First stab at a brass scratch build.

I've recently bought a couple more of the "Golden Arrow" kits, the second of which is the 'Mk3' version (one of the final batch of 10 built) "Merchant Navy" loco's in unrebuilt form, really my all-time favourite loco I guess. The kit uses a Hornby "B-of-B/West Country loco chassis, which I already have in DCC ready form, but I don't have a long wheelbase tender chassis, and these are rather like Rocking horse droppings to find, the only one I saw recently was obviously a trader as he had lots of other loco and tender chassis for sale, but he was asking almost £50 for the chassis alone.......no chance!
Anyway, always up for a challenge, I decided to have a crack at scratch building my own tender chassis, nothing to lose really, and a potentially lot of cash to save (always an incentive!), so I set about it, having a couple of sheets of 0.3mm brass to hand. I decided to go about it in a similar way to the etched brass tender chassis I built as part of my recent "GT3" build, if it's good enough for "High Level kits", then it'll do for me! Not having either the skill or knowledge of brass etching, I opted instead for a 'mark and cut out' the brass sheet, construction going along in a similar manner to the etched kit, so after carefully marking out a channel shape with axle centres for drilling, I cut out and cleaned up the first part. Drilling out the six axle holes ready to solder in bearings (which I have on order, along with the wheelsets), I then folded up the channel section, working to the size of both the tender body and also the layout of the 'rebuilt' tender from my "Canadian Pacific" loco. Next step was to mark and cut what will become the chassis baseplate, which will be soldered onto the channel section, and I made this 5mm larger all round than the tender base. The long edges were then folded over 180 degrees to form strengthening edges, each end then being folded at 90 degrees forming buffer beam at the rear and the tender drag beam at the tender front. The tender axlebox castings are just placed in position in this pic, they won't be finally soldered on until bearing and wheelset positions have been checked out.

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As the brass sheets I have are plastic covered on one side, it makes it much easier to mark out and follow cut or drill markings, easily peeled off (before soldering!) after cutting and bending operations. The channel section will be soldered to the flat baseplate, and my intention is to make up two 'U' shapes in brass sheet, which will have brass nuts soldered into the base of the 'U', mounted to the chassis baseplate with a couple of screws from underneath, the sides of the 'U' will then be bonded to the inside tender bodysides, allowing simple removal of the tender body, should it ever be needed. The pic below shows the general idea, but further progress now will be dependant upon arrival of the necessary parts.
Keith.

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This pic is from my "GT3" build, and you can see what I mean as regards my method of securing tender body to it's chassis. It worked well with the kit, so no reason why it shouldn't work just as well with my scratch build. Just got to hope my marking and cutting is somewhere nearly as accurate as the kit was!!!

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The channel will be soldered to the baseplate Rob, then I will have to make up and solder a number of triangular supports on the outside of the channel section as per the blue tender. I'm considering using plunger pickups on the tender so will need all the space I can get between the frames. If I can get a few frame spacers in, I will make and fit them......belt and braces!
All advice gratefully accepted, thanks Rob.
Keith.