With regards to the motorisation of the model, the instructions mention that the compensation beam pivot will need cutting if an ABC Canon combinaction is used. I'm not keen on that as the pivot rod for the tube on which the beams pivot then has to be soldered to the frames. It would concern me that they could come adrift later and then be extremely difficult to repair. The kit has been supplied with an RG7 so I scetched the outline onto the drawing to check what clearance there will be and all looks fine. Hopefully nothing on the body will impinge on the gear box but I will check that as well.
Next step is to add the frame overlays, but first the brake pivot rods are added. Where possible I prefer to leave the rods intact across the frames, but in this case the rear one would impinge on the compensation beams and the front one on the valve gear. After fixing I first cut them with a sliting disc and then snipped with side cutters.
Here are the overlays ready to go on. The brake pivot rods also serve to accurately locate the overlays. In this view the front sections are butted up against the main rear overlays but there is a gap for the cylinders when in place.
The compensation beams and pivot rod must be inserted before the second main overlay is fitted. The pivot rod it then sealed into position so no soldering is required and no risk of gumming up the pivot tube. Here you can see the rod is slightly over length so it was faced back in the lathe.
Overlays in place.
The front spacer, loosely fitted till now has been centered and soldered.
Adding the "mudguards" for the bogie wheels was a bit of a trial, but I got there in the end.
The flanges for the sandpipes, sandboxes, running plate support brackets and dummy compensation beam shaft have also been added.
And some shots with the wheels in.
The chassis was rolling perfectly freely after I added the spacing washers to the axles, but now with the overlays on, the crankpin bolt heads are fouling the rivet detail, so will need counter sinking after all.
Cheers,
Peter