Since my old man has decided to go on his jollies for a week, iv been press ganged into feeding his two EM2 themed moggies. I havnt seen them for a couple of days so lord knows where they have got to. but with him being out of the way it has left me with a lovely empty house for me to have some peace and quiet to crack on with a few of me old stalled project and also the latest deltic.

Progress has been slow with the Deltic, a weekend pencilled in to crack on was scrubbed out for a 'couple' of afternon drinks round York which ended up being a weekend in York with a very worrying incident involving a hen do from Redcar, least said about that the better....... anyway heres where im at at the mo, this ones shaping up to be Pinza circa 1978, pre man of kent tour, no sandbox covers but still with domino headcodes.

New handrails are in, and the bulk of the lovely shawplan etchings are in/on the body, most of the wok tonight was getting the fan grilles in and after much swearing and superglued fingers there in (on?) Lovely ectches but being so fine its a juggling act as to how much glue you dare to use i just hope theyl stick on long enought to get some primer on.

The windscreen surrounds are finally on and again they are such an improvement, the bonet top doors are on now as well. I reprofiled the bonnet top by eye, looks fine for now just hope a coat of primer doesnt show anything up if iv gone too far or not enough but im happy so far......

Kick plates and lifting point covers are on as well, looking pretty smart as well in their stainless glory seems a shame to paint over them now. I added a small hook into the recess's which you can just make out, a little over scale but once painted and weathered in theyl be fine and just noticable as a little extra detail.

Still plenty to do, lamp irons & headcode brackets are next to go on then i might give her a coat and see whats what but im happy with the job so far.

Iv started hacking up the chassis chopping, opening up the gap between the tanks to give the impression the tanks are held on by the body. The improvement is worth the effort, even if it is a bit laborious and dangerous when the scalpel slips...

Loads still to do on the chassis, plenty more drilling and slicing before any pipework will be added, also the etched bufferbem will be installed once alot of the 'manhandling' is out the way. The gaping hole i hacked out will be to fit a bass reflex speaker when i get saved up for sound chip and will be tidied up later.

Thats pretty much it for Pinza, but having a bit of time on my hands iv revisited a couple of cut & shuts that have been gathering dust for a while.

Firstly i finally got the super deltic 50 cabs stripped and the windscreens sorted, the body was in a right old state being a patchwork of 50 grills and scrap western grills as well, i think i did a blog a while back and literally havnt touched it since so out came the sand paper again for a good rub down, a quick rinse and another coat of primer and i think its starting to look how i imagined it could be:

Its only a bit of fun but im quite pleased with how its shaping up, new hand need adding and more sanding filling but itl look the part in work stained blue (fingers crossed)

And finally for tonight, heres a couple of pics of my green 'super hymek' to go with the maroon and blue ones, great way to use up triang hymeks and lima deltic chassis! this ones been loitering on a shelf for nigh on a year so it should be on the rails by the weekend as soon as i finish the yellow ends and get some transfers on, oh and iv still got to add the names i bought for all 3 so a naming ceremony is in the offing at Bilton TMD this weekend all being well.

Thanks for looking any comments always appreciated, just realised its a bit long as well, so thanks if youve stuck with my wittering tonight, time for a kip.

Cheers

James