More work on the bike frame

OK, working on the bike frame.

I'll share this learning straightaway though - if I could, I'd do the left half/ right half of the bike frame, then solder both halves together. Simple.

I may yet do that, as a rework though.

That's the beauty of soldering stuff - re-apply some heat, separate it out, and "Ta-Dah!" reusable parts. Well, mostly.

The way I am doing it is a bit cart before horse.

Checked the figure dimensions out for scale, estimated roughly where the pelvis sits, and where the hips would articulate from there.

After all, riding a bike with the legs at something close to 180 degrees not only looks unnatural, it makes the eyes water (in real life) just thinking about it!

So the above measuring gave me an idea of the width of the bike. This will effect the thickness of the tyres/ hubs/ discs in the end, but I have to start somewhere!

Once I had that, I soldered some cross braces on. to add stability to frame as I worked on it. So good so far.

Stopped there, and started working on the radiator. Basically, a plastic sheet, with plastic rod (tiny) glues to it. Note how one end looks rough - I only did one end neat (well, mostly neat).

Then I trimmed that end down, and tidied it up.
Found some etched brass mesh (for some long ago project) and cut that down to size, added that wonder chemical of the 20th century, super glue, and now the radiator has a spiffy mesh front.

Although, truth be told, most of the details will be missed, probably, so I wouldn't bother with such detail ever again, next time. Oh well, learn and do, then live and learn.

Other thoughts - Ben confirmed that bike engines come out and go in sideways, which makes sense, and that's how I plan to build it too.

And this scratch building is like Sudoko - looks easy, then gets real fiddly darned quick!!!

Ciao for now