After watching the Bicester DVD its bacome very obvious that these locos were fitted with flashing beacons on the roof. And there are 2 round vents? up there as well. The vents should be straightforward being just flat discs, the only problem estimating the size and position, but as for the beacon...

There are, as I see it, 4 options;

1, leave it off. Trouble is I've already told you... These seem to have been removed at some stage, possibly when the locos were painted purple with white stripes... But I want a green one.

2, make one out of plastic and paint it orange. Nice and easy. My locos tend to live in boxes and rarely move so a working one is a bit pointless. And it saves me searching for funny electricky bits.

3, fit a flashing one. I looked at a couple of battery powered flash units at Stafford, neither would fit in the bonnet even if it wasn't partially filled with lead. Connecting one up to the motor wouldn't work even if the voltage was right as LEDs, being diodes and only working with the power in one direction, would only work if the loco was moving in one direction. (I might be wrong about that bit, failed electronics at school). DCC is not an option right now, I'm somewhat behind with technology, I've only just got a digital camera! Anyway, probably a complicated option.

4, fit an LED and leave the wires unconnected. Which means that it could be made to work at a later date and the LED should, if its something close to scale size (anyone know how big beacons are?) look like a beacon rather than a piece of painted plastic.

Decisions...

Anyway, apart from that here's a list of jobs that need doing;

Sort out the exhaust. I'm sure theres a pipe inside that casing that sits slightly proud of the top. And fill the gap around the casing.

Fit the air horns to the roof after making some little L shaped brackets for them.

Fit the resin detail parts - hornstays, axleboxes, fuel and rad. fillers, seats, control desk, air filter.

Fit the door hinges - super fiddly!

Fit the cheetahs...

Fit sandpipes except that I'm not sure what they look like. The easy option is straight brass rod, the other option is to find a decent photo and try to replicate how they bend, failed to find that photo so far... and I'm sure no one will know if there wrong.

Fit sandbox lids.

Fit the brake shoes. There aren't any, its disc braked! More locos should be...

Paint. This could take a while as the weather here is, well, grim on a good day and I'm not keen on spraying indoors if my wife is at home.

Buffers, pipes and lifting lugs will be added after painting, as will the side window frames.

Find some nice fine Instanter couplings.

Once I've decided what I'm going to do with the beacon and the sandpipes I'll press on, until then it waits...

Sorry, no photos today.