Well, it had to happen eventually.

After finishing my Met Bo-Bo and reworking my current rake of GC Robinson stock, I looked to my locomotives and specifically, the B5.

On the whole when I finished it I was pleased, but over the last few weeks the lining irked me, and after I remedied that by painting it out the grainy nature of the basic material started to annoy me.

There was only really one way out of this, save scrapping the whole thing and starting over. I removed the brass boiler fittings and the handrails (I've enough handrail knobs left over from the Met Bo-Bo to replace these with something better) and then set-to with the model filler. Once this had set I set-to with files and sandpaper to get a much smoother finish. I then painted it up in matt black (three thin coats so far) and added the ash ejector to the smokebox which I had forgotten before.... even in this now half-finished state it looks a lot better. It'll look even more so once I get the new handrails fitted... and I'm planning to have another go at the lining, though no idea how I'll do that yet.