I manage to straighten out the slide bar / motion plate etch and the whitemetal piston rods, I drilled the holes in the crossheads for the 12BA bolts and was hoping to get the chassis / wheels/ motion assembled. On close inspection of the chassis though it was obvious that the paintwork was flaking away, it has been applied without any sort of primer, so I decided to disassemble the chassis and strip the paint. I'm glad I did as it became also obvious that the paint was literally holding some of the bits together, not least the wheel bearings which fell out in the Nitromoors! I shudder to think what I'll find if I give the body the same treatment, but I think that that is the route I shall be following. So basically I think that far from having a part built kit that I can spend a few hours on to have a running loco I shall be starting it almost from scratch. Never mind you live and learn. One thing I will say - I was staggered to find that this kit costs ??200, to be fair that's complete with everything (I think), it still seems an awful lot of money for what's in the box.

I'm enjoying writing this blog, it certainly seems to be having the desired effect of keeping me interested in finishing something.Also despite me saying that it was basically just for me, I am grateful to those who do bother to look and especially to those who have left comments.