Despite having quite a busy social life at present with one thing and another I have still made some progress on the F8

I finished splitting the axles – they just need a final clean up – only one of these is for the F8 though (the one with the two splits)

And here’s the one that got away – I was doing them last thing at night and I can only surmise that I didn’t take enough time to work the epoxy fully through the spilt. The upside is that I can make use of the stub axles……. or so I am telling myself.

I assume that Slaters sell single axles?

While the epoxy has been drying I also made small start on assembling the boiler.

As you can see from the photo the boiler bands are formed from a half etched recess and then an etched strip that fit’s in the recess but has folds/holes etched in for the cleats. I wondered if I could use a scale hardware stud to represent the fastener.

I have only done the one so far (and I need to centre it yet) – from the instructions there are two that will be visible beyond the ends of tanks. The rest need to be cut short when a cut out is made for the motor.

Regards Rob