This should be the last entry on my two Western diesel-hydraulics for a while. The Heljan one, D1007 Western Talisman, now goes around my tightest curves, so it was time to patch up any damaged paintwork and weather the bogies, brake gear and skirts. The result is shown below. The leading brake blocks still need a little bit of wire or plastic rodding to anchor them more securely but it runs well as it stands.

The weathering used the now usual mixture of black, leather and metallic gunmetal in varying proportions.

In the meantime, I decided to try adding headcodes to the insides of the Kernow/Dapol Western, D1037 Western Musketeer, instead of the supplied externally applied self-adhesive labels. The spare Heljan ones would have been my ideal but they were a fraction large for the aperture, allowing for the thickness of the moulded clear plastic rims on the insides of the headcode 'glasses'. A bit of digging around showed that the Heljan class 53 (D0280, Falcon) printed headcodes would fit when suitably cut down to suit the split apertures of the Western. They are not perfect but look better to me than externally stuck on labels. See what you think.

I deliberately chose class 6 and class 8 headcodes to suit freight workings. As with everything else, compromise is needed as only two headcodes can be displayed while ten, or more, fitting trains are available for it to haul!