One of the models that's survived with me down through numerous upheavals and house moves is this Hornby Battle of Britain class "Spitfire". It was a Christmas present in 1981 so will soon have been in my possession for forty years. 

The model was much anticipated as the original Triang-Hornby Spamcan had been out of the catalogue for some years and I had high hopes that Hornby would have used the gap to improve the product a bit. After all, this was the time when Airfix, Bachmann and even Lima were putting out models that, at least in looks and finish, were a huge step above what had been available before. Hornby had started to meet the competition with models like the Schools and Fowler 4MT that, for their time, were nice products. However, when the Spamcan reappeared not much had been done to it! I think there were shiny wheels, possibly a keeper plate with some incorrect brake blocks, and that was that. However, I did like mine and thought it looked good with a bit of weathering. I added rear cab sheets out of plastic card, filled in the sand box holes, and added front steps and some extra weight in the body.

Forty years on, and although I was still fond of the model, it had to be said that with its solid plastic deflectors and lack of brake gear, it couldn't stand muster next to one of the modern Hornby Spamcans from the early 2000s. I didn't fancy building a new chassis as I felt that we could rapidly get into Trigger's Broom territory! More importantly, and allowing for it being powered by an X04 motor, it still ran fine. So what to do? Ebay came to the rescue with the purchase of a vintage Crownline detailing kit intended for this very model! I'd been aware of such kits when I was younger but they were well out of range of my pocket money, not to mention skills!

Before tackling the body I thought I'd work on the chassis. There was no point doing anything else if this bit couldn't be made to work properly.

On with the brake gear! This already makes a huge difference in my opinion. The gear is a flimsy etch which needs to be glued to the Mazak chassis block. For added peace of mind with regards to short circuits, I first glued very thin acetate to the chassis block, then glued the etches onto that - the idea being that each half of brake gear is totally isolated from both the wheels and the chassis. The kit also includes proper slide bars, to replace the dummy plastic ones on the original model, as well as parts to adapt the piston rods into proper ones that fit into the slide bars.

Next I tacked the main work on the body. This involves some major surgery to the front end, but it's nothing too difficult. The solid deflectors are removed, blanking pieces are fitted in to replace the gap in the casing, and then nice etched deflectors can be fitted over the top. Along the way, the front of the loco, with the smokebox door, is also replaced by a new casting of the right width.

Throughout the process I tried to limit damage to the original moulding and paint job, as I felt I would save myself a lot of work if the basic Hornby finish could be preserved. For old time's sake I wanted to keep the name Spitfire.

The kit also includes replacement buffer beam and buffers, new castings for the ash-pan and bogie, and some etches to improve the look of various details on the body.

With the major work done, I indulged in some test-running. The loco was hooked up the fairly taxing "Pines Express", which is seven Bachmann mark 1 coaches which are somewhat on the heavy and draggy side. Other than some initial slipping, the Battle of Britain was well up to the task. Once run in, though, I imagine it will rarely be asked to pull such a heavy train.

More work followed with the addition of some of the more fragile parts, such as front steps and cylinder pipes. I also used some of the parts intended to improve the tender. Touch-up painting then ensued, using Railmatch malachite which was a fair match to the Hornby shade. To my eye, it looks almost bang-on but the camera inevitably picks up some variation in hue, as evidenced between the body and the deflectors.

The model very much still displays its Triang-Hornby heritage around the wheels and rods, but I feel that, taken as a whole, it's now far more at home among the more modern models - a testament to the basic body shape being very good, and in proportion. So there you go - nothing very clever, and very far from finescale modelling, but a nice way to keep an old loco in running condition.

Cheers and thanks for reading.