Two more important elements to be attached are the support base for the crane at the front, and the footplate/bunker at the back. These were designed to slot-on to the main chassis, and be secured with coach bolts and wing nuts.
In another moment of up cycling, the rear coal bunker would be constructed from the remains of a piece of furniture built for “The Home Is…” project. The second set we began building for that shoot, but abandoned, was for a bedroom. Abandoned largely because we ran out of time to shoot it, and also because those bloody Premier Inn adverts also started doing scenes with beds out in the great outdoors. Curse you, Lenny Henry. The bedside cupboard actually began life as part of a long-scrapped computer desk we had, so it is technically onto its third incarnation now on Jabberwock.
The hole for the neck would basically be an angled box into which the neck would slot; at this stage the plan was for a neck built from four telescopic washing-line poles, which would slot-through several pieces of wood which form them into a long box-girder shape, more on which in the update dealing with the neck, head, and problems which cropped up at that stage...
...in the meantime a base was made which slotted onto the front of the chassis...
...with the angled box on the top, which to support the weight of the neck/head...
...was attached to the mounting plate with the usual belt-and-braces approach, which was helping to keep my local branch of Screwfix in business.
So with the basic shape of the monster done, I remained unhappy about so much stress being placed on the joint between the cat-tracks and the body, so decided to make a pair of hidden supports to sit under the chassis, and which would help take some of the load. This took a while, as they were built to the same gloriously over-engineered standard as the other load-bearing parts. Its not going to win me any awards as a carpenter, but if it allowed this beast to survive a month exposed to the great Cumbrian outdoors, then I’d be happy.
At this point it was all coming together nicely, but I thought I better check if it actually could be moved...
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