Connoisseur LSWR Brake vans – roofs

More work on the workshop has reduced modelling time somewhat but a little progress has been made on the brake vans. A lot of progress has been made on the workshop with my spray booth now fitted and vented externally and for the first time my Mini Formit (guillotine/folder/rolling bars) are permanently bolted to the bench and following Pete’s post I had another look at the alignment of the blade and anvil and had a lightbulb moment. Unseen previously, underneath the front edge of the anvil are two adjustment screws which push the anvil against the blade. Once I slackened the retaining screws and then used the adjustment screws the blade now sits tight against the anvil and it will happily cut shim so although I haven’t tested it yet it should cut the 10 thou nickel and brass sheets that it previously just bent down between anvil and blade.
To help with the location of the roofs I cut a strip of brass sheet (scrap etch) and then curved and  scored it to represent the planking above the verandas. These were soldered to the underside of the roofs.

Next the  roofs were covered in lense cleaning tissue to represent the canvas and finally the chimneys soldered on.

It has taken going on for 6 hours to get the step boards assembled. I can see why Jim says that this is not an afternoon build. Even taking in to account that I am doing two at once, I reckon that it would take a long weekend at least, to build one of these.

I made a small start on these while the interior parts for the LNER van was cutting on the Silhouette and I finally have them at a point where it was worth taking some photos

They are much more involved than I originally envisaged with a good number of overlaid parts. What you see above is the result of more than 8 hours work. Admittedly that is for two of them.

For anyone building these a tip is to take some time over the bending of the ducket fronts. Getting the basic shape was fairly simple. But taking extra time to get them to fit without having to apply any pressure paid dividends when it came to soldering them on.

These are destined for the small ads so now I need to decide on how I intend to finish them. Personally I would like to do one LSWR version (so I can add the extra details that were removed later in it’s life) and a BR version. But I suspect that in terms of being attractive to a wider range of buyers the BR version will have most appeal.

Besides using them to generate funds I am also using these to ensure that I can still solder etc and work okay in metal before returning to building things for other people. My fingers are mostly back to normal after my mishap with the mower but there are some jobs such as driling with a pin vice that I am finding difficult at the minute. Hopefully that will improve with time and use.