Ladies and gentlemen of YouTube.
I'm doing a little departure from the from the
Star Wars and Star Trek Metal Earth kits
that I've been doing
and have actual request from someone.
Who wanted me to do the Metal Earth
steam locomotive.
So I thought, hey sure, why not umm..
I've kind of finished up the ones that I really wanted to build
and..
This looks interesting.
I thought I would give it a shot.
Ultimately I'd like to put together a lot of different
Metal Earth kits, it's just a matter of time and money.
But I'll give this one a shot. So...
Let's open this up
and see what we're dealing with.
Alright
[tearing sounds]
I believe this is two sheets.
Yes it is.
[metal clanking]
You've got your usual two sheets.
Let's put them off to the side.
And peek at the instructions.
And standard procedure ..
You've got...
A little bit about the needle nose pliers
and the tabs.
Circles mean..
fold over, triangles mean twist 90 degrees.
A little bit about folding and inserting the tabs.
And then you just jump right into building the kit.
You know the part numbers, they kind a
lead you through with the arrows.
Although some of these kits can be a little confusing.
[paper crinkles]
You've got two pages.
So let's get started
and see, oh and of course
you have the diagram of the two sheets that you have.
And all the parts are labeled.
Let's start putting together.
Tools I used for this kit.
You have your Fascinations tool kit.
With the flat nose pliers
needle nose and the clippers.
We have the usual pair of tweezers.
This is the main thing you need to do these kits.
You can possibly do it with just a pair of tweezers
the other tools are helpful though.
I have a couple of other needle nose pliers...
that came in handy.
These get into...
these forceps get into places a little bit tighter
than the metal earth ones.
And this is a new set of...
round end pliers.
They help for shaping curves.
Also for shaping curves
dowel rods or any other round object
that you can use to curl things around.
I have a..
dentist pick or dentist type pick that I use
for getting into tight areas and sometimes
a pocket knife is helpful for bending things over
♪ [background music starts[ ♪
I realized from the first piece of this kit
I did not have the right size objects to
bend the main body or tank around
to shape it.
Took a break, ran to the hardware store
and picked up a half inch dowel rod
that worked perfect.
As is true with all these kits
it takes time and small adjustments to get
the parts to fit together.
The parts rarely ever fit together the first time.
I used a new round nose pliers set
that I picked up recently.
They seem to be great for shaping curves.
Some of the pieces are so tiny
that I used pliers to carefully set them in place.
Closing the tabs on rounded parts can be quite tricky.
You sometimes have to use one tool to hold
the part firmly while using another to bend it over
or bend the tab over.
Other times you can bend the tab part way over
and crimp it shut with pliers.
I often use my fingernails to bend over tabs.
I mistakenly did a couple of things out of order
from the directions.
but it didn't matter the parts were not related
so it came together just fine.
It took me a while to work out the best way to
round the wheels.
I tried curving the pieces around and bending up the tab
and then catching the tab on the slot
trying to pinch the tab down.
This had mixed results.
I finally remembered that I had done wheels several
kits back and at that time I would put the wheels
through the slots
bend it half way with tweezers.
And then use the dowel rod to roll the part
on the table.
That would almost always bend the tab over
nice and clean
just make sure you're rolling it the right way.
When attaching the wheel, I suggest inserting
the bottom two tabs first.
I started at the top and had a very difficult time
getting the bottom tabs in their respective slots
instead of in the holes between the spokes.
Placing the tabs in the bottom slots first
then lining up the top two was much easier.
When using a dowel rod or a pen
to form the wheels
it helps to use something that is a tab smaller than
the final wheel.
That way you can get the shape
and still have a little room to attach and bend the tab over.
You'll have a slightly oblong shape but that's easy to correct.
I did not take long for my fingers
to begin hurting from all of those tabs.
When attaching these side wheels to the center piece
that holds it together
most of the tabs come out right in the middle of the
larger wheels and they're easy to access and twist.
There are a few inside the smaller wheels and
they're off center.
So there is very little room to get in with the tweezers
or pliers. I used a dental pick to bend those tabs over.
And now to place all 14 outer wheels on.
I apologize for getting off camera
there was a lot of interruptions the day I built this kit
and a surprise guest.
An inquisitive 5 year old.
I believe the camera ended up tampered with
without my knowing.
I edit my videos down so they are not just the full
two to three hours it takes to build the kit.
I leave out parts where I study the instructions
clip parts free and sometimes I leave out the struggles.
So if this video makes it look very easy
it can be challenging.
Be patient and take your time.
The parts do not just automatically fit together
and it can take time to adjust them to fit.
I did make a few mistakes and I had to correct them.
I had to spread the bottom of the train tank
a bit to get the wheel assembly in and attached.
Attaching the larger parts is always a challenge
and this was no exception.
I had no trouble inserting the tabs on one side
but the other side was very stubborn.
I fought with it for quite a while
and even after assembling it and pushing over the tabs
two of them popped back loose.
The front section is held on by two tabs
that attach to the rails on either side of the tank.
It was quite challenging to hold the part in place
and hold the rail down and twist the tabs.
I could have used an extra hand
but I did eventually manage to attach it
although rather loosely.
The good news is the large flat side pieces
that attach a little later also attach to the front section
which secures it in place.
I had to open up the back section to fit in another peice
It would have been nice if the instructions could have warned me
about that earlier before I closed it
and bent the tabs.
And after I was done assembling the model
I spent several minutes straightening out little
thin parts that were unintentionally bent
while handling the model.
There we go.
The Metal Earth..
s.team locomotive.
This was a fun and challenging build.
It wasn't quite as easy as I expected.
I kind of..
knew better than to get my expectations set
to high.
The underside is a little warped here and there.
When you first start..
you put these this side trim pieces on
and it's very hard not to squish and twist them
as you're putting on the other pieces.
And getting this bottom on was a lot of fun
and at one point something slipped and
it twisted an angle.
I mostly got it back in shape.
But...
All and all it looks good.
It's fun to do.
It took me quite a while to complete it
not because necessarily it was a very long build.
It was so so, it's about the same as any other
give or take.
But there were a lot of interruptions for me.
It was a very interesting day.
The instructions followed..
They were easy to follow .
It wasn't confusing. It didn't jump back and forth
and leave you wondering.
It was a little vague about folding some things
there was one instance...
It wasn't a big deal but it has you..
fold up the sides and bottom on this back piece..
and then later on you have to put..
the little trim back door in there.
And you have to open up one of the pieces
to get it in there.
There were definitely some parts on here
that were more challenging than I expected.
Doing all these little wheels is time consuming.
But getting this bottom piece once you've got it together
attached to the bottom it was...
very difficult.
It was very surprising how...
much it did not want to come together.
But all in all this was a fun kit.
I enjoy doing it and I look forward to doing more kits.
Umm, I just heard that...
there's a possibility of Marvel...
kits coming out which will be very interesting.
I've heard tales...
they're coming out with more Star Wars.
I look forward to that.
And definitely the Transformers is coming out.
In the mean time I'm going to try and work on other kits
and if you have anything you would like to see me build
let me know in the comments down below.
And I will try to work it in.
I can't promise that I'll do it but...
if I have the time and a little extra money
I'll grab the kit, I'll put it together
and add it to my collection.
And make a video for you.
Otherwise, you have any other question or comments
also leave them down below.
I thank you for watching.
And keep on keeping on.
♪ [background music] ♪
If you have a kit that you'd like to see me build
leave it in the comments down below
and I'll see if I can't work that in for you.
Thank you for watching
and see you next time.
