Sunday 13 March 2016

A Lenten Diversion

Little Helpers

I seem to make a habit of diversions, but the 'good cause' behind this one is improving my skills before I finally tackle my Alan Gibson Manning Wardle kit.

If I'm honest, though, this tendency probably owes more to prevarication than preparation - I have a tendency to lose confidence in my abilities and decide to start afresh instead of cracking on and learning as I go. In the process of getting thus far, however, I noticed how poor my soldering had become and reminded myself that I had improved previously when I used a gas torch. I also proved to myself en passant that my soldering isn't always bad, by soldering the two stevedore figures instead of gluing them together.

The loco here is a Connoisseur Models 0-4-0T Starter Kit. Many modellers will recognize it variously as 'Nellie' or 'Polly', but having seen a couple of photos of the L&SWR C14 class on which it is based, I don't think it'll be long before I decide to add motion and other touches such as wheel guards. I've already committed to building it to Scale7 standards, and to add a sound decoder from the EDM offering for the Minerva Peckett.

One day I'll 'Keep It Simple Stupid'. Meanwhile, I have set myself the target of having this running by this Easter, just under 2 weeks away.