VofR No.10: Bodywork nearly there...

Can you believe it is June since I last worked on this model! There seem to have been so many models on my workbench of late, that it's nice to get back and progress something - and tonight was great because things came together very quickly...

So what have I worked on compared to progress in June? First up was fitting the long bonnet handrails. These use my own design of 'bracket' that I had etched up, as well as the grill on the front. These are little tabs with a small hole - I then soldered these up to the bonnet very carefully. I think they're very effective - if you look at the prototype it doesn't have handrail knobs, just these little brackets - so yeah, I'm very happy with these.

After this success I moved onto the front buffer beam and added the lifting eyes, and then fitting to the chassis - a little fiddly to hold it in position, so I resorted to blu-tak!

The kit doesn't include the sole bar on each side - I added this from some brass section I had 'in stock' from a previous project. This was cut to length and then soldered in place. This provided a good mount for the foot steps which were added next.

The cab door handrails were formed and again these are soldered in - I prefer soldering these on a brass model as it means they are more robust. Still to add are the ones in front of the boxes on each side of the bonnet at the front.

So what next? I still have quite a few details to add! I've got the windscreen wipers, exhaust stack, vent, horn - and I also need to properly fit the chassis - it needs to be raised up on the 08 chassis by a mm or so. I'm yet to decide whether to mount the couplings in the slots provided, or fill these over and mount them rigidly on the buffer beam. So it's been over 4 months - I wonder if the next instalment will be as long! More soon, I hope...