I've finished, for a given value of finished.... there is always more to do or bits to improve as and when time permits and my skills get better.

So, this is how 'King Edward VII' looked when I first finished her (him?) back in January....

Some may remember it from a post I made in one of the sub-forums describing how I bashed it from a B12.

Now at the time, I was really pleased with that. But then little things started to irk me- like the wonky handrail and the lining on the cab (once noticed it couldn't be ignored). Also the boiler looking a bit patchy in places, and the splashers were too thin.

Yesterday I said that the plan was to make a few small alterations, like a more robust fixing for the pony truck and replacing the handrails. Well, that was supposed to take the weekend but instead I managed to finish it all in a day. Looking at the model this morning I thought 'that looks a lot better, it's just marred by....'

Long story short, I very gently pulled my new handrails off and then set-to with some fine grade sandpaper. I removed the lining transfers to the boiler, the paper boiler bands and the worst of the lumps and bumps on the boiler barrel. I then gave the boiler a bit of a repaint (1 coat of leaf green and 2 coats of apple), and then touched in areas that looked a little 'grotty'.

Since building the model originally I've been lucky enough to buy a couple of good books on Robinson locomotives, and the cab front on my model was a bit weak. So what I did was to make a partial new cab front in paper and glued it to the original plastic example. I then very carefully cut some spectacle surrounds out of the same material and painted them brass. They're a bit overscale but they look the part. I also took the opportunity to replace the safety valves. I'd originally fitted a pair of Ross Pop valves but with my new references it seems that they were only fitted in the 1930s and 40s. Not good for a model of a loco in its 1920s guise. I had a Craftsman whitemetal Robinson safety valve cover in my spares box, and I fitted that instead. The visual impact of such a tiny change is suprisingly huge.

The final job was to replace the boiler bands. I didn't much fancy the 'faff' of using transfers again- I can't say I was in the mood for it this morning. So I did a little experiment I'd had in mind for some time. I took a sheet of paper and marked some lines at 1mm intervals in pencil. Then I took a biro and lined down the middle of the white gap between them. The trick is to understand that the ruler needs to be offset a little to take allowance for the thickness of the black line and the body of the pen- 1.5 to 2mm is perfect. The effect when applied to the model is really every bit as good as a transfer.

Anyway, here are some photos of the finished model (before varnishing and weathering)....