Before moving northward I picked up a bargain couple of kits from John Dutfield in Chelmsford. The subject of this blog is the Ratio toad kit bought for £3. 

It is showing its age and 'requires' some uplifting procedures. I was inspired by Geoff Kent's upgrade of this kit in his 3rd book on the 4mm wagon. 

The kit has a nice shape to it but the handrails along the body side aare moulded and are fairly thick. Again, this is a matter for taste and their is little value in critiquing what I assume is a 40 odd year old kit. 

As ever, all handrails are scraped away using the scalpel. 

I am not very knowledgable about diagrams etc etc but Geoff points us in the right direction to what needs changing. 

The vertical L section on the sides of the cabin stop short for the type of vehicle being modelled. It is not a fault of the kit. These were extended with pladtikard. 

The end windows have sloping upper and lower cills so were scraped away and replaced with shaped plastikard. 

The footboard brackets are replaced with .8mm brass rod at the ends and .5mm brass for the central bits. On closer inspection of the prototype I think these might be made for L section. 

The new handrails are made from .45mm rod mounted on L section brackets made from brass section. 

The L section is drilled with a .5mm bit and the protusion length marked with pen. Then I fettled the piece to be mounted into the body with a mini cutting disc. 

The veranda doors or gates are not right and to model them open you need to build your own. This was made from .5mm plastikard cut into the frame shape of rectangle with diagonal brace (see the door on the far siee above) this was laminated with plastikard scribed with planks and .33mm wire used for the handrail. A new step was also built from plastikard. 

Inside the veranda a new brake handle, sander lever and bench were made. 

Underneath, sanding pipes were made from .8mm and .45mm rod. Brake gear was partially represented in .45mm rod and staples shaped to form the safety loops. 

Lanarkshire buffers finish things off nicely as usual and brass tube chimney re-sited on the roof. 

This will be painted unfitted grey and will join the Caia Road roster. 

Cheers for now. 

David