Here's my take on 3717 City of Truro. I've always been a fan of the prototype as well as the Bachmann model and have fancied a model of it towards the end of it's career. A photo on the excellent Warwickshire Railway website shows 3717 in 1930 at Snow Hill waiting to pilot a train spurred me on and with the release by Bachmann of 3708 Kilarney the seed was sown.

Here's the prototype photo:

http://www.warwickshirerailways.com/gwr/gwrbsh43.htm

The main difference between the Bachmann model as it comes and the above photo is the addition of a larger 3500 gallon tender albeit with narrow frames. Thankfully the trusty Hornby 'County of Bedford' tender body fits the bill nicely and actually fits on the Bachmann tender chassis without modification. It will need gluing on though.

As you can see I've cut the moulded coal load away and added separate handrails. I've sprayed the tender with Precision GWR green and it just awaits the Great Western transfers as well as final weathering.

Here's the loco and tender coupled together. I've added weathering to 3717 using my usual washing and dry brushing techniques using Valejo acrylics. Nameplates come from Modelmaster and buffer beam numbers from Fox. I've blackened the connecting rods with Birchwood Casey Gun Blue. With the front bogie I've removed the coupling pocket and added a piece of Micro-strip to tidy things up.

Out of interest would the tender have had stays for the cab-tender sheeting/tarpaulin? If so any idea of the position?

Cheers,

Mark

Must clean my camera lens as well!