The recent re-release of the Hornby BR  Clan Class was a blessing for many especially with the price of previous issues becoming prohibitive. The model had not been available for a number of years to compound this.

 

Like others I was surprised to find the running boards and rear of tender not painted black on either the late or early crest variations. This has been debated on the Hornby Clan thread.

 

Other issues have concerned a missing top lamp bracket on the smokebox door on a number of models. I was fortunate to pick one of these up from Derails recently for around the £150 region *. with excellent service from them as ever. Well recommended.

 

I took delivery of 72004 Clan MacDonald but wanted to renumber it to 72001 Clan Cameron. In addition to this I decided to spray in the missing black painted running boards and rear of tender.

 

Nameplates were obtained from Fox Transfers and Pacific Models provided the smoke box door number plate.

 

Tamiya masking tape is your friend here and I masked off the areas to be sprayed carefully ensuring all was sealed neatly.

 

Using Tamiya satin black I airbrushed in the the areas to be corrected. Carefully removing the masking tape revealed a neat job with a few areas needing rectification. 

 

 

I hand painted the screw reverser with Precision BR green which appears a good match for the Hornby green. 

 

 

The whistle and surrounding brass work was picked out with Citadel acrylics. 

 

 

Fox transfers London Midland 8 inch numerals made up the number sets with Tamiya masking tape ensuring a straight line. 

 

 

Once dry these were sealed with brush applied Johnson's Kleer along with the rest of the Hornby green painted areas to lift the flat paintwork. This also added some lustre and depth in the paintwork. 

 

 

A false floor was added to the tender bunker and real crushed coal was fixed with PVA.

 

 

 

The missing lamp iron was made from the Branson bent up staple method (BBUSM).

 

 

The excellent as ever Pacific Models number plate was cut out and glued on with PVA. The edges inked in with a black Sharpie permanent marker prior to this.

 

In the next instalment I will have put the Fox Transfers 'Clan Cameron' nameplates on and fitted the detailing pack.  Weathering will also be started/finished.

 

From a prototype perspective the earlier releases of the Clan's had a fitting attached to the driver's cab side. I think this was for a tablet catcher. Could anyone confirm this?  Also was it only the later build of Clan's to have this feature.

 

Another quandary surrounds nameplate background colours varying from black, green, light blue and possibly red. Can anyone enlighten me?

 

This has been a nice project so far and it has been good to remedy the missing black paintwork.

 

 

The BR Clan Class is a favourite of mine and more widely travelled than would be expected. Well worth looking at if you are modelling the Scottish and London Midland Region's. 

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

 

* Kernow Model Rail Centre have 72004 Clan MacDonald for sale at £159.00 if people are interested.