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The buffers and their shanks haven't been painted. The Bachmann LNER spares come in that colour. Therefore they are as springy as the day they were made. The resin components have actually got a coating of grey undercoat underneath the black. Yes, the valve gear works. Yes, after a fashion (hence the word "crude" used in the blog post). The A2 crossheads are spares I obtained from Bachmann and have been shaped to match the V2 set so that a correct fit for the V2 valve gear can be obtained. Is it good looking? No not particularly, but it works. It's not perfect, I never claimed so, but it works and I am content enough with that. I have said previously that I haven't the skills yet to tackle a full conversion of the valve gear, and that I will in time do so when I have the skills. The V2 valve gear was cheap, fits surprisingly well, and works when combined with a few A2 bits and pieces.

looks good, you seem to be getting a good atmosphere, I need to get a layout and play trains sometimes.

Hi Stephen, looks impressive. You mention the two white stripes alog the car, have you considered decals? Both Fox Transfers and Microscale do packs of white stripes in various thicknesses. Nick

Hi Will the 1500 really captures the 'chunky' look. Also looking forward to seeing the 'new bridge' - must be a lady, getting all dressed up! Regs Ian

Green with Envy Tom... That looks terrific.

That looks bang on for the pic you posted previously. Worth persevering!

It maybe the camera . Your front buffers are reaching for the sky. I had the same problem on mine it was due to the resin casting being too long where it meets the chassis,. As a result it was pushing the front of the footplate upwards. Easy cure cut the bottom off the offending resin part, there is enough resin left for the securing screw. In case you dont know DMR do the smoke deflectors for £2.00

I think it depends on the effect you want with the grass, with a powerful homebrewed (fly-swat/cattle prod) device you can get each strand of static grass standing to attention in a very regular fashion. I suspect even more so if you invest an a proper contraption. However, if you are content for your grass to be a little more haphazard, with some bits sticking up, some sideways, and some still sat sideways: a bit like real grass blown by the wind with mulch and dead grass lying in amongst it; a party balloon worth at most a penny or two will suffice. Simply sprinkle the grass onto a bed of fairly dilute pva. Inflate a balloon, rub it repeatedly on the carpet or wooly jumper for just a few seconds, then wave it over the bed of grass. You need to get close. There will be a noise like rain on a tin roof as some of the bits of grass are torn from the glue and stick to the balloon, but a good number of them will do the trick and stand up. You will get a thin covering of grass strands on the balloon itself, and these are hard to reliably harvest back into the packet, so this might be a part of the method that is wasteful. It does work more effectively with quite long strands of static grass, the shorter cut variety maybe needs more of an attractive force. I will try to get a closeup pic to show the effect, not the full 'static grass' experience, but maybe perfect for a number of scenic applications.