Several months ago I bought somebody else's hackbash of Robinson's 4-cylinder behemoth of 1917. It was described when I bought it as being built from parts of a Triang Princess, however it was running on a chassis from a Hall on wheels from a Black 5! A real mish-mash then.

After buying it I replaced the driving wheels and the bogie, and then I put it away for a while.

Over the long weekend I started work on it again.

The model in as-bought condition.

After replacement of the driving wheels and bogie...

.... and today, after a weekend's work on it.

From front to back I have replaced the Triang buffers with some Craftsman Robinson oval-pattern ones, I've rebuilt the front frames to more closely follow the B3, I've built new slidebar frames (for want of a better expression) from plastic sheet, the dome has been replaced with a low-pattern Robinson version from the spares box and the cab roof has been lowered in profile. Much better, I think. It will look better still with frames reinstated over the bogie and to the rear of the cylinders.

Plainly this model is only going to be good as a 'lookslikea' B3, rather than a mm-perfect replica. But to be honest I rather like to think of it like that. It fits with the rest of my collection in that fashion, and given a choice between an imperfect Robinson 4-cylinder machine or none at all....