Work has started on the Avalon Lines 3D printed loco.

The body has been mounted on the chassis. I glued small brass nuts inside the loco and used 2mm (80 thou) diameter countersunk head screws to attach the chassis. These are just visible under the bogies.

The couplings will pivot on small pins. This will help manage the rear overhang on the loco.

The original 3D print had rivet heads on the side tanks and cab ‘doors’. I didn’t like either of these so I’ve removed them. The cab ‘doors’ were a bit fiddly to access and I resulted to chain drilling to remove them.  I can’t remember the last time I chain drilled something!

The rivets were easy. A couple of minutes work with a file and they disappeared.

The result is the loco you see at the top of this blog. There is quite a large gap between the trailing bogie and the rear of the loco. I could shorten the loco body, but I don’t want to take a razor saw to this model! It’s a compromise I can live with.

The next step is to smooth the print lines. This takes a bit of time and the loco may disappear from the blog for a while. When it reappears it will be as smooth as a baby’s bottom…. I hope 🙂