This is almost the current state of affairs (it's now had a scrub and is drying off as we speak!)

I've now got my head around the design of the etches. They are too wide because it's intended to use a Comet roof - I had to reprofile the ends to take the shortened Southern Pride Bulleid roof. This is much closer to the real thing.

The main problem from narrowing the body was that the chassis no longer fitted. As per Comet kits the chassis etch had an upward projecting strip to align the body sides and add strength. You can see it in this picture.

Removing this allows the body to sit on the chassis. This makes the chassis quite flimsy, so I had to add some cross members to the underside to keep it all parallel. It is now all straight - the curvature in this photo is down to my camera....

Bogies are spare Hornby ones from a cheap Maunsell First that is providing bits for this and other projects.

Next step is to add detailing.