Hi
No flies on you lot.
It is the Sans Pareil Lord Nelson. I really enjoyed the build of this, and put as much into it as I could at the time. It has now come to the end of its 10 year running in period, so it's going off to Warren for painting in the next couple of weeks.
It was very heavily tarnished having languished in a box for so long, but I started the big clean up in earnest yesterday. I used my heated ultrasound bath for the first time - and was hugely impressed with it. With repeated dunks in the bath and a couple of goes with Bar Keeper's friend, it came up pretty well - enough for me to give it a really good going over in the next couple of days in case I missed something when I built it.
It's a big and impressive loco - getting it through even a 6 foot radius curve took some work, and there is a segment of sticky black plastic behind one of the front steps, which I moved out further than they should be.
The detail in the kit is exemplary, though not without errors, as you would expect from a Dave Sharp design.
You can see from this shot how tarnished the model is/was. I still have a lot of cleaning up to do.
And the backhead...
I was pleased with the way the underframe worked out - mostly in the kit - but it was a nightmare working out how to make the leading drivers drop out. I shall have to write a reassembly manual as I dismantle it. I also managed to squeeze in a Crailcrest motor, but had great difficulty in fitting a chip due to space constraints.
It will be Lord Nelson himself, and the plates should arrive from Severn Mill nameplates this week. I'd previously bought a set from Guilplates, but they are markedly inferior, so are now going spare.
Thanks are due to Steph for advice on livery details, which I shall pass to Warren with the model.
Next on the finishing off list is Diamond Jubilee. Exciting times.
Cheers
Richard