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Yes, but what about them wearing grey flannel short trousers, long socks rolled down around the ankles, scuffed black leather shoes, school blazers with patched elbows, school ties, shirts and shrunken school caps? I can't see any kids I know being prepared to do that! Oh, and something like an old gasmask 'bag' to keep the sandwiches and Tizer in. But I do have some old Ian Allan ABC's and a Locolog book they could grasp.

I don't think my school uniform would fit me these days...................

Super figures and poses Alan. I think all my cast figures will start to look rather crude at the side of these! See you at Expo North?

Very nice model. I must admit that I could be sorely tempted if a kit did appear. It's one of those locos that seems to have lots of 'character'. How does it perform when propelling wagons backwards through 'industrial' curves? Is the long overhang a problem with buffer locking at all?

I think the brick 'panels' referred to above is probably the system introduced about 20 years ago by Len Newman (of K&L/C&L track fame) Initially they were individual bricks (in 4mm scale!) and then larger 'panels' and possibly windows. Much heralded and advertised at the time in MRJ, they seemed to disappear from the market quite quickly.

I've got several pots of the ORIGINAL Humbrol Acrylic in the larger size pots that are several years old and still very usable. The quality and covering power of the paint is also MUCH better than the current production.

Paint a brushful on the bottom - but don't turn it upside down to do it! Not with the lid off anyway.......................

Is this the ex Rom River one? It's the Foxfield gala this weekend so someone may be able to photo it for you?

Blimey! It is a big'un isn't it, I hadn't realised that. I am presuming that it is accurate to scale..........................

The way things are currently panning out it will definitely be a long build! It seems that everytime I do something another complication arises. Serves me right for trying to be clever and not build it as Robin intended! I have a 'selection' of blocks. In due course I expect them all to age. Hopefully as gracefully as me............................................

No problem Jim, it can take me a while to do things occasionally! And don't forget, all the UK readers, 'Woodsville' is on show at the TVNAM exhibition this coming Saturday! Come and say hello.

And here we go with today's second gripping instalment. First, the chassis. Here you can see the hornguides soldered in position with the bearings fitted, individually tailored to fit their own slot and marked. Short lengths of brass channel have been added to the sides of the hornguides to act as stops to prevent the bearings from rotating in use. The bearings are filed along one 'side' to bear against them and also at right angles at the 'bottom' to fit against the 'keeper' wire so that there is sufficient movement to allow compensation rocking. Note that the length of wire soldered across the chassis is a temporary 'spacer' to prevent the sides from bowing in during handling. It uses the holes for the compensation beam bearing and will be removed in due course. Here the 'keeper' wires can be seen in position fitting through the short lengths of brass tubing which allow the bearings to be removed during assembly. On final assembly they will be cut to a shorter length. Note that the tube under the fixed bearings still needs to be cut to allow removal of the bearings during assembly. I suppose I could have used some thinner wire (this is 1mm diam.) but this size is reasonably substantial to resist the occasional bit of heavy-handidness! The gearbox has been assembled and this is a test fit to assess its relationship with the cab front and the height of the boiler etc. It will just clear the cab front and will be a sliding fit into the boiler. The flywheel is one I have turned to fit into the boiler tube and still needs to be reamed to an exact fit on the motor shaft. To allow easier fitting and removal during assembly I have slightly altered the shape of the top of the gearbox to a lower profile to clear the end of the boiler tube. The smokebox wrapper has been fitted around the basic shape but, like Adam, I found it to be a slightly poor fit. However, I think I've made the best of it and a coat of paint might help to disguise the faults! The firebox etch is now attached and I have removed the centre portion (ie - the front) to allow it to slip over the motor during assembly. If the lack of a 'front' becomes noticeable when complete I can try to fit a 'dummy' one somehow. I have modified the boiler tube by making cutouts in the top and rear underside. The smaller rear underside one is required to clear the motor/gearbox inside the firebox as standard but I thought I would add another larger one on the top so that the motor/gearbox/flywheel can be 'got at' more readily, both during assembly and afterwards for maintenance. To ensure the flywheel clears the bottom of the tube I added a small piece of the redundant tubing to the inside to act as a spacer. This cutout should also make it more easy to attach the leads etc. to the motor as i will have the space inside the tank. However, I do anticipate adding some layers of thin lead sheet inside the tank as the loco will be quite light. Here you can see the boiler in position along with the motor/gearbox/flywheel. It is a snug fit! The flywheel can just be seen. In use it will be much closer to the motor. Note that the boiler/smokebox/tank etc. are all still separate parts and probably won't be attached together until I know the loco actually works! Now - what to do next!?

After a bit of a 'hiatus' I'm now getting back to it and these photos show progress. The cab door beading is added. This was a flat strip with a half-etched groove along its length to locate it on the edge of the opening. As usual, an 'interesting' exercise in soldering using a selection of round objects to push the strip into the bends as soldering progressed. Cab handrails are also now fitted. The main body of the smokebox is built up. This attaches to the footplate with a captive nut and once the boiler and tank are finally attached, this will be the front securing location for this element of the body. Rear spectacle plates are sweated in position. The tank has been 'formed'. This was an EXTREMELY interesting task. The kit part has lots of narrowly spaced half-etched grooves along the places where the main bends are - plus some half-etched marks along the centre of the top of the tank as location points for the formers. Of course, as soon as I started to form the 'initial bend' (as the kit instructions state - whatever the' initial bend' is!) the tank creases along the line of these marks. There are also 3 formers provided. The 2 end ones weren't TO bad to fit as it was possible to use a 90 degree jig to hold the parts but the middle one?? Absolutely no method of location apart from the etched marks and, of course, all 3 have to be exactly in line. After several struggles and a liberal use of industrial strength language (which didn't help at all!) i decided to omit the middle former and continue trying to 'roll' the tank around the formers. At one point I actually dismantled my pitiful efforts and made use of the gas cooker to try and anneal it for ease of rolling but it didn't seem to have much effect! However, all of a sudden it started to bend and follow the profile of the formers but it still took a lot of 'tweeking' to get it into an acceptable shape. The crease along the top was reduced by rubbing along the inside with the rounded end of a scalpel handle. If anyone says anything I'll tell them it was dropped as a baby. As an aside, as Adam stated in his build, the tank does seem a bit short. It should prototypically stop slightly short of the smokebox but I reckon the kit is slightly wrong and the gap is a tad to wide. I've made up a 30 thou plasticard spacer to fit between the tank and the cab to reduce it but until I get a bit further with the build I can't yet say if it is correct. The tank, smokebox and boiler are still separate as I will be making some alterations to the boiler to ease assembly. Watch this space! At this point I decided to re-visit the chassis and built up the coupling rods. These are laminated to pivot over the centre axle and, as the wheelbase is symmetrical, are all the same length. First, the holes were reamed out to 1.5mm to fit crankpins. A 1.5mm drill was inserted into some wood and the rod sections dropped on the ensure alignment and then sweated together. The chassis has had the hornguide cutouts removed ready for the attachment of the compensated ones which will be solderd in place using the Perseverance jigs and the completed rods. Stand by for more on the chassis!

Well, it was the Gauge O Guild show which was very good even though I'm not a 7mm modeller. Not been on here since Thursday to answer you, sorry! Very nice RTR 0-4-0 Peckett in the pipeline from Dragon Models which might be of interest to you.

Some fine bore brass/copper tube is soldered across the bearing and the frame, cut each side of the bearing and a length of wire inserted. On the 'moving' bearings, the tube across the bearing is omitted to leave room for compensation movement. I'll photo all this when I come to it. You can see a similar installation on my Fowler Diesel chassis on this thread - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/28335-impetus-fowler-diesels-different-ways-to-build-a-collectible/page-2

Well, it usually take 9 months to create something wonderful and bring it into the world. Good to see you back Dave. Cleckheaton on Saturday?

I might have potential future use for them myself I'm afraid. I have a couple of old odd bodies around that I may decide to do something with eventually. But don't hold your breath...........................

The chassis is as far as I can get without the plunger pickups which are on their way so I decided to start on the body. The footplate has 2 valance strips to solder into a half etched groove each side and the buffer beams are two layers sweated together and attached flush with the footplate top along with the coupler 'pockets'. As is usual with my loco builds I want to make the superstructure in separate pieces for ease of painting and future disassembly. These will be Cab, Footplate and Boiler/Tank/Smokebox. The cab front and back tab into location slots in the footplate which will help in assembly. Attachment to the footplate will be with four 10BA screws into soldered nuts on the cab floor underside. As this is raised above footplate level they will fit neatly into the space. The footplate is attached to the chassis by an 8BA screw and captive nut under the cab and a similar method at the front inside the smokebox. This screw/soldered nut will also be the attachment for the boiler/tank/smokebox assembly. Three large pins through the cab front will locate into holes in the tank rear plate to locate tank and cab together. Here you can see the cab floor and the footplate with pilot holes for the attaching screws drilled prior to assembly. These will be drilled to correct size for 10BA clearance. The 10BA nuts are being attached to the underside of the cab floor using a cocktail stick to hold them in position for soldering. A 10BA tap was run through after to clear the threads. This shows the cab front and the tank rear with the location holes drilled ready to accept shortened brass pins soldered into the cab front in due course. The cab soldered up. This uses butt joints - and singed fingers! Adam mentioned making a new bunker back and I must admit I was a bit perplexed myself initially as when I measured the one provided it was narrower than the cab back - which was itself narrower than the cab front! Only a very small amount admittedly but this can make a difference when soldering. I made both cab elements the same width as the bunker back with some careful filing and my vernier calipers. Shaping the bunker back was 'interesting' ( a term you will come across with increasing regularity I'm certain!) as it has to be curved/bent into an 'S' shape to fit the shape of the bunker sides. Note that I have several wood blocks to provide soldering/holding/filing supports. The fact that they also raise the work closer to my failing eyes is a bonus!

Having finished the Fowler and the Planet I've raided the now slowly depleting kit stock and decided on my remaining Impetus kit, the 'Big Bagnall' 0-6-0. The construction of one of these has already been covered by Adam on his thread - http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/30496-preston-docks-bagnalls-impetus-kit-and-prototype/page-2 but I will possibly tackle some of the elements slightly differently and it will be P4 rather than EM. I'm not following any specific prototype such as 'Florence No 2' but will use the bits I like! I might even move away from the 'Corporate Blue' colour scheme that all my diesels use, possibly some fetching shade of Green? First of all - the chassis. In my version of the kit there were both a brass or nickel silver versions of the chassis and rod etch. I think Robin must have realised that nickel silver is a far better option for these items and I have preferred them to the brass ones. To construct chassis I have a set of 'jigs' that I made some time ago using half inch brass bar, drilled 1/8" and separated into 3 sections per 'jig'. The larger is the required internal width of the frames and the 2 outer ones are tapped 3mm approx and screws inserted to secure them to a 'false axle'. Where top-hat bushes are required the internal section is bored out each end to clear the larger diameter and still allow the faces to be flush with the inside of the frames. If the chassis is going to be compensated or sprung then assembly should be done before any hornguide slots are cut, using the original etched axle holes. The Impetus chassis is etched to facilitate suspension on the middle and front axles, drive being to the rear axle. There is a beam provided which is an elongated 'U' shape so as to clear an etched hole in the frame exactly where the pivot point would be on a 'plain' frame. This shows the principle of the 'jigs' in use. The boring out of the centre sections to clear bushes can also be seen. The rear driven axle will also be made removable but 'fixed' so the axle hole has been extended downwards and keeper wires will be added to hold it in place. The black patches are felt pen used as 'blue' to mark out the wheel diameters prior to drilling for Alan Gibson plunger pickups. I am reliably informed that these have been improved with softer springs, brass plungers etc. so I thought I would give them a try. Initially their positions have been pilot drilled approx.0.5mm, ultimately this will be opened out to the required 2.5mm. I have not yet fitted the centre frame spacer as I am waiting to see where the High Level gearbox ends up being positioned relative to it. I will also need to take account of the 'tails' of the plungers and their wiring. Forward thinking is a definite requirement when building loco kits! Next post - some bodywork!

You missed some great photos!

See, I told you they actually existed Thanks for posting this, it's nice to see that catalogues, adverts etc. do portray real things (at times!). Any chance of seeing the chassis without the body please?

I have now reached the point of conclusion and here are some photos of the result. He/She/It was brush painted with my usual 'corporate blue' industrial loco finish using old style Humbrol acrylic which I find much better than the newer stuff. Weathering/dirtying is very thin washes of matt black and brown acrylic shades. Now I've seen the loco magnified in photos I'm wondering if perhaps perhaps I've been a bit over enthusiastic but it's to late now! After seeing Gordon A's model at Scalefour North I've added an exhaust pipe to the bonnet top which adds a bit more character I think. There isn't a driver with this loco despite the photo with one about to polish the buffer heads! Once the cab roof is fitted the inside of the cab is virtually invisible. Pre-glazing and exhaust pipe. After cab glazing and fitting exhaust pipe. The running is very good with a nice steady shunting crawl readily achievable thanks to the High Level geartrain. If you want one, you'll need to speak to Chris either at a show or e-mail/phone as the mech for this loco is an 'under-the-counter' one. I think he has been pleasantly surprised how many he has actually sold since Gordon commissioned his! EDIT - just noticed I still need to fit coupling links!

Swine Town. I wonder where the inspiration for that came from...............

So long as it doesn't become Detritus............................... I might have considered Glod St. myself.

The wire pickups bearing on top of the wheels provide an element of springing as well to maintain wheel contact with the rails on uneven track (it's an industrial, remember!). On a 4-wheel loco this is very important.