Well, whilst the following is a small update in terms of photos, the work involved is a different story.
'll start with the walking boards that run the length of the boiler. It's all PE and it's been a PITA getting it to go together. Mind you - I am a novice when it comes to working with PE, so I think I can be forgiven for the profanities that came out during the build process.
I primed it Tamiya White, then a spray of Semi-gloss black, then Alclad Aluminum, then some spots of Durilium then some pale burned metal and then lastly some spots and lines of gun metal to make it look like it had just been banged together and weld-burn marks are evident. It's been semi-gloss coated to protect it and I am about to go into the shed to give it another black coat and then I'll wear it down so it'll look bette3r than just straight silver underneath.
Then I spent the large portion of Sunday night, Monday day sorting out those friggin awful vinyl sand pipes. Again, it was a case of Primer, paint, clear coat then paint. I kinda wasted my time really doing the metallic underneath because these pipes didn't get knocked around at all but they did catch a lot of crud in behind etc - so that'll be something to weather later.
Getting them to stick to the actual engine was surprisingly easy using good ol' super glue. I've read some horror stories about that part and it was something I was dreading - but I needn't have worried. I'll add the taps at the end of the build - along with a few other trinkety things that will easily break. All sub assemblies are now being put together and painted separately
And at long last - the wheels are on and it really does look like an engine now! Yay!
Quite the maze of pipes and so on in that last shot. Since taking these pics, I have added the cabin doors and the back of the cab. All the tape etc has been removed and it looks good! I am so happy with how this engine has come out so far Its a personal best for me. Hopefully, the K5 will come out just as good - although not as weathered as they weren't very dirty.
I reckon I am not very far away from the end. I still have the flak gun to build yet - but that'll come soon enough
Thanks for stopping in and looking. As always, please - if you have any constructive feed back - please drop a line
MH