Work on D6723 continues. As construction of the body proceeded, I repeatedly offered it up to the Bachmann chassis to make sure everything fitted. I removed the moulded ends from the Bachmann chassis,and also the circuit board from the top of the chassis. I had discarded the lights, and I don't use DCC so the circuit board was superfluous, and its removal gave me more space at the top of the chassis for fitting the body.

The trial fits of the body with modified tumblehomes empasised the fact that the moulded sideframes on the Bachmann chassis were too wide. I narrowed these by removing the sideframes with a razor saw, cleanig up the parts,and reassembling them. The width of the saw cut gives sufficient narrowing. The brake cylinders on the Bachmann bogies looked a bit underfed,though I think Bachmann may have addressed this on later models. I intend to replace mine. The best option appears to be cylinders from the Hornbyclass 50, if you can get them, but unfortunalely I don't think these are available as spares. I have decided to use Roundhouse ones, and am currently awaiting delivery of these. The plan is eventally to fit new brake cylinders, together with the actuating chains for the hand brakes. At the same time, I will improve the bogie steps, and fit a speedometer. For the moment I have just narrowed the sideframes, and painted them.

After priming, the sideframes were sprayed with a mixture of matt black and dark earth Tamiya acrylics. The springs were picked out in semi-gloss black, and dry brushed with a mixture of NATO black and dark earth to highlight the coils. The sideframes were then sprayed with Modelmates weathering dye (mud brown), most of which was immediately wiiped off with a damp cotton bud, which emphasised the detail. (Thanks to Ian at Antics in Plymouth for showing me this)

I spent a lot of time studying the fuel tanks before deciding how to tackle them. The tanks on the Bachmann chassis are a one piece moulding. On the prototype,there are seperate tanks, linked by pipes, and suspended from brackets. I found these photographs helpful while considering what to do:

http://www.brianhans...t/c1481786.html

http://eastmoor.blog...37-details.html

After taking a deep breath, and making myself feelparticularly brave I cut the tank moulding from the pastic part of the chassis (there wasn't a lot left of it by then) I separated them into separate tanks, and filled the resultant gaps in the tanks with 40 thou black plasticard. I then cut a rectangle of 40 thou black plasticard to form a base for the tanks and reassembled the tanks on these. The brackets between the tanks and at either end were made from plasticard and plastic strip.

Apologies for the first photograph being slightly out of focus, but I wanted to show the resultant daylight round the tanks, and I couldn't get the focussing on the camera to improve.

The tanks were agian sprayed with a mixture of Tamiya matt black and dark earth,with a spray of Modelmates dye. The steps were picked out in NATO black,and then drybrushed with Humbrol polished steel, and a Tamiya black/earth mix.

Fuel spillage on the smaller tank was done by painting a patch matt black, and then overpainting part of that patch with semi gloss black,before lightly spraying the whole thing with dark earth.