Simplex 40S in 7/8ths: Ready for painting...

Well just over 5 weeks and the Simplex build is complete, ready for the paint shop, so I took the opportunity to grab some photos in the cold winter sunshine today...

Here you can see the Simplex, posed on a potential section of my planned garden railway, with a number of wagons from Model-earth kits/castings. The open wagon and van are nearing completion now, the barrel wagon a touch more work in painting and then weathering to bring it to life. The barrels are red with yellow ends, like the Shell ones of the 1950s.

So here she is, there are probably lots of missing details, and others I've included that are wrong - but I'm more of an artist than an engineer, and it looks right to my eyes. Since you've last seen it I've added low relief engine and gearbox details to disguise the batteries, fitted the air filter canister, fabricated a hand brake (which I've had to imagine has been somewhat modified as the long lever wouldn't fit past the drivers boots and still allow him to be removed easily, and the sand box lever actuator cable (which is prototypically bent!)  behind the radiator. A small control panel will be made for the small slot in the engine cover, but this will be after painting, and the tool box I am planning will also be added later.

Here the drive side you can see the low relief gearbox and drive housing does a reasonable job of disguising the battery - as well as the bent sand box actuator rod. The handbrake isn't quite visible, unfortunately as I'm quite pleased with the impression of the ratchet mechanism.

From the back, the other side also has some low relief parts and the wires for the switch and charging socket won't look too out of place once painted.

I'm excited to have got this far - and am looking forward to applying some paint in the coming days. The plan has moved away from a garish yellow to a more muted green. More soon...