Having received the Name plates and numbers for both the Double Fairlie and Lady Margaret I've spent some time today fixing them.

Previously I've used Hornby Satin Cote but it took a while to set, which resulted in the smokebox plate on the Gaiety pannier tank going askew slightly,[ something I have to put right sometime].

This time I thought I'd give Acrylic varnish a go, my thinking is that it would harden more rapidly and indeed it did. The first 2 nameplates I cut from the fret with a scalpel face up and un-beknown to me they bent slightly concave with my finger pressure and that only became apparent when I came to attach them to the body. After that I turned them face down to cut them and then placed them on two layers of kitchen paper and pressed with my index finger to assure they were slightly convex on the face side and that had the desired effect.

Both models now need a final coat of varnish to finish them off, in the photos you can see the difference between the Acrylic satin varnish and the Johnsons Klir

If you look at the photo of 1308 you can see where I've got the leading wheels fixed too far back they need to be moved forward about 5-6mm to come under the center of the leaf springs, another little 'to do' job.

I put a post on the questions section for info about the gearbox build for the Dubs crane and had some very useful advice from a couple of members, thanks very much for that help. I'll act upon it when I get back here, I'm off to the UK next week, I'm hoping to get to a couple of exhibitions and visit a couple of Railway Museums too, Swindon certainly as that's where I'm staying, haven't been there for years, London Transport Museum possibly and Didcot Engine Sheds. It's gonna be a busy month!

cheers for now.