HUNSLETS, first batch progress

Hi, it has been a few weeks since the last workshop report.  I have not been sitting doing nothing. Three weeks have gone by on a trip abroad, to France to see some friends; last Monday we were sitting having lunch at the Brasserie de la Gare in Agen 29' in the sun,  tidying up a garden with three days of bonfires, draining down the water before winter and seeing family on the way out.  Now back in Aboyne, we walked into a howling gale and horizontal rain. So it was unpack and get into the chill of the workshop. 
The Hunslets, the first batch of eleven locos, are taking shape with all the frames erected.

Two of the eleven frame sets of the first batch.

 I decided to review how I was going to detail the frames which led me to revise the etch.  I produced a nicely detailed overlay for the steel frames that avoids the time and money wasted on fitting 32 small rivets  and 16 very expensive hex headed bolts. Heavy cylinder flanges were added to the design.

The part completed frame showing the new detailed overlay and the cylinder bolting flange.

The other platework parts in place.  The additional etch parts are the detailed buffer beam overlays.

The last photos show where most of the time has gone, making the couple of hundred parts that eleven locos need for their valve gear, cranks and wheels.

Some of the machined parts needed for the valve gear and chassis (15 parts x 12 locos!)

The final push before the chassis will run on air is to machine the cylinder covers, pistons, rods and spindles, oh yes and machine up the slide valves. (The wheels, axles and bearings are already made)
There is, though, a good chance this might get done next month.  The most recent annoyance is that 1 1/2" by 20 gauge copper pipe is no longer made.  Since all my small locos use this for their boiler shells I have just had to pay out £1600 to have some drawn for me.   As a friend said "at least if you die before you use it all the price of copper is always going up......" Seriously it is getting harder to source a lot of materials. I suppose this is the consequence of two trends, one being a further contraction of manufacturing in the UK and so many folk purchasing their models from China, the other the trend towards metrication.