This week has been a good one at the bench seeing the tender almost complete.

Gladiator B16-1 Tender Details

Gladiator B16-1 Tender Details

Gladiator B16-1 Tender Details

The brake/water scoop standards rotate and you now need to unscrew them to get the chassis from the body.

When refitting the chassis during testing the cranks on the bottom of the shafts of the standards I realised that the brake rods were catching on the outer frame and had held one end of the chassi from fitting flat to the underside of the body. There is a plate with a slot in it in which two slots in the front ends of the inner chassis engage this was about 1.5 too high. To cure it I adjusted the offending brake spreaders and the rods inwards and then with the chassis upside down and engaged in the slots I used the microflame to run around the etches of the plate while pressing on the underside of the chassis with a block of wood. After a few moments the plate eased slowly downwards into the correct position and when the solder set again it was as it should have been.

Gladiator B16-1 Tender Details

As far as I can tell there is just the vacuum pipe and the axleboxes/spring castings to fit. I may also make the central ‘buffer’ from styrene but I will see how it goes when I test the running to see if it needs it.

Next it’s on to detailing the chassis before tackling the body details.