ON MY WORKBENCH.

There are several social-media projects involving model railroaders.  The common idea is to make the best use of your confinement to quarters in building a project.

It's not as if I lack for projects, but I did start a new one to get in on the fun.

That's the Gilmaur Models kit of the American Locomotive S-2 yard switcher.  British etched brass kit, North American prototype.  Yes, I'm fortunate enough to know Britishers who work in North American O Scale.  We'll continue with the show below the jump.

The art of kit design is laying out all the fiddly parts with as little waste of brass as practicable, it's like laying out a pattern on cloth.  But lining up the fold lines is probably less challenging than arranging the pattern pieces so that any color variations line up properly.

First steps, separate the components for the frame from the etches.  The side rails came already slotted and bent (K&S brass L sections?), the braces and bolsters are from the second fret, upper left center.

It helps to have the right tooling for the job: here a porous heat-resistant mat and some T pins to hold everything in place: the wood for additional rigidity, but never solder immediately adjacent to it.

Perhaps one reason workbenches are so cluttered is that then everything useful is to hand.  This week was slow as I was constantly in senior moment mode: now where did I put that?  Small metal snip, fret saw, soldering iron and supplies, various files, arbor press for riveting.  Should go a little faster now.

No guarantees that the project will be finished in two weeks.  Here's what I'm aiming at emulating.