Oh my eyes

Friday evening I sat down at the bench, and with a beer or 2 in me mustered the necessary dutch courage to tackle the platform railings. This was identical to the ones that I did for my first van. I drew the frame shape out on MDF, and used a knife to cut the grooves into the surface. The bits of brass (microstrip for the base, 0.5mm brass rod for the uprights) were cut to shape, laid in the grooves, and before you could say 'pfft' a dozen times the collection was one, and with only minimal cleanup required (and no burned fingers into the bargain. I must be getting better at this).

Now for the really hard bit. Due to improvements on health and safety over the years the more modern vans had some more small railings on the bottom 1/2 of the assembly. My inner finescaler was not asleep yet and demanded that these were also added. The outer me muttered 'OK' while pouring him another glass of beer in the almost impossible hope that it would send him to sleep again.

It was not to be though. I had purchased some 0.25mm brass wire from North Yard. I started by tinning a length of this. There are 3 bars required and so I figured I'd start with the middle one and then do the other 2 so at least they would be about the right distance apart. The microstrip on the base was also tinned and then painted with flux agan. I butted the brass wire up to the base and with a fluttering heart touched the soldering iron to the spot. It held! I fluxed the spot at the other end of the railing and again everything went swimmingly, even after it was trimmed. And so it progressed for all 6 bits with no problems. some careful cleanup with a file and it was all done. My inner finescaler snored lightly in my head, andI quickly glued the railings onto the platform before he woke up and could check the progress.

'No fingers were harmed in the soldering of this model'.