Small progress, front end core structure built up.
Now it's time to add the castings and details to finish it off before fitting to the front of the engine, all of the etch work is prepared so it won't take long to rattle through.
Top view, of note (as mentioned in Pauls thread) are the cylinder fixing screw clearance holes, the instructions advise 2.4 mm but that leaves very little of the screw head to grip the components. The reduced size of 1.9 mm is top left, the instructions will be adjusted in due course.
From below the inside motion plate work is in place, currently there's a big gap between the inside cylinder front and rear walls, this'll need filling as it lets too much daylight into this area and the engine loose some of it's mass appeal at the front end, my personal view only.
Adding the cylinder base will add additional clearance problems as the front bogies are O fine and the frames are scale width and the middle cylinder sits partially down inside the front wheels. The 1:1 cylinder base has a notch in the casting so I'll add that but probably exaggerate it's cut into the cylinders to give the additional clearance.
The Princess Royal has the same feature.
Of additional interest here is the rubbing of the front bogie wheel on the middle cylinder casting. I can't be sure....or recall correctly...but I think there's a sacrificial plate in there held by the clip seen at the top, the plate being there to protect the casting behind. I mentioned this feature recently as real engines don't care if the wheels touch the frames, where as models do. One way around this (which I may well do) is to add a thin Plasticard spacer with a NS rubbing plate outside, like the real thing, we'll see. You can also see the great big clip bolted on to the frames to also stop the bogie lateral play.
The other downside is the front fixing passes through here so I've two choices, move the fixing elsewhere so that the cylinder base is solid, or put a hole in it to allow the screw through, we'll see, neither are perfect and neither will be an eyesore or abomination.
I've already decided to dispense with the bogie side play limiting arm, two reasons, I think a good sprung side control unit will achieve the same result and second it gets in the way of the inside slide bar mounting bracket, you can see the notch cut in the bracket to clear it. The real bracket has a web along the bottom (as do several of the other stretchers down the engine) so I'll add that from some scrap strip metal and refit to the engine ones as well.
The combined cylinder and middle motion bracket can be removed by removing the four screws, but I'm not sure it can once the middle crossheads and piston rods are in place, they'll poke through the rear wall and when lifted impact the front fixing bracket. Need to think around that, I'm not a big fan of removable motion myself, it tends to create more headaches than solving.
MD