The Warship is now finally done. I expected this to take a few weeks when I started it last year, and its taken the best part of a year.

A spot of playing around with Helicon focus produced these black and white images, taken on my 2011 challenge Diorama entry. I'm not sure what a Warship is doing on a South Eastern section branchline, although it does have an interregional parcels headcode. Possibly it took a wrong turn at Reading.....

To sum up what I did to get this far:

• New wheels, from Alan Gibson, fitted to the original Bachmann OO gauge axles.
  
• Filled the gap around the cab windows.
  
• Reprofiled the cab roof, and the buffer beam skirts.
  
• Fitted Shawplan roof fans and walkways.
  
• Better sprung buffers, and bufferbeam detail.
  
• Scratchbuilt speedo.
  
• Etched Lamp irons and better nose handrails
  
• Fush glazed the bodyside and headcode box windows. One of the cab side windows was also filed out and replacement glazing fitted to have it part open.
  
• Repainted the ends, renumbered and fitted nameplates. I also painted head code box edges black, which makes them look the correct size (along with the replacement glazing).
  
• Weathered it to look suitably tatty, with tinted matt varnish.
  
• Removed the weird cab lighting that Bachmann provide.
  
• Fitted glazing bars to the cab side windows.
  

It was a lot of work, but I think the improvement in appearance, especially around front end, was worth it. It's not perfect, especially as the German inside framed V200 bogies are never going to look completely right in OO, but I'm happy with it.