Canopus: Cab Roof

I know I've already blogged today, but I've now got quite a few detailed bits of Canopus to blog about so I thought I'd do a second post today to try and catch up. The last time you saw the body I'd fitted the boiler and smokebox (the saddletank casting was just rested on) but the cab was still roofless. The roof itself is a single etched part that needed gentle shaping to match the profile of the cab. Once correctly shaped two small etched parts were soldered on to represent a ventilator and a flange around where the whistle and safety valves will protrude.

While the roof looked good just rested in position, it obviously needed a more sensible way of keeping it in place. Now I could have soldered it to the top of the cab sides but that would leave it difficult to access the cab for painting etc. so I took a different approach (which is also suggested in the instructions). I picked up a short length of 2mm x 2mm brass angle from my local model shop and cut two short pieces to be a tight fit to the cab sides. I then used masking tape to fix these in position along the top of the cab sides, before taping the roof into the correct position. I then flipped the body upside down and tack soldered the two parts to the roof and then removed the whole contraption and added some more solder to make sure the joins were solid. The brass angle encroached a little too far down the cab sides and so was visible at the top of the door opening, so I simply filed this section away while holding the roof in place and so now from normal viewing angles you can't see the brass angle at all.

The roof is now a nice push fit to the cab and will even stay in place if turned upside down, while still being easy to remove.