Hi everyone,

I've done some more detailing on this model, coal in the bunker,front and rear steps added, vacuum pipes, 3 link couplings, oh and leaf springs made and fitted.

The coal in the bunker is plastic stuff made by Peco. The front steps are metal ones cut from the RTR bogies I used for the Double Fairlie, the rear ones are for a Jinty they come from an etched set I got from Mainly trains. Vac pipes from Markits, Slater's 3 link couplings.

I made the leaf springs by cutting a strip of 0.25mm plasticard approx 1.5mm wide, cut into 20mm lengths, drilled 0.5mm through the center and threaded onto 0.45 brass wire bent 90 degrees on the end and secured with Superglue.

I cut each section down by around 1mm each end so that each section was 2mm smaller than the one above. I then drilled the top leaves each end 0.5mm and pushed through the same wire bent over square for the mountings.

Both outer wires were then trimmed flush with the bottom leaf, the center wire was left longer to go through the running plate, then trimmed flush underneath when the glue had set.

I had another little play around with the Jewelers Loup for the detailed photos, they aren't perfect by any means but at least they're closer up than the camera on it's own would achieve, here they are :-

The rather overlarge whistle made from a Biro pen nib

The etched brass steps bent up and soldered together

I've just received an email from Steve at Lonely Planet that the artwork for my nameplates has been done so hopefully I'll receive them by the end of the month.

more when they arrive

cheers for now.