Time for a final “pre-Warley†update, before some additional bits-and-pieces are acquired from somewhere within the cavernous interior of one of the NEC’s exhibition halls.

Bodyside sand container doors

Having fitted the new buffer shanks at the no.1 end, I moved onto cutting out holes for the bodyside sand filler hatches. These were cut out in the normal way, marking, drill out and file to shape. Marking was accomplished using Tamiya masking tape lain along the bodyside and vertically to define the longitudinal position… all checked against numerous prototype photographical references. This check actually identified that the bodyside number applied by Bachmann is far too low, especially for a mid 1970s depiction… and whilst there would be replaced post-paint, I decided to remove these now to prevent any further confusion their alignment might cause.

The photo shows the masking of the loco’s B side, with the holes and etches on the A side just visible from the inside.

One quite fiddly stage with these etch pieces was the folding over of the hinge pieces. Whilst they’re not too small, I found their slimness difficult to see properly when working in artificial light – the metal shine probably didn’t help. This is a fault with my eyesight and nothing else. It’s probably time to get one of those illuminated magnifiers and admit that age is creeping up on me. Once fitted, these looked very nice.

Boiler water filler hatch blanking plate

The shawplan etches provides two options here, you can either fit the boiler hatches, or the riveted plates that covered these hatches from the early 1970s (date not verified); some of these plates retained the catches which, if you need them, you’ll need to make up from something. I do for Nimbus, and will do sometime soon (hope I remember!) Later, these hatches were welded over and presented a conformal finish, in the same way as the sanding hatch covers disappeared. I’ll be using the cover plates, as this was how Nimbus appeared in the mid 70s to be depicted.

The areas to work were marked out in the same way as the sand container doors and drilled and filed to shape. The chamfered hole was the same height as the window holes and approximately, but not quite, square… centred on about the roof beading. These were glued in and “potted†from behind securely with Rocket Max

A further nose job

A feeling of encroaching doubt caused the next stage; a check of the no.2 end to which I’d fitted the bonnet-top doors made me believe that I’d got it wrong. I’d reprofiled the nose ends by eye with no real objective means of checking what I’d done, nevertheless, I thought that the no.1 end looked reasonable, but the no.2 didn’t… and so the bonnet top doors were carefully prised off with a sharp blade and a careful look at the shape taken. By looking at several side-on prototype photos, I found that the angle between the centre pillar of the windscreen and the bonnet top is about 120 degrees. I therefore made up a small plasticard template to act as a guide and set about reprofiling the bonnets again.

The no.2 end needed quite a bit of material removal (so I justified my action) and a little was removed from the no.1 end (I was closer, but not quite there). I also removed a little material in the curve-downs at the back of the bonnet, bringing the curve lower, nearer to the bottom of the side-window gutter. Once checked and cleaned up (a bit), I re-attached the bonnet top doors (3 times – didn’t get them straight initially; twice. Oops!), and I finally though that the front end now had a “Deltic†look about it. It was worth the effort.

Headcode brackets

With the final front-end sand container doors fitted, I fabricated the lower headcode brackets, attached by a 0.5mm hole drilled into the nose end, providing a nice tight fit to the fitting lug. These etches are quite fiddly, but exquisite if got right… mine are probably ok. Bent over and secured with some zap-a-gap run into the inside face to hold it together, these are then glued in place, secured again with zap-a-gap. As the photo shows, these are quite small.

Noting Brian Hanson’s photos on his fotopic site, I then filled the upper headcode bracket hole… the new etch will only need a small hole, and this can be drilled separately. I’ll also have to work out how to represent the upper bracket reinforcing plate bolts (three above upper bracket) when time comes to work on that… maybe drill out small holes and insert short length of 0.4mm wire cut and trimmed to length?

I grabbed a couple of photos to show the overall progress. She’ll need a really good clean before I even think about applying paint… but progress is being made and the Deltic shape has been improved; and yes, she’s worth it!

Next weekend, I will relieve Mr Hanson of some more bits and pieces and then (time permitting) I’ll continue with blog updates when there’s something to report. For now, that’s all!

To anyone else thinking about having a go at improving Bachmanns’ model, please consider looking into the fine etches offered; what I’m doing here will require a repaint of the whole body, but there’s much that you can do with careful patch painting of new hatches etc… and using the etch parts rather than scratch building parts (as I did before – see old thread) will give a much improved model

To anyone else planning a trip to the NEC next weekend… have a safe journey and enjoy the show.

Jon