The tender will contain the gas tank, the radio control and batteries. The construction follows the Master Class plan using brass instead of styrene. Part of the coal load will be removable for access to the gas filler, the gas valve will protrude above the coal load right behind the left side of the cab. The entire tender will be removable by unscrewing 4 nuts on the bottom of the deck.

Tender frame before installing the top (upside down)


Tender frame with deck and gas tank


Tender frame on deck


Tender shell open showing the sides attached.

I have fabricated all of the cladding for the tender and now have it installed. I used J-B Weld to attach it to the tender form. I purchased some 600 degree solder which I wish had been available to assemble the tender form, then I could have attached the cladding with the lower temp solder without the form falling apart. The J-B Weld seems to be OK but not as secure as solder.

Here are the cladding parts


The flare soldered together with the edge roll attached. I added flanges to the inner and outer parts to give me a secure attachment to the form.


The tender with cladding attached

I got the hungry boards completed yesterday. All the vertical railing parts were soldered to the to the solid liner with 600 deg. solder and then the horizontal rails were attached with 430 degree solder. After all the parts were soldered, all the joints were riveted with short pieces of .047 brass rod. The assembly will be bolted to the tender with #00-90 bolts. Today I did some more work on the cab and installed the headlight base. I am having a hard time finding chocolate brown paint, if anybody has a suggestion I would appreciate the help.

Here is a photo of the hungry boards.