First and latest in 009...

Pictured here are the results of promising your 9 year old a model for his birthday. His N gauge Bachmann Percy has been transformed into a Andrew Barclay, the design work of which will form a new kit in the Narrow Planet range this year...

However, I've posed it here with the model that started it all - my first kit design, one that couldn't have been designed without the help and support of my friend and business partner in Planet Industrials, Stephen Fulljames. Steve helped encourage me, showed me the basics of both the 3D CAD software and how to lay out the artwork for etched metal. The O&K was the first kit of many to utilise the Minitrains chassis, at their time the best performing chassis available for the money, even better, available as chassis only to members of the 009 society. 

Time has moved on and the new kid on the block, the Bachmann Percy, is a great chassis that allows a model such as this to have an open cab. On this prototype this is quite open, but on production models I will add a proper backhead and details now I know how much space there is around the basically unmodified Bachmann chassis.

This prototype has been finished in black, and I used a bow pen to apply the thin red lining before sealing the body with dull-cote. The chassis is a tight push fit, and all I've done is remove the screws that hold the circuit board in place, and moved this to one side in the cab. Inside each tank is a folded piece of lead, and their is some fluid lead glued inside the smokebox.

The prototype featured a 'one print' style where the clack valves were part of the print. On the production model I'll be going back to a sprue of parts, and the cab front will be replaced by an etch. The model is incredibly cute, and runs superbly. I can't wait to work on the production kits, and see what people do with it. Perhaps see the first examples at narrow gauge exhibitions in 2022?

Until next time, more soon...