The start of the month saw the arrival of the laser cut steel frames, buffer beams and rods. The design work for the etches was completed and sent to the etch company. Two weeks later this arrived and was assembled. It went together quite well and exactly fitted the laser cut frames.
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| The laser cut frames assembled and the test etch made up |
At this stage I could have gone ahead but there were some problems. The first was the tank wrapper had been etched at full thickness to allow for a riveted tank version to be built at some point. However this was a mistake since it took too long to form the thick metal to conform to the tank frame even after annealing. The other problem was the detailing of the steel frames was time consuming and expensive. So, like the buffer beams I decided I would use an etched overlay for the frames that had all the detail on to exact scale. I also took the opportunity to tweak the etches to simplify their assembly.
The last photo shows this revised etch. I will probably assemble the parts again just to check that everything fits before I go into serious production . If there is a market later on for an etched tank version the overlay can be a separate small etch.
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| The new etch showing the frame sides and half-thickness tank wrapper. |
Time is not being wasted while waiting for these parts. The Britan lathe is hard at work making bearings, steam fittings, and all the turned parts each engine will need.
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