While I still havent got round to placing my Gibson order for the crank pins, I have made a little more progress

A couple of weeks back I found a couple of perfect components for this project from Ebay, This comprised a set of Mitchell designed conrods and balance weights from the Churchward Models kit, a set of nickel silver components (including conrods and pony trucks) from a Mitchell 44xx kit, and finally a set of Perserverance pony trucks from a 45xx.

So, the balance weights are now fully fitted (to both 5512 and 4573) Much easier than my original thoughts of fabricating from plasticard!

The con rods are also a huge improvement over the overscale originals, and also avoid the need to have to solder extra washers to make them fit. These are now soldered up ready for fitting once I get the crank pins.

Finally the pony trucks. These are a bit of an odd design with the tab much smaller than the slot (I also cant understand why not just etch it as a fold up unit, this extra work for the sake of saving 10p's worth of metal seems a bit silly). Anyway, they have now been soldered up, fitted with 2mm ID bearings and are ready for paint. They differ slightly to the Churchward 45xx part in having the pivot mounted slightly lower. This point is of particular importance as while the etched parts pivot mount is on the top, the Bachmann part is mounted from the bottom.

The plastic mount Bachmann use was removed when I rebuilt the chassis block, this means that the pivot can be mounted direct to the metal block, which conveniently mounts the new etched part in exactly the right position.

The only problem is that I now need to work out how exactly I am going to attach them, I will try screwing into the block. If this doesnt work, I suspect the alternative is having a bolt through the whole chassis block.

Will have a look further over the weekend, (when I also plan to get the chassis painted black).

One other modification I am going to make over the weekend is to the cylinders, The Mitchell etch includes all of the cylinder parts, so I plan to use the outer bits to add the missing sections on the Bachmann cylinder.

Then its back to either design work on 2220 or soldering on 4573

Bachmann behind, Mitchell in front. Wheels are only fitted to one side as it needs to be painted prior to fitting on the other wheel.