I finally managed an hour of modelling late this evening after the baby finally went to sleep, (so much for making it to the Chipping Sodbury Club as planned...) Anyway, with the weather as cold as it is, I didnt fancy a trip to the garage which means it was not possible to do the remaining work on the H26.

That left a choice between starting the A20 Large Window All First (and having to finally form that tumblehome), or renumbering my second Hornby King. Given the title of this blog post it is clear which option I went for.....

Today I received some 70% concentrate IPA Alcohol (from Amazon) which having read good things elsewhere on RMWeb that it is possible to use this stuff to remove printing without the shinyness you get with Microsol etc I thought I would give a try.

After trying varying concentrates less than 70% without any success, I used the IPA neat from the bottle (100% IPA can be a good paint stripper so be careful!) After application I tried rubbing with a cocktail stick as directed with no success, instead having to use a dull scalpel to gently scrape off the old lettering. Unfortunatly it did still leave a shiny patch (so a coat of satin varnish will still be required), however it shifted a lot quicker than on my other King using Microsol. In fact I did find later on that a combination of the IPA first to remove the bulk, followed by the Microsol to shift the leftovers worked rather well.

The footplate lining was removed using the same method, except for those parts over rivets which refused to shift. In these places the lining was simply over painted with a tin of Humbrol Satin Black.

New transfers were added (HMRS) and it now awaits name plates (ordered from Modelmasters in their Black Friday sale.) I have removed the splasher / name assembly from the model to start working out how the hell I am going to fit the new name. At the moment I am thinking I will cut along the inner edge of the Hornby plate to remove the mount and splasher from the plate. then glue the new one in place behind it.
I do wish Modelmasters would just include a transfer for the lining (or better yet the splasher as well) so you can directly replace the Hornby...

While the model was on the work bench I also got on and completed another critical task, taking the model apart to fit a DCC decoder. I was pleasantly surprised how easy the job was. a Lenz Gold was soon plugged into position and it is now ready for testing...

While looking for the decoder I found an ESU sound decoder with two wires broken off that I had been trying to fix a couple of years ago. Now on the bench to have another crack at soldering them back on (before testing to see if I have fried it or not with my rubbish soldering!) If it works, it will get reblown with King sounds and fitted to King Richard I (otherwise it will probably get a TTS decoder). I want a couple of sound locos for my daughters to play with, and TTS should be perfectly adequate for that. Just so long as I dont end up wanting more full fat decoders for myself.....

One final note, I am now running out of G W R / G crest W HMRS transfers, but have 2 full sets of Great crest Western. Does anyone modelling the pre war period have the opposite problem with lots of unwanted G W R / G crest W transfers want to swap?