m davies

Ken, thanks and sorry for the late reply, I'd clean forgotten I'd even asked , I'll try your technique, I've got a blow torch but I think the flame is a little fierce, its better suited to hot water pipes and the such, more a needle type flame rather than a broad flame I suspect yours gives, picture added. Re damage to parts, it was a class 57 roof panel with grills etched out, the thinner bars ofthe grills heated quicker than the surrounding roof panel and they all bowed up, luckily being reasonable soft by that stage they rolled back flat and some tweaking with various impliments made them all straight again, with two more panels to do I'm not keen to repeat my mistake. Gorgous looking loco, I have a real soft spot for the LMS 4-6-0s, not too keen on the unrebuilt Scots (though unrebuilt Patriots are much better proportioned IMHO), much prefer Staniers rebuilds or Jubilees, I think the deflectors really give them a nice touch !. Funds permitting I hope to aquire one later in the year, Gladiator or David Andrews, both kit ranges seem very well recieved by people. Kindest Michael

Can I ask how you heat your materials to anneal please ?, in 7mm there quite big and a plumbers tourch seems to fierce and the heat to concentrated, which nearly resulted in the death of one roof panel on my Class 57, I've held off the others until I can work out the best way to avoid that happening again. Once annealed and shaped, how do you get the strength back ?, it seems very soft once annealed. Best Michael

Nice to hear a big decent 4 stroke engine again ! (though I do like the EMD 2 stroke as well), if it runs like any big US GE plant then it'll chug like crazy under heavy load, much like the 56s and 60s do, sounds great, mixed feelings on the looks, cant wait till one gets to Ipswich next week, may even be lucky enough to pick one up at Felixstowe when at work next week ( fingers crossed ). Best Michael

Craig, very interested to see your beta etch masters, I'm considering some work of my own, so seeing others work is very interesting. You etches look very crisp nad neat, good work. Best Michael

Good point, I was trying to think earlier of other locos with buffer shrouds and only came up with the class 41 HST, totally forgot about the Deltics !, so your reasoning is sound on the buffer shrouds. Regarding Dominos, heres some info that might help 55 022 seen with standard Dominos Apr 74 55 018 had Dominos in Feb 74, though much smaller dots than became the norm later. 9009 in BR blue seen with standard Dominos Sept 73 55 008 seen with standard Dominos Jan 74 55 001 seen with standard Dominos Feb 74 Official records (Directive DL/381) state that 9009 was the first to be done late 1972 locally at Finsbury Park, but only No 1 end, the film was outside the glass, No 2 end was done at Doncaster in Feb 73 with the film inside the glass, this was fully approved by Oct 73. By July 74 it was approved for the whole class, but as can be seen above, several members were done before official approval. All this info and more in the excellent Irwell Press "The book of the Deltics". Hope that helps Best Michael

Its certainly an eye catcher, I'm wondering if the buffer shrouds would be yellow or black like the rest of the undeframe, maybe even BR blue ?, that would contrast the red buffer beam a bit better I think. Thats the beauty with flights of fancy, your never going to be wrong . Best Michael

it'd probably have been classed 56, generally classes go on engine HP, Falcon is 2800HP so sits between the Westerns (52) at 2700HP and Deltics (55) at 3300HP. Kestrel was 4000HP so it'd have to go above Deltics somewhere, if it survived until more modern classes arrived then it'd probably be classed up in the high 60s somewhere. Nice paint job on the model though. Best Michael