darrel

I was going to buy one, but not at that price!

Great price and an interesting choice. One question for Jason. Why does it need two motors when it's only a 4 coach train I would have thought one motor would be enough?

Looks great I only ever saw the 307s in this livery although I never had a run on them. Your photo of the 308 brought back memories of driving them on the Leeds, Bradford, Skipton, Illkey triangle. Very nice work.

That's predictive text for you!

Nicely done, what did you use to cut through the metal?

Here are some photos first of all another black 5 this time with snowplough fitted it was a Hornby spare. Then city of truro. The extra smokebox iron has been removed, the mailbox and chimney repainted, handrails and cab interior painted. The tender has had coal added, and the wheels replaced with wheels from the Dapol kit. This gets rid of that horrible metal eyesore under the tender.

The fall plate is not that well glued on it can be gently pulled off and then glued back on in the down position

Hi Dave Have you considered doing EMU s? There is a surprising lack of modern 25kv overhead EMU models. Bachmann in my view picked the wrong class when they did the class 350. If you did a class 313 it would allow you to also do class 314 and 315 Not to mention class 507 and 508 there is a lot of liverys possible there. Alternatively the class 317 would give potential for class 318 and 455, change the tooling and there is class 319 320 321 and 322. Or for something older and since I ask for it in every wish list a class 303. Thanks.

You may wish to consider fitting the chassis under the model of city of truro that is with the latest great British locomotives magazine in newsagents now. It's a very good model based on the Bachmann model. Worth considering before building the Dapol kit.

Finally got one well two anyway very impressed with it. It's not as finely detailed as the Bachmann model but nobody was expecting it to be at this price. I've been waiting for weatheringman to do his always excellent review. There are a basic jobs to do which will make a big improvement to the look of the model first of all the extra smokebox dart. I have carved off the top dart and filled down what was left of it, It just needs a touch up with paint this may involve repainting the entire smokebox the chimney will also be repainted at the same time. To me the biggest fault is with the tender underframe the metal web that includes the wheels just looks wrong. I have unscrewed it and replaced it with the tender wheels from the Dapol kit. Looks a lot better but I will need to find a paint to match the dark red of the underframe any suggestions? The interior of the cab is very visible on these locos unlike say the black 5 or the 9f and will benefit from being painted and having the pipework picked out. Regarding the connecting rods both being in the up position it won't matter too much as you cannot see both sides at the same time. So like I said a very nice model as far as I can see not a lot wrong with it.

I can see the point of reducing the number produced for certain models. I bought 5 black fives I can't see me buying lots of city of truros. However it must have been a drastically reduced number of models as there were none to be found yesterday.despite me looking in two Asdas and 2 WH Smith's. My subscription copy didn't arrive yesterday either.

Could not find a copy in Glasgow either has anyone in Scotland seen one yet?

My local newsagents normally only gets one copy he didn't get one today and my local WH Smith's didn't have any either but still had two black 5s

Ok I'm confused easily done when it comes to kettles oops I mean steam, is the model a k3 or a k4 I'm not even sure what the difference is. Either way one will be repainted BR lined black.

Thanks I can get on with applying the transfers now.

Don't panic Smiffy Behind the cylinders is a plastic tab that fits into a hole in the chassis a small drop of super glue applied with a cocktail stick and you will be able to reattach the cylinder to the chassis. If anyone else wishes to remove the lion and wheel crest or remember the loco some white spirit on a cocktail stick and a lot of rubbing will remove them. It does leave a patch that does not quite match the rest of the surrounding area but a bit of weathering will blend it in. One question what colour are the numbers supposed to be? some photos and the model show white numbers other photos and the HMRS transfers are a yellow / cream colour.

Thanks I will go and give it a try

When I was at work I gave some thought to the issue of the smokebox door. Would I be best to file it down to make it smaller, or file the hole for it to make it larger or a combination of the two? Has anyone else tried to modify it yet?

I'm thinking about it not sure of the best way of doing it, apart from a lot of work with a file. I am open to suggestions. The repainting of the wheels make a huge difference to the look of the model, those silver wheels look toy like a simple improvement that does not take a lot of time

just done a bit of work on the black 5. new transfer on the tender typical the printed one is slightly smaller. lamps removed seam along the top removed, wheels painted black and a bit of weathering with the airbrush. And before anyone says anything yes I know about the mistake with the lions tail I've since fixed it.

Just got my copy it's very nice the lion and wheel crest on the tender could do with replacing I have transfers already.fingers crossed they will be the exact size so I don't need to repaint the tender. The lettering on the plates on the rear of the tender are very well done. Silver wheels and buffers again yuk! Will look much better once I repaint them. And some overscale lamps on the front above the bufferbeam again that will be getting removed.only other minor thing is a seam line along the top of the loco that will file down easily enough. These are only minor points and will take less than half an hour to put right. (I hope) One good thing is unlike the other locos so far the tender is not full of coal it's about half full which makes it easy to add real coal on top of it. As I have said before I am not an expert on steam so I look forward to weatheringmans review. Meanwhile I'm off to Asda to get a few more.

Looking forward to it mate. The Easter Holliday didn't seem to make any difference, they still arrived on the Wednesday.

I don't mind constructive criticism of the models, weatheringman does great reviews. As someone who is more into diesels than steam I would not have been aware of some of the faults with the locos. Some of the faults I can live with others I can put right. I think these models are exceptional value, for £8.99 you get a fully painted locomotive. Compare that to an unbuilt, unpainted Dapol kit. You can't even buy a second hand locomotive body for this price. I think we have been spoiled by the standard of today's ready to run locomotives, the detail is exceptional. When I repainted and detailed my Deltic it took me back to the early 1990s when all we had was Hornby and lima and to get a detailed model you had to do a lot of work to the loco. All those moulded handrails lack of buffer beam details. But you know what I really enjoyed the modelling challenge. You don't get the same sense of satisfaction taking a model out of the box. It's like when you make home made soup you know you made it. There is no challenge opening a tin of Heinz soup. The other great thing about these locos at such a bargain price is I finally got the courage to use my airbrush, it has been sitting unused in its box for two years. Would I have used it on a loco worth £100+? No chance I bought an extra 9f and set to work safe in the knowledge if I made a mess of it It would not matter. I've since used it on two deltics and my confidence with it is growing. Finally like I said at the beginning I model diesels and electrics I would not normally spend a fortune on buying models of steam locos if I had bought Hornby models of the first 6 locos In this series for my display cabinet it would have set me back over £600 pounds as it is these set me back under £54 I'm really happy with them and have really enjoyed improving them. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

I think that was only in O gauge

Since the series is based on locomotives in the national collection, and so far copied on RTR models I would guess at either a Class 77 or more likely a class 87. The NRM has a class 71 and a class 84 but there are no models for them to copy. Having said that locomotion is on the list and there is no model of that to copy. Something that puzzles me how come Hornby and Bachmann are struggling to get supplies from China but amercom are able to produce a locomotive every two weeks. I know they are not motorised but still. Perhaps they are not made in China? I'm just thinking out loud.