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That’s a shame, I have all the 47s I need (cough, famous last words, etc……).

The SLW one is about as close to perfection as you’ll get, but I’ll echo others on here re the Bachmann one, and I look forward to receiving mine, safe in the knowledge that I have an SLW Ice Cream van on order.

They 87 ones are a little too thick, but the advantage is that separate mouldings can be removed and amended without disrupting the paint, which on the grey band of the executive livery one may be problematic. It’s not insurmountable if the factory paint’s a good match to Railmatch, but the masking off round the front can be tricky. My first attempts at modelling these on the class 86 in my profile pic were from fuse wire and are too thick. Here’s a better pic below. However I found that the bit of wire you get in those sandwich bag ties is a better look. My 47/7 has these, though in hindsight the cables should be a touch longer. Edited to add that both cable solutions above are quite robust, as the ends are glued into holes, so a note for any manufacturer is to perhaps look into making the cables out of blackened steel wire and use the approach above.

I’m collecting each main type of 24 and 25, so got myself a 24/1 a month or two back. I was so impressed that I have Experiment on order. I missed the SLW one, alas but this looks almost as good. The decision is to be made on whether to go for the SLW or Bachmann 25/1 when they’re released.

That pic shows just why I do not like the moulded cables (or other details) on a currently produced model. I’d pay the little bit of extra money for the separate fixtures too.

For the 40/50 debate, the latest Bachmann 40 is pretty good dimensionally these days, but the Hornby 50 is out by an amount, mainly around the cabs, so I’d love to see you do the 50. Also a class 304/5/8/504 EMU would be lovely as those cab windows are a devil to get right if you go down the DC kits/ replica suburban route.

Great news. Will have to make my way over there when it’s done.

Or t'other way round...

Been working on my Choppers (no laughing, please at the back!). 132 is a respray from a green'un. 063 is out of the box, but weathered. Both have had flush cabside windows added. 132 may just get weathered a little, bit it is technically ex-works right now.

Stellar work there, dmu 156. I think this is worthy of its own thread in the Skills area for reference. Will have to get to Chester too.

I think the main problem is what appears to be the perfect symmetry of the cables on the model. In real life they were subtly different, or all over the place if they weren't reattached properly after use!

That skill can be learnt, your eye for detail is a good place to start.

I’ll get me scalpel, plus the wire from the inside of sandwich bag ties makes for good cables. At least the other fittings look OK, the Hattons pic sold it short. From the example picture of the real thing, the executive one has just the older-style MW jumpers on it anyway. 86426 looked a right dogs dinner in service with both, so look forward to seeing what you make with that one.

And it’s not a dig at Heljan. Far from it. I have lots of their products and will continue to keep buying them, including the new 86s when they come out. The 86s are one of my favourite locos of all time.

Ooh, that’s better! One request I have is if the cables themselves could be separate fittings rather than moulded, though I will replace mine if not.

I think the full yellow end was adopted on those that didn’t have a headlight fitted originally, however the lines became blurred later, and some were still outshopped with the grey band very late in the 80s, the original 86501 (ex-86258) being one of them. As for the front end detail, I have 2 on order, and would prefer for them to be as close as possible, hence the feedback given, rather than keeping quiet and they end up staying like that. Especially as removing and replacing details on the executive liveried one will be trickier than on a plain yellow end, though it would perhaps become a full yellow end in the process. However I do prefer the look of the grey band after years of banger blue.

There’s bolt heads, but the former MU blanking plates and the upper RCH plates need to be raised compared to the rest of the cab front. I hope the old style MU-fitted ones have separate fittings, plus the early RCH fittings were positioned slightly differently.

On reflection, so near and yet so far.

Ooh, I didn’t notice the rainstrips. Though I have a fix for that.

Echoing other comments re the jumper cables. May be a deal breaker for the heritage blue one, though they may scrub off, and I'm becoming a dab hand at scratchbuilding them. The intercity one is slightly earlier vintage, so will wait and see for that one. It does look good apart from the end details.

A Lima Goyle got completed today

I quite fancy going down the Hornby/PH designs route as I enjoy that part of the hobby the most. I have a couple of 20s and 31s to finish first, though in the next couple of weeks. But I’m not too fussed about sound, lights or DCC at this point. If at some point the layout gets incorporated into something bigger, then that will all change, of course.

The last of today's pics

….although…. http://www.phd-design-etchings.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=25_28_63&product_id=99

I haven’t got one of those yet, as they were a little after the original era I was going to model. However I since blurred the lines a bit and I keep eyeing up that Bachmann Belgian livery one and rubbing my thighs in a Vic Reeves stylee! If they’re still available come payday, I may just avail myself of one. I did think about the Hornby ones, but the windscreens don’t look quite right.