A little more work on 45072.

Having looked at some more prototype photos it looks like 45072 had a black headstock (whereas the base model I am working on was red). So today it was out with the black paint to correct this.

Once that was dry the next job was to make a start on the bufferbeam detailing.

Again working from photos the 5 pipes were added, air and vac pipes were from Heljan (Class 47 parts) and the air control pipes were Vi Trains. This gives the prototypical look with different thickness pipes. (shown off rather nicely on this prototype photo http://jaspersrailphotographs.fotopic.net/p52978325.html

Finally the Shawplan lifting brackets were modified slightly to give a little more clearance on the inner brackets (To clear the extra bogie swing from Bachmann's dodgy bogie pivot design), finally this was given a coat of black paint.

Still going to be a lot more work on this required before I'm happy with it (for a start the grill on the left hand side of the photo next to the number needs to be plated over.) But on this I am waiting to see what Shawplan follow up their current peak components with. I have made a start on the cab fronts, removing the moulded on handrails in preparation for replacement with wire ones.

Once all the body modifications are complete, I plan on a full respray (hence why I havent bothered correcting the over large BR logo) and using it to experiment with some weathering on it to get it looking something like this: http://carls1980s.fotopic.net/p17722111.html