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I presume that you are wanting to scratch build steam locos. I would question the usefulness of building the bowser or MDC kits if you actually want to sctratchbuild. They are diecast metal and screw together so are completely different in the construction techniques required. If you are building in brass then you generally start with flat sheets of material and form these into three dimesional shapes. I have always felt this is one of the more difficult processes and the die cast kits are of no help here. In addition the chassis is a pain to get right if it is not etched or drilled to allow locating pins to be inserted while the frame spacers are put in. The die cast kits have one piece chassises which are very easy to put together but do not provide any experience that can be used in scratch building. Tools that I find useful are; an electric fret saw ( not hugely expensive if you consider how long it takes to cut brass with a hacksaw! ). a temperature controlled soldering iron. This is expensive when compared to a normal one however I like to use different melting point solders (start with the hot ones and use progressively cooler ones as subassemblies are put together to avoid melting earlier work) and this is of little help without a controllable soldering iron. There are a number of books printed here in the UK on how to scratchbuild steam locos. These include a good one by Iain Rice (you know, him) on building compensated locomotive chassises. you might want to consider building one of the more advanced etched brass loco kits before jumping in but they are usually british outline s ounlikely to be of as much interest to you. Hope that all helps. Neil
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