The project I undertook as a quick diversion ended up, like all the rest of my projects, languishing in an unfinished state for quite some time. However, spurred on by the desire to take a couple of locos to the weather course at Pendon the other weekend I actually made a push to finish it off. All it needed was plates, transfers and some bits that had been painted separately to be attached.

I also needed to do something about the bright brake gear I had added, it was still raw nickel silver, so that was chemically blackened at the same time, along with the coupling rods. As you can see it probably still needs a second application and the transfers have not sat down well on the paint finish. In the end I did not get around to weathering it, so I can still take some time to do the last few bits of finishing. It was painted with LifeColour acrylics, with the transfer applied straight to the paint finish. In retrospect I should probably have given it a high gloss finish for the transfers to adhere to and them sprayed it with Dullcote afterwards. Given that I think the transfer look too low, I may replace them and redo it, so maybe that will be my chance to get it right - transfers always end up looking wrong to me.

It also now has a DCC decoder fitted, which coupled with the weight of the white metal loco, a good motor and gearbox arrangement and a reasonably square chassis, has resulted in a very nice, slow running loco.

I have yet to decide on coupling arrangements, I have been playing with Dingham couplings for my shunting puzzle and may outfit this local for those. The other options are Sprat & Winkles or tension lock bars. I need to think about it as I now have stock with all three type of coupling - I can see some barrier wagons in the offing so that I can convert between the different couplings.