Improvise, Adapt, Overcome

The challenges continue to appear along the track for Himself with the 3mm scale 42XX.

The slide bars have been made up and attached to the cylinders and he's also soldered them to the bracket which connects to.....ah....that's interesting....

At first glance you wonder where the problem is, don't you.

The bracket is quite firmly held in position, with the bar along the top sitting in a slot in the top of the frames, and the cross head has been slipped onto the slide bars, with the connecting rod attached, and it all just squeezes past the bracket with a fag paper clearance.

So just the leading driving wheel to slip into place then.....ah.......

That helpful bar on the top of the bracket means the wheel no longer fits.

It's just a construction aid and will have to be sliced off with the cutting disc.

And what's supporting the slide bars and bracket then?

Answer: not a lot.

It's not so much of an issue with the 7mm version of the kit because the slide bars are a white metal casting, but a flimsy brass etch is quite a different proposition.

Unfortunately there are no suggestions about what to do here in the instructions, so Himself will have to make it up as he goes along.

I'm sure he's secretly enjoying it, even though that's not what he says every time I pop over to see how he's getting on.....

Backwoods To The Rescue

A solution has been found for the cross head conundrum on the GWR tank engine - and it took a Backwoods kit to make it happen!

Working with no instructions, and relying on his practicality, Himself has worked out how to assemble one of the cross heads and fashioned a piston from brass wire, and it bends in all the right places.

He still has to decide which of the slide bars to use.

This was the point where another problem with the kit was revealed - there was no rear cylinder cover in which to insert the non-existent piston.

However, some rooting around in old Backwoods kit boxes revealed some spare Fairlie cylinder covers, and would you believe they are a perfect fit for a 3mm scale 42XX!

Trouble In The Valleys

Himself is a man in need of a plan.

He reports that he was getting on well with the 3mm 2-8-0 GWR 42xx tank for the Engineering Consultant until progress ground to a halt.

Note to self: NOT a Prairie - doh!

He had the brakes attached, connecting rods made up and fitted (very fiddly) and all working.

But because the kit is shrunk from a 7mm version the cross heads and slide bars - which were white metal parts in 7mm - are too small to copy in 3mm and a common etch has been supplied in place without much guidance.

So he has some head scratching to do to find out how it goes together correctly.

As as aside, he says it makes putting together an NGG16 look like a walk in the park....