When the hell did THAT happen?

(In which our hero discovers that he has actually become surprisingly competent at some things without noticing).

When we left our last episode the mech was whirring away happily without getting far, and the cab sides were cut out. Another session at the workbench and things moved well along, without many burnt fingers. I should have taken pictures along the way, but as you are all well aware I just don't roll that way. Suficit to say there was some cutting andsoldering and filing interspersed by the sad little plink of yet another fret saw blade giving up the fight.

'Posed next to my double sized ruler'

The cab actually came together surprisingy easily considering its a collection of odd shapes of metal. The plastic deck at the rear was somewhat simpler to do. Personally I was astounded as it is the first time I've tried to do anything like this in brass, and it all came together well without unsoldering itself once (though it did get quite hot at times). As for the atuall prototype, well its a truck of some sort....
I have removed the pickups for the time being as I have to work out where they will go with the lid on.

'looking better'

Next up the obligatory photo with the Cb for scale. I had thought the cab was going to sit too high to clear the front bogie, but it looks OK. The front bogie has now acquired some bush workshop 'wood' frames to cover up the rest of the bogie bits. There are also the beginnings of some weight in the back. There is plenty of space for more weight in the cab (OK, plenty is a relative term) and also under the canvas top. I must go and find out if you are still allowed to buy lead in this country, of if its been banned by the environmentalists.

Final shot today shows the addition of a dumb buffer (on the off chance that it might have enough grunt to actually move something else under its own power).

Not bad for 5 hours of work over 2 days. Not so good for anything important getting done on the layout....

UPDATE; in response to a question, here is a general idea of how I did it. Basically it was sheer dumb luck.
looking from underneath. The top of the hood is shim brass sheet that is curved over and soldered on each side. I've then put a dashboard piece in that provides the bottom of the windscreen.
The top side. Here's where I got lucky, as I just soldered the brass dashboard in and the solder flowed into the right shape. I think its something to do with the silver content. I'd give you a scientific discussion of this but I'm worried about people falling asleep at keyboards, and waking up with a key imprint on your forehead. It does work though, and I just had to do some cleanup on the ends with a file.