Every now and again I suppose many of us go beyond what we'd normally expect as our own "it'll do for me" criteria and get carried away with something.

Keyhaven wouldn't have been right without a late 60s Crompton rattling away on idle and so the saga of the 33/0 began with much hacking to get a 33/0 with decent roof profile and one thing just led to another. To follow on from the blog link above the Archer's rivet transfers never did surface so I got round to ordering some more. Once you start to look really close another 'find' creates more work and I thought I may as well make handles for the roof panels rather than Heljan's distorted nipples. Then there's the louvre/grille debate which, having gone an obsessive step too far, meant that I spent time creating ambiguity rather than a definitive action. See, it's getting silly isn't it?

Whilst deciding to slim down the tanks a fraction rather than just slice out some unseen bits I decided that fitting a bass reflex speaker and mounting the tank sides onto that would be another way of upping the spec, adding unnecessary cost (but it don't 'arf sound beefy now!) and creating another to do task.

Virtually every snap of a working Crompton shows the roof to be a fairly overall sooty charcoal but having taken some snaps of a 33 with a comparatively clean fibreglass roof I could make out there were some ribs under there which affected the uniformity of finish so it would be nice to give a hint of that. Oh, and I mustn't forget the slightly fibreglassy tone to those parts, and the normally less filthy exhaust (but of course some snaps show a hint of rust spots). And then cover it in grime. I must be mad.

Now I'm not that stupid to have been at this weakness full time but I did start it 23 months ago and I've finished

Now for the really silly bit:

1 x Heljan 33/1 £55

1 x Heljan 33/0 body £20

1 x Howes sound decoder £115

1 x Bass reflex speaker £10

1 x Archers Rivets £11

Transfers / Paint £15

Replacement wheelsets £5

Time @ minimum wage £don't even go there and it would have been even worse if I'd seen Pugsley's body scraping at some time in the process.

Total > £230.00

No thanks; I don't want one that much!

Having learned some useful lessons along the way I fancy one in original livery. Utter madness.

(don't be silly) done all that I can until Mr Hanson can get some extreme etches for the grilles and laser cut windows sorted*.*Other nags are on his list I'm sure.

Source: Unhealthy obsessions .....