Cold weekend days in January have their uses. Last Saturday, for example gave me enough time to sort the numbering and glazing out on my DC kits/Bachmann Warship based 74. It still isn't finished, of course. There are little things to do like windscreen wipers, headcode blinds, cab handrails, touching up and weathering left to do, but the impression of what the finished machine will look like is there I think.

Most of the windows are simple rectangles with droplights for the cab and cab doors: easy enough. The front 'screens are slightly more tricky - the four required needed six attempts - but this isn't too difficult, it just needs care. This is a faff, but well worth it as I hope you can see in the accompanying picture.

1. Cut a strip of clear plastic a smidge wider than the widest point of the aperture. In this case, the windows were fairly consistent is shape and size (pattern making by Mike Edge - I suspect some etching might have been involved somewhere along the line), so one long strip was sufficient.

2. Mitre one of the corners very slightly with a NEW scalpel blade and round off with a file to match the 'square corner of the 'screen. This enables you to locate at least part of the window in the aperture for step 3.

3. While carefully holding the model in one hand and locating the glazing with the thumb of the same hand (you should be able to understand why there are no pictures of this bit!), mark out lines coinciding with the taper of the screens. You don't need to be too precise.

4. Put the model down and on a clean workbench - scrap A4 is good for this - and cut the marked lines, again, using a new blade, with a straight edge.

5. Offer the resulting peculiar shape to the aperture and repeat step 3. If you've removed too much glazing and there are voids, start again. Make more precise cutting marks and trim.

6. Mitre and round the top of the straight side to fit, and file the curved part, very gently, checking all the time, to check the fit. Be prepared to get it wrong and have to start over: do not settle for second-best and, when frustration sets in (note that 'when'), put the model down and do something else.

Finally, thanks to the Swaynton team (Brightspark of this parish included) for allowing me the indulgence, in the last half-hour of the Southampton show, to give it an airing. Just out and back, but still, it runs and has done so in public. On Swaynton, an ED of any stripe is an anachronism (by 8 or 9 years), though it is the right part of the world - the New Forest - but it's a delightful layout featuring some excellent modelling, especially the signalling and buildings. If you want to know more, there was a nice piece about it in MRJ 190 and a webpage here. The photo' below is not of great quality but I like it.

Adam