An adventure in brass

[Schraddel]

Hi Folks!
My prefered beverage is Tea. East Frisian Tea, mainly. That is an blend of different Assam teas, similar to English Breakfast, but a still little stronger.
There are 2 main types of this tea:
1. (Fish-) Cutter Tea
2. Tractor Tea
And i prefer the Tractor Tea, you need that man, to keep your nerves bundled when doing such fuzzy work.
And no, not this dusty tea bag stuff.
I prefer pouring loose tea with boiling water and then let it soak for 3 minutes. Two third of the tea cup will befilled with tea and the last third with whole milk.









One of the last steps was to make the clamshell. The clamshell is not moveable and in the kit there are alternate parts for an fully open or a closed version. But you have to decide if open or close as the kit contains only parts for one version.
Here the difficulties were to make the correct rounding of the upper third of the outer clamshell sheets.




A look from the underside, here a lot of solder was used too to get things right.
The axle for the rope discs is diagonal and the discs are not moveable because of a flat etched "axle". This was predicted by the kit. I have the discs not soldered onto the flat axle because when the ropework will be done after painting. It will be easier to fit the yarn.









The very last work for me was to clean up the structure and to remove excess solder.

My part of the work on this crane was done now. The owner wants to do the rest of the work by himself.
My task was only to do the soldering work.
There is still a lot of work left:
- completing the undercarriage. This will be done with styrene sheet and some etched parts by glueing.
- engine hose, a lasercut out of thin plywood and cardboard
- counterweight, not the lead block i have mounted, but the modelled concrete block at the rear end of the engine house
- diver's cab, also a lasercut
- some details to fit, like the door with stairway for the driver's cab which i have prefabricated
- paintwork
- ropework (not my nerves )


I hope you have enjoyed my postings, thank you for watching.

Lutz