Am absolutely cracking on with the little Simplex. Played it with a bit when I should have been concentrating on getting some lunch and soldered up the bonnet. I seem to remember having terrible trouble and lots of burned fingers when I did the last one but must have got a lot better at soldering as this went together really easily. There were a couple of gaps but filled these with low melt solder and filled back so this little loco is still a filler free zone.

Had another go this evening and now almost finished. Note in this picture the large sacrificial strengthener has been removed. I have also filled the inside of the seat box with lead shot, held in place with super glue. This is a very small and light model so need to fill every possible space with lead.

The next, slightly fuzzy pic shows the Ice Cube speaker in place next to the motor. I don't have a sound decoder that will fit at the moment but when I can find £100 (Gulp!), I will get a CT SL76 decoder which will fit nicely. Is a good idea to make sure everything is running OK first anyway as don't want to blow up one of those straight away!

And here it is all together. All I have to do now is fit the brake wheel and support and the pedals, oh and the pick ups and couplings (which I hate fitting almost as much as pick ups!). Another feature of this rather nice Nigel Lawton kit is that so many of the small or fiddly bits are duplicated on the etch so you can mess one up or loose one and it isn't a disaster. Good job really as the hand brake column has just gone a bit pear shape (literally!)!