I am making wheels for the tender today

1) cutting wheels out of 1/8" copper
2) blanks all cut out
3) solder 3 pieces together
4) finished wheel 

I just received my mini brake press in the mail. I have been waiting for it to bend the tender base and sides.

I am waiting for some copper to finish the tender, meanwhile I have decide the headlight is too big and lacking detail so reworked it. Here is the old and new. I still don't like the mount so that will have to be redone.

I did not like the look of the tender. the wheels were too small and body wasn't that good so I tore it down and started all over. I trimmed the wheelsets to more accurate proportions and made spacers using pennies. The wheels will be one size larger.

I am working on the tender. here is the rough version before cleanup and adding detail.

starting on the tender
1 making wheels with my circle cutter and a few pennies
2 two sets of 4 wheels
3 made the base section of the tender
4 photo of the real tender

I worked on a few details today. I made a totally new sand dome, shortened the smokestack and added a whistle on the steam dome.