Greetings for the new month,brighter days coming I hope. Years ago in my yoof I was really into GWR modeling in 7mm scale and to that end built a few locos from scratch in brass and nickel silver,I still have them.Now my interest is in all things 3ft gauge and 1.20.3 so I thought I would take the plunge. Having got a copy of ‘Silver San Juan’ I enlarged the excellent plans for an RGS ten wheeler that were at the back,got some supplies of brass sheet and made a start. Unless one has access to large sheets of brass,I have not,it means that boilers for locos of any size in this scale have to be rolled up from several sheets of what is available.This is not too difficult but a simple jig is needed to enable you to line up the sections for soldering together. OK then, so far the boiler and smoke box sections have been rolled,soldered and braced with discs of brass inside to keep the shape and in one of the pics they are laid out on the jig for assembly.The smokebox front is completed and attached and just needs final cleaning up.The smokebox door was an interesting project as I formed it from flat sheet heated and beaten to shape over an old auto engine core plug.A lot of finishing was needed to get rid of the hammer marks but I reckon it is Ok. I really need a smoke stack for this beastie but cannot seem to find one available to buy in this scale,any ideas? The wheels will be from an Annie with a scratched chassis to get the correct wheelbase but have not decided on the power unit/gearing yet although I may use the Annie one. Regards on a sunny day from Suffolk David
