Every so often, when I show photos of my layout progress, someone will observe and comment on the cream coloured, raw resin 2-car unit sitting on some track in the background on the upper level. This is a Bulleid-style, BR-built 2 HAP unit, utilising resin body shells and seat units from Ayjay Models (bought through Radley Models), sitting on Hornby 2 BIL chassis bought cheaply when Kernow Model Rail Centre had the Southern Railway liveried examples on sale.

I have finally started cleaning up the body shells and seat units with files, and primed and painted them. I have also cut off the moulded on jumper cables on the cab fronts, although these are not too badly done by Ayjay. I still prefer to use finer wire for the cables.

This unit is going into BR blue with full yellow ends. I would prefer the full blue and grey, which suited these trains quite well, but for the time period I wish to represent, blue fits better, drab as it is. The yellow is not yet the final shade as I have used Humbrol #69 for the base coats. I'll use proper BR warning panel yellow for the final coat. I have painted a wood colour for the interior walls and partitions (not sure if they were wood or plastic finishes on this batch of HAPs), and a light green for the cab interiors, but haven't done the seat colours yet. I thought perhaps a mid-grey for the second class seating (BR's 'Trojan" pattern) but am debating what colour for the first class upholstery: blue, black or orange, maybe?

I am still to add the handrails for the cab fronts and guard's doors, as well as the jumper cables. I may replace the moulded on horns with brass or white metal versions I have in stock. The kit comes with both horns and a whistle moulded on, so the modeller just has to cut off the bits he (or she) does not want.

Anyway, enough waffle; here are the photos as it goes until now. Please note that I have perched the freshly painted bodies on the wrong chassis for the last two photos in this sequence!

The seat units had to be modified a little to fit the Hornby chassis. This mostly involved a milling wheel on the Dremel tool to grind away the clearances, but also included a couple of holes drilled to clear the projecting components of the Lenz decoder sitting under the seats of the DMBS.

And finally, one photo with the body shells on the correct chassis!

Once the Bachmann BR Standard-style 2 HAPs become available, I look forward to mixing the types together in multiple. The Hornby mechanism makes this a lot easier than if I had used the original resin chassis and Black Beetle or Tenshodo SPUD motors.