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This'll show my age but the other thing I associate with that Christmas is Peter Davison taking over from Tom Baker as Doctor Who! Davison's first episode aired early in the New Year I think, but there was considerable build-up to it over the festive period. I also got a Badger 200 airbrush that Christmas, which I still own.

I very much enjoy improving old RTR models and this is a great example. Plus it has history with you!

Looks very nice indeed and nice to see a loco that meant so much being given as a present 40 years ago still being cherished. Nice layout too !

i suppose the difference is that I aim to create the main box and cylindrical shapes by extruding directly from drawings. It's not too difficult to make scaling adjustments in the computer, to compensate for errors in the drawings. The major difficulties arise when the drawings are incorrect in the placement or dimensions of specific features. in the end it's a personal matter how far we wish to take things but no-one wants to make things incorrectly, if better information is out there somewhere.

I completely agree with everyone. I've been lucky with the GNR locos I've done that I have the Bird book on GNR locos, which contain profile drawings and some measurements, Groves, who also did a (much) more recent survey of GNR locos with no drawings, but a lot more measurements and detail changes, and on occasion, Isinglass drawings. The measurements are mostly consistent, so I tend to start by boxing in the big shapes using measurements only and superimposing those on the Bird or Isinglass drawing. Once the bigger blocks are filled in, I start on the details using measurements, if I have them for those parts, and then photos to fine tune/fill in gaps. As you say, it can be more of an art than a science. I'm currently looking at GNR L1 No. 125. I've only found 1 photo, and that doesn't indicate which of two possible smokebox fronts and doors it has, so I'll try to make informed guesses and using a photo of a different numbered loco as a guide for that area. Although the loco below is right per the drawings and initial measurements, it's wrong per the photo I have (for a start, the cab on this one was increased in height by 10"), so will have to be changed. cheers Jason

Hi Al, Looks great. To help make the Railmatch Malachite match the Hornby finish even closer I mask the rest of the model and give the Railmatch area a coat of Railmatch satin varnish from one of their rattle cans, it gives a similar finish to the factory finish and changes the malachite colour slightly to make it a closer match.

Thank you Mikkel - making the model has changed my mind about these engines and I now think they are rather handsome. I'm still simply enjoying exploring what I can do with 3D modelling. I haven't given any thought to actually running any of these models and they may well remain as 'display' items. All the photos were taken without any significant cleaning up of the prints, apart from removing obvious loose strands and the like. I think the wheels would need proper metal rims to make working models.

I too have found anomalies when putting drawings into Fusion, which of course can measure down to an amazing number of decimal places! I think some of the issues are down to the thickness of the pen/pencil lines abs others due to the impossibility of the human hand matching CAD precision. Then of course you can throw in parallax errors from photos and photos of drawings! My work in progress of a Hawthorn class saddle tank looks different to the drawing, but matches the measurements - all due to parallax issues when the drawing were photographed. Mitigation? Measurements and pictures combined with drawings; and remember absolute fidelity is impossible no matter what sone might think. There is always a compromise! Duncan

It does look good, nothing particularly ugly about it. I'm impressed that you managed to do the outside flanges on the wheels. Might they need some sanding etc to go through pointwork?