Finished the last bits of detailing so it was time for a bit of paint which was pretty easy as this kit splits into really useful sections. After a coat of grey primer, I started with the frames, a tin of Humbrol track dirt, an old stiff brush and plenty of talcum powder. Being rather taken by the results I carried on but swapped to some olive green. For someone who has been proudly spraying locos for quite some time going back to a brush was quite a shock for me but really pleased with the results. The technique is more akin to dry brushing really with a small amount of paint being taken up from a palette then dunked in talc and then sort of stippled onto the model. No brush marks result just a lovely, almost pre weathered matt finish. See for yourself;

After a not terribly necessary coat of matt varnish couplings were fitted and I ran up some USA letters and numbers. 'Ran up on the computer' - these are words that normally cause an impending sense of doom in me when I read it in articles. All to often the results are bland and just look completely wrong with just a standard font which is completely inappropriate. Well not here (I hope!). I used the example at the lovely Tacot des Lacs in France as a guide, found a font that looked promising and then spent ages squishing, squashing, adding bits, and removing bits in PhotoShop. Final touch were some cab curtains made from paint soaked tissue and held up with paper straps. There were some etched straps in the kit but found these impossible to use. So here we have a rather fine model;

No there is just one problem - the bloody thing ( can I say bloody? Yes I think I can. Bloody, Bloody, Bloody!), just doesn't work!. It rolled along just fine with the wheels connected and even when I fitted the jack shaft rods but when I fitted the motor it keeps going out of quarter and jamming. The problem seems to be that the cranks are rotating on the axles and in act one has not fallen off completely. They are meant to be a push fit and I have been really careful and they have only been put on once so pretty annoying. I did try to fix the one that came off with some Loctite 603 I have but this has not done the trick at all and just came off again. Am considering tying to pack out the axles by super gluing some thin paper around the ends in an attempt to get more grip. Has anyone got any other suggestions? Am going to put it down for a bit to cool off and have a look at something else.