Graham T

The banana boat, one assumes?

I think there's a track plan in the BRM article on this layout, but not sure if that can be reproduced here?

That looks very smart Neal 🙂

The oversized diagonal braces would have bothered me, so I've replaced them with the strip provided in the kit... I also added some bolt heads from thin slices of plastic rod.

Do you have shares in Ikea Rob? If not, you should probably get some!

And just to prove that I can cock-up a Parkside kit just as well as I can a Slater's one, take a look at this. The destructions call for adding 32mm long strips of plasticard for the diagonal braces. So I had a rummage about and this was the thinnest card strip that I could find. Thought it might look ok when painted. After doing that I set about adding the rails across the openings. There are strips of wire taped to the (white) packaging for this. Alongside the strips of wire there was also a strip of thin white plasticard - which had made itself invisible against the white packaging. B*gger. The diagonals are pretty well glued on now. Contemplating whether or not to try to hack them off and replace with the thinner strip...

You're right, there is a discrepancy there. Not sure how on earth I managed to do that!

That was my concern with the models as well to be honest Chris!

Just popped them out and checked, and they are indeed 12mm wheels. Odd...

The etches are from 51L; I'm slowly getting better (or less bad, at least) at using them. The wheels on the ex-MR van are 12mm Alan Gibson, the wheels on the Parkside kit came in the box. I'll pop them out later and measure them.

Thanks Jonathan. A little more progress today. There's quite a noticeable difference in buffer heights between the two wagons. Hopefully that (a) isn't a mistake on my part, and (b) won't cause problems when running...

Very nice. What did you use for the bolt heads on the diagonal strapping on the Parkside wagon?

And a quick work in progress shot of the Parkside wagon. I'm looking forward to putting these on the layout together.

The ex-MR van has now had a coat of Tamiya haze grey, ready for more paintwork tomorrow. I also made a start on the Parkside LMS cattle wagon too. Also looks to be a very nice kit.

Beginning to look rather impressive now Philip!

Fantastic bit of modelling! Ref the lighting and interior/exterior shots, and brightness. Can you get something to regulate the brightness levels? (I know nothing about electronics, might it be a resistor?) Also, if you haven't already I'd consider losing some of those budget figures - everything else looks so well done that they stand out in the wrong way, to my eye.

Strangely enough, I have one of those next in the queue to build. Think it will make a nice "compare and contrast" with the Slater's one.

I used to find soldering a complete nightmare. Tried a couple of different (cheap) irons, and then bought one of these from DCC Concepts. I also use their Sapphire solder and no-clean flux, and the tip restorer whenever I finish a job. I wouldn't say it's made me an expert, but my soldering is 100 times better than before.

And so here's the result of a couple of days of shameless bodgery. Cutting and fitting the guard rails was a pain, and the 51L brake gear hasn't come out quite as neatly as I'd hoped for. I still need to add some filler to that gap in the roof as well, but then it will be ready for a blast of paint ... A nice kit to build, all in all.

Looks very nice Jay!

Yes it was the diagonals that caused the fouling Ric. Good point about using the square well for adding weight, but putting it in under the roof seems to have worked ok.

You can get etches of GW lamp irons from Wizard.

Looking rather tidy Andy.

I have a couple of those to build as well actually Neal!

More to come a little later today Jonathan. Hope you're keeping your chin up!