Gladiator Models G5 in 7mm

Sadly time at home has been a bit in short supply recently so progress on the G5 has slowed but next week I have some time off and will have the best part of 5 days at the bench (chores permitting of course).

The little I have managed to do has seen the smokebox/ front sand boxes folded up. Once again I had to fill a few over large holes but not an issue.






The biggest problem to date - and not that big a problem is that the mini splashers that fit over the front wheels adjacent to the sand boxes were too short so a couple of bits of scrap nickel etch was called into service.



I have also soldered up the boiler but it needs some attention because at the moment it isn't round....:headbang:

 

To ease myself back into it last night I built up the back head. With this being a straight from the box build I have just used what was supplied rather than adding additional details etc. it should still look pretty decent in an enclosed cab once painted.

 

One step forward and two steps back as the saying goes.

late last week I added some of the body details including the handrails in the cab doors and tank fronts. For the tank fronts I followed the instructions and the door handrails went into pre etched holes.... or so I thought when re-examining them the following day.

The instructions for the tank front hand rails have a mounting bracket which you bend and solder inside the tan front after filing a recess so that the top of the bracket is level with the top of the tank front. This resulted in the handrail leaning in both planes... So last night I took them off straightened them and then filed them so that when soldered back flat the hand rail was vertical in both planes.



I will take the slight bend out of that one too - blessed close up photos......:headbang:

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This rather poor shot shows that they are now straight!

One of the holes in the footplate left one of the cab door handrails askew too so that came off and was straightened too.

 

Still moving slowly forwards, although in the end it took a third attempt before I got the tank front hand rail supports right.

Although I had them in the right place after the second attempt I couldn't get the tank tops to sit down properly so off they came and the slot's that they sit in were deepened.


The inner tanks are now in place.



And finally having studied the photos again I realised that the I had left and overhang on the outer splasher tops to represent the beading that so many splashers had, but on the G5 they were plain with no beading so off they came and another pair made from scrap etch - easier than trying to file those that were fitted down.

 

I started by sorting the small lockers that go on the rear cab bulkhead. These I soldered to the cab rear before I soldered it in - I didn't fancy trying to get them in neatly within the confines of the assembled cab.
Next I test fitted the cab floor having bent up the basic shape some time ago. It needed a little trimming to get it to fit around the lockers but other than that there were no issues.

I decided to score some plank lines on it before fitting and I also added some small pieces of strip across the undersides in the cab door ways so that there wasn't an open gap - there are cab doors but for the life of me I haven't worked out how I am going to fit them and may leave them off.

Before fitting the cab rear and the floor I fitted the coal rails to the rear of the bunker which allowed me not only to get better access to get the iron in but it also allowed me to get a nice smooth joint between the coal rails and the cab rear. Onwards and upwards!









It still needs a good clean up of course.
The eagle eyed will of course pick up the fact that with also the test fitting of the cab floor I managed to dislodge the brake lever..........:headbang:

 

Thank you,
I have another one to build for me at some point which I will document real time as it happens.

 

I had a bit of fun with the piano front, it's been on and off a few times before I was happy with the fit.

After refitting it for what I hope is the final time I gave the whole thing a really good clean up.

 

I made a mental promise to get on with this and get it finished post Telford and over the weekend I made progress.

Although the agreement was an out of the box build, there are certain details visible in the photos that are not included in the kit but really need to be modelled (at least in my eyes).











I hasten to add that the bottom pipe coming from the Westinghouse pump will ultimately go down through the footplate but I need to attach the valance before doing that.

Just in case you are wondering why I haven't attached the valances and buffer beams yet is that the valances also have an etched support included for the front steps and I didn't want it to get damaged while detailing the upper works.

Note the tiny nuts that are on the ends of the pipes, these are scale hardware items that I had forgotten that I had and really add something to it.

They are actually threaded and I have some 0.5mm threaded bolts that screw into them too. - I bought them on a whim when I last ordered from Scale Hardware.