North British shunter for Mollington Road...

This Judith Edge kit has appeared on Friday updates for a few weeks, now it's getting it's own post on the blog as it nears painting...

The kit is of the BR examples in the D2720-44 series with the lower fuel tank infront of the cab. I wanted to represent an industrial example of similar style that worked at BICC at Prescot, as well as the ones at Cadbury Bournville that had a more curved roof. I decided that this was the best one to start from.

In terms of the model, it's basically built as per the instructions with just a few changes - the biggest of which is to flip the footplate overlay over (which unfortunately means you loose the lovely checquer plate) and not building the vacuum break exhauster cabinet. Michael Edge kindly offered to supply some extra doors for the bonnet which were from the larger 330hp engine - these were cut down carefully to match the 225hp bonnet height of my kit.

The other changes were to model the front steps as a shunters step, by not including the step plates, and removing the overhangs at each end and filing flush with the buffer beams. This model has caused a few headaches along the way. The first was the Scale-link wheels which are a longer offset from centre to crank than Gibson - and so the jackshaft supplied wouldn't work. I ended up butchering a third pair of wheels to make my own. The small high revving Mashima motor spins very readily through the nearly 100:1 High-level gearbox, and I've added a Comet 14mm diameter flywheel which has smoothed out running very nicely indeed. This has meant I've had to cut a hole into the cab, and make up in styrene inside.

The next job is detailing up the body with handles and rails, and fit the brakes before I can move onto painting. This thing has tried my patience on many occasions but I'm sure it will come together nicely in the coming weeks. More soon...