OO9 Ruston Proctor part 4 - lower bodywork.

As the body print is for the upper body only eveything under footplate level has to be scratchbuilt. I've used plasticard for the frame sides and bufferbeams.

The loco has a dropped cab, so the rear of the frames have a cut-out below the cab doorway. It took me two attempts until I was happy with the shape of the cut-out, first of all I tried marking out the plasticard, but I wasn't happy with the result so for the second attempt I tacked both frames togther with a little solvent (a little too much actually, they were a pig to seperate...), then made a reduced photocopy of the drawing from the Parkinson book, which was glued to the frames;

Then of course the rest was just easy file work. A semi-circular cut-out was also needed to clear the flywheel casing (the semi-round part under the body sides).
Note the extra material on the body in the cab doorway, this needed to be cut away before the frame sides were fitted. I cut one side first, cyano'd the frame side in place (along with the rear bufferbeam), then did the same with the opposite side. This meant that the cab backsheet was supported at all times;

Frames were made from .030" sheet, but for the bufferbeams I used .020" with microstrip for the channeling. It took three attempts until I was happy with the front 'beam, on the first go I drilled lots of .35mm holes and started glueing in microrod for rivet detail but wasn't happy with the result, on the second attempt the 'beam bowed due probably to me using too much solvent. Both times I made completed units to glue straight under the body. On the third attempt I only added the middle and bottom detail strips, fixed the 'beam onto the body, then finally glued the last two pieces of microstrip in place;

Also added at this stage is the cab floor, and I've made a start on filling in the cab interior.
Footsteps are a single piece of brass cut from scrap etch fitted into a step filed into the rear frames;

Now the frames need detailing and buffer/couplings fitting, and the cab interior finishing off.

I've use cyano (Bostic Glu&Fix) for all styrene to print joins, epoxy for brass to styrene and solvent for styrene to styrene.

Paul.