BenL

Thanks for the link, Tom. As a postwar modeller, I have the Sherwood one on order as I’m sure the original artwork had the post-39 white diagonal stripe at the end door end - doesn’t seem to have made it onto the production model unfortunately.

Following advice from @Derails Models, they can be straightened by tweaking the ends where they join the axelboxes.

What would really help would be to model the coupling on the Bachmann short straight example, which has a shorter ‘base’ behind the fitting for the coupling hook. Fitting the Bachmann version does help noticeably reduce the gap and I swap these in on all my Rapido wagons, but this isn’t cheap!

A nice little bit of period graffiti on the solebar 👌 Was this from a photo or a little bit of creative licence?!

Really happy with it personally. From the prototype pic you can see that the wagon has only been patch painted - the old 16inch ‘G’ and ‘W’ have been painted over and a patch painted for the post-42 lettering to go on. The rest is the old, slightly peeling/distressed paint, which I aim to add with some strategic dry brushing. The marks already provided on the model will really add to the overall effect as far as I’m concerned and I’m glad they were provided. I have also been very impressed by the brake gear undergubbins on these models, a really exceptional rendition of the DCIII brake arrangement as far as I’m concerned.

My reading of that thread is that while bauxite was adopted during the war, the small ‘S’ prefix would have been a post-nationalisation feature. I’ve found a 1946 pic with one still in stone so it seems not all got the bauxite treatment during or immediately after the war.

I need to check the books, but I think we actually need the 12 inch MJT heads and I’m reliably informed that these haven’t been available for sometime. Plus they don’t have the collar that the Rapido-fitted heads have. So I wonder if Rapido might be kind enough to add some 12 inch heads with collars to an upcoming mould, or turn to a renowned purveyor of 3D printing to generate some. I for one would be happy to pay for such a replacement part. (I apologise to anyone who is offended by my continued wondering about the most efficient and easiest solution to this issue)

The smoke box on the new one also appears to have lost its rivets on the front and rear edges, or is this a prototypical feature?

The buffers weren’t right for the original models…

You don’t need to worry, I’ve never limited myself to tasks I don’t consider a tedious faff, I just reserve the right to consider some tasks a tedious faff

I think we’re all allowed to decide what bits of modelling we find fulfilling, and I think we’re also allowed to find some aspects of modelling a tedious faff if we want to.

I’ll decide what I’m grateful for, thanks

Hmmm, good idea, I guess one of these two could do the job: https://www.dartcastings.co.uk/mjt/2375.php https://www.dartcastings.co.uk/mjt/2371.php Though a bit of a tedious faff when you’ve ordered quite a few of the wagons that need this mod!

Ideally it would be good to be able to replace just the bit of the head that is a separate part rather than the whole buffer - I wonder if there’s a 3D printing expert out there who could fashion a replacement head?

The fitting of the safety valve cover looks better, and no apparent chips, on the other examples on the Rails site, so looks like it’s just an issue with this particular individual.