Around October 2016, I purchased a Hornby Terrier in BR black No. 32670 for a low price of £25. I currently own about 23 Terriers in OO gauge, which are in either pristine, unmodified condition or repainted/customised to resemble more uncommon liveries.

Upon bringing the locomotive home for further inspection, I found that it had been badly caked with an adhesive which reacted to the plastic on the bodyshell, thus melting it away. These glue patches were found on the cab floor (where a driver/fireman was glued down), on the bottom of the cab side panels (ruining the hand rails), and on the top of one of the tanks, where a lamp was glued.

Although the chassis was running, the blackened colour on the wheel tyres seemed to have been filed away (deliberate or not, I don't know), so they appeared in a more gold colour, which looked both unrealistic and horrid! The motor was also very dirty and covered in a mixture of dust and shards of wheel tyre plating.

Because of its poor condition, I decided to give the locomotive a complete makeover using some new techniques I had not previously applied to my other Terrier projects. Despite owning over 20 Terriers in OO, I had not yet purchased or modelled either of the two Terriers sold to the LSWR. I was not happy with the overall appearance of the Hornby Collector's Club Terrier "735" in LSWR green livery and thought that the unpainted details made the model look like a sloppy attempt.

In short: the plan was to restore this model cosmetically but recreate a livery which (in my view) would be a better attempt by that done by the bigger brand. To further differ my version from the Hornby one, I chose to number the locomotive "734" (originally LB&SCR 46 "Newington"), which was later sold to the Freshwater, Yarmouth and Newport Railway (FYN) on the Isle of Wight and is now preserved there.

I kicked off by stripping the bodyshell free of all detachable parts, which would give me easier access to places which would need filing and/or filling, particularly the glue spots. One of the footsteps also had to be reinforced with a small strip of plasticard it was coming loose from the bottom of the running board. I also decided to remove the dome as I planned to relocate it further back to make it more accurate to the prototype. The same would be applied to the tank filler caps.