Quite a few screws to fit this time, to secure the bottom skirt to the base plate. That is after fitting the covers for the bottom lights. Took most of the time of the first session of the snooker final to complete but it's starting to look good. It looks like the next two deliveries will the the rest of the top side skirt and then perhaps we will see that start of the bottom sides.

A bigger box this time with a panel to cover the whole base, but while most parts have been assembled in minutes, such as the final overlay here, part 61 took a lot more time, and I did not see much of the first session of snooker while working on it. The initial problem was that fitting the bars to take the bearings for the balls just pushed them right inside. I had to dismantle three of them and glue the housing in place in the central tube to stop it sliding. I could have saved a little more time if I had fitted the ball race bearings after reassembling and reading ahead better I would have realised that. The main problem was that once I'd managed to wrangle the 8 bolts into the first motor mount bar, I realised that the second one would not fit as one of the base plates had been flipped, and a cutout for one of the motors was under the already fitted bar. While not to difficult to resolve, it did take a lot of time unbolting all the bolts, reversing the plate, and refitting them again. Need to take a little more care checking alignments in future. Another irritation is the lack of space to actually hold the nuts that the bolts need to fit into. The right angle socket spanner is a good idea, but needs less depth so you can actually get to the nut . I ended up using the pliers and balanced things to get at the ones under the motors.

All in all though that was a nice distracting afternoons work!

This adds the second motor to the one added to the stretcher last time and has both wheels mounted for one side. The second stretcher is started with another motor and wheel which will be completed next time. I've tested all three motors and we are read to roll when they finally get mounted on the base plate. The other elements this time are the reflectors for the under skirt lighting. The 4 smaller units are secure to the base, while the large one has gone back into it's box to keep safe for when it can be added in. I presume that one needs access through the middle of the base when it comes time to fit the motor assemblies.

Well this adds the first motor to the last stretcher and has the first wheel mounted. The next set of parts will add another motor, followed by at least a third four weeks after that. There is a lot of waiting in this process. At least the second stretcher seems to have addressed the problem of it not screwing up tight enough as this one went together nicely. It takes longer to do this documentation that it does to assemble the parts supplied ...

Apart from screwing the last sections of the skirt base together, very little to do as we need later parts before the rollers can be added to the base plate. One little complaint is that the screws that secure the mounting brackets to the cross rail are a little long and needed a little fettling to allow them to lock in tightly. As supplied the mounting plates were left floating around a little, but a quick run on the points of the screws allowed a tighter fit. Now waiting for the next shipment, but that only includes one motor, and two are needed before this section can be completed. We are over a third of the way through the kits though which is nice.

While the last set turned up a day earlier than normal, this month the parcel got lost in the Christmas rush and was two days late ... having been directed to the wrong depot initially. Tracking does sort of work, but some times the Royal Mail site does not give the details perhaps because things have gone wrong ...

Watching the Christmas films on the TV, it did not take too long to assemble the rest of the metal panels and the top side skirt mounts. The lower skirt is two thirds complete and the final two sections are part 1 of the next shipment. I did cheat a little and secured the partial frame with a couple of screws just to keep it tidy until the next 4 weeks are up. At least the next few months are all single shipments per month, but sometime next summer I'll have to cover the cost of 2 deliveries in a month ... it's a good thing that my pension is paid weekly.

Next parts turned up a day earlier than last time and I'm fairly sure the earlier sets were delivered on the Friday, so lets see when set 13 roles up. There was also another 'extra' item that I'd already been signed up for, but I think these are just well over priced and I had said to opt me out, but it seems you have to do it every time. The parts themselves are expensive enough without an extra £25 next time!

Anyway I'd just loaded yet another 3DBenchy onto the 3D printer with the latest mods to the settings to see if it clears up a couple of more minor discrepancies. I'm hopeful that some of the extra little blobs will be sorted as the amount of filament being extruded has been reduced a little. While I am waiting for it to print, plenty of time to crack on with the Dalek. I'm also looking to see if I could perhaps print some replacement parts for it!

The next four parts are further extensions to the base plate so should not take too long to complete ... which it didn't. 3D printer is nearing end of print, but have the Dalek up to part 42 and hit a snag. The intention was that the Dalek would sit on the lower shelf next to the galleon, but it's a little wider than I anticipated, so while it can stand vertically for the time being, once I start adding the body I will need to sort an alternative storage space. The portable workstation is getting use with things like the small parts for the Dalek and some of the spares for the 3D printer. Using it to build Victory is well down the line as yet. Anyway back to calibrating the 3D printer ... tomorrow now since it's tea time.

Some more progress has been made in the flat, so now I have somewhere to display the bigger pieces, so when the latest delivery rolled up the base for the Dalek needed to use that space. Additionally, while intended for building boats, the portable workstation has been pressed into use and one of it's draws is now storing the spare small parts for the Dalek. Every screw bag that has been supplied has always had an extra screw, and this stock is now building up. It has proven useful at times when a head has been mangled by me, and keeping them tidy had become a little bit of a problem which the workstation has now solved!

Can't wait for the next set of kits, but looking ahead I think it will be the following set that actually completes the base panel.

Where is the year going? Another 4 weeks have passed and a new set of parts arrived for the Dalek. Been having some fun this weekend as the business broadband is down in Evesham an so I'm actually creating this post via the development computer just to keep ahead of the game. 

This has completed half of the neck section, but next time it seems we move to the base of the dalek and the skirt section so I presume this section will sit on the shelf for a while longer yet. 

Next level down is starting to take shape. It's taking around about half an hour each time to assemble the four parts. In this case the assemble is in isolation to the chair section, but the two will eventually be combined as they are here.