This is what makes the modeller…

When I look at something and decide “that’s not good enough” and determine that something needs to be done, that I think is what separates the collector from the modeller…

Original handrail contrasting with its wire replacement. Walthers Mainline SW1.

Of course there is a grey area with this, what is acceptable to one is not to another and what we are happy with yesterday may not be tomorrow. That said, having the courage and confidence to replace a part on a ready to run model is the seed that germinates and takes us towards accomplished model maker. We all must start somewhere...

In this instance, the handrails on this Walthers Mainline EMD SW1 weren’t bad, I’ve seen worse. However once I’d given them a coat of off white paint they seemed increasingly clumsy and no matter which way I looked at the model really clashed with the fidelity I’d achieved with the KV Models parts along the hood. I had read on others blogs about drilling out old plastic handrail stanchions and threading them on to brass wire (I suppose as Rapido Canada do with their RTR models) and thought it was worth a try. Of course, after cutting off the foot of one to try out the theory I consequently lost it in the black carpet! After 5 minutes of cursing my luck I did find it and work proceeded slowly. This is not a task to rush, a steady hand and eye magnification required. It’s easier if you can use a sharp knife to nick the rough centre of the engineering plastic for the drill to catch. Take your time with a 0.4mm bit and success will come. The results speak for themselves and I hope to have them all replaced this week.

I hope these small blogs of encouragement give you ideas on how you can improve your own out of the box models. Until next time, more soon…