up is the tender running plate and outside frames etc. Cheers, Peter

Hi Ken, Very nice as usual. I had the same problem with the Javelin long firebox/wheelbase Ivatt Black 5. Must be a common problem with this "family of kits. Apart from that though, they are nice kits to build. Cheers, Peter

Mick, Looking good. I like the handrail bracket. Take the drawing to Rawdon Copy Shop. They will enlarge it to 7mm and print it off for a couple of quid. It's just past the lights on the left as you head to the airport. Cheers, Peter

Hi Pete, Just checked my CoB photos and the roof is white. Based on what Dave says (unless somebody knows better) it should be black but some works may have continued their pre BR practice. However, you can't be sure if that is applicable to the period you are modelling. Also who know if CoB ever ran with a white roof? Maybe it was just a parting finger to BR from the Crewe painters when it was cosmetically restored???? The white extends down the cab front and sides to the level of the bottom of the side windows, This is one of your photos posted earlier. It shows a red/brown colour on part of the roof where it slopes. Hard to be sure, but looking at your other cab photos would suggest the rest of the roof is maybe the same, and it continues down to the bottom of the cab windows on the sides. I have a photo of the Masterpiece Models CoB I pulled off their website some time ago, and what little can be seen of the roof shows a white/cream roof. One assumes that for £3 grand a pop, they have done it that colour based on research but who knows? Could be they just looked at the real CoB which does have a white roof. So nothing conclusive. Cheers, Peter

Hi Pete, Nice work. Good to hear you are making progress and sorry to hear you've been down with the flu. It's that time of year. I see you've added the webs to the ends of the slidebar brackets. It's a bit of a fiddle but worth the effort. Have you lined the cylinders in red or is it just the colour rendition on the screen? They should be orange. Keep on posting. With the distraction of the A3, you may end up finishing before me. Cheers, Peter

Hi Jim, Is this an original Transport Age kit, or is is from Scorpio? Cheers, Peter

Hi Tony, Thanks for the comments. In my 4mm days I built a K's Princess Royal with an etched brass 3 point compensation chassis on the tender. That wasn't very stable as I recall. That said, the A3 seems to be OK. I rolled it over an uneven surface could see the beams moving but the actual frames seemed to be stable. No body work of course so I reserve judgement. Cheers, Peter

Hi Dave, Thanks for the comments. However, I am not convinced (and I'm probably in the minority here) of the benefits that compensation, sprung hornblocks or csb etc offer in 7mm. Apart from one or two of my early builds which have rigid chassis albeit with articulated coupling rods, most of my build have rigid front and rear drivers with simple wire springing on the centre axle. They all run and haul well even on poor track whenever I have had the opportunity to test them at shows. I have built a couple with rigid rear axles and two beam compensation on the middle/front, and they perform the same but not any better. I'm still undecided but unlikely to go with the fully compensated option. Yes, I know I'm a modelling philistine (or maybe a dinosaur). Whether in 4mm with a lower mass, there is a benefit I cannot say. Anyway, on with the tender which is fully compensated as per the instruction. Here are the frames with the three beams added. Two either side at the rear and one in the centre at the front as Dave mentioned earlier. There are two separate mounting tubes at the rear so the beams can move independently on the 1/8 inch brass rod pivot. I prepared the wheels and axles and put them in for a quick check, and all works well and the chassis sits level. There is a bit of side play even using the widest spacers, which will be taken up with washers. Having decided to add the sides of the remaining cartazzi frame to the assembly as Dave suggested, I then came up with a slight variations. I took a couple of 3/16 top hat bearings and cut the flanges off with the piercing saw. After cleaning up I fitted them in place of the washers and carefully tack soldered them to the sides of the cartazzi frame. After removing the wheels and axle, I clamped the unit in a machine vice and added more flux and solder to complete the joint. Here's the unit after cleaning up and reaming to get the axle running free. The remains of one of the bearings is on the left. So now there is extra bearing surface and the washers are no longer needed. Here it is with the wheels in. So that just leaves the bogie wheels to deal with which will be quite simple as there is plenty of metal in the frames to ream out the axle holes and fit larger bearings. Cheers, Peter

Hi Dave, Yes that's correct. Two beams either side at the back and a centre one for the front. Not my cup of tea really, but simple to do so I'll go with it. The options for the loco are the same, or rigid rear axle and two beams either side for middle and front. Of the two I would go with the latter, but I may go for my usual simple method of fixed front and rear and sprung middle. We'll see. Cheers, Peter