I’ve not been diving headlong into my modelling this last week as come evening time, I’ve just not had massive inclination to do much beyond read and keep an eye on the interesting developments in Greece and Spain for example.
That said, I’ve still had a measure of activity which has meant that progress has been made with the J39. Having sorted the model out mechanically, the body of the loco has been weighted up to 150g which I think should be sufficient when combined with the 1024 motor.
She has been finished as Canal’s 64948 and tonight I have added the drawhooks. Vac pipes, some cab painting, fall plate and crew still to come and some effects to be applied to the loco body and tender; the latter has received a quantity of Kingmoor’s finest leftovers! Those blanks hiding the Markits axle ends are nothing more sophisticated than A4 paper chads, punched out to the correct diameter. When painted up, you’ll not notice though.
Also on the go and further on tonight after a gap of a week is the bolster E. Tonight, I finished off the brake Rodding and attached the underframe to the underside of the wagon.

My plan was also to fit the buffers and couplings tonight, but what I wasn’t prepared for was the brittleness of the 35 year old plastic with the buffer beams disintegrating as I attempted to ream them out for the new Oleos.

This resulted in the need to replace the ends with plastruct which I’ve left to set overnight before re-drilling tomorrow.

That accomplished, we should be ready to attach the bogies