By The Devil, It's Big!

If you remember back a few months the initial motivation behind the 16mm scale Hudson Hunslet model came from a request to simply "scale up" the 4mm scale version I'd previously built. Well now I've finished it we can have a look at the two models side by side...

As you can see the 16mm scale version is an absolute monster in comparison! Either that or the 4mm version really is ridiculsouly small. To be fair I think both things are actually true.

If you've not been following along over on YouTube then there is a 25 part playlist documenting the iterative process to go from the 4mm version to the 16mm one which you might find interesting if you want all the gory details. If you just want the highlights then enjoy...

And if you want to build your own 16mm scale model then I'm making the 3D printed parts and the metal cowl available as a scratch aid kit. Full details are in the video and there is a link to a contact form in the video description where you can register your interest in one.

Lots More Metal Forming

I don't know how many people read this blog without also subscribing to my YouTube channel, but if you've not seen them yet here are the most recent videos in the saga of metal forming.

Metal Forming

I've just realised that I've not posted any if the video updates on the 16mm Hudson-Hunslet project to the blog recently. Hopefuly you are all subscribed to the YouTube channel so have seen them already but if not then there are three new episodes to bring you up to speed all of which revolve around metal shapes and metal forming.

We Need More Heat!

Whilst soldering the smokebox end of the boiler was reasonably straightforward, soldering the boiler to the cab was an absolute nightmare, although I did get there in the end and without any burnt fingers. Positioning the boiler was reasonably easy as there is a nice hole for the whistle that makes sure I know where the top is, and then it slots into a half etched ring on the cab front, and there are three little tabs on the end which further slot into holes on the cab front. The problem was that I just couldn't get enough heat into the joins to solder it in place.

As you can see I did eventually get it soldered on but not without having to find a different source of heat. When I used the soldering iron the solder paste would run but not melt, and the solid solder would melt into a blob but I couldn't get it to flow. Both issues were caused because I couldn't get the solder hot enough as the heat is pulled away into the rest of the brass that makes up the cab and boiler rather than staying close to the tip of the soldering iron where I want it. The solution was to switch tools to something with a bit more heat.

As you can see from the photo I own two gas torches. I've tried using the large cooks one before and managed to burn a whole through a brass part, so my plan was to use the small modellling torch instead. Unfortunately the small torch is useless. I had no problems filling it with gaz but couldn't get it to light properly. With the valve open the gaz was coming out and would light if I held a match in front of it, but it wouldn't stay lit when you removed the match. No idea what's wrong with it as although it's been in my toolbox for a while this was the first time I'd actually tried using it. So with more than a little trepedation I used the large cooks torch instead.

With the parts held gently in place, using a mixture of masking tape and coffee stirrers, I added some solder paste and then gently wafted the flame over the joint. Within no time at all the paste melted, flowed, and formed a nice joint. It's difficult to get the larger flame into odd places but I think I'll be using the torch again in the future for cases like this. Although I might see if I can find a smaller modelling torch that actually works.

Just as a final photo here is the mess I made on the inside of the boiler when trying to use the soldering iron. As you can see the solder turned into a blob but I just couldn't get it to flow and form a join. Anyway it was a useful lesson to learn that I can use the torch to make these kinds of joint if I need to.

Still some cleaning up of the joint to do before I move on, but I think that is the hardest part of the body built quite successfully.

It's Still a Cylinder

Having rolled the boiler the next step is to fit the smokebox door (or what amounts to the smokebox door on Ivor). This is basically just a flat circular part that cabs one end of the boiler. It has a slight half etched rim around the edge to help positioning the two parts. I gently cut away the sacrificial pieces (needed to help during rolling) and then carefully taped the two parts together as best I could.

Even having removed the sacrificial pieces there isn't a huge amount of space to get a soldering iron inside the boiler but I managed to avoid burning my fingers and am pretty happy with the result.

In the cruel larger than life photo I can see a couple of tiny spots that might need a little filler, although I can't really see them with the naked eye. Either way, I'm really happy with that, given it's the first boiler I've rolled and assembled. Now I just have to solder it to the cab front hopefully straight so that the chimney will be properly vertical.

Mangled Brass or a Brass Mangle?

Those of you who have followed my modelling adventures for a while may remember that all the way back in 2014 I bought a Hold and Fold tool to make assembling etched kits easier. At the time I said it was nice and easy to use and in the years since it's become an indispensable tool. Also in that original post I mentioned not having a tool for rolling metal. Over the years since I've not found myself needing to do much rolling, mostly just needing a slight curve in cab roofs etc. For those parts I've made do with using a metal bar to gently introduce a curve. That works, but it's difficult to be precise. What I've not needed to do, until now, was to turn a flat sheet into a cylinder.

To date all the steam locomotive models I've built have used either a tube or a casting for the boiler, but for Ivor the boiler has to be rolled from a flat sheet to form a cylinder which then has a circle soldered on one end, while the other attaches to the cab.

Given all the time and effort I've put into this build the last thing I want to do is completely mess up the boiler, and there is no way I could accurately roll that part using a simple bar so.... I've invested in a new tool.

This is a set of 6" rolling bars from GW Models. I would normally point to a website when talking about a new tool, but they don't have a website, in fact I had to ring to check they had any in stock and then post a cheque to pay for them. Even before I tried using them I was impressed. They are just a lovely bit of engineering in their own right.

For anyone who doesn't know how they work, essentially the handle turns the two bottom rollers and thetop roller can be moved up and down. So you gently feed the metal through the gap and turning the handle moves it through. You then move the top roller down a little and repeat. Each time you move the top roller down it produces a tighter curve. I did about a quarter turn of the bolts each time so that I slowly increased the tightness of the curve until I had the right shape.

Once happy you can undo the bolts and lift the top roller off which allows you to simply slide the part off the end. A quick check against the circle for the front of the boiler and everything looks good.

Of course I still need to solder it all together so there is still plenty of time for me to mess it up!

Given how easy it was to roll the boiler you will be unsurprised to know that I think the rolling bars are fantastic and well worth the initial investment. Obviously it won't get as much use as the hold and fold (most kits will have tens of folds and possible only one part needing rolling) but it's one of those tools that does it's job so well and easily that it's worth having in your toolbox.

A Blast From The Past

Having finished the Clayton commission I decided I'd try and finish some of my stalled projects before starting anything new. First up on the workbench is my build of Backwoods Miniatures Canopus. Last time this appeared on the blog was November of 2015, when I was in the middle of trying to fix all the issues with the parts supplied with the kit; on that occasion the slidebars being two narrow. While problems still remain the model is really quite close to being finished, and so I'm going to make a determined effort to see it through to completion.

After altering the slidebars and riveting the connecting rods to the crossheads, the next step in the instructions is to fit the cylinders. Not entirely surprising but it turned out not to be as simple a task as it sounds. In theory all I needed to do was drill a 0.8mm hole through each of the two whitemetal castings for the piston rods to slide through. I drilled the first cylinder with no problems at all, but drilling the second one seemed impossible. Not only did I break a drill bit but even when I'd found a second drill I just couldn't get it to drill through. I'm guessing an impurity of some form in the casting. Either way this left me with only one usable cylinder, so I decided to turn up a replacement. Fortunately I checked the one good casting against the loco before starting as in the end I had to turn up a pair of cylinders.

The instructions suggest that the cylinder should have two notches on one end into which the slidebars fit into. My castings didn't and worse still when the cylinder is held in place against it's bracket the slidebars are almost a millimetre too short to meet the face of the cylinder. So my turned replacements are the same diameter as the cast parts but about 1mm longer so that they fit in the bracket and against the slidebars.

While the cylinders are now a bit longer than they should be I don't think they look too out of place on the loco. Even having moved the slidebars outwards (back in 2015) the clearances are still really tight but turning the motor by hand seems to suggest there is enough space for everything to move past each other.... just. The test will be when I find where I've put the rolling road so I can give it a powered test where I can watch everything closely.

Changing Gear

I'm still not ready for the big reveal of what I've been working on in the evenings, but to go with the brake wheel we now have..... a clutch peddle.

Progress Update

It's been almost a month since my last post and while there hasn't been a huge amount of modelling achieved I thought it worth doing a quick update.

First up, there has been some work on the latest Clayton build. That photo may not look too impressive but the box the body parts are resting on holds a few more bits of work. I've now collected all the parts together to complete the build, and I've assembled the wheelsets and the main layshaft. Most of the work though has gone into preparing the 3D body prints. Normally I spray my models from an aerosol can which puts the paint on reasonably thickly and hides some of the print issues. I'm hoping though to move to using an airbrush for painting so that I don't end up hiding small details etc. and can have access to a wider range of colours. This means though that I need to spend more time preparing the model surfaces. So far both parts have had two rounds of rubbing down with 2000 grit sandpaper after being sprayed with Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500. It's the first time I've tried using this stuff and so far I'm impressed, although the proof will come when I apply a layer of primer.

And now for something completely different. I usually model in my study, unfortunately the desk is pushed up against a thin internal wall and on the other side is my son's cot, so doing much when he's asleep is tricky, and I've avoided doing too much modelling in the lounge after he's gone to bed due to the inevitable mess I'd make. I've especially avoided doing anything with metals and plastics that might leave nasty stray bits if I don't clean up properly. So wanting a project I could work on in the lounge after he was in bed, I've picked up a kit made mostly from wood. I'm not going to reveal what that is just yet but as a clue, I decided to scratch build a brake wheel for it.

The Big Wheel

Today I've spent a little time adding two more details to the cab interior, specifically that big wheel (I'm assuming it's the brake), and the pipework that runs across and down the sides of the backhead. Unfortunately I didn't have any spare wheels of the right type or size so I had to knock one up from some brass wire. The pipework was at least nice and easy as I did have some small etched handwheels (on the same sheet from RT Models as the reversing lever) and the rest was just wire.

Again not necessarily an accurate rendition but they will do the job nicely. I may need to add a few more details but these will be fixed inside the upper plastic part of the cab so I think this finishes the backhead parts attached to the body casting.

Fuel Goes In Here

So having fitted a very basic cab interior to the main body casting of Skorloey (which I really should start referring to as TR No.1) I've made a start on adding some more details to the boiler backhead. The first item to be added was the firebox door, and it's probably going to take me longer to write this post than it did to make the thing.

I made a very basic template on the computer to give me the right sized oval with two pieces of strapping. This was printed out, stuck to a sheet of 0.12mm brass and then cut out and filed to shape. The point of a small round file was then used to gently punch some rivets into the strapping. The only other item required was a bit of 0.45mm brass wire to act as the hinge. Assembly then simply involved smearing some solder paste on the rear of the strapping and then folding the strapping around the wire and over the door. A quick touch from a soldering iron and everything was fixed solid and could be tided up.

The finished door then had some more solder paste smeared on the back, it was positioned on the backhead and another brief use of the soldering iron fixed it in place. A quick clean up with a file and fibreglass pen and the job was done. As with the rest of the cab details it might not hold up well under close scrutiny but when glimpsed through the door of the cab past he legs of the driver or fireman it should give the right impression.

Inner Space

Having removed the coal from the top of the drivers side bunker I decided I'd continue working on the main body casting by doing something about the inside of the cab. On the unaltered "toy" the cab contains a full height plate with no details at all. I'm guessing this was added to give extra strength to the plastic cab but not only does it look wrong when you look through the cab doors but you can't even look through the windows. Removing the top half of the plate was the first thing I did to the casting, even before I took photos of the parts or stripped them of paint. Originally i thought that was all I would do but having thought about it some more I decided to go further and hack out more of the plate so I could fit some details within the cab.

For an idea of what I aiming for here is a useful photo of the prototype without it's cab allowing a good view of the boiler backhead.

The first stage was to cut away more of the vertical plate to allow space either side of the boiler for the coal bunker door and the reversing lever on either side. As I found before the casting is actually quite solid so this took some time. On both sides I cut two vertical slots with a razor saw and then used pliers to snap the piece of the casting away, before tidying up (to a certain extent) with small files.

With space on either side of the boiler I then set about making pieces to fill the gaps. Working with 0.12mm brass sheet I made two parts that fitted nicely either side. These parts were then detailed. On the left side I added a representation of a door into the coal bunker, while on the right I added a reversing lever. The reversing lever was made by cutting down on on an etch of detailing parts from RT Models and making up the base from more brass sheet. The two parts were then glued onto the casting (I did try soldering but the casting just soaks up the heat and I didn't fancy using the blowtorch on the small details).

The next stage was the boiler backhead itself. It ook me four attempts to get something I was happy with. My first couple of attempts involved trying to cut out the right shape and then gluing bits of styrene to the back to hold it in the right place over the casting and then filing the styrene to give the round shape of the boiler. After what seemed like hours with no end in sight I gave up. The next couple, including the final result, were made by roughly rolling a piece of brass sheet to the right diameter, soldering that to a flat sheet and then cutting and filling to give something that would slot over the casting.

Getting the initial shape right was actually quite easy, and then it was just a case of filing and testing it on the casting over and over until I was happy with the result.

It's not a perfect representation of the real thing but once the cab is in place I think even in it's current state it will do the job of providing some detail to glimpse through the door. I am, however, not yet finished as I'm intending to add some of the pipework, a firebox door and that large wheel is a must.

Canopus: Altering the Kit Parts

It's been almost a year since I discovered that a number of the parts in the Backwoods Miniatures kit of Canopus that I was building were the wrong size. Annoyingly this seems to be a fairly well known problem so anyone who builds the kit finds themselves having to alter or replace a few parts. Specifically the slide bars sit too close to the frames and the connecting rods aren't long enough. I solved the problem of the connecting rods by having a new set etched back in February, but the slide bars needed surgery.

Having now released the kit for the Hudson-Hunslet and finished my entry to the Dave Brewer challenge I really had no excuse to use to put off having another go at finishing Canopus so today I set about altering the slide bars and building up the crossheads and piston rods.

It turned out that altering the slide bars wasn't as bad as I expected. Basically I cut them in half soldered in a piece of scrap etch and then filed back some of the central mount to allow the wider version to sit in the frames properly. From a trial fitting this looks to have worked nicely.

Strangely the crossheads and piston rods were much more trouble to assemble than altering the slide bars. Each crosshead is made from two layers soldered together with the piston rod wire trapped between them. While folding the etch in two and soldering things together works well cleaning up the grooves to allow them to run smoothly on the slide bars is a bit more of a pain. After a bit of swearing and filing they do now seem to fit and slide nicely. A quick test fit of one of my replacement connecting rods also shows that these fit within the crosshead nicely. This means the next step is to use a rivet to join the crosshead and connecting rod. Hopefully you won't have to wait almost a year to see how that turns out.

26" Wheels

On one of my recent posts Iain commented that the mountain bike in the photos really helped to give a sense of scale to the bridge, showing just how small it really is. He was right of course, but unfortunately I couldn't find a decent 4mm scale mountain bike that I could buy. All the bikes I could find were both old fashioned and fairly chunky looking, and if I'm modelling the bridge as it appears now I needed something more modern looking. What I did have was a selection of different sized brass and nickel silver rod and an internet full of pictures of mountain bikes. I also discovered that most mountain bikes use 26" wheels making it easy to scale a side on photo to the right size.

I spent about an hour working out which sized rod to use for the different parts and how I'd construct a model and then about three hours slowly taping small bits of wire onto a wooden board while they were soldered together. The result is this.

Obviously it still needs some cleaning up and then painting (and possibly a chain adding) but I'm really happy with how it's turned out. It's my first real scratch built, completely soldered, model (at least I can't think of anything previously) and while it was a challenge to build the end result seems to have been worth while.

Given that I'm fairly happy with the size of the bike it does mean that on my model the ground doesn't rise quite as steeply from the stream as the bike rests lower down the embankment than in real life, but still I think it does it's job quite well.

The Etched Parts Have Arrived

The first set of test etches for the Hudson-Hunslet arrived today from Narrow Planet and there is good news and bad news:

From an initial glance I'm really happy with how the front grill has turned out. Unfortunately the plates with the makers name on aren't as much of a success as I've etched away so much material that they have essentially disintegrated. Still, for my first complex test etch I'm really happy with how it looks, now I just need to see if it all fits. More later, although probably not much later as I won't be able to stop myself from having a play with these.

Drawing the Etched Panels

Emboldened by my success in drawing the artwork to etch a set of replacement rods for Canopus I moved quickly on to something a lot more complex; the etched parts to complete the Hudson-Hunslet diesel locomotive.

In retrospect the connecting rods were easy to draw. Not only are they a fairly simple shape, but they are also the same on both sides, so the artwork for the back is the same as for the front. Also all four are obviously the same so you only need to draw one. The parts for the Hudson-Hunslet are a number of magnitudes more complex. Not only are some of the parts quite complex shapes (i.e. not a simple combination of rectangles and circles) but every single part needs different artwork for the front and back of the etch, plus some of the parts fold. The flat parts took a while but by far the most complex was the single piece that wraps right over the loco to provide the body panels at the drivers end.

I took a similar approach to designing this part as I have done metal pieces for previous models. I started by drawing out a part that I thought would work, then printed it out, stuck it to some brass, cut out and folded the part and then checked to see if it would fit. On the third attempt I ended up with this.

Designing this folded part was especially complex, as what I had was measurements for the inside of the part, but it is much easier to draw the part if you know the outside dimensions. It's fair to say that it was very frustrating trying to get this right. It seems to be a good fit, but I'll only know for certain when I try and fit the etched version. The final artwork measures out at 62.56mm by 35.02mm yet contains 15 different parts (some are spares and some are variations) so some of the parts are going to be devilishly small.

There will now be a bit of a pause in posts on this locomotive while I await the etched parts and the next set of prototype 3D printed parts.

It's All Iain's Fault!

Yes this post is definitely all Iain's fault, but I don't mean that in a bad way.

As you all know I've recently been 3D printing lots of small narrow gauge wagons. In fact I'm now up to five different wagons: an 8ft freelance flat wagon, 3 bar slab wagon, an Aberllefenni Box Wagon, a 4 bar slab wagon, and most recently a Rhosydd rubbish wagon. These models have all been fun to design, print and assemble and Iain has kindly provided lots of useful prototype information for a number of them. I also have a couple of other wagons under development that are proving a little tricky to get right (mostly due to weird issues with the 3D printing process) but I thought I was slowly running out of scale drawings that would cause a distraction from building Canopus (I still haven't bitten the bullet and permanently attached the coupling rods). It was at this point Iain pointed me in the direction of Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Modelling Review (which I mentioned in the previous post). More importantly he pointed out that there were some very interesting scale drawings in the free sample magazine available from the website. A quick glance and not only had I subscribed to the magazine but I'd started work on yet another wagon model. So you see this model is definitely Iain's fault; thanks Iain!

Pages 33 to 41 of the magazine cover a multitude of wagons that were all used at Trevor Quarry on the Lleyn Peninsula in North Wales. Interestingly this was a granite quarry rather than the more common slate quarries found in North Wales. The specific wagon that caught me eye in the magazine was the rather odd, 3 sided, breaker wagon; the magazine has a photo and scale drawings on pages 35 to 37. While a 3 sided wagon might not have wide spread use it intrigued me enough that I set about designing a 3D print. I'll start by showing you the finished model and then explain how I got there.

The photo is of course a little misleading as this model is actually just 3.2cm long by 1.85cm wide and 1.35cm tall; in other words not very big at all. The relatively small size of the model also causes a few issues when designing it as some parts were too thin to be printed and some parts I decided might cause a problem when printed. This means that the model is actually a mix of 3D printed resin, brass sheet, and some standard copier paper.

The two problem areas that I identified when designing the model were the metal supports at the open side of the wagon, and the protective strip along the top edge of the side wall. These were problematic for different reasons and due to their shape required different solutions.

The two upright supports were a problem as I can't print parts that thin. The minimum wall thickness is 0.3mm but if I'd printed the parts I would have had to widen the wagon to make them fit and to keep the correct proportions. And of course the parts would have been very fragile and liable to break if knocked about. Fortunately the part isn't a particularly complex shape and so it was easy to cut and fold two small pieces of 0.12mm brass sheet to the required shape which could then be glued to the resin print.

The protective strip along the top of the side wall was a problem for a different reason. While I could have easily included this in the model, I've found that overhanging horizontal features, no matter how small, tend to cause other details to be obscured. This is due to the support material reacting with the printed resin. In this case it could easily have led to the side planks ending up with strange markings and would probably have completely obscured the gaps between the planks. My original intention had been to use brass sheet to add this part as well. Unfortunately, even with the hold-and-fold, I found it impossible to make the U shaped part. In the end I just made the part from 100gms copier paper which was then glued in place.

The final touch, before painting, was to add some rivet detail to the new parts which are simply Archer rivet transfers from sheet AR88025.

Painting was my now standard approach for aged wagons. The whole wagon is given a matt black undercoat. The wooden parts are then roughly painted with khaki (Model Color #988) and then a black wash. Drybrushing of khaki, brown sand (Model Color #876) and dark sand (Model Color #847) then follows, before another thin black wash and final drybrushing with dark sand. The metal parts were then painted black (to cover over paint from the wooden parts) and then dry brushed with London grey (Model Color #836) and dark rust (RailMatch #2405). A few wafts of matt varnish then tone down and seal the paints.

As with the other wagons I've printed recently I'll happily sell you one via Penistone Railway Works. I'm not sure there will be much interest given the rather odd nature of the wagon, but it's available if you want one, along with full instructions for adding the extra details.

Having built the breaker wagon I'm tempted to have a go at the mill wagon on page 38 of the sample issue as it appears to be pretty much the same wagon with some additional parts. Watch this apace!

The Long Road To The Rhosydd Rubbish Tip

This is the fourth post on building a Rhosydd quarry rubbish wagon since I started back in June, but as you can see I've now completed the model. If you remember the first step was to design the 3D printed underframe and figure out how to build the top half from sheet brass. The second step was adding all those rivets before a quick third post with the metal top posed on a 3 bar slab wagon to give a rough idea of the final model. The final piece of the puzzle was actually printing the underframe.

This is the first model I've designed in which I've combined a 3D printed part with parts from another material and I'm really happy with how it's turned out. I could have tried to 3D print the whole model but the upper body would have been way too chunky; I used 0.12mm brass but the thinnest I could have printed the parts would have been 0.3mm and I'd probably have had to have the side walls at 0.6mm as they would have been unsupported during printing.

The use of two materials did leave me wondering if it was worth making the model available to others or not though; painting a 3D printed model is much easier than fabricating half the model from a flat sheet of brass. In the end I've decided that the top is easy enough to make (see my nice detailed instructions) that most people should be able to make up the part without any issues. I've made up quite a few of them now to check the instructions and to find the best order of the folds etc. that I'm fairly certain that anyone with a sharp pair of scissors a modelling knife and something to help make the folds could make the part almost without thinking. So if you fancy a go (just to prove me wrong) then I'll happily sell you an underframe or three.

Canopus: Cooking the Coal Bunker

Having added the four main walls for the cab the remaining piece is the back wall of the coal bunker. This is made from a relatively small piece of brass which needs to be rolled to match the profile of the rear edge of the cab sides. While this should be an easy piece to fit, it isn't. The problem is that given the thickness of the brass and the size of the part it is almost impossible to roll it to the right shape. The trick, apparently, is to anneal the brass which should make it easier to shape.

Annealing is basically just heating the metal to make it easier to work and the instructions say that you can do this by simply placing the part on an electric cooker hob for about 10 minutes. Unfortunately we have a gas cooker and I wasn't sure how I'd support the part in the flames, so instead I decided to use another item from the kitchen, a blow torch. Usually the blow torch is used for melting the sugar on top of a creme brulee or this excellent Lime and Passion Fruit Tart, but I thought it should be able to heat the brass well enough so I set up a sensible looking work area and turned on the blowtorch.

Now the blowtorch did seem to be able to heat the metal quite well, although even after about 10 minutes it wasn't exactly glowing, but then disaster struck as the metal appeared to bubble; I'm guessing I held the torch in the same place for two long. You can see the ripple marks on the bottom left corner, and there is also a bubble on the back in the middle. So while the part now bends much easier it wasn't really useable.

Fortunately I'd decided to measure the part (10.75mm by 23.5mm) while it was flat before I tried annealing it, so I made a replacement using some 0.25mm brass sheet from Albion Alloys. This sheet is slightly thinner than the part from the kit, but not noticeably so, and can just about be formed without annealing. I gently rolled the part using the handle of my modelling knife and then soldered it in place which definitely transforms the look of the rear of the cab.

How Many Rivets?

So having realized that there were some problems with the design of the brass upper for the Rhosydd slate quarry rubbish wagon I'm building, I reworked the template and had a second go. This time the template took into account the extra width added by the thickness of the metal when folded, as well as being re-worked to make it easier to fold. This second template works really well and I was able to easily cut out and fold the brass to shape. A small amount of superglue and the whole thing was assembled; from sheet brass to assembled model was about five minutes.

Given that I was happy with how this one had turned out I decided to add the rivets that are quite prominent on the prototype. Amazingly the Archer rivet transfers (sheet AR88025) I bought for detailing the Quarry Hunslet are a perfect match with exactly the right spacing. The only problem is just how many rivets there are to apply to such a small model. I think I added 26 strips totalling 238 rivets, which took the best part of two hours to apply. Time well spent though as I think the end result looks great. The next step will be to spray it with a red oxide primer to fix the rivets in place and to give a nice rust coloured base coat.