Making her my own...

When I bought my new live steam engine I always intended on making a few changes to better suit my own line, back story and preferences...

So when I got home from John's I stripped the body off, paint stripped the cab and tanks, removing the decals and then primed in grey. So far so good, and beginning to think about other changes I'd like to make. My intention was to retain the wooden box and turbo generator that Peter had made, but to add my own touches to the finish.

The first was to replace the bell mouth couplers with something more in keeping with a 18" locomotive. These coupler pockets are from Model Earth and were for the Hunslet Jack project. I called in to Steve Milner who helped by drilling and fitting then for me.

The bodywork was resprayed, unfortunately I realised I'd bought the wrong shade of green, lighter than the original, so the boiler wrapper was also painted to match, which had the advantage of painting the bands and dome too...

The roof was painted in matt black, and the buffer beams will be satin red. I plan to fit a driver, with minor surgery, so here you can see George Batty (from Model-earth) posed next to the locomotive. I am also going to fit a whistle to the cab front, a few tools and a bucket of sand for the footplate. Here I am beginning to like the somber appearance of the transformation. Finishing touches will be the Andrew Barclay works plates sourced from Narrow Planet.

More soon...