Next comes what for me has been the trickiest bit of the build so far.

The bending and fitting of the two dropped curved ends of the footplate. These are full thickness etch and at0.45mm in Nickel they take a bit of bending.

First I fitted the valences using a piece of square bass bar and some surgical clamps to hold it in place and vertical to the footplate. Just a case of tack in several places along the length and then seem between them.

Next on to the dropped sections, I started with the rear section for no other reason than the front section needed the rivets pressing out and I had done enough of that for the day when I finished the footplate earlier in the day.

I marked up the start of the bend and another line which should have been the middle of the bend but fell somewhat short. In the event this wasn’t an issue as by some miracle I managed to bend it almost perfect first time. It just needed a gentle bash with a rubber mallet to get the last bit of the curve where it meets the footplate to the right shape.

While I was on a roll, I added the drag beam too.

Then it was more rivets prior to fitting the front section