We're getting there with 62768! I've put it into a black matt coat, and will varnish the areas where there are to be transfers applied. The camera does show up a few areas to sand down again - the steps, for example, so we're not quite ready to shout "finished!" by any means.

This is where we were a day ago, with the model unpainted and with the steps, new buffers and bufferbeam detail newly added. In hindsight I should have sanded it down more, but that can be done when the Archers rivets arrive next week in the final stages of the build.

I sprayed the body the same matt black I applied to the tender, and have temporarily fitted the nameplates, worksplates, safety valves, whistle and cab glazing to get a feel of how it is going to look when finished.

I'm much happier with where I am with it this week than I was last week. Working away from home has meant that modelling time has been very limited, almost to a few snatched hours at night on a Friday or Saturday before trudging back to High Wycombe in the car Monday morning.

Is it a perfect recreation of the lone Thompson D Class? No, definitely not. Is it a decent representation? I think so, in so much that as a budget conversion, it's the best I could do currently, though hopefully lessons learned from this build can be applied to the next couple of ready to run conversions I have planned.

Next jobs are addition of the rivets, sand down the steps carefully, and repaint areas required, before applying the transfers, weathering and sealing the finish thereafter.

So, a small update on a project I am thoroughly enjoying.

Until next time.