The latest Modelmasters order arrived a couple of days ago, and I've finally got around to fitting them last night.

First the King, the Hornby etchings were removed from the model and prepared for the new plates by distressing the area under the printed name. The new plate was carefully cut away from its splasher and then superglued into position on the Hornby splasher. The whole assembly was then glued into place on the model, along with the cab side plates. This process was then repeated for the other King, so rather than two of James I now have 6013 and 6027. Of course the tender wiring is still a complete mess so they still don't work..

Next was the black Grange, slightly different here as it has the older design of plastic nameplate. Much easier to work with, but not so well designed method of fixing to the footplate. Again the plate was snapped off the splasher, and the new plate (with its mount) was glued in place. The mount and plastic name were then trimmed back to match the smaller size of the new plates

Finally was the start of a new loco project, a few years back I picked up a basket case Hornby 2800 from eBay. It has a damaged roof and a broken loco to tender wiring connection. After picking it up for a bargain price it's been left in the box ever since. Last night I started trying to decide how to fix it. It's a debate between trying to reconnect wires to the Hornby plug or hard whirring a decoder into the boiler. The roof is now regular and just needs some filler. Once finished this will complete the heavy freight fleet along with the 3800, austerity and heavy tanks