I'm quite pleased with how this model has turned out:

I found that I had some small difficulty with the floor and the sides having warped slightly, however the majority of this eased back out once I had started building (I think there is a crack along the joint between the body and the solebars which is a result of this, but that's not exactly visible unless you go looking for it).

The whole model was pretty much built as-per the instructions; I swapped out the kit bogies for Bachmann Thompson ones and added a false floor to build the interior of off, but that was about as far as I took any alteration to the kit. I would have liked (in an ideal world) to add toplight windows and a wire truss frame (making this one of the Great Northern-built examples) but this appeared to me at the time to be too intricate (if I get another, who knows?).

The teak effect took a bit of work to get right but was definitely worth it. My eventual solution was to use matt brown undercoats, a thin gloss brown topcoat, gloss varnish and then satin varnish. I've now gone out and bought a couple of tins of satin and gloss brown paints of varying hues and tones to hopefully make this an easier job in the future.

Lining out was done with a lining pen and gloss yellow, and transfers as usual are from the HMRS range. Now to get on with the rest of the five-car rake it will eventually be a part of...