I'm good, I've been moderating a weight lifting and bodybuilding forum for 10 years, so I know a thing or two about picking up things and putting them down.

Looks great

Stage 22/23 - Hanging in there

Spaghetti con Cozze - first time in the 22 years I've been here the company canteen offers blue mussels in their shell - also I seemed to have been the only one brave enough to try this out. Or they were worried about messing up their hands in which case I have to ask: who among us is building a full metal steam engine afterwards? Show of hands? I thought so.



In Stage 22 and 23 we build the suspension. We get two almost identical packs like the one pictured above (lost the stage 22 picture), so I'm merging these updates.

When putting together the springs take extra care to not confuse yourself, most of the springs differ from each other. I had to take one apart three times at one point, because I wasn't really looking at what I'm doing and put one together wrong again and again. Get a good strong coffee beforehand and shut out any distractions.

Also when fixing the springs to the frame try to lay out the parts (especially the bushings) in a way you cannot confuse one for the other. A lot of the parts look similar but aren't really.


Detail shot of the front springs


The complete suspension

Parts count: Let me get back to you on that. I need to find a calculator capable of handling these numbers. Here we go: 149 parts, 326 fasteners. Yeah, that'a a lot.

Already had real life comment on those "Are those broken?"

Looking great.It is getting pretty heavy now and you can see just how big this train will be.

Phase 26 - Like a fourth wheel on a tricycle

Turkey breast with rice and snap pea pods



So much for hard and fast. It's incredibly annoying that some people apparently want me to actually do stuff at work. I need to find a way to stop that.

We receive the fourth wheel set and man did I have a lot of trouble with it. The fourth wheel set steadfastly refused to reach the ground and the suspension gave no leeway at all. This in turn led to the coupling rods not coupling correctly.

Took me half an hour to find the problem. Turns out when installing the third wheel set the axle holders went a liiiiittle bit misaligned which in turn gridlocked the entire assembly. Pulled the third wheel set out again, reinstalled, everything good with the world.



Parts count: 180 parts, 372 fasteners

Its a treat to see another one taking shape.

Just starting on the tender myself and thatvreally brings it home as to how large this kit is. A real enjoyment to build.

I can't decide. Mine will either stay all shiny, or I will paint it and weather like it was in heavy use.

Sooooo, here's the thing.

I'm running so many build diaries I'm running out of time to properly write up all of them. The worst offender here is the D51 where there is now a desynch between actual build and the diary of about 6 weeks. Which is why I'm going to have to fast forward a little bit and switch this over to a per-delivery format. Which also means the lunch report has to go, which will be sorely missed by all of us I'm sure.

Phase 32 (yup)



As you can see I'm quite a bit ahead. All of the work on the wheels and couplings is finished, the smoke box door details have been added and the boiler proper was extended.

The wheels took me quite a while to set up properly so the gears wouldn't wibble wobble all around. I think I spent about 3 hours total checking and rechecking connections, trying out different angles and suspension settings to (mostly) eliminate any wobbling or sudden jumps.

The smoke box door lock tends to disengage itself at times, the handlebar that controls the tightness of the lock mechanism moves too easily by itself, when the model is picked up. I'm looking into way to make the lock more secure while still being openable. Or I should just stop picking the model up all the time.

I'm amazed at how perfectly the boiler fits. This is quality workmanship on DeAgostinis part.

Parts counter: Update incoming.

Looking great now.I have to ask have you run it around your desk going chuff chuff yet? Just like when you build a sci-fi ship you have to fly it around going pew pew pew when you build a train and it starts looking like a train you have to run it around on your desk and make train noises.The great thing about this kit is once it is finished it makes the noises for you.

Carl