Some progress on the details -
The brackets connecting the side verticals to the solebar were marked out, scribed, folded and cut to size before soldering in place. Then the four diagonal brackets were formed from a strip of brass, riveted and soldered in place. Then strips of 15 thou brass were cut to length to form the hinge support below the door. The thickness is not important. File small triangular slots in the top edge for the hinge wires before soldering in place. The thickness of the brackets sets the hinge support back slightly from the side, as it should be. Wire, I think 0.4mm diameter, was bent to form the hinge pins and pushed into place before starting to bend the hinge plates around them. When the bend is formed more than 90 degrees they were trimmed to length and bent down to surround the wire. The fixed flap of the hinges were from more 0.2mm strip riveted and cut to length before being slid under the hinge and all soldered in place. The horse rope wires (towards the left end of the solebars) were bent to shape and inserted into predrilled holes and soldered in place. The Slaters brass buffer housings were also soldered into position but they could be left until later. The underframe unit is still loose so may not be lined up properly in the photos.
The door catches are a bit fiddly but not too hard to make. One end of a piece of 0.2mm brass was marked out to the size of the brackets and the fold lines scribed with the P-Cutter. Rivets were punched and individual catches cut off using a fine blade in the jewellers saw. Make some extra, I had a few fall apart while being folded. Fold the centre folds first with the lines on the inside, holding the brass with fine needle nosed pliers. Then fold the outer folds back the other way. Mine aren't perfect but they will do.
The folded parts along with the drop catch parts filed from some 15 thou brass. I did a batch by filing a groove across the end of a strip of brass using the edge of a tapered jewellers file and filing the end at 45 degrees before cutting the individual pieces off with the jewellers saw. Finish off by filing the other end of each to 45 degrees.
Then solder in place. I find putting some flux in position helps to hold the small pieces in position. It might sound odd but the surface tension of the liquid flux tends to hold the parts, but I do use a wooden stick to hold them down while soldering. It is quite easy to make the catches work but I soldered them solid to make sure nothing gets lost during handling.
The door end has had some work done to represent the folded over ends of the door locking channel and pins added from lengths of wire. I am not sure yet about the locking mechanism. I am also unsure of the end door hinging detail so haven't added anything yet.
The coupling hook plates have been added at both ends. A bit of cleaning up to do still.
So the body is nearly done, total working time about 21 hours since starting.
I think I should have made the hinge straps slightly thicker but think they look OK and can live with them. One thing I did forget to do was bend the joggle in the tops of the side verticals to represent the characteristic joggles on the prototype left over from the Butterley patent design with folded over tops to the sides. I think I will add some small pieces of strip to represent the joggles.
I have also prepared the Exactoscale underframe and brake parts but probably won't get time to put it all together for a couple of weeks.
Dikitriki is progressing very well with his nickel silver wagon which is making mine look a bit rough and ready, and Steve is underway with 3 in different scales. I would be very interested to see any more models started and can probably provide better explanations for some of the techniques if anyone gets stuck.